by Jasper Rees
16 ‘Victoria’s secrets’, interview with Harriet Lane, Guardian, 9 January 2005
17 Letter from Gavin Millar, 11 August 2006
18 Email to Richard E. Grant, 10 September 2006
19 Email from Paul Sommers to Daniel Wiles, 22 August 2006
20 Interview with the author, 10 November 2006
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid.
24 Acorn Antiques: The Musical! casting notes, 2006
25 Ibid.
26 Email to Rosalind Wood, 9 October 2006
27 Email to Daniel Wiles, 25 October 2006
28 Email to Rosalind Wood, 19 October 2006
29 Email from Richard E. Grant, 11 December 2006
30 Email to Rosalind Wood, 7 April 2008
31 Email to Lesley Fitton, 4 March 2008
32 Interview with the author, 19 August 2009
Chapter 22: Mid Life
1 Email to Rosalind Wood, 28 July 2007
2 Email to David Firman, 21 December 2007
3 Interview with the author, December 2007
4 Ibid.
5 Email to Rosalind Wood, 26 November 2007
6 Interview with the author, December 2007
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Email to Rosalind Wood, 26 November 2007
10 Interview with the author, December 2007
11 Email to Richard E. Grant, 24 December 2007
12 Email to Lesley Fitton, 27 December 2007
13 Interview with the author, December 2007
14 Email to Lesley Fitton, 8 March 2008
15 Interview with the author, 19 August 2009
16 Email to Rosalind Wood, 5 May 2008
17 Email to Rosalind Wood, 20 March 2008
18 ‘Who’s laughing now? Victoria Wood shows off slimline figure as she picks up CBE’, Daily Mail, 30 October 2008
19 Email to Rosalind Wood, 29 September 2008
20 Interview with the author, 19 August 2009
21 Ibid.
22 Email to Lucy Ansbro, 24 November 2008
23 Plot outline for The Giddy Kipper, 23 January 2009
24 Email to Lucy Ansbro, 24 November 2008
25 Email to Lucy Ansbro, 21 January 2009
26 Ibid.
27 Email to Lucy Ansbro, 22 January 2009
28 Email to Lucy Ansbro, 3 March 2009
29 Email to Sammy Murray, 28 April 2009
30 Ibid
31 Email to Annie Tricklebank, 30 April 2009
32 Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 2 December 2007
33 Email to Sammy Murray, 30 April 3009
34 Email to Jane Wymark, 30 April 2009
35 Email to Rosalind Wood, 9 May 2009
36 Ibid.
37 Interview with the author, 19 August 2009
38 Email to Sammy Murray, 20 April 2009
39 Interview with the author, 19 August 2009
40 Ibid.
41 Ibid.
42 Email to Jane Wymark, 7 September 2009
43 Email to Rosalind Wood, 20 September 2009
44 Email to Nigel Lilley, 24 November 2009
45 Email to Jane Wymark, 7 September 2009
46 Email to Jane Wymark, 29 October, 2009
47 John Rushton email to Rebecca Papworth and Simon Wilson, 25 June 2009
48 Email to Sammy Murray, 11 December 2009
49 ‘I feel at the BBC I’m not trusted, not valued, not needed’, interview with Decca Aitkenhead, Guardian, 27 September 2010
