Your Monday mote

Inhaling custard creams, compassion and laughter

Victoria Wood died nine years ago yesterday.

Her legacy is enormous and not just because she was funny, but because she was smart, compassionate and a complete original.

She carved out a space for herself in a male-dominated comedy world without ever compromising her voice. Her genius lay in her ability to elevate the mundane: a buffet, a queue or even the humble custard cream, could all became rich material in her hands.

She had an uncanny knack for capturing the rhythms of ordinary lives, especially women’s lives, with pinpoint accuracy and a wit that never punched down.

From Acorn Antiques (seen above), to the epic Ballad of Barry and Freda, she wrote women as complex, funny, flawed and real, long before it was fashionable. Her career-long partner-in-crime was Julie Walters and together they conjured up televisual magic. What would Acorn Antiques have been like without Mrs Overall? Or ‘Two Soups’. Or Pat and Margaret?

“I like writing a lot more than I used to. I used to find it scary but now I’ve got used to it once it gets going. I used to find it hard to start. Fear of the blank page. The first thing you write down won’t bear any relation to what’s in your head and that’s always disappointing” - Victoria Wood

I could go on. Okay, I will. More than honourable mentions go to Victoria Wood: As Seen On TV, Housewife, 49 and dinnerladies.

When I was performing as a stand up, in the early aughts, I wrote a blog (my first one!) called Six Raisins, which was named after the snack Liz Hurley said she ate if she felt peckish.

There’s an entry from November 2006, where I talk about turning down an interview with Victoria and my reasoning was that I was scared she’d disappoint me or worse, she wouldn’t think I was funny.

Here’s an excerpt: “She's one of my all time comedy heroes - and indeed the funniest woman this country has every produced - and I was scared that it might be a big, fat letdown. Suppose she wasn't that funny? Suppose she was rude? But worse, suppose I cracked a joke and she didn't laugh? How would I ever recover?”

I had a second chance to interview her a few years later and by then, had thrown off the shackles of being a self-centred twit but sadly the interview was cancelled. I think she was unwell at the time. It was supposed to be rescheduled but never was.

Victoria’s influence can be seen in generations of comedians and writers who followed in her mighty footsteps. She showed that intelligence and silliness could happily coexist, and that the domestic was anything but dull.

“Life’s not fair, is it? Some of us drink champagne in the fast lane and some of us eat our sandwiches by the loose chippings on the A597” - Victoria Wood

I loved her attention to detail, the way she could really drill down to the essence of the issue with a simple observation or one-liner. I’m certainly trying to channel some of that as I truck on with my book.

In short, she was a national treasure, yes, but more than that, she was a trailblazer who changed British comedy forever. If I ever get to Bury, where she was born, I’ll be sure to visit her statue and toast her genius with a nice cup of tea.

And with that, I shall doff my yellow beret and head out to look for my really really tall friend Kimberley. I hope she’s still wearing those right dangly earrings.

Lisa