To think that if Victoria Wood...

[tokyonambu]

...wants people to trust her judgement on what is funny, she should try making some programmes that are, in fact, funny?

can you not just ignore her, she obviously riles you up

Never heard of Kate wotsit either. But I adore Victoria Wood. We even went to the recording of some of the Dinnerladies eps and it was a fab night out. I didn't see the Christmas thing, wasn't near a TV but will see if it's around and give my verdict.

Sad though, I came home tonight whinging about the exact same treatment at work as she is in that article. Is it better or worse that experience counts for bugger all these days?

Ha, half the time Julie Walters' lines are written by Wood.

I think Acron Antiques is just about the funniest thing I have ever seen on television. For that, she is a goddess.

Ooh yes tokyo she does think of herself rather highly doesn't she. I think that's what's so damn irritating about the woman. All that Smuggity Smug Smuggery while she's singing those ridiculous songs and scanning the crowd with her gurning face for approval.

Gosh, I didn't realise I disliked her so much

I saw Joan Rivers doing stand up last year. She was dead but kept going. What a trouper.

You protest too much, pointydog.

But not to worry, everybody has a shameful secret and your is love of the Ayers.
I've heard worse, although not since i stopped working with raging psychopaths.

I love Victoria Wood! Dinner Ladies is fantastic, I've lost count of how many times I've watched it - there's something comforting about it.

She can be a bit hit and miss though (the christmas special in question for instance) but she is a brilliant writer and doesn't keep all the best gags for herself. I'm also another relatively young fan (I'm 31)!

"I think Acron Antiques is just about the funniest thing I have ever seen on television. For that, she is a goddess."

It's very good. It doesn't mean she's still able to make great TV, though. Fawlty Towers is probably as close to perfection as it gets; that doesn't make John Cleese any less irritating now. Most comedians end up turning into their own tribute act.

Lenny Henry is a another dog who's had his day.

I am young (in my 20s) and I think VW is a legend she is v funny and her old stuff like the scetches with the soup is great.
Dinnerladys cracks me up 2.

I do have a Pam Ayres bookmark on the pin up board beside me. It is advertising her 2004 tour which was called "They Should Have Asked My Husband".

I went around for weeks, if not months, saying 'they should have asked my husband' in a pam ayres accent while peering out from under my fringe and sorta leering.

I think she is funny, but am a bit disappointed in her obv. "sense of entitlement" to being courted by the bbc and expecting to have series after series. It may be a feature of the "BBC-lovey" world where established stars get a bit tooo comfortable and forget they are entertainers in a market place.

"Lenny Henry is a another dog who's had his day."

I think he realises that, though, and has done some pretty good straight work. I only heard the radio version of his Othello, but he could speak the verse, that's for sure.

Mind you, that Rudy's Records thing on Radio 4 - like Desmond's without the laughs - appeared to be the product of a group of writers who missed a meeting and didn't realise that we aren't supposed to do Steppin Fetchit humour any more.

You'll feel better now you've got that out, pointy.

Shame I can never converse with you again. I wouldn't want to catch your Pam-cooties.

Pam looks like a big butch bloke. I'll stick with her anyways.

Dinnerladies is probably my all-time favourite sitcom - partly because it managed to be both funny and sad, and partly because, having worked for 6 years in Manchester, it seemed to me a very affectionate and accurate portrayal of mancunians.

Many in comedy strangle their talent the minute they take what they do too seriously. Or at least start to talk about what they do in public, in analytical or bitter terms. It kills it all stone dead.

To quote Dennis Pennis to Steve Martin "So Steve, why aren't you funny anymore?" (which I thought was funny, sad and true)

"Many in comedy strangle their talent the minute they take what they do too seriously."

There's a sketch by, I think, Alexi Sayle, in which a bunch of writers are sat around a table. Each of them proffers a gag (some of them quite good), and the others, granite faced, say "yes, hilarious", "not bad" or "no". It continues, utterly without laughs, as the credits roll and it fades to black.

"Ab Fab"

Proof, if proof were needed, that Jennifer Saunders in fact can't write, but that Joanna Lumley (national treasure, etc) can rescue almost anything and make it watchable. The thing that was most pitiful about that was Julia Sawallha, who must have been about thirty by the time the thing finished, playing "young" Saffy about as convincingly as little Jimmy Crankie. I saw a DVD of it recently: God, it's slow.

tokyoambu

I agree about the whiff of 1975 around Vicoria Wood...it's all a bit dated...reminds me of Carla lane. But we should remember that Victoria Wood was breaking boundries in her time, now that comedy isn't a closed shop for women we should be jolly grateful for the Wood's of this world.

There's nobody like her atm is there? Or even like French and Saunders? There's that icky tarty one...the one who sells sex alongside her sketch show...her name escapes me.

Also have to protest abous Jennifer Suanders not being a good writer...without a good script, Joanna Lumley would have had no basis for her brilliant performance now would she?

dinnerladies was fantastic imo, and while i can totally see the 'who has a works canteen' criticism, that imo is completely irrelevant. the setting was not the thing at all there, it just got all those characters into a recognisable space.

totally agree about abfab, which is weird as i did find it pretty funny at the time. mind you, have you watched steptoe recently? i thought i was going to open a vein...

so for me, dinnerladies will last longer precisely because of the 'out of time' quality of the setting. it could have been a spaceship for all it mattered.

"have you watched steptoe recently? i thought i was going to open a vein... "

The horse-drawn carriage was there to deliver the punch lines, very slowly and very deliberately, signalling their arrival with a clippity clop.

It's likely that, in fact, Galton and Simpson ultimately don't stand examination. Most of Hancock's work is about him (ie, before he got lazy and started to read everything off boards), and that desperate series in which Paul Merton used all of his not inconsiderable talent to demonstrate that the scripts aren't, in fact, funny rather proved that.

"without a good script, Joanna Lumley would have had no basis for her brilliant performance now would she?"

Was it a good script? I'm not competent to analyse it, but were Saunders to be able to write well, there would have been a joke somewhere in the past twenty years of French and Saunders, wouldn't there? I mean, just the one would be proof she could do it occasionally. Whereas Ab Fab is actually funny, mostly when Lumley is on the screen, and desperate beyond words when she isn't. Either Joanna had her own writer, who was prepared to remain uncredited in exchange for kisses, or she was able to get the best out of ropey material. That superb BBC2 thing she did a few years ago (Up in town?) proves she has amazing timing.

"it just got all those characters into a recognisable space."

You could be right. To me, I couldn't really get past the fact that I kept on expecting George Formby to come on and ask us to buy war bonds.

lumley was amaaaaazing in up in town. although the guy who did those, hugo blick, was involved in something recently that i thought was absolute shite... what was it again?