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[Mumpo]

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I seem to remember Spearmint Rhino had a similar opinion. Wish I could find the thread - not sure if it was here or on OTF.

[Guy Profumo]

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Meanwhile, the fourth estate report on what is, at heart, a very private tragedy -

https://twitter.com/jimfieldsmith/status/723073139815645184

"Bile-chundering apes" indeed.

[Disco Child Ballads]

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Mumpo wrote: I seem to remember Spearmint Rhino had a similar opinion. Wish I could find the thread - not sure if it was here or on OTF.

This might be the thread. Spearmint Rhino was very wrong, of course.
http://www.wsc.co.uk/forum-index/30-film-tv/21913-creature-comforts?limit=20&start=40

[Mumpo]

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Great thread.

In one respect, Victoria Wood's shows were the inverse of those made by Dave Allen - the stand-up was a bit mediocre but the sketches were usually ace.

[Guy Profumo]

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Careful, people, if you're a member of the "she was never funny" brigade.

It makes you a fellow traveller of this man -

https://twitter.com/SunApology/status/723407309930516480

[Calvert]

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It really doesn't.
It's simply a matter of personal taste.

[Jah Womble]

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But 'she was never funny' doesn't mean anything, does it? Not if several million people found her so.

The correct expression is, of course: 'I never found her funny, but what the f*** would I know?'

[Janik]

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I don't imagine there is any comedian that everyone finds funny, is there?
Victoria Wood's hit rate amongst people who know her work would be abnormally high even amongst professional comics, I suspect. She was damn good at her job, basically.

[Guy Profumo]

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I do know, you know.

If I said I thought some of it was funny, some of it less so, and some of it not funny at all; would that condemn me to one of the outer circles of Hell?

But I don't think you can get away from the fact the woman had genuine talent and genuine warmth, and it's a sad loss to the entertainment industry that she's passed.

[Ray de Galles]

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Disco Child Ballads wrote:

I seem to remember Spearmint Rhino had a similar opinion. Wish I could find the thread - not sure if it was here or on OTF.

This might be the thread. Spearmint Rhino was very wrong, of course.
http://www.wsc.co.uk/forum-index/30-film-tv/21913-creature-comforts?limit=20&start=40

evilC was saying she's shit on that thread too, though we can all change our minds on art, obviously.

Wood, like French & Saunders, seemed to slip past me even at the height of their ubiquity in the eighties. I can't remember even seeing their shows let alone forming an opinion on them.

Maybe a touch of unconscious teen chauvinism about women in comedy, I like a lot of what I've seen since.

[Calvert]

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Jah Womble wrote: But 'she was never funny' doesn't mean anything, does it? Not if several million people found her so.

The correct expression is, of course: 'I never found her funny, but what the f*** would I know?'

It means something to me in that I never found Her remotely amusing, but then I'm only speaking for myself, that's pretty obvious, isn't it?
People kept buying that god-awful Brian Adams song even though it'd been at No. 1 for a decade, so, y'know, what the fuck do other people know?

[MsD]

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I didn't find Benny Hill generally funny, but I think Ernie is almost a work of genius.

A lot of VWood's stuff I didn't find that funny, but The Ballad of ... I think is utterly brilliant. A good few jokes and lines and sketches, too.

Speaking for myself, obvs.

There's not really a comparison, just the point that you can like some of their stuff and not other.

[Jah Womble]

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That's pretty much where I'm at with her work: some of the observations left me a little cold*, then again many didn't. I enjoyed her work with Julie Walters, but could take or leave Dinnerladies.

But she was a mighty fine writer, and I always appreciate that. (Plus she was streets ahead of pretenders like French and Saunders.)

(*Her line about eating sandwiches on the A597 seems to have been doing the rounds since her passing - which really isn't anywhere close to her best material.)

Calvert: Obviously I was being flippant, however I stand by the (Mrs) overall point. Viz Bryan Adams, well, I'm no fan of his either, but a more direct parallel would be someone saying something like 'he can't sing' or 'has no talent'. Which also ultimately doesn't mean a great deal: I mean, I certainly never accepted that when my parents said similar about artists that I did like.

[Calvert]

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And indeed had I said she was talentless you might have a point.
Clearly not the case, even with Bryan Adams, but not my thing at all.
Not funny. Not remotely funny. Ever.

[Jah Womble]

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Yes, but some folk...oh, never mind.

[Calvert]

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Yeah.

[Satchmo Distel]

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I think the acting in her peak 1980s series is on a higher plane than French & Saunders or AbFab, where everything is rather shouty. Julie Walters, Duncan Preston, Celia Imrie: an impressive ensemble.

The bitchy continuity announcers were probably my favourite.

[MsD]

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Apparently the Times obituary mentions her weight 12 times - 6 times directly, the rest obliquely with reference to her eating habits etc.

Keep dieting, girls, you don't want to be seen in a plus-size coffin!

[Kevin S]

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The Telegraph takes a similar approach.