Emma Beddington

Victoria Wood: stiletto in an oven glove

With her musician’s ear for the perfect line, Wood was a steely taskmaster when it came to the exact delivery of her scripts, says Jasper Rees

Victoria Wood in Dinnerladies: ‘A riotous hug of a show’ — though the cast suffered trying to meet her exacting standards. Credit: Alamy 
issue 17 October 2020

Even if you didn’t have an Auntie Dot in Cockermouth (the one who ate a raffia drinks coaster, mistaking it for a high-fibre biscuit), it was impossible not to feel Victoria Wood got you, somehow. Her death in 2016 triggered an outpouring of grief commensurate to her talent, but it also revealed how intimately, how individually, she was loved.

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