The Comedy Vault – Victoria Wood As Seen On TV.

Victoria Wood As Seen On TV (BBC2, 1985-1987)

This is a sketch show that went on to be rather popular in the mid-80s. Victoria Wood is someone who started out in comedy about a decade before, first appearing on various TV shows in the mid-70s. She became known for writing and performing her comedy songs at the piano, and had a stand-up routine with a lot of amusing observations. But this was the one that helped to really make her name as a famous figure.

Victoria Wood As Seen On TV became known for a lot of things, including sketches that featured a group of regular performers who would help Wood out for the majority of her career, the best-known of these was Julie Walters, who had already appeared with her on a few other shows (including their own sketch show on ITV), but this show helped to really make her famous as well. And well, no target as safe really.

The highlight for a lot of people was Acorn Antiques, a parody of rather terrible daytime soaps. It could be wondered if this was a thing that could be considered to be beyond parody, but this idea was taken to such an extreme that it was all rather ridiculous. And as far as I’m concerned, this show is worthy of a bonus, because this regularly featured a parody of a rather outspoken continuity announcer as well.

And if that isn’t enough already, the end credits were often fiddled about with too, and another good thing is that Wood wrote the descriptions for editions in Radio Times, which usually had nothing to do with the actual show. That definitely gets my approval. This went on to win so many Baftas that it was remarkable. It might be a surprise to realise that there were only 13 editions in two series (and one special).

This is because there were a lot of repeat runs over the years, but it was decided that the idea had been taken far enough. There was also a DVD and script book released, and an edition or two were even repeated on the radio. After this, Wood went on to concentrate on one-off sketch show specials and live performances for a while, including what is considered to be one of the best editions of ITV’s An Audience With…

After her sketch show success, Wood then went on to make her triumph in sitcoms with Dinnerladies, which did really well too, and I’ll review that soon as well. And it turned out that they eventually had to go back for more, so many years on, there was a stage version of Acorn Antiques, featuring more songs and jokes, which was fairly well-received, maybe there was still some life in these old ideas yet.