Julie Walters: a freak for not having plastic surgery

Julie Walters has said she feels like a "freak" in modern-day Hollywood as one of the few middle-aged actresses not to have had any plastic surgery.

Julie Walters misses Victoria Wood's comedy

She may be thrilling viewers as the formidable matriarch Cynthia Coffin in TV drama Indian Summers but actress Dame Julie Walters misses her comedy past.

Rated or dated: Pat and Margaret

The truly tragic death of Victoria Wood earlier this year prompted Alison Carr to rewatch lots of her work. Would TV film Pat and Margaret still delight the way it did in 1994?

Very British Problems - very funny!

This summer I am on the lookout for funny shows to help balance the rest of my responsibilities. At the same time, I have expanding my viewing options by looking into programs from abroad. I have recently run across the perfect mix of the two in Very British Problems.

Although most of Victoria Wood's work since 1985 had been for the BBC - including her sketch series As Seen on TV and the sitcom dinnerladies - she fell out with the corporation in 2009 when her seasonal specal, All the Trimmings, commissioned for Christmas Day, was dumped in a lesser slot without consultation.

Possibly because of this, only ITV was able to gain access to the writer-comedian's closest colleagues - including Julie Walters, Duncan Preston and Celia Imrie - for Let's Do It: A Tribute to Victoria Wood. There was also a suspicion that, in relation, the BBC might have been mean about releasing clips: there was so little material from dinnerladies and As Seen on TV that the opening titles had to be used as illustration.

Despite smart use of DVDs of stage shows and clps from a 1996 South Bank Show, the talking heads between the extracts adopted the now standard TV obit-show tone of rave about the person in the grave. James Corden explained that "she just made a lot of people laugh". Sir Lenny Henry averred that "she was just brilliant", while Jim Broadbent siad: "You just think, God, what a special person!'"

Attention was rightly paid to Wood's epic comic song, The Ballard of Barry and Freda. But, rather than reference to its double internal rhymes or climactic triple rhymes or the comic effect of domestic detail (lagging, grouting, flameproof nightie), we got a string of celebs calling the song "brilliant" and David Threlfall[/o] declaring: "Is there no end to this woman's talent?" Well, sadly, Dave, yes, there was, which is why an ITV crew is in your dressing room.

The secret to Victoria Wood's popularity was that her humour allowed her to be "inoffensive and yet quite naughty." There may be comedians who were sharper or funnier, but they couldn't claim the huge affection Victoria Wood had. She was loved by so many because she'd never resort to shocks, sex or scandal to grab attention, finding the right tone by being a tiny bit "naughty" but never cruel.

Julie Walters, Barry Cryer, Celia Imrie, Alison Steadman, Michael Ball and others offer funny anecdotes and warm memories of her and if you begin to feel it's perhaps getting too sweet and sad, clips of Victoria Wood elbow their way in, being a little bit "naughty" to correct the balance. You can't be melancholy when she pops up on screen to discuss ageing women visiting the doctor, some with pelvic floors dangling and another holding her cervix in a margarine tub.

We also learn of Wood's Lancashire childhood and how she saw Joyce Grenfell's act as a girl, and became fascinated with the image of a lone woman on a stage who could make everyone laugh.

Geoff Posner remembers Victoria Wood

There were three of us sat on the floor in a little cottage in North West England - Victoria, Julie Walters and myself. It was 1984; I was a young producer, having just made The Young Ones and the pilot of Blackadder, and had seen Victoria in a play called Good Fun. When I heard she'd been signed up to the BBC, to make a series called As Seen On TV, I asked if I could work on it.

Gold's latest archive trolley-dash offers a retrospective of Edgbaston's biggest star. Despite plaudits for her dramatic roles, it's Walters' comic turns alongside Victoria Wood that first brought her to national attention. Her story is covered here via archive interview footage, from her challenging introduction to academia at the hands of ruler-wielding nuns to her most celebrated roles. These include Acorn Antiques' expertly inept charlady Mrs Overall, a role requiring Walters to unlearn her hard-earned acting expertise.

Julie Walters: 'I'm proud to be 65'

The first thing to be said about meeting Julie Walters is that she is very funny.

Radio Times review

The stars of Steve Jobs, the Danny Boyle film about the co-founder of Apple that closed the recent London Film Festival, are on Graham's sofa this evening. It's unlikely that we'll see a repeat of Michael Fassbender's wonderfully cool dance to Blurred Lines that he did when he was on the show with his X Men co-stars 18 months ago - unless it happens to be a favourite tune of Kate Winslet's, too. Also on the bill is Brooklyn star Julie Walters - a regular guest on the show because she is always such terrific value - as well as rapper 50 Cent.