50 Email to Nigel Lilley, 24 November 2009
51 Email, 2 December 2009
Chapter 23: Loving Eric, Ernie, Eunice, Tubby, Enid, Joyce and Barrie
1 Email to Nigel Lilley, 21 January 2010
2 Email to John Rushton, 8 March 2010
3 Email to Nigel Lilley, 28 April 2010
4 Ibid.
5 Kenneth Bailey, People, 25 April 1954
6 Email to Jonny Campbell, 6 July 2010
7 Email to Nigel Lilley, 10 May 2010
8 That Day We Sang programme note, July 2011
9 Email to Nigel Lilley, 28 April 2010
10 Email to Nigel Lilley, 16 June 2010
11 Ibid.
12 Email to Sammy Murray, 20 April 2009
13 Email to Jane Wymark, 16 August 2010
14 Email to Jonny Campbell, 26 August 2010
15 Email to Charlotte Scott, 2 September 2010
16 ‘I feel at the BBC I’m not trusted, not valued, not needed’, interview with Decca Aitkenhead, Guardian, 27 September 2010
17 Card to Daniel Rigby, October 2010
18 Email to Lesley Fitton, 5 January 2011
19 Email to Rosalind Wood, 16 October 2010
20 Email to Rosalind Wood, 18 October 2010
21 Email to Rosalind Wood, 24 November 2010
22 Email to Rosalind Wood, 18 October 2010
23 Email to Lesley Fitton, 5 January 2011
24 Ibid.
25 Email to Nigel Lilley, 2 February 2011
26 Email to Rosalind Wood, 24 May 2011
27 Email to Jane Wymark, 17 May 2011
28 Email to Lesley Fitton, 24 December 2010
29 Email to Amie Beamish, 21 May 2011
30 Email to Jane Wymark, 19 June 2011
31 Email to Lesley Fitton, 1 June 2011
32 Email to Jane Wymark, 10 July 2011
33 Email to Alex Poots, 26 September 2011
34 Email to Lesley Fitton, 22 July 2011
35 Email to John Rushton, 2011
36 Interview with Ben Lawrence, 12 April 2012
37 Ibid.
38 Email to Amie Beamish, 4 November 2011
39 Email to Sammy Murray, 28 November 2011
40 Email to Lesley Fitton, 21 December 2011
41 Email to Andy Harries and Matthew Read, 16 December 2001
42 Email to Radford Neville, 16 January 2012
43 Email to Radford Neville, 1 February 2012
44 Email to Peter Bowker, 6 February 2012
45 Email to Amie Beamish, 20 March 2012
46 Email to Radford Neville, 27 February 2012
47 Email to Radford Neville, 12 March2012
48 Email to Sammy Murray, 15 March 2012
49 Email to Sammy Murray, 2 May 2012
50 Email to Richenda Carey, 14 April 2012
51 Email to Nigel Lilley, 14 April 2012
Chapter 24: That Day She Directed
1 Email to Sammy Murray, 2 May 2012
2 Email to Peter Bowker, 9 October 2012
3 Email to Richenda Carey, 6 June 2012
4 Email to Richenda Carey, 22 June 2012
5 Email to Jane Wymark, 17 May 2012
6 Email to Lesley Fitton, 2 July 2012
7 Email to Jane Wymark, 17 June 2013
8 Email to Rosalind Wood, 27 August 2012
9 Email to Rosalind Wood, 29 August 2012
10 Email to Jane Wymark, 21 March 2013
11 Email to Jane Wymark, 18 May 2013
12 Email to Jane Wymark, 22 August 2012
13 Email to Richenda Carey, 22 September 2012
14 Ibid.
15 Email to Jane Wymark, 29 September 2012
16 Email to Peter Bowker, 9 October 2012
17 Email to Peter Bowker, 29 November 2012
18 Email from Peter Bowker, 30 November 2012
19 Email to Jane Wymark, 24 January 2013
20 Email to Richenda Carey, 1 December 2012
21 Email to Nigel Lilley, 22 October 2012
