Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood

by Jasper Rees

  With Rosalind in the photobooth. Courtesy of Rosalind Watson.

  With Rosalind and Penelope. Courtesy of Rosalind Watson.

  An early performance in Birmingham. Photograph by Steve Glynn.

  Victoria reading. Courtesy of Fidelis Morgan.

  With Celia Imrie. Courtesy of Fidelis Morgan.

  Austerity party. Courtesy of Fidelis Morgan.

  With John Dowie. Photograph by Nigel Iskander. Courtesy of John Dowie.

  Outside the Royal Albert Hall. Photograph by Chris Christodoulou.

  With Helen and Rosalind. Courtesy of Rosalind Watson.

  As Mrs Overall. Photograph by Catherine Ashmore.

  With Nigel Lilley and Sammy Murray. Photograph by Catherine Ashmore.

  With Piers Wenger. Photograph by Catherine Ashmore.

  With Jane Wymark, Catherine Ashmore and Paul Howson. Courtesy of Jane Wymark.

  With Grace and Henry at Christmas. Photograph by Penelope Wood. Courtesy of Rosalind Watson.

  With some Barrys and a Freda. Photograph by Catherine Ashmore.

  With the cast of Eric & Ernie. Courtesy of Daniel Rigby.

  At her sixtieth birthday party. Courtesy of Sammy Murray.

  Performing at the wedding of Beth Willis and Jonny Campbell. Photograph by Debs Alexander Photography. Courtesy of Beth Willis and Jonny Campbell.

  Listening to the Hallé Orchestra. Photograph by Luis Cortes.

  With Beth Willis by Esthwaite Water. Photograph by Jonny Campbell. Courtesy of Beth Willis and Jonny Campbell.

  At it again. Photograph by Catherine Ashmore.

  Victoria’s parents Stanley and Helen Wood met at a Communist Youth League event in 1937.

  ‘A lovely baby in every way’ is welcomed home by her sisters Penelope (left) and Rosalind.

  Victoria and her father having fun by the seaside in Whitby.

  ‘Where it all happened’: Birtle Edge House in the snow.

  Helen coaxes a camera-shy young Vicky.

  Throughout primary school Victoria was near the top of the class.

  Victoria mugs for the photobooth camera with Rosalind.

  ‘They were very glamorous’: Victoria in her NHS glasses and duffel coat with her sisters Rosalind (left) and Penelope.

  Playing Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale at school, Victoria wore ‘these really horrible brown tights that looked like Ryvita’.

  Photobooth fun with schoolfriends Lesley Fitton (front) and Anne Sweeney.

  Looking up to her first boyfriend Bob Mason in Rochdale Youth Theatre Workshop, where Victoria found that ‘suddenly there were things I could do’.

  With fellow drama student Steve Trow …

  … and Robert Howie.

  At the end of her second year in Birmingham, Victoria performed to a university audience, along with Sahlan Diver (kneeling) and Bill Lloyd (seated). Beforehand they posed for photographs in the basement.

  At an early performance in Birmingham, Victoria learns to sing over her right shoulder.

  Larking in Birmingham.

  Victoria devoured books whenever and wherever.

  ‘She’d been on the telly and she was a winner’: Celia Imrie was nervous the first time she met Victoria in 1975.

  Austerity party at Harrods, 1976. Victoria wears factory overalls, Robert Howie is shirtless, Fidelis Morgan wears a tie, Chrissie Poulter is smoking and Celia Imrie is the nurse on the right.

  ‘John Dowie does songs about amputees and cripples and halibut.’

  ‘I remember thinking the heavens had sent her to me,’ says Julie Walters.

  Meeting Geoffrey Durham was ‘a fantastic stroke of luck’.

  The only wedding photo of Victoria and Geoffrey. 1 March 1980. ‘Five-minute job then spaghetti on toast and knickerbocker glory.’

  In her album Victoria scrawled a caption over a photo of Funny Turns at the Duchess Theatre.

