Victoria Wood's Mid-Life Christmas Page 3

I do generally like Victoria Wood.

I do find it a bit annoying though in dinnerladies where someone says ba funny line and you see Victoria's character smiling at a line that she has written.

Apart from dinnerladies I think she has produced some really class stuff.

That VW special was atrocious, the very worst of TV's elite indulging in an almighty backslapping excercise YET AGAIN! Many of the faces you saw fawning over the over lauded and out of date comedienne you have seen on other TV star celebration shows, infact half of them have probably turned up to every one. This tells you a lot about them, a lot about their insular profession and a fair bit about the star of the show - she is vain, smug, inextricably immersed in the world of showbiz, listens too much to their praise and nowhere near enough to her MANY critics and owes her unnaturally dragged out career to the collected praise of showbiz's biggest names. I think we will have to sit through many more of these bloated, vacuous indulgences yet because I fear every one of those familiar faces we saw there will demand and get their own celebration extravaganza show. TV AT ITS WORST!

Quote: Tim Walker @ December 23 2009, 10:31 AM GMT

I suggest that she ... send a thank you card to French and Saunders for retiring.

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I think we all should.

As for Wood and the special, well, as Timbo said, it's a little worrying if even someone of Victoria Wood's standing gets their programme hacked to pieces with no say-so. And after watching the previous special the other night, good God, what the hell are they deciding is unsuitable and needs cutting? That's about as family-friendly as comedy gets. I really f**king hate all of this censorship in the media. It's worse than the Holocaust.

And on the scheduling specifically, it feels really weird and second-rate to me, to have The Royle Family on on Christmas Day. For the second year running. No matter how much it may be enjoyed or loved by comedy fans, it doesn't seem to me to be remembered as widely or as well by the general public as such a broadcast day and time would suggest. I'm not a massive fan of Wood, but I feel that the two programmes would be better suited to be swapped around.

My God, that was completely dreadful. The only bit that was even vaguely amusing was Reece Shearsmith's little monologue (which coincidentally was the most straightforward, unelaborate sketch). And she even managed to bugger up the 'updated' version of her one funny song at the end. Even Mother, usually a massive fan of Victoria Wood, was begging for the TV to be turned over. And how much money must have been spent on this for so little return? Big on production, short on comedy. I'd say that rather than too much interference from the BBC, there may well not have been enough. Did no-one have the courage to tell her that the script simply wasn't funny or strong enough?

Shame, as I had fairly high hopes for this.

Where were Celia Imrie and Duncan Preston?

I liked the Candleford stuff a lot.
And some of the other stuff. Reece was great!

Not particularly funny, but perfectly enjoyable.

Dreadful, turned over after the Apprentice sketch which had no point and no punchline.

Not very good. It seemed a bit out of touch. Maybe they put it out tonight simply because it wasn't up to the mark for Christmas Day. And I speak as someone who loved Victoria Wood night the other day.

The behind the scenes doc 'What Larks' might end up being funnier.

The lack of big laughs in this show did make my heart sink. You'd think that you could rely on Victoria Wood at least to produce another hour of high quality comedy because we're certainly not getting any from anywhere else.