It wasn't the Office, it was the Royle Family which began a a few months before.
dinnerladies Page 5
Well I remember watching an interview with Wood where she was specifically referencing The Office as the show that made dinnerladies look contrived and unfashionable.
Perhaps it was receiving repeats at the time of The Office? Or the latter blew it out of the water with fans of that kind of ... thing.
To be fair, I don't think she sounded bitter about The Office, more just that she had not had the chance to do dinnerladies the way she intended (single camera).
That is perfectly possible if the interview was around 2002,3,4 something like that, as Dinnerladies would still be very much in recent memory, and it was I recall a very well advertised mainstream sitcom, and was probably still having BBC repeats then. Wood however is dreaming if she thought the only reason it looked unfashionable, contrived, (and I'll add dull) was because of the innovative Office - Miss Wood, your sitcom model was at least twenty odd years old, an old fashioned looking one at that, to start with, and most of the material you put in it was just as old. You cannot blame The Office for making your Dinnerladies look ancient and out of date, it is you who did that.
Alfie, I agree that parts of dinnerladies were outdated however if it was single camera it would have been a very similar show to The Royle Family and pretty close to The Office in terms of brilliance. I know a lot of the jokes were old fashioned but so were the ones in The Royle Family but they got away with because they were depicting realism.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ September 8 2009, 11:54 PM BSTWood however is dreaming if she thought the only reason it looked unfashionable, contrived, (and I'll add dull) was because of the innovative Office - Miss Wood, your sitcom model was at least twenty odd years old, an old fashioned looking one at that, to start with, and most of the material you put in it was just as old. You cannot blame The Office for making your Dinnerladies look ancient and out of date, it is you who did that.
Missing the point rather. If it was originally written as single camera and and was rewritten for the studio it would have entirely changed the project, and the nature of the humour. e.g. performances need to be broader, gags need to come more often. The studio sitcom had become unfashionable. Twenty years out of date if you like. But the studio sitcom is what it is. Contrivance, it is an accepted, and probably unavoidable, part of the genre. Personally I like studio sitcoms, when they are done well. Did then, do now. dinnerladies was good I thought.
Quote: Ronnie Anderson @ September 9 2009, 12:22 AM BSTpretty close to The Office in terms of brilliance.
Not even anywhere near being in the same league as The Office.
Quote: Ronnie Anderson @ September 9 2009, 12:22 AM BSTI know a lot of the jokes were old fashioned but so were the ones in The Royle Family but they got away with because they were depicting realism.
So in the real world Northerners all spend their time reeling-out warm home truths, bittersweet memories and whimsical *descriptive prose? I somehow doubt it.
Yes I agree now it isn't. However there are lines in dinnerladies that are as good as any Ricky Gervais has ever written and also there is a lot of good drama like they had in The Office and if dinnerladies was on single camera and written for that and also if Victoria Wood took longer to write it (I think she said she wrote a series in six weeks), I reckon it could have been as good as The Office.
Quote: Tim Walker @ September 9 2009, 12:27 AM BSTSo in the real world Northerners all spend their time reeling-out warm home truths, bittersweet memories and whimsical analogueies? I somehow doubt it.
No not all northerners, however there are people exactly like the characters featured in The Royle Family and to some extent dinnerladies, and they do have exactly those type of conversations.
Quote: Ronnie Anderson @ September 9 2009, 12:29 AM BSTi think she said she wrote a series in six weeks
I heard this recently about another show - Dan Clark I think. How the f**k does that happen when shows take years to get commissioned? There is something seriously f**ked up in the commissioning process.
Writing a series in six weeks doesn't show talent, it show expedience and lack of passion for your writing, IMO. There is no way she would have been required to write a series in that short amount of time, unless she had only allowed herself a silly amount of time for it due to other concerns. Sorry.
I agree, I was disappointed when I heard this, perhaps it would have been even better if she'd have shown more commitment.
I didn't mind Dinnerladies but it did seem twee even compared to Last of the Summer Wine. I remember Victoria Wood saying she wanted it to be like ER or something and people rushing about all the time. Well, she would have had to written a totally different script for a start, rather than resorting to 'Ee, chuck' type stuff.
I think it was the acting more than the script that made it appear 'Ee chuck'.
Quote: Ronnie Anderson @ September 9 2009, 12:42 AM BSTI think it was the acting more than the script that made it appear 'Ee chuck'.
What you seem to be saying (which may be fair) is that Victoria Wood wrote some brilliant bits of script for this series. Unfortunately, a sitcom is not just a script, it is rightly judged on how it is realised. And for many it seems it just wasn't realised very impressively.