Dinnerladies
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- The correct title of this article is dinnerladies. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.
| dinnerladies | |
|---|---|
 Complete Collection cover |
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| Genre | Sitcom |
| Running time | 30minutes |
| Creator(s) | Victoria Wood |
| Starring | Victoria Wood Julie Walters Thelma Barlow Andrew Dunn Shobna Gulati Celia Imrie Maxine Peake Duncan Preston Anne Reid |
| Country of origin | UK |
| Original channel | BBC |
| Original run | November 12, 1998–January 27, 2000 |
| No. of episodes | 16 |
dinnerladies was a 1990s British sitcom written, co-produced and starring Victoria Wood. It ran for sixteen episodes from 1998 to 2000.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The show is set entirely in the canteen of a factory in Manchester, with the caterers and regular customers as the main characters. The mostly female, mostly middle-aged characters' inner lives and social interactions are vividly and amusingly depicted.
As with much of Victoria Wood's work, there is also a counterpoint of sadder themes, including deaths in the families of two of the main characters, a painful divorce, one of the characters living with cancer, and a long-running on-off relationship involving a great deal of heartache for the pair involved.
[edit] Production
Involving only one set throughout its run (with the exception of a quiz show set and hospital set seen only on a television screen in the last episode), dinnerladies was entirely filmed at BBC Television Centre in front of a live studio audience. Other locations such as characters homes and other parts of the factory are only referred to in conversation. The jokes are generally delivered at a fast pace with dialogue usually only pausing subliminally to allow the audience laughter to settle.
Uniquely, for a sitcom, each episode was filmed twice to two separate audiences, once on a Friday and again on a Saturday. This gave cast members two attempts to perfect a scene and, if necessary, the opportunity to correct mistakes without having to repeat a joke to the same audience. [1]
[edit] Cast
- Brenda (Bren) Furlong (Victoria Wood) - The deputy manager of the canteen, and arguably the most ordinary of the characters. She had an unhappy childhood as her mother had her taken into care, and even now sometimes seems to forget that Bren is her daughter. She is very good at solving the problems of her colleagues but often doubts her ability to overcome her own hardships. Several times in the first series it is hinted that she has feelings for Tony, though nothing comes of this until halfway through the second series.
- Petula Gordino (Julie Walters) - Bren's selfish and manipulative mother, who had Bren taken into care as a child because she was cramping her style. Whenever she pays Bren a visit, it's usually because she wants money or a favour. She lives in a fantasy world where she is a close friend (and usually a lover) of the rich and famous. It is revealed in the final episode that her real name is also Brenda Furlong.
- Dolly Bellfield (Thelma Barlow) - Something of a social climber, Dolly is the cattiest of the dinnerladies, always having a bitchy remark to make about those around her. Prim and prudish, she frequently snaps at people that they ought to moderate their language, and frowns on Twinkle's sexual shenanigans. She has been married for thirty years ("Three of them happily" sniffs Jean) and hopes to move to the nearby upmarket suburb of Mobberley after her retirement.
- Tony Martin (Andrew Dunn) - The canteen manager, whose battle against cancer is a running storyline in the first series, and prompts him in the second to want to do more with his life than simply running a canteen. Though he talks, and thinks, about women a lot, he has very little luck with them. He is attracted to Bren, but is too shy to reveal this to her for a long time.
- Anita (Shobna Gulati) - Pleasant but rather dim, Anita is a kind and loyal friend to her colleagues, empathising with them and often helping them to solve their problems without even realising it. She becomes pregnant in the second series and, terrified of the implications, leaves the baby on the fire escape on Millennium Eve, with a note asking Bren to look after him. However, she realises that she must face the consequences of her actions and returns to take the baby back.
