1970s Wood began her show business career while an undergraduate, appearing on the ITV talent show
New Faces in 1974. A further break came as a novelty act on the
BBC's consumer affairs programme ''
That's Life! in 1976. She had met long-term collaborator Julie Walters in 1971, when Wood applied to the Manchester School of Theatre, then part of Manchester Polytechnic. In 2019, John Lloyd revealed that Wood was offered the female role in Not the Nine O'Clock News'', but turned it down.
1980–1988 The success of the television version of
Talent led to Wood writing the follow-up
Nearly a Happy Ending. Shortly afterwards she wrote a third play for Granada,
Happy Since I Met You, again with Walters alongside
Duncan Preston as the male lead. In 1980 she wrote and starred in the stage play
Good Fun. and the pilot episode was recorded. It led to a full series, featuring Duncan Preston and a supporting cast. In the period between the completion of the pilot and the shooting of the series, Eckersley died. Wood credited him with giving her her first big break, and felt that
Wood and Walters suffered due to his death. Following the success of the first series of
Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, Wood went on tour again with
Lucky Bag in March 1985.
Scene, a documentary for BBC2 later that year, showed footage of Wood preparing for the tour and clips of her performing the show at Derby Assembly Rooms. A second series of
Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV was made in 1986. Before filming began in the summer, Wood went on a 22-date tour of England and Scotland during March and April. A final 'Special' 40-minute episode of
As Seen on TV was made in 1987 and broadcast later that year. During autumn 1987 Wood went on the road with what was to be her largest tour yet. The tour included a sell-out two-week run at the
London Palladium, and had a second leg in the spring of 1988. In 1988 she appeared in the
BAFTA-winning
An Audience with Victoria Wood for
ITV. At the time of recording the show she was six months pregnant. The end of 1988 saw the release of her second live album
Victoria Wood Live, recorded at the Brighton Dome. In May 1990, Wood began a large sell-out tour of the United Kingdom, which was followed by a ten-week run at the
Strand Theatre in London titled
Victoria Wood Up West. Wood took the show on the road again during March and April 1991, where it was recorded at the
Mayflower Theatre in Southampton, and later released as
Victoria Wood Sold Out in 1991. In 1991, she appeared on the Comic Relief single performing "The Smile Song", the flipside to "The Stonk" (a record by ITV comedians
Gareth Hale and
Norman Pace with charity supergroup The Stonkers). A
UK number-one single for one week on 23 March 1991, the record was the UK's 22nd-best-selling single of the year. However, even though it was a joint-single (with "The Smile Song" credited on the front of the single cover and listed as track 2 on the seven-inch and CD single rather than being a B-side), the UK singles chart compilers (now the Official Charts Company) did not credit her with having number one hit, in a situation similar to the fate of BAD II's "
Rush", the AA-side of the preceding number one, "
Should I Stay or Should I Go" by
The Clash. She briefly returned to sketches for the 1992 Christmas Day special ''
Victoria Wood's All Day Breakfast'', and also branched out into children's animation, voicing all the characters for the
CBBC series
Puppydog Tales. In April 1993, Wood began a seven-month tour of the UK. The 104-date tour broke box office records, including 15 sell out shows at London's Royal Albert Hall, and played to residencies in Sheffield, Birmingham, Plymouth, Bristol, Nottingham, Manchester, Leicester, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Oxford, Southampton, Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds and Hull. The television film
Pat and Margaret (1994), starring Wood and Julie Walters as long-lost sisters with very different lifestyles, continued her return to stand-alone plays with a poignant undercurrent to the comedy. On Christmas Day 1994, Wood starred in the one-off BBC 50-minute programme based on her 1993/94 stage show
Victoria Wood: Live in Your Own Home. The special featured stand-up routines, character monologues and songs. An extended 80 minute version was released on VHS. Wood went on a 68-date sell-out tour of the UK between May - October 1996, which played at venues in Leicester, Sheffield, Ipswich, Blackpool, Wolverhampton, Bradford, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Brighton, Nottingham, Oxford, Southend, Manchester and Cambridge. The tour culminated with another 15 sell-out shows at London's Royal Albert Hall in the autumn. The tour recommenced in April 1997 in Liverpool, also taking in Reading, Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Halifax, Glasgow, Nottingham, Brighton, Portsmouth, Oxford, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Wood then took the show to Australia and New Zealand during July and August. It was later released as
Victoria Wood Live 1997 filmed at the High Wycombe Swan Theatre during the tours final shows in September.
