Classic Desert Island Discs: Victoria Wood

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2018

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Another chance to listen to the comedian speaking to Kirsty Young in 2007. For decades she was one of our best-loved writers and performers. The television series she made - including Acorn Antiques, Dinnerladies and Housewife 49 - won her a devoted following as well as stacks of awards. But, in a moving and open interview, she describes how, as a teenager, she felt she was a misfit - she had few friends, she struggled with her weight and at school she used to steal other people's homework. She joined a youth theatre and it was, she says, the saving of her. She found like-minded people and a sense that she had something to offer. She was very careful about how much of her own life she put into her work. She doesn't mind saying she cuts her pubic hair with nail-scissors, but rarely discusses her children on the stage. Favourite track: What a Fool Believes by The Doobie Brothers Book: A big book by Charles Dickens Luxury: A bumper book of Sudoku with blank pages & pens

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Desert Island Discs.
0:02.0	We're currently taking a break and so we thought it'd be a good opportunity
0:05.7	to showcase some of the best additions from our extensive treasure chest.
0:09.6	We hope you enjoy them.
0:11.0	This is the BBC.
0:14.0	Hello, I'm Kirstie Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.
0:18.6	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:21.6	The programme was originally broadcast in 2007.
0:30.0	Music
0:42.0	My cast away this week is Victoria Wood, writer, actress, composer and stand-up comedian.
0:47.4	She says, comedy is about whether people like you or not.
0:51.0	If that is indeed the case, then she is positively adored.
0:54.0	With 25 years of sell-out tours, smash-it-states shows and successful sitcoms to her credit.
0:59.0	But more recently, her career has changed direction.
1:02.0	She wrote and starred in an award-winning drama about a Lancashire housewife during World War II.
1:07.0	A poignant story of domestic, disharmony, isolation and a desire for freedom.
1:12.0	Although it was far from autobiographical, it held strong resonances with her own background.
1:17.0	Can we start then with housewife 49? Can we start back to front?
1:21.0	The two bafters in one night, quite a coup.
1:24.0	Quite heavy to carry on.
1:27.0	Why did you decide to take on something that was so different from what you were very well known for?
1:31.0	I didn't do it specifically to be different.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.