- Phillippa Moorcroft (Celia Imrie) - The scatty and disorganised manager of the Human Resources department, having apparently landed the job because she was having an affair with the factory manager, whom even she only ever refers to as Mr Michael. Her well-meaning attempts to relieve the dinnerladies' stress or help them in their personal lives generally have the opposite effect. In the second series she decides to break up with the Mr Michael, and having spent days planning how to do so to the smallest detail she is furious when he dumps her first. She later begins a relationship with a co-worker, Tom. Philippa is the only character in the series who comes from the south of England.
- Twinkle (Maxine Peake) - The youngest member of the team, she turns up late every day, does as little work as she can get away with, and tries unsuccessfully to borrow cigarettes from Tony. However sarcastic she may be, however, it is clear that she regards the other members of staff as good friends, particularly Bren whom she turns to for help on several occasions. She lives with her wheelchair-bound mother, whom she looks after, and spends her evenings getting drunk and falling into skips.
- Stan Meadowcroft (Duncan Preston) - Stan is the uptight handyman of the factory, who spends his days cleaning bins and grumbling about how his father, with whom he lives, was a Desert Rat, invariably naming an everyday task that his father had been forced to perform in a highly improbable way using Army equipment (such as: 'He made toast for 34 fighting men with a radiator grill and a flamethrower!'). After his father's death he decides to get his life going again, embarking on a brief relationship with a nurse before dating, and ultimately proposing to, his co-worker Jean.
- Jean (Anne Reid) - Dolly's best friend, Jean is very often the stooge for her mordant remarks. Jean is somewhat unhappily married at the start of the series (with a grown-up daughter, Lisa), and in the second series her husband leaves her for his dental hygienist. After getting over the shock, and rediscovering self-confidence that she'd forgotten she ever had, she has a fling with a security guard (Barry "the love muscle") before settling down with Stan.
- Jane (Sue Devaney) - A member of the Packing department, she had only a minor role in the first series. In the second series she played a much more major part, having a running wager with the canteen staff that Bren and Tony would or would not manage to have sex by Christmas Day. A running theme in the show was Jane's love of toast, as she would invariably order "twelve rounds of white" before changing her mind and having brown to help her lose weight.
- Malcolm (N/A) An inflatable mannequin of a man usually dressed in a suit, Malcolm was owned by Anita, who sat him in the passenger seat of her car while driving to discourage thieves. She often talked for him and used him as a decoration for the Christmas party. Tony once remarked that compared to Anita he provided fairly interesting conversation.
[edit] Episodes
There were two series of the show. The first series (6 episodes) ran in 1998 from November 12 to December 17 and the second series (10 episodes) from November 25, 1999 until January 27, 2000. Both series were shown on BBC1. Reruns air on UKTV Gold.
[edit] Series 1
- Monday - A typical Monday in the canteen. Jean is frantically preparing for her daughter's wedding - though she needn't bother, as we learn at the end that her daughter has had an attack of nerves at the prospect of a glitzy wedding and has already tied the knot. Bren and Dolly discuss the weekend's television offerings in great detail. Twinkle arrives late again. New Human Resources manageress Phillippa Moorcroft tries to rope everyone in to a group Scottish country dancing session, without much success. And Tony tries to keep everyone focussed on actually making some food.
- Royals - The dinnerladies are very excited about an impending Royal visit, though they aren't impressed to find out that they've been allocated His Royal Highness Prince James, The Duke of Danby, as they've never heard of him, with the exception of Stan who met him 30 odd years before at Catterick Garrison army base. There are lots of rehearsals to ensure everything goes smoothly but of course things go anything but. Twinkle finds she's unable to string a sentence together because of nerves, while Anita's (Shobna Gulati) mouth runs away with her on the topic of underwear. Dolly and Jean compete with each other to perform the best curtsy, and Bren receives a most unexpected proposition from the Duke...