22 Email to Nigel Lilley and Sammy Murray, 18 February 2013
23 Ibid.
24 Email from Nigel Lilley, 24 September 2013
25 Email to Nigel Lilley, 27 March 2013
26 ‘Julie Walters attacks arts cuts’, Jason Deans, Guardian, 12 March 2013
27 Email to Richenda Carey, 10 April 2013
28 Email to Jane Wymark, 15 May 2013
29 Email to Richenda Carey, 31 May 2013
30 Email to Nigel
Lilley, 17 June 2013
31 Email to Nigel Lilley, 3 July 2013
32 Email to Nigel Lilley and Sammy Murray, 3 June 2013
33 Email to Nigel Lilley, 5 August 2013
34 Email to Nigel Lilley, 25 August 2013
35 Ibid.
36 Email to Richenda Carey, 19 August 2013
37 Natasha Tripney, Stage, 16 September 2013
38 Email to Nigel Lilley, 10 September 2013
39 Email to Sammy Murray, 1 November 2013
40 Email to Nigel Lilley, 12 October 2013
41 Email to Jane Wymark, 15 October 2013
42 Ibid.
43 Email to Jane Wymark, 6 November 2013
44 Email to Nigel Lilley, 16 October 2013
45 Email to Nigel Lilley, 21 November 2013
46 Email to Richard E. Grant, 9 December 2013
47 Email to Nigel Lilley, 21 November 2013
48 Email to Nigel Lilley, 23 December 2013
49 Email to Sammy Murray, 3 September 2013
50 Email to Jane Wymark, 16 January 2014
51 Email to Rosalind Wood, 20 January 2014
52 Ibid.
53 Email to Nigel Lilley, 10 February 2014
54 Email to Jane Wymark, 14 February 2014
55 Email to Jane Wymark, 26 February 2014
56 Email to Nigel Lilley, 12 March 2014
57 Email to Richenda Carey, 12 May 2014
58 Email to Jane Wymark, 22 June 2014
59 Email to Nigel Lilley, 27 June 2014
60 Email to Nigel Lilley, 19 July 2014
61 Email to Michael Codron, 26 July 2014
62 Email to Sammy Murray, September 2014
63 Email to Nigel Lilley, 20 September 2014
64 Ibid.
65 Email to Daniel Rigby, March 2015
66 Email to Nigel Lilley, 2 October 2014
67 Email to Jane Wymark, 15 November 2014
68 Email to Jane Wymark, 22 November 2014
69 Email to Nigel Lilley, 2 December 2014
70 Email to Nigel Lilley, 29 December 2014
71 Ibid.
72 Ibid.
Chapter 25: The Bogeyman
1 Email to Jane Wymark, 30 January 2015
2 Email to Jane Wymark, 8 February 2015
3 Email to Daniel Rigby, March 2015
4 Email to Nigel Lilley, 12 February 2015
5 Email to Nigel Lilley, 18 March 2015
6 Email to Nigel Lilley, 30 March 2015
7 Email to Jane Wymark, 15 March 2015
8 Email to Nigel Lilley, 23 March 2015
9 Email to Nigel Lilley, 28 April 2015
10 Email to Nigel Lilley, 20 February 2015
11 Email to Nigel Lilley, 26 April 2015
12 Email to Rosalind Wood, 7 July 2015
13 Email to Nigel Lilley, 8 April 2015
14 Email to Catherine Morshead, 6 May 2015
15 Email to Jane Wymark, 26 May 2015
16 Email to Jane Wymark, 15 June 2015
17 Email to Penelope Wood and Rosalind Wood, 3 August 2015
18 Emails to Jane Wymark, 7 August 2015
19 Email to Rosalind Wood, 3 August 2015
20 Email to Jane Wymark, 28 August 2015
21 Email to Jane Wymark, 2 September 2015
22 Email to Jane Wymark, 20 September 2015
23 Email to Jane Wymark, 23 October 2015
24 Email to Amie Beamish, 20 October 2015
25 Email to Jane Wymark, 19 October 2015
26 Email to Jane Wymark, 24 October 2015
