Director: Catherine Abbott
The challenge, in making a film about Victoria Wood, is telling us something we don’t already know. A national treasure and comedy legend, Wood is instantly recalled in her self-penned jokes: the devastating one-liners that come out of nowhere; sharp wit wrapped in a warm, cosy persona. Wood’s rise to fame feels inevitable. Her blend of monologue and song, a concept borrowed from Joyce Grenfell, was updated for the 1980s, with Wood gleefully exploring sex, body image and class; immortalising Woman’s Weekly in the process.
In Becoming Victoria Wood, director Catherine Abbott looks back at Wood’s life and career, 10 years after Wood’s shockingly early death in 2016. Born in 1950s Bury, it wasn’t until she enrolled on a drama programme at Birmingham University that Wood found herself. Abbott interviews Wood’s uni friends, and it’s her defiant eccentricity that stands out. If you can’t be the glamour girl, be something else: the documentary centres on Wood as self-architect. Interviewed by Abbott, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders astutely note how ‘Victoria Wood’ was Vicky, their friend, but at a remove.
The documentary illustrates how Wood struggled to get a foot in the door. Several ‘lucky breaks’ didn’t quite do it: Wood realised that if she wanted to be heard, it had to be on her own terms. This was against the backdrop of a comedy scene mired in misogyny (and proud of it). Not only was Wood a woman daring to be funny, she was overweight and, worse, Northern. Despite letters to friends revealing a steely ambition (read superbly by Jessica Barden), Wood clearly understood the value of collaboration and an inspired pairing with Julie Walters proved to be the key.
While Becoming Victoria Wood succeeds in detailing how Wood built her career, it weakens on the subject of Wood’s actual personality. The people who would know her best are noticeably absent: her former husband, Geoffrey Durham, and her long-time collaborators, Celia Imrie and Julie Walters, are not present in this film. Abbott uses footage from previous interviews, but no new insights. If you are looking for a glimpse of Wood herself, the documentary doesn’t offer much psychological revelation. Her isolated childhood is examined, briefly, but the film doesn’t dig into the complexity of Wood’s relationship with her parents, especially her mother. Without these pieces, the picture of Wood feels incomplete.
In the end, it is the work that stands for Wood. Maxine Peake speaks movingly about their time together on Dinnerladies; Wood’s fearsome work ethic is laid bare: hours spent on just one song and the high of writing that first, great joke. A towering, but necessary, level of self-belief doesn’t always make Wood likeable, but she is clearly remembered with fondness by her friends. For the fans, it is in the delight Wood gets from observing the absurdities of modern life that we get as close to her as it’s possible to get. An obscured view, but ultimately, it was all that Victoria Wood was ever willing to offer.
Becoming Victoria Wood will air on 12th February, on U&Gold.