- Scandal - Bren is horrified when her flatulent mother Petula moves into the factory car park with her 16-year-old fiance Clint. Sheelagh, Clint's mother, is also less than happy about the arrangements and forms a picket line around the factory with the national Press. As the factory deliverymen gradually stop visiting for fear of the mob outside, Anita unexpectedly has the good idea of an impromptu Oprah Winfrey-style talk show to sort the matter out. Meanwhile, a TV researcher visits the canteen to assess whether the dinnerladies would make good docu-soap material.
- Moods - Tony and Bren arrive early to the canteen in much better moods than usual. Unfortunately, everyone else is in a bad temper. Stan's had trouble with his father, Dolly and Jean bicker continuously, Anita is convinced her new haircut makes her look like Fatima Whitbread (and isn't happy about it) and Twinkle thinks she's pregnant. Phillippa suggests having a "Bring Your Mother To Work" day to cheer everyone up, though sarcastic Enid (Dolly's mother) and nymphomaniac Connie (Jean's mother) do little to raise the workers' spirits. And that's before Bren's mother has even arrived...
- Party - A merge with a Japanese company means that the factory's Christmas Party has an Oriental theme to it. Tony and Bren plan to attend as a couple but Petula throws a spanner in the works by inviting herself along as Bren's dinner partner. Anita gets very drunk at the party and makes a fool of herself, while Twinkle and her friend Tiffany are unimpressed by the older workers' dancing. Petula flings herself at every man in sight, including Jean's husband Keith. Bren and Tony try to salvage what was meant to be their night together, but first they have to fend off the respective advances of Stan and Jean - can they finally get together?
- Nightshift - An unexpected order comes in, prompting the factory manager to ask all the staff, including the dinnerladies, to work a 24 hour shift. With Tony off work having chemotherapy for his cancer, obnoxious temporary manager Nicola Bodeux ("B-O-D-E-U-X") gives the staff a hard time, resulting in Dolly, Jean, Anita and Twinkle walking out. Realising her constant failure to connect with people, Nicola herself then resigns and decides to become a lighthouse keeper. Bren prepares for the impossible task of manning the canteen single-handedly all night - will anyone come back to help her out?
[edit] Series 2
Each episode of series 2 was set on a specific date, to help put the progress of the various running storylines into perspective.
- Catering (April 9, 1999) - Gormless work experience girl Sigourney has trouble finding the canteen - in fact, she has trouble doing almost anything! When the decorators arrive a day early they cause a lot of trouble by accidentally trapping Glenda, the bread lady with the bladder trouble, behind a fifteen-foot ladder. It's then a race against time to free her before she has an accident of her own. Meanwhile, the dinnerladies debate the possibility of conceiving a baby in the queue at Homebase.
- Trouble (June 21, 1999) - It may be the first day of summer, but there's trouble afoot at the factory after Jean's philandering husband Keith leaves her for his dental hygienist, Bronwen, prompting Jean to pick fights with whoever's in her path. Meanwhile, an anonymous bunch of flowers sent to Bren provokes rumours of a secret lover (in fact they're from Stan as a thank-you for helping his father when he was ill), and Anita's continual stories about new boyfriend Pedder bores the others almost to tears. Tony invites Bren on holiday with him and some friends. Bren's elderly mother claims to be pregnant (by Leonardo DiCaprio)!
- Holidays (August 5, 1999) - Everyone's very excited about their holidays - Bren and Tony are going to Marbella and Dolly's going on a luxury cruise. Petula's caravan blows up, prompting her to ask Bren for her holiday money to fix it up. Although her workmates tell her she should keep the money and tell selfish Petula she'll have to find the cash elsewhere, the death of Stan's father, and his subsequent wish that he could have the chance back to do good deeds for his dad, Bren decides to let Petula have the money. Meanwhile, Dolly and Anita discuss breast implants and biryanis. Jean did not appear in this episode as staying with her sister to get over depression.