27 Email to Jane Wymark, 26 October 2015
28 Email to Jane Wymark, 3 November 2015
29 Email to Jane Wymark, 10 November 2015
30 Email to Jane Wymark, 28 November 2015
31 Ibid.
32 Email to Amie Beamish, 20 October 2015
33 Email to Radcliffe Neville, 8 December 2015
34 Email to Richenda Carey, 23 December 2015
35 Email to Rosalind Wood, 12 January 2016
36 Email to Jane Wymark, 7 January 2016
37 Email to Jane Wymark, 16 January 2016
38 Email to Jane Wymark, 25 January 2016
39 Email to Cathy Edis, 17 February 2016
40 Ibid.
41 Email to Jane Wymark, 30 January 2016
42 Email to Cathy Edis, 7 March 2016
43 Email to Jane Wymark, 29 March 2016
44 Email to Jane Wymark, 1 April 2016
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am indebted, first and foremost, to Grace Durham and Henry Durham for granting me permission to write their mother’s biography, also to Victoria’s literary executor Lucy Ansbro and her colleague Adele Fowler for their unstinting generosity and support, and to Neil Reading for introducing me to Victoria in the first place and ensuring that we continued to meet. My profound thanks to them all.
I am deeply grateful to Geoffrey Durham, who selflessly gave up much time to answer questions and resolve uncertainties. His was the most extreme version of an experience undergone by those who knew and worked with Victoria over many years: Cathy Edis, David Firman, Celia Imrie, Nigel Lilley, Phil McIntyre, Sammy Murray, Geoff Posner, Duncan Preston, Paul Roberts, Julie Walters and Piers Wenger. My thanks to each of them for their kindness.
My first interviewee was Rosalind Watson, whom I thank for her ceaseless encouragement, as well as for handing over a horde of her sister’s correspondence. My thanks also to Penelope Wood for conjuring up the world of Victoria’s childhood. Many others, including some listed above, generously shared letters, faxes, emails and other unpublished writings by Victoria: Amie Beamish, Peter Bowker, Jonny Campbell, Michael Codron, Lesley Fitton, Richard E. Grant, Robert Howie, Alison Lloyd, Bill Lloyd, Roger McGough, Catherine Morshead, Radford Neville, Chrissie Poulter, Anne Reid, Daniel Rigby, Andy Roberts, John Rushton, Charlotte Scott, Imelda Staunton, Geoffrey Strachan, Daniel Wiles and Beth Willis. For sharing their collection of correspondence I am most indebted to Richenda Carey and above all to Jane Wymark. Special thanks, too, to Sahlan Diver for retrieving and digitising the earliest recordings of Victoria in performance, and to John Carnegie for sharing Victoria’s trumpet alarums. I also thank Chris Foote Wood for permission to quote Stanley Wood’s letters published in Victoria Wood: Comedy Genius – Her Life and Work, Roger Wilmut for sharing the tape of his conversation with Victoria from 1987, and Ben Lawrence for donating the transcript of his 2012 interview with Victoria for the Daily Telegraph. My thanks to those who allowed their own correspondence to be quoted, and to those who gave permission for use of their image in photographs.
