Victoria Wood - As Seen On TV
1985 saw the beginning of a collaboration between Geoff Posner and Victoria Wood that would last over fifteen years and produce some thirty-six programmes and multiple BAFTA awards and nominations. Plus, of course - Acorn Antiques.
Geoff was a Staff Producer at the BBC when the then Head of Entertainment, Jim Moir poked his head round the door, and, in as many words, said - “That Victoria Wood’s good. Do six half hours with her then”.
The result was the first series of “Victoria Wood - As Seen On TV” - a sketch show of seeming simplicity, but limpidly funny, and with a cast that featured some of the actors she would go on to work with year after year - Duncan Preston, Celia Imrie, Susie Blake (the chippy Continuity Announcer) and her previous collaborator in her Granada series of two years previously, “Wood And Walters”, Julie Walters.
As well as songs, sketches and stand-up of an unerringly high quality, the jewel in the crown was the long-running Crossroads spoof, “Acorn Antiques”, a show that had its own fanclub long before the internet made that sort of thing more, well, usual. The format itself was so robust that she was able to stage it as a musical in 2006, but the joy of the early shows were the gently tilting sets, the swaying backdrops, the actors barging into each others’ close-ups and the long long pauses while everyone took their cues from a - presumably harassed and/or incompetent - Floor Manager behind the camera...
This format ran for two series of 6, plus a Christmas Special, but in the third series, the show became a run of six half-hour sitcom scripts - along the lines of Ronnie Barker’s “Seven Of One”, and later on, Steve Coogan’s “Coogan’s Run”. All her troupe played in one or more of these shows.
She chose to return to the sketch show format for two glorious Xmas Specials - “Victoria Wood’s All Day Breakfast” in 1992 and “Victoria Wood: Live In Your Own Home” in 1994.
Finally, in 1999, as part of that year’s Comic Relief, Geoff directed a 15 minute specially written spoof of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (a popular detective series at the time, with Patricia Routledge - a Victoria Wood stalwart - as the eponymous heroine). It was called “Wetty Hainthropp Investigates” and plumbed every cosy Sunday afternoon TV cliché in the book - with the help of her usual team.
Oh, and also -
The first series won the Broadcasting Press Award & a BAFTA (Best Light Entertainment Performance)
The second series won a BAFTA (Best Light Entertainment Programme)
The Christmas special won a BAFTA (Best Light Entertainment Programme)
Victoria Wood - As Seen On TV
Series 1
Show 1
First Tx. 11/1/85 BBC Two 21.00-21.35
Show 2
First Tx. 18/1/85 BBC Two 21.00-21.35
Show 3
First Tx. 25/1/85 BBC Two 21.00-21.35
Show 4
First Tx. 1/2/85 BBC Two 21.00-21.35
Show 5
First Tx. 8/2/85 BBC Two 21.00-21.35
Show 6
First Tx. 15/2/85 BBC Two 21.00-21.35
Starring | Victoria Wood |
with | Julie Walters |
Susie Blake | |
Celia Imrie | |
Duncan Preston | |
Patricia Routledge | |
Jim Broadbent | |
Written by | Victoria Wood |
Music by Victoria Wood | |
Produced & directed by | Geoff Posner |
Series 2
Show 1
First Tx. 10/11/86 BBC Two 21.35-22.05
Show 2
First Tx. 17/11/86 BBC Two 21.35-22.05
Show 3
First Tx. 24/11/86 BBC Two 21.35-22.05
Show 4
First Tx. 1/12/86 BBC Two 21.35-22.05
Show 5
First Tx. 8/12/86 BBC Two 21.35-22.05
Show 6
First Tx. 15/12/86 BBC Two 21.35-22.05
Xmas Special
First Tx. 18/12/87 BBC Two 21.00-22.10
Starring | Victoria Wood |
with | Julie Walters |
Susie Blake | |
Celia Imrie | |
Duncan Preston | |
Patricia Routledge | |
Jacinta Mulcahy | |
Written by | Victoria Wood |
Music by Victoria Wood | |
Produced & directed by | Geoff Posner |
Series 3 - "Victoria Wood"
Show 1
"Mens Sana In Thingummy Doodah"
First Tx. 16/11/89 BBC 1 20.30-21.00
Attempting to be fit and thin means raw broccoli, saunas and trips to the gym. But Victoria thinks there must be more to life
Starring | |
Victoria | Victoria Wood |
and | |
Nicola | Julie Walters |
Lill Sutcliffe | Lill Roughly |
Dana | Liza Tarbuck |
Connie | Meg Johnson |
Enid | Anne Reid |
Sally Anne | Georgia Allen |
Judy | Selina Cadell |
Maintenance Man | Brian Burdon |
Slimming Video Woman | Rosalind March |
Café Owner | Peter Martin |
Written by | Victoria Wood |
Directed by | Kevin Bishop (director) |
Produced by | Geoff Posner |
Show 2
"The Library"
First Tx. 23/11/89 BBC 1 20.30-21.00
Sheila comes to the library to play a dating-agency tape on the video machine. Well-meaning Victoria tries to help the path of true love but it all goes badly wrong.
Starring | |
Victoria | Victoria Wood |
and | |
Sheila | Anne Reid |
Nicola | Julie Walters |
Madge | Carol MacReady |
John | Richard Kane |
Keith | Philip Lowrie |
Richard | David Henry |
Ted | Danny O’Dea |
Written by | Victoria Wood |
Produced & directed by | Geoff Posner |
Show 3
"Over To Pam"
First Tx. 30/11/89 BBC 1 20.30-21.00
Self-centred, snobbish, hypocritical TV host Pam Cunard meets her match when she goes live on the air with a “common” member of the public.
