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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 255795" data-attributes="member: 23">Victoria Wood: The Secret List (2020 - based on Victoria’s 2009 plans) <img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/1200x675/p090j1zh.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 804px" />At first glance, I considered giving this one a miss. The premise is described thus:Now, I finished rewatching As Seen On TV in its entirety just three and a half weeks ago. Great as it is, the idea of watching a clip show didn’t thrill me. And the idea of a series based on someone’s jottings sounds like a Vic sketch in itself. It reminds me of that time the continuity announcer described an upcoming period drama which was based on some wigs left over from another production. According to the official write up:Basing a TV series around a dead person’s jottings seems at best tacky, and at worst mercenary. It raises some questions around ethics with which, even as a viewer, I had to wrestle. Tellingly, there are no contributions from Vic’s colleagues. Other than one woman said to be an intimate friend who reads out extracts of Vic’s letters to order while looking appropriately pensive, nobody present seems to have even known Vic. Instead, there are talking heads from three or four people for whom the description “well-known faces” seems so much an exaggeration as an outright lie. I didn’t recognise one of their faces, and only one name (writer Russell T. Davies) rang any kind of bell. They seemed to be the people who were free on that afternoon rather than being curated with any kind of care. Apart from Davies and the crying friend, contributors were all of the standup comedienne variety - mostly very young. All claiming to be inspired by Vic (which I’m sure they were, although perhaps in some cases not as completely as they claimed). A couple were coming at it from entirely the wrong angle of gynocentrism, which really isn’t what Vic is about. Retconning her as a feminist rather than a hugely successful writer and performer who transcends gender misses the point and actually belittles her successes. But it’s to be expected from the BBC who are notorious for not really getting what Vic is about. Once again, the Beeb censor Vic’s work while claiming to celebrate it. One of Mrs Overall’s funniest lines from the final Acorn Antiques episode - “Oh my good golliwog” - was censored to be “Oh my good golly”. Missing the point entirely that the term is supposed to be more inflammatory than the “good God” it’s substituting. That’s the gag. I really am wary about watching old material shown on the BBC, because their approach to anything deemed (by them) to be controversial seems to be censorship rather than open discussion. How can I take what I'm watching at face value? And how can anyone make an informed decision based on material that’s edited to be non-triggering to hypersensitive millennials? Thank God for the unedited DVDs. While, so far, it may sound as though I hated this two parter, I really didn’t. It was pleasantly surprising to find that the scope wasn’t entirely limited to As Seen On TV. There were clips of Vic interviews, and the ones from early in her career were as fascinating as ever. Other vehicles of Vic’s were included, from Talent (there was a brief outtake showing them preparing for a scene) through to her eponymous 1989 series, Pat & Margaret,  dinnerladies and Housewife, 49. Even That Day We Sang got a mention. The clips themselves - and many from the list were shown in full - were as wonderful as ever. Despite only having watched them very recently, they still had me grinning from ear to ear. For anyone interested, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/rzxG7hfksH4JWC7RJwLVPf/the-best-of-victoria-wood-according-to-victoria" target="_blank">the full list can be found here.</a></blockquote>

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