Many people I spoke to were close to Victoria for decades; for others, their path crossed hers only briefly. To all I am grateful for sharing their memories, often supported by photographs and documents: Paul Allen, Gareth Armstrong, Rachel Ashdown, Catherine Ashmore, Alan Ayckbourn, Chrissie Baker, Michael Ball, Thelma Barlow, Nina Barough, Nicholas Barrett, Gerard Barry, Chris Beetles, Alan Bennett, Graham Benson, Hilary Bevan Jones, Jenny Bialek, Susie Blake, Jim Broadbent, Lez Brotherston, Gaye Brown, Ruth Caleb, Jasper Carrott, Trevor Chance, Peter Chelsom, Simon Cherry, Greg Childs, Jack Chissick, John Clarke, Vivienne Clore, Patrick Collerton, Emma Cope, Jane Cotton, Aidan J. Crawley, Joe Dawson, Martin Davey, Janet Davies, Janie Dee, Les Dennis, Shaun Dooley, Nigel Douglas, Tony Dow, John Dowie, Andrew Dunn, Peter Ellis, Harry Enfield, Russell England, Daniel Evans, Nigel Everett, Louise Fisher, Gregory Floy, John Foley, Sarah Frankcom, Vincent Franklin, Stephen Frears, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Dawn French, Ian Gardhouse, Kerry Gill-Pryde, Roger Glossop, Stephen Glynn, John Gorman, Roy Gould, David Graham, Deborah Grant, Helen Gregory, Chris Harper, Andy Harries, Chris Haydon, Lenny Henry, Judith Holder, Graham Howarth, Wendy Howard, Dusty Hughes, Ron Hutchinson, George Irving, Jason Isaacs, Betty Jackson, Gerald Jackson, Peter James, Ria Jones, Steve Joyce, Lucy Kenwright, Lizzi Kew Ross, Claire Lachowicz, David Leland, Moyra Livesey, John Lloyd, Philip Lowrie, Lucy Lumsden, Christopher Luscombe, Kate Mackonochie, Mary McMur
ray, Nicky Martyn, Margaret Matheson, Sean Mathias, Billy Mawhinney, Stephen Mear, Alastair Meux, Deborah Moggach, Gary Morecambe, James Moir, Fidelis Morgan, Pieter Morpurgo, Marcus Mortimer, David Morton, John Moulson, Nina Myskow, Stuart Orme, Jim Parker, Steve Pemberton, Alex Poots, Esther Rantzen, Dave Richmond, Kate Robbins, Ted Robbins, Jemma Rodgers, Lynda Ronan, Jessica Ronane, Jenna Russell, Peter Salmon, Lesley Schatzberger, Catherine Seddon, Marcus Setchell, Nick Skilbeck, Tony Slater-Ling, Roger Sloman, Robyn Slovo, Bob Smith, Russell Smith, Paul Sommers, Carol Spraggs, John Stacey, Anne Sweeney, Baz Taylor, Harriet Thorpe, David Threlfall, Lawrence Till, Damien Timmer, Paula Trafford, Steve Trow, Gareth Valentine, Sue Wallace, Ben Warwick, Jason Watkins, Nigel Wattis, Norah Wellbelove, Vanessa Whitburn, Sioned Wiliam, Charles Worthington, Jane Wynn Owen and Kirsty Young. I would like to pay my respects to the memory of Eddie Large and André Ptaszynski.
I was offered practical support by James Alexander, Will Awdry, Ian Birch, James Bromet, Miles Chapman, Jo Collins, Tim de Lisle, Ruth Huntman, Liz Keegan, Maya Kemp, Bertie Leigh, Don Maclean, Joy Wood and Caroline Wright. My thanks to them, and to the BBC Written Archives Centre, and to Susan Lord of Bury Art Museum and Libby Gregory, to whom I am particularly indebted for helping me gain access to the Victoria Wood archive.
I would like to extend deep gratitude to all at Orion who have brought this book to fruition with inspiring warmth and calm professionalism in the trying circumstances thrown at them by coronavirus: Anna Valentine, Lucinda McNeile, Virginia Woolstencroft, Helen Ewing and Natalie Dawkins. I am grateful also to Paul Murphy for his sensitive copy-editing, and to Paul Stark of Orion and Elspeth McPherson of Strathmore Publishing for overseeing production of the audiobook. I owe a second round of thanks to those of Victoria’s family, friends and associates – as well as Chris Harvey and Veronica Lee – who read the first draft and provided valuable comments.
Finally, I would like to express my thanks to James Gill – no author could hope for a sturdier or more resourceful agent.
My most personal debt is to Emily Maitland for the years she spent living with this other life.
PHOTO CREDITS
All photographs are the property of the Victoria Wood archive unless otherwise stated.
Stanley and Helen Wood. Courtesy of Rosalind Watson.
Penelope, Rosalind, and Victoria as a baby. Courtesy of Rosalind Watson.
Stanley with Victoria. Courtesy of Rosalind Watson.
Birtle Edge House. Courtesy of Rosalind Watson.