- Fog (November 1, 1999) - The dinnerladies are dismayed to hear that the November fog has allowed a convicted murderer to escape from Strangeways prison just a few miles away. The National Blood Service comes to encourage people to donate - Bren's secret fear of needles means she feels faint whenever they are mentioned, causing her colleagues to speculate that she might be pregnant. Jean harps on about her handsome new boyfriend but when he arrives to pick her up Phillippa panics and calls the police, thinking he is the escaped convict. In the confusion, the real fugitive manages to escape again - he was in fact disguised as one of the nurses taking blood, explaining why she seemed so inept when receiving Dolly's donation. Phillippa tries to pluck up courage to leave Mr Michael and is furious when he dumps her just before she gets round to it.
- Gamble (December 21, 1999) - Tony and Bren's developing relationship is the subject of a bet between the dinnerladies and the Planning Department - if they get together before Christmas the canteen staff win fifty pounds. They cause controversy when they turn up late together the next day, though in fact this is due to a late-night hospital appointment for Tony. Meanwhile, Phillippa looks forward to having sex at Christmas for the first time, Dolly searches for novelty hot water bottles and Anita's awful taste in Christmas presents appals the rest of the team. When Tony and Bren finally have their first kiss a most unexpected visitor arrives to really kill the mood!
- Christmas (December 23, 1999) - After revealing that she was married (but separated) at the end of the previous episode, Bren begins to doubt her relationship with Tony, and his secretive actions throughout this episode eventually make her decide to dump Tony and resign from the canteen. However, just as she is about to tell him this he reveals a huge surprise birthday party for her (Christmas Eve is Bren's birthday), and the pair fly up to Scotland to spend Christmas with friends of Tony's. Meanwhile Phillippa has a crush on a co-worker and Anita mysteriously leaves before the party with a mumbled excuse...
- Minnellium (December 31, 1999) - Phillippa is organising the company's "no-expense-spared, once-in-a-lifetime" Millennium Meal, but riots in the city centre and the closure of the fly-over prevent her from attending herself. Jean's estranged husband arrives and seems to want a reconciliation - but it turns out all he wants is the wallpaper table. Jean later goes home with Stan. Tony and Bren are trying to settle into their relationship, but the shock discovery of a baby on the fire escape leaves Bren feeling miserable, particularly when she discovers an anonymous note asking her to look after the child. The dinnerladies discuss who the mother could be and eventually decide Twinkle is most likely. Just before midnight, however, Anita returns to the canteen in tears to reclaim her son.
- Christine (January 9, 2000) - With Anita away on maternity leave, new girl Christine joins the team. Whilst Dolly is very taken with her, Christine's back-handed compliments and outright insults, combined with her dreadful personal hygiene, leave her very unpopular with the others. Twinkle manages to score the impotent Tony some Viagra, but Christine mistakes the tablets for Dolly's sweeteners and puts them in her teacup. Horrified and (somewhat irrationally) fearing for her life, Dolly turns against Christine, who flees in the canteen in tears and doesn't return. Meanwhile a social worker visits Bren to discuss Petula's living arrangements, and Stan worries about his sexual prowess as Jean pushes him to take their relationship to the next level.
- Gravy (February 7, 2000) -
- Toast (February 29, 2000) -
[edit] Theme Music
The show's theme music was composed by Victoria Wood. Whilst it is usually played without lyrics, at the end of the episodes Minnellium and Toast vocals, also by Wood, were included:
Minnellium
Getting up, getting out, getting on, getting going,
Wears away at the dreams that you hold in your heart,
All the scared little choices you make without knowing,
Take away from the thing that you had at the start.
Chorus:
Day by day, drops of water wear the stone away,
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday...
Toast
All the dreams that you had when it all lay before you,
All the plans that you made, all the things you would do,
All the schemes that you knew time would bring to fruition,
Did they happen? Not so far, at least not to you.
(Chorus as for Minnellium)
[edit] Crew
- Victoria Wood - Writer/Producer
- Geoff Posner - Director/Producer
Guest stars include:
[edit] External links
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