Dinnerladies

Victoria Wood's 90's sitcom

Dinnerladies is very much the product of the comic genius of Victoria Wood she wrote it, starred in it and co-produced it. Dinnerladies ran on BBC One for 16 episodes from 1998 to 2000. Set entirely in the canteen of HWD Components, a fictional factory in Manchester, featuring the caterers and regular customers as the main characters. The lives and times of the mostly female, mostly middle-aged characters are the basis of the comedy.

One of the facets of Victoria Wood's work, is the counterpoint of comedy and sadder themes, and Dinnerladies is no different, the series deals with deaths in the families of two of the main characters, a painful divorce, one of the characters living with cancer, and a long-running bitter sweet love affair between two of the characters.  Here is a brief description of each character.
Brenda "Bren" Furlong (Victoria Wood) — (born 24 December 1957) She is the deputy manager of the canteen, and probably the most ordinary and down to earth of the characters. She had an unhappy childhood as her mother had her taken into care, and had an unhappy marriage to an alcoholic of whom she was frightened. She is very good at solving her colleagues' problems but less able to help herself. She is somewhat scatter brained, often forgetting adjectives and suggesting implausible alternatives
Tony Martin (Andrew Dunn) — is he canteen manager, whose battle against cancer is a running storyline in the first series, prompting him in the second to want to do more with his life than simply running a canteen. Though he talks and thinks about women a lot, he has very little luck with them. He is attracted to Bren, but is too shy to reveal this to her for a long time. He is also a smoker and uses this as an excuse to escape some of the more surreal conversations of his co-workers
Dolly Bellfield (Thelma Barlow) — (born 8 April) Something of a social climber, Dolly is the bitchiest of the dinnerladies, always having a remark to make about those around her. Prim and prudish, she frequently snaps at people that they ought to moderate their language, and frowns on Twinkle's sexual shenanigans. She has been married for thirty years and hopes to move to the nearby upmarket suburb of Mobberley after her retirement. Her constant regret is that her son Stephen lives with a marine biologist called Marcus (the audience are left to draw their own conclusions as to the living arrangements). Her husband, Bob, pretends to be deaf when they are in company, though Dolly claims "He can hear a bag of oven chips being opened from three doors away!"
Jean (Anne Reid) — Dolly's best friend, Jean is very often the stooge for her mordant remarks. Jean is somewhat unhappily married to cheating husband Keith at the start of the series (with a grown-up daughter, Lisa), and in the second series he leaves her for a dental hygienist. After getting over the shock, and rediscovering self-confidence that she'd forgotten she ever had, she has a fling with a security guard (Barry "the love muscle") before settling down with Stan. She should wear her glasses for reading, but never does.
Twinkle (Maxine Peake) — The youngest member of the team, she turns up late every day and tries unsuccessfully to borrow cigarettes from Tony. No matter how sarcastic she may be however, it is clear that she regards the other members of staff as good friends, particularly Bren to whom she turns for help on several occasions. She lives with her wheelchair-using mother, for whom she acts as carer, and spends her evenings getting drunk and falling into skips. She loses a lot of weight between series. She is also a closeted football fan, much to Tony's amazement with her depth of knowledge.
Anita (Shobna Gulati) — (born 15 September 1975) Pleasant, but rather dim, Anita is a kind and loyal friend to her colleagues, empathising with them and often helping them to solve their problems without even realising it. She is somewhat desperate to have a family and children, becoming pregnant in the second series after a one night stand with a visiting decorator and terrified of the implications, leaves the baby on the fire escape on Millennium Eve, attaching a note asking Bren to look after him. However, she realises that she must face the consequences of her actions and returns to take the baby back. She is a big fan of Celine Dion and would like to call her first daughter Celine.
Stan Meadowcroft (Duncan Preston) — Stan is the uptight handyman of the factory, who lives with his father. He spends his days cleaning bins and grumbling. He is also particularly close to Bren as she seems to be the only one who knows how to successfully handle his moods. After his father's death he decides to get his life going again, embarking on a brief relationship with a nurse before dating, and ultimately proposing to his colleague Jean, which she accepts in the final episode. He keeps a toupee for special occasions (such as the royal visit) and holidays.
Petula Gordino (Julie Walters) — Bren's selfish and manipulative mother, who had Bren taken into care as a child because she was cramping her style. She sometimes seems to forget that Bren is her daughter. Whenever she pays Bren a visit, it's usually because she wants money or a favour. She appears to live in a fantasy world where she is a close friend (and usually a lover) of the rich and famous, but in reality is a down-and-out who lives in a caravan behind a petrol station. In the final episode, she dies off-screen. It is revealed that her real name is also Brenda Furlong.
Philippa Moorcroft (Celia Imrie) — The scatty and disorganised manager of the Human Resources department, having apparently landed the job because she was having an affair with the factory manager, Mr Michael to whom she refers as Mikey. According to her mother, she failed several of her O Levels. Her well-meaning attempts to relieve the dinnerladies' stress or help them in their personal lives generally have the opposite effect. In the second series she decides to break up with Mr Michael, and, having spent days planning how to do so to the smallest detail, she is furious when he dumps her first. She later begins a relationship with a colleague, Tom. Philippa is the only character in the series who comes from the south of England.
Jane (Sue Devaney) — A member of the planning department, she had only a minor role in the first series, usually ordering the toast round for meetings. In the second series, she played a much more major part, having an ongoing wager with the canteen staff that Bren and Tony would or would not manage to have sex by Christmas Day. She has a drunken snog herself with Tony whilst on holiday in Marbella.

Involving only one set throughout its run Dinnerladies was entirely filmed at the BBC Television Centre in front of a live studio audience. Uniquely, each episode was filmed twice in front of two separate audiences, once on a Friday and again on a Saturday. This gave cast members two attempts to perfect a scene and, if necessary, the opportunity to correct mistakes without having to repeat a joke to the same audience.

Victoria Woods continues to be one of Britains best loved comics and regularly tours to packed houses. In addition she has turned her hand to serious roles, most notably Housewife 49, for which she won a BAFTA.

She has presented the documentary Victoria's Empire and found time to write the successful West End musical Acorn Antiques.