Simply A Masterpiece

A Disappointing Continuation

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Not long after Victoria Wood discovered her comedic potential with 'Victoria Wood: As Seen On TV', she decided to try her hand at sitcom and so built a six part series of comedy playlets in which she played a fictionalised version of herself in a series of different situations. The series' name was in fact just that of its star. Wood had high hopes for the show but sadly it was not the success she must have anticipated.The first episode - 'Mens Sana In Thinggummy Doo-dah' - attracted an impressive ratings figure of 13 million but by the end of the run it had dropped down by three million, a drop so drastic it prompted the BBC to axe the show after its run of six episodes. This was a shame as while the show was nothing overly special, it was superior to Wood's later work, in particular her BBC sitcom 'Dinnerladies'.Wood's regular supporting cast included her friend and comedy partner Julie Walters, Lill Roughley, Anne Reid, Meg Johnston and Julia St. John though it was indeed Wood who was the stand-out, despite her acting range being somewhat limited.Looked at now, 'Victoria Wood' can be seen as an interesting forerunner to Rik Mayall's wonderful ITV series 'Rik Mayall Presents' ( which ran for two series ), though, unsurprisingly, with Rik being a far more talented performer, the latter was vastly superior, as well as being more successful.

A short-lived but very amusing series of plays from Victoria Wood. Actually - it's a shame that there never was another series because I absolutely loved them.Each one features Victoria Wood as herself, finding herself into a different hilarious predicament.Many of Victoria's other regular co-stars popped up in this series as well. Including Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Susie Blake, and other famous faces included Una Stubbs, and Jane Horrocks.