Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood by Jasper Rees

Author:Jasper Rees
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409184126
Publisher: Orion

17

JOURNEYS

‘Party bags are a real nightmare where I live … This year you can’t really get away with less than one decent piece of jewellery and some air tickets.’

Live show, 1996

After Pat and Margaret, Victoria experienced something new and unfamiliar: a hiatus. The pause was of her own choosing. ‘After years of practically flogging myself to death,’ she said, ‘I have the need to go on working, but only when I’m really enthusiastic about something.’1 Richard Eyre, the artistic director of the National Theatre, tried to enthuse her about the idea of writing a play, possibly for children. ‘I don’t think I could attempt a children’s play,’ she replied, ‘but I am taking a break at the moment for the specific reason that I want to think about stage plays – I haven’t written one for 14 years, and now might be the time. I’ll let you know.’2 She had made no progress with her own play when Eyre renewed the offer eighteen months later.

Victoria did express interest in a pitch to make a ­documentary about food. Catherine Seddon, a young producer at the BBC, contacted her directly rather than through her agent. The series she proposed would address the marketing of food, emotional responses to food, body image issues and the development of eating disorders, all under the working title of Food, Glorious Food. They duly met in Highgate to map out half a dozen films. The approach was timely. Geoffrey, having peaked at 20 stone, was near the start of a long quest to eat more healthily and lose weight without officially dieting. He ate his last biscuit in May 1994 and threw himself into Canadian Air Force exercises, while the house acquired a rowing machine. With the proposal fleshed out, a lunch followed with more senior BBC figures, including Alan Yentob. ‘Conversation began to veer away from what I had originally discussed with Victoria,’ says Catherine Seddon, ‘and I could tell that she had some reservations, but I wasn’t in a strong position to remonstrate.’ In due course Victoria felt the idea slipping through her fingers and wrote to Yentob to withdraw: ‘It was a really good proposal, and I was very keen on it, but after the tour and the special and Pat and Margaret, I need some time off before I commit myself to a new project.’3

After the summer Geoffrey prepared to perform over Christmas 1994 back at the King’s Head. Having relied on his involvement for all her live shows, Victoria now returned the compliment. The subtitle was hers: One Man’s Intrepid Journey Up His Own Sleeve. ‘Vic and I spent a lot of time discussing it, working out a sequence and giving it a reason to be there,’ says Geoffrey. ‘She wrote bits of script for it, too, but I ended up sounding like a carbon copy of her, so that side of the plan was abandoned quite quickly.’

As for herself, Victoria stuck to one-off commitments and good causes. In October she did

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