Never seen this before and I can't help but be reminded of the Beau Beaumont mockumentary on her Mid Life Christmas show. God, I miss this bloody woman.
Victoria Wood's authorised biography showed a very complex woman, still bearing the scars of the terrible neglect that she suffered as a child, and who at times could be difficult and surly. Apparently when the fans with the yellow berets appeared here she said "Oh Christ" and it was edited out, and she rather coldly told the crew when another mother and daughter asked for her autograph "I don't understand what people think they're getting from that contact". She also wasn't a massive fan of Melvyn Bragg, describing him as "unnecessarily rude" after they'd worked together judging a talent contest several years earlier. There were also issues with this episode of the South Bank Show. Victoria felt that the researcher and prospective director weren't interested after she showed up at her home late and told Bragg to replace them. The new director said she was very frosty when he went to visit her, but their relationship thawed. She was blindsided when Bragg subsequently asked her if Pat and Margaret was actually a study of the two sides of her personality. She worried that she came across as gloomy. Several years later she appeated on The South Bank Show again and was very unhappy with Bragg - she felt he was simply asking her the same questions he'd asked previously. She was depressed by her performance in the interview and asked for another go.
I listened to the book and you are right. Think Victoria Wood was a genius perfectionist. Controlling when it came to her work. Had few friends. Towards the end of her life she was touring acorn antiques. One of the young female cast members said that wood demolished her over a line in the script over this young females Lancasterian accent. And young female actress tried to explain that Lancaster voice was unfamiliar to her. Wood demolished her. But after the show Wood hugged because of hard that young female worked very hard to get the accent right
@@markdaly1648it's a very good book isn't it. I was quite taken aback when Celia Imre said she often felt bullied by Victoria, Duncan Preston said Victoria made him audition for Pat & Margaret and Julie Walters said she wouldn't ever tell victoria anything personal as she'd use it in a sketch, and she also hadn't been to her house for many years.
She was very driven and a total perfectionist. She was rewriting as dinner ladies as it was being shot which made it very difficult for the cast. She rightly blamed herself for her failed marriage. But after all her work has stood the test of time. She was a pioneer and has the set the bar so high that I can’t think of anyone who has even approached her. RIP Victoria, Queen of British Comedy.
I haven't read the book, but was she really "terribly neglected". She doesn't express this in this interview. I don't know if it's helpful to tell a person they were "terribly neglected, if they perceive they weren't"?
Golly--you mean she was a real person? Bragg was very lazy when interviewing Victoria, in fact, I think only Clive James and Dawn French were successful with their interviews of her. I have no idea how celebrities can cope with people approaching them at all times, in all situations. Victoria worked very hard on her scripts, and was right to demand they be followed to the letter.
The bishop was a typical Roman Catholic clergy hypocrite. He ran off with a woman called Kathleen MacPhee a divorced mother of three. Another woman claimed he made her pregnant and had given birth to his son in 1981. The hypocrite married MacPhee in a civil ceremony in 1998 and I have no sympathy for him. These bishops lecture their parishioners on morality and then do this. Pathetic
From Wikipedia: Bishop Roderick Wright disappeared from his home next door to St. Columba's Cathedral, Oban, on 4 September 1996. Kathleen MacPhee, a divorced mother of three who worked as a nurse in Fort William, vanished at the same time leaving her youngest child with relatives. There was concern among local people, including Frances Shand Kydd, the mother of Diana, Princess of Wales. Wright had advised Shand-Kydd before her reception into the Roman Catholic Church in 1994.[5][6] The following weekend, a former parishioner of Wright's came forward to say that she had become pregnant by him and given birth to a son in 1981.[7] Wright resigned as Bishop of Argyll and the Isles on 19 September 1996 and renounced the office of bishop.[1] Wright registered as unemployed and was spotted looking for work in the Jobcentre in Kendal, Cumbria, England.[8] In his autobiography, he alleged that Jobcentre staff had leaked information about him. Wright married MacPhee in a civil ceremony in Antigua in June 1998.[9]
Here is a slightly spooky coincidence:~ The great music hall artist Marie Lloyd (1870~1922),was actually born Matilda Alice VICTORIA WOOD! Anyone believe in re~incarnation?
Victoria was aware of it - do you remember the mock documentary sketch she did on "as seen on TV" about an aspiring young actress? In the improvisation exercise the theatre group do in that sketch, the director tells one of them to pretend she's Marie Lloyd. It was a joke victoria deliberately put in because she knew Marie Lloyd's real name was Victoria wood.
I hear a lot of female comedians on Radio 4 - the BBC tries to avoid having all-male guests on the News Quiz or Just A Minute for example. The problem (to me) is that the females copy the style of the male comedians: ranty, lefty, sneery and not particularly funny, or at all. Victoria Wood was an original - the fact that nobody has filled the void left by her too-early death confirms that nobody else has her range of talents. Ken Dodd was the same in that nobody else can do what he did.
