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 Maureen Diane Lipman is an English actress, writer and comedian. She trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and her stage work has included appearances with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. She was made a dame in the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to charity, entertainment and the arts.
Dame Julia Mary Walters, known professionally as Julie 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.
Neil Anthony Morrissey is an English actor. He is known for his role as Tony in Men Behaving Badly. Other notable acting roles include Deputy Head Eddie Lawson in the BBC One school-based drama series Waterloo Road, Nigel Morton in Line of Duty, and Rocky in Boon. Morrissey also provides the voice of many cartoon characters, including Bob, Roley, Lofty, Mr. Angelo Sabatini, Mr. Fothergill, Farmer Pickles and Scruffty in the original UK version of Bob the Builder.
Denise van Outen is an English actress, singer, dancer and presenter. She presented The Big Breakfast, played Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago both in the West End and on Broadway and finished as runner-up in the tenth series of the BBC One dancing show Strictly Come Dancing.
Celia Diana Savile Imrie is an English actress and author. She is best known for her film roles, including the Bridget Jones film series, Calendar Girls (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015), The English dub of The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales... (2017), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), Malevolent (2018) and for the FX TV series Better Things (2016-2022).
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.
Sheila Susan White was an English film, television and stage actress.
Marti Caine, born Lynne Denise Shepherd, was an English comedian, actress, dancer, presenter, singer, and writer, who first came to national attention by winning the television talent show New Faces in 1975, and went on to become a variety star on shows including the self-titled Marti Caine (1979–84), and as host of the revived New Faces (1986–88).
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 BBC Two 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.
In At The Death was a sketch revue performed at The Bush Theatre, London in 1978, most notable for being the first time that future colleagues Victoria Wood and Julie Walters would work together.
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.
Nearly A Happy Ending is a television play written by Victoria Wood, which ITV broadcast on 1 June 1980.
Good Fun is a play by Victoria Wood, first performed in 1980. It is set in an Arts Centre in North West England.
Samantha Spiro is an English actress and singer. She is best known for portraying Barbara Windsor in the stage play Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick and the television films Cor, Blimey! and Babs, DI Vivien Friend in M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team, Melessa Tarly in the HBO series Game of Thrones and Maureen Groff in Sex Education. She has won two Laurence Olivier Awards.
Marlene Sidaway is a British television, film and theatre actress best known for playing Brenda Taylor in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street.
Sir Michael Victor Codron is a British theatre producer, known for his productions of the early work of Harold Pinter, Christopher Hampton, David Hare, Simon Gray and Tom Stoppard. He has been honoured with a Laurence Olivier Award for Lifetime Achievement, and is a stakeholder and director of the Aldwych Theatre in the West End, London.
Vina Evelyn Hayes, better known as Evie Hayes, was an American-born actor and singer, best known for her stage success in Australia. She was once described as "the most popular box office attraction in Australian musical comedy since Gladys Moncrieff."
Maureen Chadwick is a British screenwriter, dramatist and television producer responsible, alone and with her writing partner Ann McManus, for a number of popular award-winning and sometimes controversial British television series including Bad Girls (1999–2006), Footballers' Wives (2002–2006) and Waterloo Road. With McManus she wrote the book for the stage musical Bad Girls: The Musical (2006–2007). She was a co-founder and creative director of the independent television production company Shed Productions (1998–2010). She is now a freelance writer.
