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After the mixed success of Wood and Walters (ITV, 1981-82), which suffered
from modest production values and uncertain production, Victoria Wood was lured
to the BBC with the promise of much bigger budgets and greater creative control
for this, her second sketch-based show. As Seen on TV marked the moment when
Wood's talents crystallised, and cemented her reputation as Britain's wittiest
female comic.
Wood had already begun to develop her mini-repertory company of performers around the nucleus of herself and close friend Julie Walters, but it was here that the
team really gelled. Walters, Duncan Preston and Celia Imrie would form the core of her cast for most of her later work, while her occasional collaborators included
Susie Blake and Patricia Routledge.
As the title suggests, the series took television as a loose theme, with
spoof documentaries (following Jim Broadbent's 'fairly ordinary' telephone
sanitation engineer, or Wood's tragicomically ill-prepared cross-channel swimmer); spot-on film
parodies (a stereotyped, 'grim up North' kitchen-sink melodrama with Pete
Postlethwaite and Kay Adshead, complete with limp swearing and whippet
references); marvellously bitchy daytime presenters Joan (Wood) and Margery (Walters); and suspect life lessons from sherry-addled suburban snob Kitty
(Routledge), all interspersed with continuity announcer Blake's
delightfully catty links ("We'd like to apologise to our viewers in the North -
it must be awful for you"). Wood, however, was quite happy to abandon the conceit to accommodate more conventional sketch fare, or her regular stand-up routines and
songs, including the perennially successful hymn to mismatched libidos, 'The
Ballad of Barry and Freda', aka 'Let's Do It' ("This folly / is jolly / Bend me
over backwards on me Hostess trolley").
The series is, though, best remembered for its spoof soap, set in a
provincial antiques shop that somehow manages to acquire a steady stream of
Michelangelos, Leonardos and Picassos. With a knowing nod at the likes of
Crossroads (ITV, 1964-88, 2001-03), 'Acorn Antiques' presented television at its hilarious worst, complete with inane dialogue, ludicrous acting, and bizarre and wildly implausible plot twists, not to mention textbook 'how not to' production
values - all wobbling camera, bad framing, blocked shots and missed cues. In the wizened old Mrs Overall, forever on hand with tea and home-baked biscuits, it gave
Julie Walters one of her most memorable characters. Such was its impact that
Wood revived 'Acorn Antiques' for a stage musical in 2005.
Mark Duguid
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1. Stand-up (3:19)
