dinnerladies

Picture shows - Shobna Gulati as Anita, Maxine Peake as Twinkle, Victoria Wood as Bren, Andrew Duncan as Tony, Anne Reid as Jean and Thelma Barlow as Dolly in the second series of the comedy sitcom dinnerladies.

After several years of touring stand-up on her own, comic genius Victoria Wood decided to write a sitcom. The result was dinnerladies (as it was billed), featuring an ensemble cast and set in just one location – a factory canteen. The first episode – Mondays – was broadcast on 12 November 1998. Over the two series of dinnerladies little happened - as in most working environments - but Wood’s writing of the worker’s banter and relationships kept the laughs coming and the interest level high.

Wood stars as Bren, deputy manager of the canteen. Bren’s workmates are snobby Dolly (Thelma Barlow) and her friend Jean (Anne Reid), drippy Anita (Shobna Gulati) and young Twinkle (Maxine Peake), who is generally late for work and hung over. The manager is Tony (Andrew Martin) with whom Bren develops a relationship over the course of the two series. Other regulars are handyman Stan (Duncan Preston), Bren’s terrible mother Petula (Julie Walters) and Philippa (Celia Imrie), the disorganised HR manager and the only southerner.

After sixteen episodes dinnerladies came to a tidy end, with Bren and Tony moving to Scotland. Wood was a national treasure in her lifetime, awarded both an OBE and CBE alongside many other awards. When she died in 2016 her position in the comedy firmament was assured.