Wood and Walters
Encyclopedia
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.
at The Bush Theatre in London.
Wood had been initially spotted by Granada’s head of drama, Peter Eckersley
, performing in her self-written play Talent
at Sheffield
’s Crucible Theatre
, who asked her to recreate it for television (his widow is actress Anne Reid
, who would appear as Jean in Wood’s 1998 sitcom dinnerladies
). The TV version of Talent and its sequel Nearly A Happy Ending
, would also co-star Walters.
After she had turned down the female role in the satirical sketch show Not The Nine O'Clock News
in 1979, Eckersley offered Wood a sketch show of her own in 1980. However, Wood agreed only on the understanding that Walters received equal billing, not feeling confident enough as yet to go it alone. Wood had in fact only ever written one sketch three years earlier before being given her own show. She fell back on songs, which she felt was her strength, the pilot contained four in 30 minutes. The sketches concerned themselves with Marriage Guidance Council, keep fit classes, DIY and gossip. Wood hated the finished result, so was very surprised that the show was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Light Entertainment Programme alongside The Two Ronnies
, The Kenny Everett Video Show and The Stanley Baxter Series
(which won).
A third Wood play with Walters was made between the pilot and series for Granada. Like Wood and Walters, Happy Since I Met You
also contained an appearance from another long term Wood collaborator Duncan Preston
.
For the series a year later, the ‘Two Creatures Great and Small’ adjunct had been dropped, as critics commenting on Wood’s weight had been beginning to get to her (though she did also say later she was delighted that she was once described as "dominating the stage like a witty tank").
The show was not a happy experience as, in the intervening time since the pilot, the show's producer (and Wood’s mentor) Peter Eckersley had died of cancer. It was a terrible blow to Wood who said "he had lots of ideas for the series…but he never told me what they were. His value to me was inestimable. He had a marvellous eye for what was unnecessary and great attention to detail. He had liked the first material for the series but never saw any of the other stuff." Wood was not impressed by his replacement for the series, Brian Armstrong, and was of the opinion that he had hired several unsuitable actors.
The studio audience was generally filled with pensioners who often had difficulty understanding Wood’s refined humour. Before one sketch, the warm up man had to explain to them what a boutique was. Wood said she heard one disgusted audience member say to her friend: "You realise we’re missing Brideshead for this".
Sketches for Wood and Walters included
A regular character on the show was Dotty. The items entitled "Dotty's Slot" featured Walters as Dotty, who performed a witty monologue by a middle-classed housewife discussing all matters national and trivial, such as in the sketch ‘Dotty on Women’s Lib’. As a character, she shares many similarities with a later Wood creation ‘Kitty’ (as played by Patricia Routledge
).
Rik Mayall
also appeared in a one-off monologue as a chauvinistic feminist called Mitch. Filling a similar guest slot as he had with Kevin Turvey
in the sketch show A Kick Up the Eighties
. Another alternative comedy
innovator to appear on the show was John Dowie
, who had already toured with Wood in 1978.
Wood's view of the series was “Some bits of it were good, some deadly”.
Around this time, Wood made a weekly musical appearance in the BBC Radio 2
show The Little and Large
Party, narrated an Arts Council
film on the pantomime dame
, and was profiled in the schools programme Scene. Walters would also appear with Michael Angelis
in 1982 as his wife in Alan Bleasdale
’s Boys from the Blackstuff
.
Wood and Walters place in British comedy history can be seen as that of a dry run for the more popular and acclaimed Victoria Wood As Seen On TV
which aired on BBC television between 1985-87, which shared some of the same elements such as pseudo-documentaries, songs, sketches, as well as co-starring Walters and Preston.
on numerous occasions from 2006 onwards, only to be cancelled each time. The DVD was eventually released by Network on 18 October 2010. The release included all seven episodes and the original "Two Creatures Great and Small" pilot episode on a single disc.
Julie Walters
Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
and Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...
for Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
and written entirely by Wood. The show was short-lived, with one pilot in 1981 and a series of seven shows in 1982.
Background
Both women had first met at Manchester Polytechnic in 1970, Wood was hoping to enroll, and Walters was coming to the end of her course. They met again in 1978 when they both appeared in the same revue In At The DeathIn At The Death
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....
at The Bush Theatre in London.
Wood had been initially spotted by Granada’s head of drama, Peter Eckersley
Peter Eckersley (TV producer)
Peter Eckersley was a British television producer who was Head of Drama at Granada Television in the 1960s and 70s.In the 1960s, he was also a writer and producer on Coronation Street. He wrote 62 episodes between April 1962 and November 1969...
