Victoria Wood was an English comedian, actress, lyricist, singer, composer, pianist, screenwriter, producer and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over several decades and her live comedy act was interspersed with her own compositions which she performed at the piano. Much of her humour was grounded in everyday life and included references to activities, attitudes and products that are considered to exemplify Britain. She was noted for her skills in observational comedy and in satirising aspects of social class.
Dame Julia Mary Walters is an English actress. She is the recipient of four British Academy Television Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two International Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Laurence Olivier Award.
Acorn Antiques is a parodic soap opera written by British comedian Victoria Wood as a regular feature in the two series of Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, which ran from 1985 to 1987. Wood later adapted the concept into a musical, which opened in 2005.
Hugh Lewis Lloyd was an English actor who made his name in film and television comedy from the 1960s to the 1980s. He was best known for appearances in Hancock's Half Hour, Hugh and I and other sitcoms of the 1960s.
Stuart McGugan is a Scottish actor and television presenter.
David Roger Brierley was an English actor. He appeared in dozens of television productions over a forty-year period.
Pat and Margaret is a British television film written by comedian Victoria Wood. The story follows sisters Margaret, a cook, and Pat, a successful actress in the United States, after they are reunited on a television programme after spending 27 years apart. It stars Wood and her frequent comedy partner Julie Walters in the title roles, and features other past collaborators of Wood, including Thora Hird, Celia Imrie and Duncan Preston. First aired in 1994 on BBC One, the film was directed by Gavin Millar and produced by Ruth Caleb.
James Mavin Parker was a British BAFTA-winning composer.
Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV is a British comedy sketch series written by and starring comedian Victoria Wood, with appearances from Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston, Susie Blake and Patricia Routledge. The show was televised on BBC2 between 1985 and 1987 and included sketches that became famous in the United Kingdom.
Wood and Walters is a British television comedy sketch show starring Julie Walters and Victoria Wood for Granada Television and written entirely by Wood. The show was short-lived, with one pilot in 1981 and a series of seven shows in 1982.
Victoria Wood is a series of six one-off situation comedies written by and starring Victoria Wood in 1989, who took a break from sketches, two years after her successful sketch series Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV. Wood appeared as a fictionalised version of herself in all six episodes; she was generally identified only as "Victoria", but in the first episode was also addressed as "Miss Wood". Her real-life career was occasionally a plot point: in "The Library", it was said that she "worked in TV", and in Over To Pam characters recognised her as a comedian, though two confused her with Dawn French. Most notably, in the final episode, Staying In, she was taken to a party to perform as a stand-up comedian. Her character sometimes broke the fourth wall of TV and spoke directly to the camera, but not in every episode.
Talent is a play written by Victoria Wood, first performed in 1978. It centres on two friends, one of whom is about to enter a talent contest in a run down nightclub. Commissioned for the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, it received much acclaim and transferred to a London run in 1979. That same year a television adaptation was broadcast. It was the first time Victoria Wood and Julie Walters appeared together on TV.
Happy Since I Met You is a television play written by Victoria Wood, and broadcast on ITV on 9 August 1981.
Peter Eckersley was a British television producer. His television career began on Granada's Scene at 6.30 programme where he worked with his friend Michael Parkinson. He went on to become Head of Drama at Granada Television in the 1960s and '70s.
Acorn Antiques: The Musical! is a musical about an antiques dealer, based on the parodic soap opera of the same name by Victoria Wood. It premiered in the West End in 2005, and starred Julie Walters and Celia Imrie. The musical won the Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical and was nominated as Best New Musical.
Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf is a 1978 television play by Alan Bennett, produced by London Weekend Television and directed by Stephen Frears. The title of the play is a parody of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which in turn plays on the title of the Disney song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?".
Sentimental Journey is a 1946 American drama film directed by Walter Lang and starring John Payne, Maureen O'Hara and William Bendix. It was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film was remade in 1958 as The Gift of Love with Lauren Bacall and Robert Stack.
Stars in Your Eyes is a 1956 British musical film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Nat Jackley, Pat Kirkwood and Bonar Colleano.
Julie Walters and Friends is a fifty-five minute long, one-off comedy sketch show showcasing the talents of actress Julie Walters. Sketches were written by Walters' frequent collaborators: Victoria Wood, Alan Bennett, Willy Russell and Alan Bleasdale. Walters features in every sketch, mostly portraying new characters, though in one, she reprises Mrs Murray, her character from G.B.H., written by Bleasdale.