Starring | |
Victoria | Victoria Wood |
and | |
Pam Cunard | Julie Walters |
Lorraine Spence | Kay Adshead |
Caroline | Julia St John |
Saundra | Meg Johnson |
Jim Mottershead | Hugh Lloyd |
Alma Mottershead | Margery Mason |
Sue | Lill Roughly |
Marge | Shirley Cain |
Neil | William Osbourne |
Dr Rani Najitwar | Charu Bala Chokshi |
Server | Alison King |
Written by | Victoria Wicks |
Directed by | Kevin Bishop (director) |
Produced by | Geoff Posner |
Show 4
"We’d Quite Like To Apologize"
First Tx. 7/12/89 BBC 1 20.30-21.00
While awaiting a delayed take-off, some aeroplane passengers sit in the departure lounge and discuss previous holidays and their hopes for this one
Starring | |
Victoria | Victoria Wood |
with | |
Joy-Ann | Julie Walters |
Una | Una Stubbs |
John Appleby | Philip Lowrie |
Barbara Appleby | Lill Roughly |
Cathy Warburton | Jane Horrocks |
Alan Warburton | Richard Hope |
Carol | Celia Imrie |
Guy | Tristram Wymark |
Check-In Attendant | Susie Blake |
Woman In Car Park | Rosalind March |
Woman In Lift | Valerie Minifie |
Man on Travelator | Peter Martin |
Spanish Waiter | Joe Fraser |
Captain Lewis | Duncan Preston |
and the voices of | |
as himself | David Jacobs |
Rory Bremner | |
Graham Seed | |
Written by | Victoria Wood |
Directed by | Kevin Bishop (director) |
Produced by | Geoff Posner |
Show 5
"Val De Ree (Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha)"
First Tx. 14/12/89 BBC 1 20.30-21.00
Victoria and Jackie’s walking tour of the moors goes less than smoothly, thanks to an un-erectable tent and the hostile woman who runs the Youth Hostel
Starring | |
Victoria | Victoria Wood |
with | |
Jackie | Celia Imrie |
Susan | Joan Sims |
Girl On Farm | Sian Thomas |
Mim | Avril Angers |
Jamie | Michael Lumsden |
Daddy | Michael Nightingale |
Written by | Victoria Wood |
Directed by | Kevin Bishop (director) |
Produced by | Geoff Posner |
Show 6
"Staying In"
First Tx. 21/12/89 BBC 1 20.30-21.00
Shy, TV-obsessed Victoria finds herself at posh Moira’s dinner party. She would have had a better time staying in.
Starring | |
Victoria | Victoria Wood |
with | |
Moira | Patricia Hodge |
Hilary | Phyllis Calvert |
Gerald | Roger Brierley |
Dulcie | Lill Roughly |
Julia | Celia Imrie |
Alan Hammond | Jim Broadbent |
Jane | Deborah Grant |
Charles | John Nettleton |
Jim | Bryan Burdon |
Judith | Susie Blake |
Kevin | Richard Lintern |
Ailsa | Dawn Archibald |
Doris | Susan Leong |
and | Peter Goodwright |
Written by | Victoria Wood |
Musical Director | |
Produced & directed by | Geoff Posner |
Xmas Special
"Victoria Wood’s All Day Breakfast"
Starring | Victoria Wood |
with | Julie Walters |
Susie Blake | |
Celia Imrie | |
Duncan Preston | |
Lill Roughly | |
Alan Rickman | |
Geraldine Alexander | |
Shirley Cain | |
Richard Lintern | |
Philip Lowrie | |
William Osbourne | |
Sara Powell | |
Nicholas Pritchard | |
Gillian Tompkins | |
Written by | Victoria Wood |
Music by Victoria Wood Musical Director | |
Produced & directed by | Geoff Posner |
Xmas Special
"Victoria Wood: Live In Your Own Home"
First Tx. 25/12/94 BBC 1 21.40-22.30
Starring | |
Victoria Wood | |
with | |
as themselves (in audience) | Julie Walters |
Duncan Preston | |
Written by | Victoria Wood |
Original Music by Victoria Wood | |
Produced & directed by | Geoff Posner |
"Wetty Hainthropp Investigates"
A Comic Relief special
First Tx. 12/3/99 BBC 1 21.45-22.00
Starring | |
Wetty Hainthropp | Victoria Wood |
with | |
Agnes | Julie Walters |
Sopwith Heckman-White | Duncan Preston |
Carol Singer | Harriet Thorpe |
Nightclub Owner | Celia Imrie |
Reg | David Bamber |
Police Inspector | Joe McGann |
Adam Titchmarsh | Alan Titchmarsh |
Sandwich-Board Man | Gary Wilmot |
Café Assistant | Shobna Gulati |
as themselves | Matthew Kelly |
Judith Chalmers | |
and cast members of Coronation Street | |
Written by | Victoria Wood |
Directed by | Geoff Posner |
Victoria Wood - As Seen On TV
There are quite a few fansites out there; this one looks quite nice
What's also completely nice is that pretty much everything Victoria Wood has done is still available to buy; here are just a few links to various items -
- buy the DVD of "Victoria Wood As Seen on TV" here
At one point, the BBC issued a DVD of Acorn Antiques episodes - you could buy it by clicking here
The series of sitcoms (or half-hour plays) was released by the BBC under the title of "Victoria Wood Presents..." - here