, performing in her self-written play Talent
Talent (1978 play)
Talent is a play written by Victoria Wood, first performed in 1978. It centres around 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...
at Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
’s Crucible Theatre
Crucible Theatre
The Crucible Theatre is a theatre built in 1971 and located in the city centre of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. As well as theatrical performances, it is home to the most important event in professional snooker, the World Snooker Championship....
, who asked her to recreate it for television (his widow is actress Anne Reid
Anne Reid
Anne Reid, MBE is a BAFTA Award-nominated English film and television actress from Newcastle upon Tyne, best known for her roles as Valerie Tatlock in Coronation Street and Jean in dinnerladies....
, who would appear as Jean in Wood’s 1998 sitcom dinnerladies
Dinnerladies
Dinnerladies is a British sitcom written, co-produced by and starring Victoria Wood. It ran on BBC One for 16 episodes from 1998 to 2000.-Plot:...
). The TV version of Talent and its sequel Nearly A Happy Ending
Nearly A Happy Ending
Nearly A Happy Ending is a television play written by Victoria Wood, which ITV broadcast on 1 June 1980.It is a sequel to Wood's earlier play Talent, with the same lead character's, Julie and Maureen ....
, would also co-star Walters.
Pilot – Wood and Walters: Two Creatures Great and Small
- Broadcast 1 January 1981
After she had turned down the female role in the satirical sketch show Not The Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News is a television comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC 2 from 1979 to 1982.Originally shown as a comedy "alternative" to the BBC Nine O'Clock News on BBC 1, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy...
in 1979, Eckersley offered Wood a sketch show of her own in 1980. However, Wood agreed only on the understanding that Walters received equal billing, not feeling confident enough as yet to go it alone. Wood had in fact only ever written one sketch three years earlier before being given her own show. She fell back on songs, which she felt was her strength, the pilot contained four in 30 minutes. The sketches concerned themselves with Marriage Guidance Council, keep fit classes, DIY and gossip. Wood hated the finished result, so was very surprised that the show was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Light Entertainment Programme alongside The Two Ronnies
The Two Ronnies
The Two Ronnies is a British sketch show that aired on BBC1 from 1971 to 1987. It featured the double act of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, the "Two Ronnies" of the title.-Origins:...
, The Kenny Everett Video Show and The Stanley Baxter Series
Stanley Baxter
Stanley Baxter is a Scottish comic actor and impressionist, best known for his British television shows. He worked in radio, theatre, television and film.-Early life:...
(which won).
A third Wood play with Walters was made between the pilot and series for Granada. Like Wood and Walters, Happy Since I Met You
Happy Since I Met You
Happy Since I Met You is a television play written by Victoria Wood, and broadcast on ITV on 9 August 1981.It stars Julie Walters, Duncan Preston, Tracey Ullman and Jim Bowen and was directed by Baz Taylor as part of ITV's Screenplay series. In Happy Since I Met You, Duncan Preston, who would later...
also contained an appearance from another long term Wood collaborator Duncan Preston
Duncan Preston
Duncan Preston is an English actor probably best known for his appearances in television productions written by Victoria Wood. His best remembered roles are Clifford in the Victoria Wood As Seen On TV soap opera parody Acorn Antiques , and Stan in dinnerladies.In July 2010, Preston revealed he was...
.
Series
- Broadcast 1 January 1982 - 21 February 1982
For the series a year later, the ‘Two Creatures Great and Small’ adjunct had been dropped, as critics commenting on Wood’s weight had been beginning to get to her (though she did also say later she was delighted that she was once described as "dominating the stage like a witty tank").
The show was not a happy experience as, in the intervening time since the pilot, the show's producer (and Wood’s mentor) Peter Eckersley had died of cancer. It was a terrible blow to Wood who said "he had lots of ideas for the series…but he never told me what they were. His value to me was inestimable. He had a marvellous eye for what was unnecessary and great attention to detail. He had liked the first material for the series but never saw any of the other stuff." Wood was not impressed by his replacement for the series, Brian Armstrong, and was of the opinion that he had hired several unsuitable actors.
The studio audience was generally filled with pensioners who often had difficulty understanding Wood’s refined humour. Before one sketch, the warm up man had to explain to them what a boutique was. Wood said she heard one disgusted audience member say to her friend: "You realise we’re missing Brideshead for this".
