Ever since this first aired in the late 90s I was a fan. I've been a fan of Victoria Wood, Julie Walters and the rest for many years, but apart from Acorn Antiques (beautifully observed), no sitcom from Victoria Wood. Then dinnerladies...
The cast are perfect: her familiar co-performers Duncan Preston, Celia Imrie and Julie Walters are flawless. Julie Walters steals every scene she's in. And Anne Reid and Thelma Barlow bounce off each other wonderfully. Shobna Gulati and (the as yet unknown) Maxine Peake, and Andrew Dunn completing the core cast and delivering their lines with impeccable timing.
The beauty of dinnerladies is the interplay between the cast, and the language. Not a word is wasted. Such lines as "And where has it got you, having a pelvic floor like a bulldog clip?" or "Sex, it's like icing a cake - you've got to bloody concentrate!". It must have been a dream to act in.
To write and script edit the show, with no additional input must have been incredible hard work, but the end result is a (probably slightly under-appreciated) gem. And it's only really coming to light now that Victoria Wood is no more. If this were her only legacy it would be enough, but her work spanned 40 years, and was so brilliant and diverse. And dinnerladies, for me, was right at the top of the list.
The cast are perfect: her familiar co-performers Duncan Preston, Celia Imrie and Julie Walters are flawless. Julie Walters steals every scene she's in. And Anne Reid and Thelma Barlow bounce off each other wonderfully. Shobna Gulati and (the as yet unknown) Maxine Peake, and Andrew Dunn completing the core cast and delivering their lines with impeccable timing.
The beauty of dinnerladies is the interplay between the cast, and the language. Not a word is wasted. Such lines as "And where has it got you, having a pelvic floor like a bulldog clip?" or "Sex, it's like icing a cake - you've got to bloody concentrate!". It must have been a dream to act in.
To write and script edit the show, with no additional input must have been incredible hard work, but the end result is a (probably slightly under-appreciated) gem. And it's only really coming to light now that Victoria Wood is no more. If this were her only legacy it would be enough, but her work spanned 40 years, and was so brilliant and diverse. And dinnerladies, for me, was right at the top of the list.