2000–2005 December 2000 saw the Christmas sketch show special
Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings, featuring her regular troupe of actors as well as a string of special guest stars including
Hugh Laurie,
Angela Rippon,
Bob Monkhouse,
Bill Paterson,
Delia Smith and
Roger Moore. 2001 saw Wood embark on her final stand-up tour,
Victoria Wood at It Again but was postponed slightly by Wood having to have an emergency
hysterectomy shortly before the tour was due to begin. She re-wrote the entire first half of the show and incorporated the operation into her act. The 85-date tour included another residency at the
Royal Albert Hall and finished in April 2002. Wood wrote her first musical,
Acorn Antiques: The Musical!, which opened in 2005 at the
Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, for a limited period, directed by
Trevor Nunn. It starred several of the original cast, with
Sally Ann Triplett playing Miss Berta (played in the series by Wood). Wood played Julie Walters' lead role of
Mrs Overall for Monday and Wednesday matinee performances.
2006–2010 Wood wrote the one-off
ITV serious drama
Housewife, 49 (2006), an adaptation of the diaries of
Nella Last, and played the eponymous role of an introverted middle-aged character who discovers new confidence and friendships in Lancashire during the
Second World War.
Housewife, 49 was critically acclaimed, and Wood won
BAFTAs for both her acting and writing for this drama; a rare double. The film also starred
Stephanie Cole and David Threlfall as well as, in a small role,
Sue Wallace with whom Wood had worked before and studied alongside at Birmingham. In November 2006, Wood directed a revival production of
Acorn Antiques: The Musical! with a new cast. The musical opened at
the Lowry in
Salford in December and toured the United Kingdom from January to July 2007. In January 2007, she appeared as herself in a series of advertisements featuring famous people working for the supermarket chain
Asda. They featured Wood working in the bakery and introduced a catchphrase – "there's no place like ASDA". Wood was the subject of an episode of
The South Bank Show in March 2007, and is the only woman to be the subject of two
South Bank programmes (the previous occasion was in September 1996). Wood appeared in a three-part travel documentary on
BBC One called ''
Victoria's Empire'', in which she travelled around the world in search of the history, cultural impact and customs the
British Empire placed on the parts of the world it ruled. She departed Victoria Station, London, for
Calcutta, Hong Kong and
Borneo in the first programme. In programme two she visited
Ghana,
Jamaica and
Newfoundland and in the final programme,
New Zealand, Australia and
Zambia, finishing at the
Victoria Falls. In a tribute to Wood, the British television station
UKTV Gold celebrated her work with a weekend marathon of programmes between 3 and 4 November 2007, featuring programmes such as
Victoria Wood Live and
dinnerladies and
Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV – its first screening on British television since 1995. Wood returned to stand-up comedy, with a special performance for the celebratory show
Happy Birthday BAFTA on 28 October 2007, alongside other household names. The programme was transmitted on
ITV1 on Wednesday 7 November 2007. On Boxing Day 2007 she appeared as "Nana" in the Granada dramatisation of
Noel Streatfeild's novel
Ballet Shoes. In December 2007, when a guest on the radio programme
Desert Island Discs, Wood said she was about to make her first foray into film, writing a script described as a contemporary comedy about a middle-aged person. On Thursday, 12 June 2008, Wood was a member of the celebrity guest panel on the series ''
The Apprentice: You're Fired! on BBC Two. In June 2009, she appeared as a panellist on the first two episodes of a series of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''. In 2009, Wood provided the voice of
God for
Liberace, Live From Heaven by
Julian Woolford at London's
Leicester Square Theatre. Wood returned to television comedy for a one-off Christmas sketch-show special, her first for nine years, ''
Victoria Wood's Mid Life Christmas, transmitted on BBC One at 21:00 on Christmas Eve 2009. It reunited Wood with Julie Walters in Lark Pies to Cranchesterford
, a spoof of BBC period dramas Lark Rise to Candleford, Little Dorrit and Cranford; a spoof documentary, Beyond the Marigolds
, following Acorn Antiques star Bo Beaumont (Walters); highlights from the Mid Life Olympics 2009'' with Wood as the commentator; parodies of personal injury advertisements; and a reprise of Wood's most famous song "The Ballad of Barry and Freda" ("Let's Do It"), performed as a musical number with tap-dancers and a band.