  Victoria’s early years as a stand-up involved a lot of sitting down. The setlist on cue cards is stuck to the piano.

  After two weeks performing Lucky Bag at the Ambassador’s in early 1984, Victoria went home to write As Seen on TV.

  The stars of Acorn Antiques with Chrissie Baker, Victoria’s hair and make-up designer for nearly thirty years.

  ‘Nine and half weeks, 27 hotels, 51 shows and 5869 miles – as the song says – and I’m still here.’ At the party to mark the end of her 1987 tour.

  ‘I’ve heard enough skriking in this bug hutch to last me from t’Weatherfield Viaduct to t’Whit Week Walk.’ Victoria and Julie as Ena Sharples and Martha Longhurst.

  ‘It’s quite cosy. It’s a bit like a Jammy Dodger.’ In 1993 Victoria performed at the Royal Albert Hall for the first time.

  With Celia Imrie recording All Day Breakfast in 1992.

  Victoria gave birth to Grace in 1988. ‘She bathed in the glory of it,’ says Geoffrey, ‘and she lived it day after day after day.’

  Grace and Henry with their mother during the making of Pat and Margaret in 1994.

  In Zimbabwe for Comic Relief with one of the Masara family in 1995.

  The family in the garden at Mole Barn.

  With Geoffrey after his dramatic weight loss, backstage on tour in 1996.

  The cast and crew of the first series of dinnerladies in the week they recorded ‘Moods’. Producer-director Geoff Posner is to the right of Victoria.

  ‘My daughter born Christmas Eve, so we called her Brenda.’

  Polishing a dinnerladies script in her BBC dressing room.

  With the cast of her Brief Encounter spoof for Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings in 2000. From the left: Michael Parkinson, Bill Paterson, Celia Imrie and Richenda Carey.

  The ‘Keyboard Collywobbles’ sketch with Anne Reid was filmed in black and white, diminishing the impact of Victoria’s crimson gown.

  With Rosalind and their mother Helen, whose spiky personality softened in old age.

  The three sisters walked up Langdale Pikes in the summer of 2002 to scatter their parents’ ashes.

  Oh! Oh! Oh! Mrs O. At the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2005, Victoria understudied the lead role of Acorn Antiques: The Musical! on Mondays and Wednesday matinees.

  A director at last. With Nigel Lilley and Sammy Murray in rehearsal for Acorn Antiques: The Musical! on tour in 2006.

  On the set of Housewife, 49 with producer Piers Wenger, ‘a hardcore fan’ who became her closest companion after her divorce.

  With old friends (from left) Jane Wymark, Catherine Ashmore and Jane’s husband Paul Howson.

  Grace, Henry and Victoria in Venice to see in 2008 with regular holiday companions Charlotte Scott and Roger Glossop.

  Vegetarian Christmas lunch in Highgate with Grace and Henry.

  With some Barrys and a Freda filming Victoria Wood’s Mid Life Christmas in 2009.

  On the set of Eric & Ernie with (from left) Daniel Rigby, Jim Moir and Bryan Dick. Victoria is wearing a hairclip between takes.

  ‘Couldn’t have liked it more’: at her sixtieth birthday with Sammy Murray, Nigel Lilley (behind), Stephen Mear (right) and his partner Mark Smith.

  Victoria’s recital at the wedding of Beth Willis and Jonny Campbell at Wiltons Music Hall in December 2013 was her final performance.

  In Huddersfield Town Hall in 2014, the director-composer listens as her music for That Day We Sang is performed by the Hallé Orchestra.

  In the Swiss Cottage garden on the edge of Esthwaite Water with Beth Willis and her baby daughter.

  At it again at the Royal Albert Hall.

  Copyright

  First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Trapeze,

  an imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd

  Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment,

  London EC4Y 0DZ

  An Hachette UK company

  © Jasper Rees 2020

  The moral right of Jasper Rees to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.


  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is

  available from the British Library.

  eBook 978 1 4091 8412 6

  www.orionbooks.co.uk