The Best of Victoria Wood DVD

Factory Sealed DVD

(PAL REGION 2 THESEWILL ONLY WORK IN THE USA IF YOU HAVE A MULTI REGION DVD PLAYER)

Another BBC raid into theirarchives, The Best of Victoria Wood is taken solely from her early televisionseries, a period that established her as a major name in British mainstreamcomedy. Although rooted firmly in a cosy, almost bygone age of English culture(her work is full of Northern references), Wood's reputation as one of the UK'ssharpest writers is well deserved. She is particularly adept at creating arange of characters that not only provide great humour but also a fair amountof depth and empathy as well.

Assembling an excellent cast ofplayers (the majority of whom she continues to work with to this day), thesketches here are a mixture of group pieces (the fantastic soap opera pasticheAcorn Antiques), musical numbers, a succession of wonderful head-to-heads withlong-time sparring partner Julie Walters and, uniquely, the odd monologue(Patricia Routledge's Keeping Up Appearances character makes an embryonic debutin the shape of Kitty). Television watchers of a certain age may find the clipsa little over familiar but this should take nothing away from a finecompilation.

On the DVD: The Best of VictoriaWood is another example of the BBC falling flat with their approach to thepossibilities of DVD. The picture and sound quality seems to have improvedlittle since the show's original broadcast and there are no extras beyond thestandard interactive menus. Given the amount of fine work that Wood hasproduced over the years, we could have hoped for at least the beginning of aninsight into her methods, inspirations and influences.

Total Running Time 1 Hour 50 Minutes