Sketches for Wood and Walters included
- The Woman With 740 Children, in which Wood played a woman who overdosed on a fertility drug. Much to her surprise, Granada hired 70 babies to appear in the sketch.
- ‘Girl Talking’ was an expert parody of social realist documentaries, and
- ‘Northerners’ was a song parodying stereotypes of the North of England.
A regular character on the show was Dotty. The items entitled "Dotty's Slot" featured Walters as Dotty, who performed a witty monologue by a middle-classed housewife discussing all matters national and trivial, such as in the sketch ‘Dotty on Women’s Lib’. As a character, she shares many similarities with a later Wood creation ‘Kitty’ (as played by Patricia Routledge
Patricia Routledge
Katherine Patricia Routledge, CBE is an English character comedy actress and singer. She is best known for her role as character Hyacinth Bucket in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances and Hetty Wainthropp in the British television series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates...
).
Rik Mayall
Rik Mayall
Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall is an English comedian, writer, and actor. He is known for his comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, his over-the-top, energetic portrayal of characters, and as a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s...
also appeared in a one-off monologue as a chauvinistic feminist called Mitch. Filling a similar guest slot as he had with Kevin Turvey
Kevin Turvey
Kevin Turvey was a British television comedy character created by actor and comedian Rik Mayall for the BBC sketch show A Kick Up the Eighties in 1981....
in the sketch show A Kick Up the Eighties
A Kick Up the Eighties
A Kick Up the Eighties was a 1981-1984 BBC Scotland sketch show starring Robbie Coltrane, Tracey Ullman, Richard Stilgoe, Miriam Margolyes, Rik Mayall, Ron Bain and Roger Sloman....
. Another alternative comedy
Alternative comedy
Alternative comedy is a term that originated in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era, and typically avoids relying on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt defines it as "comedy where the...
innovator to appear on the show was John Dowie
John Dowie (humourist)
John Dowie is a British comedian, musician, and writer. He began performing stand-up comedy in 1969.-Career:Dowie was among the inaugural acts on Tony Wilson's Factory Records label. In 1978 he contributed three comedic songs to the first Factory music release, A Factory Sample, along with Joy...
, who had already toured with Wood in 1978.
Wood's view of the series was “Some bits of it were good, some deadly”.
Around this time, Wood made a weekly musical appearance in the BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
show The Little and Large
Little and Large
Little and Large were a British comedy double act comprising straight man Syd Little and comic Eddie Large . They formed their partnership in 1962, appearing as singers in local pubs around the North-West of England...
Party, narrated an Arts Council
Arts council
An arts council is a government or private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing events at home and abroad...
film on the pantomime dame
Pantomime dame
A pantomime dame is a traditional character in British pantomime. It is a continuation of en travesti portrayal of female characters by male actors in drag. They are often played either in an extremely camp style, or else by men acting 'butch' in women's clothing...
, and was profiled in the schools programme Scene. Walters would also appear with Michael Angelis
Michael Angelis
Michael Angelis is an English actor and voice actor.Michael Angelis was one of the stars of the famous 1982 BBC drama serial Boys from the Black Stuff and another Alan Bleasedale drama G.B.H.. He also starred in comedies such as Luv and The Liver Birds, in which he appeared between series 5 and 9...
in 1982 as his wife in Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale is an English television dramatist, best known for writing several social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people.The Bleasdales live in prescot,liverpool,wales and london.-Early life:Bleasdale is an only child; his father worked in a food factory and his mother...
’s Boys from the Blackstuff
Boys from the Blackstuff
Boys from the Blackstuff is a British television drama series of five episodes, originally transmitted from 10 October to 7 November 1982 on BBC2....
.
Wood and Walters place in British comedy history can be seen as that of a dry run for the more popular and acclaimed Victoria Wood As Seen On TV
Victoria Wood As Seen On TV
Victoria Wood As Seen On TV was a British comedy sketch series starring comedienne Victoria Wood, with Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston, Susie Blake and Patricia Routledge...
which aired on BBC television between 1985-87, which shared some of the same elements such as pseudo-documentaries, songs, sketches, as well as co-starring Walters and Preston.
DVD release
The series was scheduled for release by Network DVDNetwork DVD
Network DVD is a DVD publishing company that specialises in classic British television. In particular, it has the rights to a number of well-known ITV programmes...
on numerous occasions from 2006 onwards, only to be cancelled each time. The DVD was eventually released by Network on 18 October 2010. The release included all seven episodes and the original "Two Creatures Great and Small" pilot episode on a single disc.