Victoria Wood As Seen On TV

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Victoria Wood As Seen On TV
Victoria Wood as Berta and Julie Walters as Mrs Overall in Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, BBC, 1985
Genre	Comedy
Creator(s)	Victoria Wood
Starring	Victoria Wood Julie Walters Celia Imrie Duncan Preston Patricia Routledge Susie Blake
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	13
Production
Producer(s)	Geoff Posner
Running time	30 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC2
Original run	January 8, 1985 – December 18, 1987
Links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

An Award winning comedy sketch series starring comedian Victoria Wood, broadcast on BBC2 between 1985 and 1987.

Supporting Wood were Julie Walters, Duncan Preston, Celia Imrie and Susie Blake.

Classic sketches include ‘Is it on the Trolley?’, The Waitress (in which Walters as an old woman takes forever to deliver some soup), a nervous interviewee trying to get into medical school and Wood’s most famous song ‘Let’s Do It.

The BBC Guide to Comedy said of the show “a regular company of fine performers, good production values, incisive scripts and a snappy pace added up to a five-star gem in As Seen On TV. The show rarely dipped below brilliant and featured numerous delights, such as Wood's hilariously authentic dialogue and her surprisingly stinging satirical characters.” ^[1]

Wood was initially lured to the BBC, with a promise of bigger budgets and more creative control than on her last TV series, Granada Television's Wood and Walters. ^[2]

As Seen On TV would go on to firmly established her as Britain’s leading female comedian. ^[3]

Contents 1 Regular Items 1.1 Stand up monologue 1.2 Acorn Antiques 1.3 Continuity Announcer 1.4 Kitty 1.5 Documentaries 1.6 Margery & Joan 1.7 She Didn’t?/She Did 1.8 Gail and Carl 2 Awards 3 Why did it end? 4 Script Books 5 DVD & Video 6 Episode Guide 6.1 Series 1 6.1.1 Show 1 6.1.2 Show 2 6.1.3 Show 3 6.1.4 Show 4 6.1.5 Show 5 6.1.6 Show 6 6.2 Series 2 6.2.1 Show 1 6.2.2 Show 2 6.2.3 Show 3 6.2.4 Show 4 6.2.5 Show 5 6.2.6 Show 6 6.3 Special 7 Victoria Wood - As Heard On TV 8 Radio Times entries 9 Trivia 10 External links 11 Notes 12 References

[edit] Regular Items

As well as many stand alone sketches and songs, the show also contained the following regular items.

[edit] Stand up monologue

Each show would open with Victoria Wood doing a stand up comedy monologue. Often dressed in a multi-coloured suit, like her hero Max Miller.

[edit] Acorn Antiques

A spoof soap opera set in an antiques shop. Wood said she based it on the long running Midlands serial Crossroads, and radio soap Waggoners Walk.

It soon became a national institution in Britain with it's parodying of filmed-as-live television, bad acting and contrived exposition ("What was that terrible noise? It sounded like a tray of coffee being dropped on someone who's just been electrocuted").

Probably the best remembered item from the series, in 2005 Acorn Antiques became a West End musical, starring the original cast and directed by Trevor Nunn.

[edit] Continuity Announcer

Susie Blake as a snobbish, arrogant television links woman (“We’d like to apologise to viewers in the North, it must be awful for you”) ^[4]

[edit] Kitty

Patricia Routledge in a weekly monologue playing a self-righteous middle-aged spinster from Cheshire. (“No, honestly Morag, I do think that Brillo has helped your freckles”)

[edit] Documentaries

Usually presented by Duncan Preston as ‘Corrin Huntley’, a series of spoof documentaries on such topics as a girl who wants to swim the channel, an old folks home, an exclusive girls public school (“There are all sorts of girls here, even coloured girls, though they tend to be princesses mainly”). Filmed more naturalistically than the rest of the show, they predate the more low key style of humour of The Royle Family and People Like Us by over a decade.

[edit] Margery & Joan

Wood and Walters as inept presenters in a daytime TV magazine show parody. (“And we’ll have more needlework hints next week, when Philippa will be showing us how to stitch up the mouth of a talkative friend or relative.”)

[edit] She Didn’t?/She Did

Wood, as Kelly Marie Turnstall, a delinquent teenager who stands at a bus stop, telling her friend ever more fanciful stories. (Second series only)

[edit] Gail and Carl

A naïve young northern couple played by Wood and Andrew Livingstone (first series only). They also made a brief reappearance in The Hospital documentary in series 2.

