Victoria Wood

Victoria Wood (19 May 1953 - 20 April 2016) was an English comedian, actress, musician, screenwriter, and director. She wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over several decades, and her live comedy act was interspersed with her own compositions, which she performed at the piano. Much of her humour was grounded in everyday life, and she was noted for her skills in observational comedy and in satirising aspects of social class.

Born in Prestwich and brought up in nearby Bury, Wood was educated at Bury Grammar School for Girls and went on to study in the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham. She started her career in 1974 by appearing on, and winning, the ATV talent show New Faces, and met her long-term collaborator Julie Walters in 1971. Her first play Talent (1978) won her an award for the Most Promising New Writer and was adapted for Granada Television.

Wood established herself as a comedy star in the 1980s, winning a BAFTA TV Award in 1986 for the sketch series Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, and a second BAFTA for An Audience with Victoria Wood (1988). In the 1990s she wrote and co-starred in the television film Pat and Margaret (1994) and the sitcom dinnerladies (1998-2000). She won two more BAFTA TV Awards, including Best Actress, for her 2006 ITV1 film Housewife, 49. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and in 2006 came tenth in ITV's poll of the British public's 50 Greatest TV Stars.