Victoria Wood: Seen On TV, a 90-minute documentary looking back on her career, was broadcast on BBC Two on 21 December, whilst a behind-the-scenes special programme about
Midlife Christmas,
Victoria Wood: What Larks!, was broadcast on BBC One on 30 December.
2011–2016 On New Year's Day 2011, Wood appeared in a BBC drama
Eric and Ernie as
Eric Morecambe's mother, Sadie Bartholomew. For the 2011
Manchester International Festival, Wood wrote, composed and directed
That Day We Sang, a musical set in 1969 with
flashbacks to 1929. It tells the story of a middle-aged couple who find love after meeting on a TV programme about a choir they both sang in 40 years previously. Although the characters are imaginary, the choir sang with the
Hallé Youth Orchestra in Manchester's
Free Trade Hall on a record that sold more than a million copies. Apart from the pieces on the 1929 recording (
Purcell's "
Nymphs and Shepherds" and the Evening Benediction from
Hansel and Gretel) the score for the musical was written by Wood. She also narrated the 2012 miniseries
The Talent Show Story. On 22 December 2012, Wood was a guest on
BBC Radio 2's Saturday morning
Graham Norton Show. On 23 December
BBC One screened
Loving Miss Hatto, a drama written by Wood about the life of concert pianist
Joyce Hatto, the centre of a scandal over the authenticity of her recordings and her role in the hoax. In April 2013, Wood produced a documentary about the history of tea named ''Victoria Wood's Nice Cup of Tea''. In 2013 she played retired constable-turned-security-guard Tracy in BBC Scotland's
Case Histories starring
Jason Isaacs. She appeared in an episode of
QI, broadcast on 13 December 2013, and around the same time made two return appearances on ''
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'' during the show's 60th series in which she joined in the game
One song to the tune of Another, singing the
Bob the Builder theme "
Can We Fix It?" to the tune of "
I Dreamed a Dream". In March 2014, Wood voiced the TV advertisement for the tour of the old set of
Coronation Street. On 5 December 2014 Wood was a guest on BBC's
The Graham Norton Show. On 26 December 2014, a television movie adaptation of
That Day We Sang, directed by Wood, starring
Michael Ball and
Imelda Staunton, was shown on
BBC Two. In early 2015, Wood took part in a celebrity version of
The Great British Bake Off for
Comic Relief and was crowned Star Baker in her episode. She co-starred with
Timothy Spall in
Sky television's three-part television adaptation of
Fungus the Bogeyman, which was first shown on 27, 28 & 29 December 2015, her final acting role.
Collaborators Wood was known for using many of the same actors in her projects, which comedian
Tiff Stevenson later described as "this core of people who she knew she worked well with, and why would [she] want to walk away from that?" Duncan Preston said of these recurring appearances, "I wouldn't say that we were her favourite actors; I think we were like a company that she had." Celia Imrie commented that Wood's "team" approach "meant that we could work together very fast." An overview of these recurring cast members is shown below: } == Filmography ==