"Actor: Betty Boothroyd"

• Victoria Wood - All The Trimmings | DVD | (25/11/2001) from £8.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (77.86%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings contains exactly what it says on the box. Harking back to the classic BBC Christmas comedy specials of yesteryear, the show features a star-studded cast: Alan Rickman, Richard E Grant, Michael Parkinson, Bob Monkhouse, Hugh Laurie, Angela Rippon, Roger Moore, Caroline Aherne, the list goes on. The show takes a typically idiosyncratic canter through a dream set of telly programmes for Christmas Day. Thus we get expertly played skits of A Christmas Carol (with Delia Smith as the cook); Brassed Off (in which Tony Blair solves the North/South divide by declaring everything The South); Brief Encounter (Parky as the station master, with a side order of drugs and lesbianism); a regency romantic drama (with the line "could you not stick your hand in your muff?") and lots more. What makes the production a true cut above, however, is the linking theme that takes a blatant pot shot at the modern BBC--or as Wood sees it--BBC Upmarket, BBC Downmarket, BBC Newmarket (for racing), BBC Makeover, BBC Takeover, etc. This is funny, cutting and achingly on the ball about the state of modern television.--Ian Watson