Dinnerladies

Victoria Wood is without doubt one of Britains greatest comedy writers. I have once seen her in her one-woman show in Edinburgh some years ago and laughed a lot. I have to say though not as much as my dear wife and a female companion with us. They spent the second half of the show doubled up with laughter in common with the majority of the ladies present. As well as her brilliance in such stand-up shows she is an accomplished singer/songwriter of comic songs which compare with the excellence of Tom Lehrer in their social observation. Her self duet of 'Let's Do It, I Can't Do It' is one the funniest songs I have ever heard but reinforces the female comic aspect ...  Read the complete review

Writer: Victoria Wood Director: Geoff Posner Producers: Geoff Posner and Victoria Wood. Stars: Victoria Wood, Julie Walters, Thelma Barlow, Andrew Dunn, Shobna Gulati, Anne Reid, Duncan Preston, Maxine Peake and Celia Imrie. This sitcom was released in 1998, creating 16 episodes split into 2 series in the 2 years it was aired on the BBC channel. Series 1, 1998, 6 episodes Series 2, 1999, 10 episodes **BRIEF PLOT** Set in the bustling works canteen of a fictional factory called HWD Components in Manchester. The comedy coming from the banter between the workers in the canteen and the handful of ...  Read the complete review

Dinnerladies - The complete first series. There are no extras on this DVD. This is the funniest series that I have even seen, I can relate to this programme in so many ways, as being a chef myself, you had to start somewhere, and when I first saw the first episode, I was hooked. Mondays - the first episode, well you know yourself what its like, getting up for work on a Monday morning, when you would much rather just stay in bed, well there they al are, in their fetching tabards, and little hats, The you hear a voice " shutter's up , lets feed the faces of folk', well that did it for me, you knew he meant business, that ...  Read the complete review

There is much debate these days about the decline of British sitcoms, and on the whole I think that this criticism is justified, even though you have to remember that we look at the past through rose tinted glasses and ignore the hundreds of comedies that flopped. Certainly there have been lean pickings recently, but if you go back a few years (or thanks to Sky a few hours) you stumble across the marvellous and chaotic sitcom world which is Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies. Dinnerladies is perfectly self-contained in the same way as Fawlty Towers - just 16 episodes (between 1998 and 2000) - it tells its story, makes us cry both with laughter and sadness and then ...  Read the complete review

I think that dinnerladies was an absolute work of genius by Victoria Wood. As it was a quintessentially northern comedy, it may not be everybody's cup of tea but some of the lines she came out with unforgetable. For example this quote from"scandal" in series 1 by Petula Gordino, Bren's nyphomatic mother: "as gerard depardieu! said to me that day in douville, whats the point in having a big nose if you cant jam a banana up it?". Sheer hillarity from beginning to end, even when it comes to the names "Petula Gordino" for example. I was particularly impressed with Wood's observations of the different ...  Read the complete review