Victoria Wood As Seen On TV - One-off Sketches

One-off Sketches

The show also featured many, often acclaimed, one-off sketches, like Two Soups, where Julie Walters plays an elderly deaf waitress who takes an incredibly long time to take an order for two bowls of soup. In 2004, British television network Channel 4 (in a poll conducted on its website) awarded it "27th Best Comedy Sketch Of All Time". Walters has said "she knows I like playing old women. Why? Because I am one! I love the shape of them."

Classic Coronation Street was recreation of 1960s Coronation Street. It starred Wood as the show's gossiping Ena Sharples, with Julie Walters as Martha Longhurst and Lill Roughley as Minnie Caldwell, with Ena telling them the "gossip" she has heard about the show's plotlines for the next two decades. The sketch was written with a detailed knowledge of the soap opera's past: "That stuck up Ida Barlow, who's no better than she should be... it'll not be too long before she falls under a bus! That Harry Hewitt'll likely get crushed under the axle of 'is own van, and as for Valerie Barlow – and if this isn't judgement for setting 'erself up in 'er own front parlour as a so-called 'air stylist then my name isn't Ena Sharples – from what I 'ear, its two clogs to a threpenny bit that she'll electrocute 'erself with 'er own 'airdryer." This sketch's accuracy earned Wood praise from Doris Speed, who had played Annie Walker in Coronation Street from 1960 to 1983.

Giving Notes featured Walters as the leader of an amateur dramatics company giving notes to her cast: "I can't say this too often; it may be Hamlet, but it's got to be fun, fun, fun!" Shoe Shop also starred Walters as a mad shoe shop saleswoman and Wood as her customer. In the sketch she delivers Wood a pair of high-heeled shoes, though Wood requested a flat pair. Walters snaps off the heels and replies, "flatter now".

Medical School had Wood as a nervous interviewee, applying to become a medical student. Asked what the last book she read was, she replies "Othello. It's a book by William Shakespeare, of the Royal Shakespeare Company". In On The Trolley, Wood played a waitress in a restaurant, responding to any order of food with the repetitive phrases "Is it on the trolley?" and "Can you point at it?" This was Wood's personal favourite sketch in the series.