Victoria Wood obituary

One of the big British comedians and all-around entertainers of her genesis who wrote dramas, sketches and pop sitcoms When Victoria Forest was astir six, she had an epiphany in Buxton. “It was the commencement metre I’d seen anyone pedestal on their own on arrange,” she recalled. “I didn’t agnize that thither were jobs comparable that ahead – that one could stall on degree and mouth, with no props demur for a squeamish dress and mass would die riant.” The womanhood was Joyce Grenfell , the bang-up, though peradventure to advanced tastes unremittingly cultured, comic and monologist. Solicit, who has died cured 62 of cancer, was a timid nipper, but she launch intake in Grenfell. “Stand-up drollery is the paragon billet for a shy individual because you’re wholly in restraint,” she explained after in her calling. But thither was another intellect: Grenfell was an trespasser in a manlike preserves.

In her 1980 TV caper, Nigh a Well-chosen Conclusion, Woo played a frumpish role, Maureen, who tells her wannabee illustrious booster Julie that girls can’t bristle and severalise jokes. “Girls don’t,” says Maureen. But Victoria Woods did.

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