Radio Times GUIDE TO TV COMEDY

Radio Times GUIDE TO TV COMEDY

Wood and Walters

Country of origin UK

Broadcaster ITV

Production company Granada

Type of comedy Sketch

Total number of episodes 8

Length of programme 30 mins

Format Colour

Transmission information Special Two Creatures Great and Small 1 Jan 1981
Thu 10.20pm
One series (7) 1 Jan–21 Feb 1982
mostly Sun 10pm

Main cast Victoria Wood
Julie Walters

Credits Writer Victoria Wood
Director Stuart Orme
Producers Stuart Eckersley (special), Brian Armstrong (series)

Synopsis/critique A not always brilliant—but not far short of it—sketch series starring two fast-emerging talents. At the very least, Wood and Walters, a fine blend of comedy sketches and comedy songs, showed a great promise that would be delivered to perfection in As Seen On TV. (The series was given a repeat airing on C4 from 29 May 1983, after Walters had become a film star in Educating Rita.)
Wood met the Smethwick-born Walters when aged 17 at Manchester Polytechnic—she was hoping to enrol there but wasn't accepted, whereas Walters, four years older, was coming to the end of her studies—and they didn't see each other again until the summer of 1978 when playing in revue at the Bush Theatre in London.
Another regular engagement for Wood at this time, anachronistic but probably valuable in terms of experience, was as the weekly musical support act in The Little and Large Party, a BBC Radio 2 series broadcast from 29 March to 17 May 1981. Among Wood's TV performances in this period, she introduced/narrated/appeared in an Arts Council film, The Pantomime Dame, looking at this unusual creation and some of its exponents (Arthur Askey, Billy Dainty, Terry Scott), screened by C4 on 16 December 1982. And she was the subject of a 20-minute BBC schools TV programme, Scene, first transmitted by BBC2 on 9 May 1985.

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Country of origin	UK
Broadcaster	ITV
Production company	Granada
Type of comedy	Sketch
Total number of episodes	8
Length of programme	30 mins
Format	Colour
Transmission information	Special Two Creatures Great and Small 1 Jan 1981 Thu 10.20pm One series (7) 1 Jan–21 Feb 1982 mostly Sun 10pm
Main cast	Victoria Wood Julie Walters
Credits	Writer Victoria Wood Director Stuart Orme Producers Stuart Eckersley (special), Brian Armstrong (series)
Synopsis/critique	A not always brilliant—but not far short of it—sketch series starring two fast-emerging talents. At the very least, Wood and Walters, a fine blend of comedy sketches and comedy songs, showed a great promise that would be delivered to perfection in As Seen On TV. (The series was given a repeat airing on C4 from 29 May 1983, after Walters had become a film star in Educating Rita.) Wood met the Smethwick-born Walters when aged 17 at Manchester Polytechnic—she was hoping to enrol there but wasn't accepted, whereas Walters, four years older, was coming to the end of her studies—and they didn't see each other again until the summer of 1978 when playing in revue at the Bush Theatre in London. Another regular engagement for Wood at this time, anachronistic but probably valuable in terms of experience, was as the weekly musical support act in The Little and Large Party, a BBC Radio 2 series broadcast from 29 March to 17 May 1981. Among Wood's TV performances in this period, she introduced/narrated/appeared in an Arts Council film, The Pantomime Dame, looking at this unusual creation and some of its exponents (Arthur Askey, Billy Dainty, Terry Scott), screened by C4 on 16 December 1982. And she was the subject of a 20-minute BBC schools TV programme, Scene, first transmitted by BBC2 on 9 May 1985.