• GAIL
• Do you know where babies come from?
• CARL
• Don’t ask me. You want to send off for a pamphlet.
• GAIL
• What’s that?
• CARL
• They tell you what’s what. We’ve got one at home about lagging.

[edit] Awards

• The first series won the Broadcasting Press Award, BAFTA Award for Best Light Entertainment Programme and Best Light Entertainment Performance.
• The second series won a BAFTA for Best Light Entertainment Programme.
• The Special also won yet another BAFTA. ^[5]

Wood herself said of the awards at the time “I was very pleased to win, but it really put pressure on me. I was already writing the new series and every time I looked at the award I kept on thinking that people would be expecting so much more now and I Just wouldn’t be able to live up to it. In the end, I just put the thing away” [1]

[edit] Why did it end?

Wood ended the show after only two series and a special. She explained at the time "I love television, and if it was possible for me to work in it more, then I would; but because of the position I've put myself in of being the only writer on the show, I can't physicaly work in it that often. I've just had it with sketch shows for a bit - people have liked it, and I want to stop while they still like it" [2]

[edit] Script Books

There has been two books published featuring scripts from As Seen On TV. Up To You, Porky (published in 1985) features scripts from the show mixed in with extracts from Wood and Walters and Wood’s stage show Lucky Bag. In 1987, the follow up Barmy was published, featuring sketches entirely collated from ‘’As Seen On TV’’. ^[6]

[edit] DVD & Video

For a series so lauded, its commercial release has been mainly limited to compilations. A best of series one VHS was released by BBC Video in the eighties.

The series has until recently only available to buy on DVD also in the form of a highlights compilation titled ‘’Best of Victoria Wood: As Seen On TV’’ ^[7]. But it has been announced that a 2 disc DVD set featururing the entire 2 series and special will be released on 2 April 2007. ^[8].

[edit] Episode Guide

Two series of six episodes each were made in 1985 and 1986. An extended special was made 1987.

[edit] Series 1

[edit] Show 1

• Broadcast 11 January 1985
• Stand up: The Radio Station/Bunbury Homes/In The Office/Classic Serial/Continuity Announcer: American Programmes/Classic Serial/ Songs – Seasons of Love/Acorn Antiques 1/ Video Box/Documentary: A Fairly Ordinary Man (documentary short where Jim Broadbent plays a telephone hygienist)/]/Margery and Joan/ Song - Keep on Shopping (sung by Victoria Wood, Hope Jackman, Meg Johnson, Celia Imrie, Susie Blake and Sue Jones-Davies)/Continuity Announcer: The weather and obesity ^{[9] [10]}

[edit] Show 2

• Broadcast 18 January 1985
• Stand up: A Strange Man With A Wardrobe/Advertisement: Cheap and Handy/ Turkish Bath/ Playbox/Dear Puzzled / Transmission Breakdown/Song: "I’m Gonna Knock Knock On Your Knocker"/Gail and Carl 1: Penthouse Flats/Announcer 2: Acorn Antiques/Acorn Antiques 2/Kitty 1/Duet: "Pissed Off With Love"/Documentary: "Swim The Channel" (VW as Chrissy, a schoolgirl determined to swim the Channel. With Ron Pember & Maggie Ollerenshaw as her parents) /Announcer 3: Viewers In The North/The Reporter (Widow Smith) ^[11]

[edit] Show 3

• Broadcast 25 January 1985
• Stand up: Swimming Baths And The Doctors/Doorbells/Shoe Shop/Announcer: Plays with dressing gowns/Fitted Kitchen: Ill-Fitting Relationships/Service Wash/Anti-mugging spray/Song:Homage to Peter Skellern/ The Underwear Shop/ Video Box 2: Smocks/Acorn Antiques 3/ Continuity Announcer 2: Acorn Antiques Book/ The Piano Shop/ Documentary: "To Be An Actress"/ Pause For Thought/ Continuity Announcer: Forthcoming Events ^[12]

[edit] Show 4

• Broadcast 01 February 1985
• Stand Up: A Brick Through The Window/At The Doctor’s 1: Cold Meat/Cosmetic Surgery/Announcer 1: Pippa/Pippa/Gail and Carl 2: The Facts of Life/Song: Go Away/At The Doctor’s 2: Running/ Continuity Announcer 2: Acorn Antiques/Acorn Antiques 4/Kitty 2/Susie Blake 3: Tops And Blouses/Documentary:”On Campus”/ At The Doctors 3: Periods/The Self-Assertion Class ^[13]

