No, definitely VW progs, you cannot mistake that face. I'm just a misogynist who can't bear successful women. Smug cow.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ December 26 2009, 8:16 AM GMT

No, definitely VW progs, you cannot mistake that face. I'm just a misogynist who can't bear successful women. Smug cow.

View original

Right.

Fact is she's done very well over the years, and has moved into drama with Bafta winning success too. So. Pretty good. Pretty, pretty good.

There was some very good stuff in the Larkrise spoof.

Yeah, I found that highly amusing!

I really enjoyed this. It was classic Victoria Wood. Maybe it wasn't going to have you laughing out loud every ten seconds but it was much better than most stuff on TV at the moment.

She is a voice from the past - leave her there. Only the settings and the references have been brought up to date - the material and the characters are basically the same 1985 models. Great writers can do different stuff, Victoria. Good afternoon.

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ December 26 2009, 1:11 PM GMT

There was some very good stuff in the Larkrise spoof.

View original

Yes, there was but, way back in VW's prime, the entire Larkrise spoof and everything else in the show would have been nothing but very good stuff.

In that far-off prime, VW was not only a superb writer and performer of comedy sketches and songs, she was also a superb stand-up comedian and a very good writer of comedy drama and sitcom. She ranks among the most talented comedians (male or female) the world has ever seen.

Unfortunately, her 2009 Christmas Special didn't approach the standards previously set by herself.

The bottom line was that it was a very flabby, lazy script, with not enough good lines or ideas to justify the money spent on it. There were experienced people working on this show, and one of them should have had the courage to script edit more objectively and assertively. For me, it all just seemed incredibly self-indulgent. The Bo Beaumont piece was the bit I was looking forward to the most and it was a huge disappointment. If you're resorting to getting in Torville and Dean just to get a few "laughs" with a hugely drawn out sequence of Julie Waters slipping on the ice, you need to go back and re-write your script. When you've had nine years between shows, you don't really have an excuse for such paucity of good material, sorry.

I have never enjoyed a performance by VW, and I don't think I ever will.

Phew! Got that opinion out of me.

Fair point, Leevil. The one point that perhaps hasn't been raised much is that, whatever her abilities as a comedy writer - and her undoubted abilities in performing straight roles - VW is a fairly terrible comedy actress. She's never had any great ability for performing comedy characters in sketches, despite having excellent abilities when by herself, in her stand up and stage monologues. It's quite a strange paradox actually...

Well, yes, quite! I did just mean in general, the generalnessness of VW has never appealed to me.

Quote: Leevil @ December 26 2009, 2:36 PM GMT

Well, yes, quite! I did just mean in general, the generalnessness of VW has never appealed to me.

View original

Well, thanks for giving me an excuse to waffle on...

But I made and you furthered a good point

She always looks like she's reading the script under the desk.

But Saunders is the same - an appalling actress but a funny performer and very good writer. These two bitter enemies actually have a lot in common.

I would have preferred to see a Julie Walters Christmas Special myself, with some material written by VW.