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

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