[edit] Show 5

• Broadcast 08 February 1985
• Stand up:Pam/Advertisement: "Happy With Your Wash?"/Supermarket Checkout/Susie Blake 1: Strikes and Sunday Viewing/The Divorce (with Maureen Lipman and Denis Lawson as warring divorcees)/ Joan And Margery 2: A Row With The Boyfriend/The Weather/Acorn Antiques 5/Giving Notes/Documentary: Just An Ordinary School/Announcement: The Last Show/Song: "Say Goodbye"/Continuity Announcer 3: Darker Nights ^[14]

[edit] Show 6

• Broadcast 15 February 1985
• Stand up: Parties/ The Library 1: Sex And Violence/ The Health Food Restaurant/Announcer : Film Classic/Film Classic /Kitty 3/ The Library 2: Poly Cotton / Susie Blake 2: Ministry Of Warnings /Acorn Antiques 6/Announcer: The Skip/[YoungLoveThree.htm Young Love 3: Washing Up Bowls/Dandruff Commercial/Whither The Arts: Bessie (documentary about rehearsals for a sexed up west end musical based around a childrens story)/ Postscript ^[15]

[edit] Series 2

[edit] Show 1

• Broadcast 10 November 1986
• Stand Up: First Date/Advertisement: Bicycle Clips/Spaghetti/Continuity Announcer: American Musical/American Musical/Country Life/ Continuity Announcer: Soap Operas/ Acorn Antiques 7/ Documentary: "Mr Right"/Song: Let’s Do It/Continuity Announcer: Unemployment ^{[16] [17]}

[edit] Show 2

• Broadcast 17 November 1986
• Stand up: Blood Donors & Shakespeare/Advertisement: Stealing Detergent/Bingo/Continuity Announcer: Spanish Opera/Spanish Opera/He Didn't 1: Lychees etc/Acorn Antiques 8/ Continuity Announcer: Advertisement for Acorn Antiques Record and Costume Exhibition/ Kitty 1/ Say Who You Are/ Olde Tyme Music Hall/ Susie Blake 3: Women's Health/ Documentary: "Today In Hospital"/ Fireside Tales: Megan's PMT ^[18]

[edit] Show 3

• Broadcast 24 November 1986
• Stand up: Public Transport/ The Doctor: Pregnancy/ The Trolley/Continuity Announcer : Frigidity/ The Second Mrs Constable/ Margery And Joan 1: Bonsai/ Continuity Announcer: Announcement re Acorn Antiques/ Acorn Antiques 9/ Song: "Don't Come Back"/ Susie Blake 3: Russian Double Agent (Katherine Scott)/ Documentary: "Billy" (Hugh Lloyd as pensioner)/ Fireside Tales: Morag/ Susie Blake 4: Local Radio ^[19]

[edit] Show 4

• Broadcast 01 December 1986
• Stand up: Acne & Schooldays/ The Picnic On The Cliffs/Continuity Announcer: With Signs For The Deaf/ No Gossip (Macbeth)/ Kitty 2/Continuity Announcer : Announcement re Acorn Antiques/ Acorn Antiques 10/ Song: "I Saw You Today"/ He Didn't 2: The Legacy/ Medical School/Continuity Announcer: The Wetherbys/ Documentary: "A Very Funny Young Man Indeed" ^[20]

[edit] Show 5

• Broadcast 08 December 1986
• Stand up: The Builders/ Countrywide Local/ Advertisement: Chocolates?/ Jean and Barbara: Partly Political Broadcast/Continuity Announcer: Breakfast TV/ Margery and Joan 2: The Holiday/ Continuity Announcer: Birthday Parade (1)/ Acorn Antiques 11/ Song: "A Day At The Seaside"/ Susie Blake 3: Birthday Parade (2)/ The Garden Hose/ Documentary: "Flatmates" ^[21]

[edit] Show 6

• Broadcast 15 December 1986
• Stand up: Old Moore's Almanac/Continuity Announcer: Sports/ Tattoo Parlour/ Continuity Announcer: Axing of Acorn Antiques Characters/Acorn Antiques 12/ Documentary: "Winnie's Lucky Day"/Song: Count Your Blessings/The Waitress/Continuity Announcer: Final Comment ^[22]

[edit] Special

• Broadcast 12 December 1987
• Continuity Announcer: Forthcoming Events/Stand up: Soap Operas/Advertisement: The Man's Bra/Self-Service/Video Advertisement/Coronation Street/Doctor Who/ Continuity Announcer: Employment/ McConomy/ Song: "I Don't Need You"/ Real Life/ A Woman In Specs/Continuity Announcer 3: Sunday Television/ Antiques Roadshow/ The Anorak Song/ The Mayflower Hotel, Nottingham/ Documentary: "The Making Of Acorn Antiques"/At The Chippy/ Susie Blake and Andrew: Epilogue ^{[23] [24]}

Wood said this was a 'special' because it was "ten minutes longer than usual, and I've splashed out on a new bra" [3]

[edit] Victoria Wood - As Heard On TV

Audio highlights were made into two half hour shows for Radio 4. They were broadcast on 18 and 25 August 1992 . ^[25]

[edit] Radio Times entries

As well as writing and appearing in the show, Wood also found time to write the entries for As Seen On TV in the listings magazine the Radio Times. All misleading, with little or nothing to do with the contents of the actual broadcast. The entry for the first show on 8 January 1985 said:

“

“‘Chipper’ Patel arrived from New Delhi in 1962 with an artificial leg and five pounds in his pocket. He now controls a multi-million-pound vinyl flooring empire. He didn’t want to be filmed. So here’s a tatty old comedy programme with some women in it.” [26]

”

These continued throughout the original broadcast run

“

“‘The last of the series. 47: Managing Without Opera. It’s the third week of the experiment. How are Hannah and Gavin coping? Why is their sitting-room pale green? Why can’t they laugh without showing their gums? What’s on the other side? [27]

”

Other entries make reference to Mendelssohn, Anita Harris and others who would make no appearance on the actual show.

[edit] Trivia

• Unlike their previous TV series together, Julie Walters name was no longer in the title. This was because in the interim, Wood was getting viewers of Wood and Walters turning up to her solo stand up shows expecting to see a double act. ^[28]

• According to Wood, the character of Mrs Overall in Acorn Antiques was inspired by Mrs Mack in Take the High Road (Overall being a deliberate pun on mac) and Amy Turtle in Crossroads (originally played by Ann George). ^[29] However, Crossroads fans generally feel that whilst Mrs Overall's fluffing of her lines and position as char at the antiques shop were based on Amy, the character's mannerisms, voice and clothing were far more evocative of Charmian Eyre's character Mavis Hooper (who appeared in the series from 1981 to 1985). ^{[30] [31]}

• Celia Imrie recieved a fan letter from playwright Alan Bennett. "He wrote a card to me saying he adored Miss Babs. You can't imagine how thrilling that was. I still have that card today." Imrie though believe that the praise should go to Wood's writing, "every word is of huge importance and crafted to perfection. It was a wonderful happy accident that I met her." ^[32]

• Duncan Preston turned down Shakespeare to work on the show. Offered a world tour as Hotspur in Henry IV, Part One at the same time, he later said “I was at a crossroads and I had the choice of going straight or going off at a tangent with Victoria, I chose the latter and she changed my life” [4]

• Actor Kenny Ireland went on to be artistic director of Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre, but he says he's still remembered best for his part in As Seen On TV. "Twenty-odd years ago I played Derek the handyman in Acorn Antiques. To this day, nice camp waiters quote my dialogue at me, and are slightly disappointed that I don't remember any of the lines." ^[33]

• Guest appearances on the show include Frank Bruno, Denis Healey, Claire Rayner, Pete Postlethwaite, Molly Weir, Henry Kelly, Dora Bryan and Jim Broadbent.

• Derek Hobson, who plays the talent show host in ‘‘A Very Funny Young Man Indeed’’, was also the real host of talent show New Faces when Victoria Wood was a contestant over a decade earlier. ^[34] Her friend Celia Imrie was in the studio audience watching her.

• Inbetween series one and two, Victoria Wood said she thought it was a mistake to do As Seen On TV, and attempted to write a play instead, before abandoning it and committing to a second series. “I’ve been seeking to branch out, but it hasn’t happened. I wanted to do something different before I went back on TV” [5]

• Duncan Preston lives with actress Susan Penhaligon. ^[35]

• Celia Imrie played Fighter Pilot Bravo 5, in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

• As Seen On TV has not been repeated on British television since 1995. ^{[36] [37] [38]}

[edit] External links

• BBC Comedy Guide on As Seen On TV
• BBC Infax on As Seen On TV

[edit] Notes

[edit] References