Acorn Antiques

Acorn Antiques is a parodic soap opera written by Victoria Wood as a regular feature in the two seasons of Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, which ran from 1985 to 1987. It was turned into a musical by Wood, opening in 2005.

Television version

Wood originally wrote Acorn Antiques as a weekly slot in her sketch shows Victoria Wood As Seen On TV. She based it on the long-running ATV serial Crossroads, and radio soap Waggoner's Walk. Swipes were also taken at current soaps such as EastEnders and Coronation Street with their apparent low production values, wobbly sets, overacting, appalling dialogue and wildly improbable plots.

Its premise - the lives and loves of the staff of an antiques shop in a fictional English town called Manchesterford - hardly reflects the ambitious and implausible storylines, which lampooned the staples of soap operas: love triangles, amnesiacs, sudden deaths and siblings reunited.

It also satirised the shortcomings of long-running dramas produced on small budgets with its little artificial-looking set, missed cues, crude camera work and hasty scripts. A lack of continuity is seen in distinct lapses where storylines are introduced and dropped between episodes and character development is forgotten. One episode, for example, is introduced as reflecting the current interest in health fads with a plot where the antiques shop is merged into a 'Leisure centre and sunbed centre', never to be mentioned again. The deliberately haphazard opening and end credits, together with its tinny title music, also lampooned Crossroads. Perhaps the most comical element of Acorn Antiques were the missed cues, harking back to the days when Crossroads was recorded live. Fictional floor managers and directors can be heard prompting the dreadful actors to say their lines, whilst the end of several scenes show the actors not quite knowing what to do with themselves while the camera is still rolling.

Acorn Antiques: The Musical!

Acorn Antiques: The Musical! is a musical about an antiques dealer, based on the parodic soap opera of the same name by Victoria Wood. It premiered in the West End in 2005, and starred Julie Walters and Celia Imrie. The musical won the Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical and was nominated as Best New Musical.

Concept and background

Victoria Wood decided to revive the original concept to satirise musical theatre with Acorn Antiques: The Musical!, with the intent to give people a "lovely, happy night in the theatre.". It was directed by Trevor Nunn, and opened at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in February 2005 for a three-month sell-out run. Parodying successful musicals such as Les Misérables and Chicago, it also caricatured the trend for socio-realism in contemporary drama and the conventions of song and choreography in musicals. It featured three of the principal actors from the original reprising their roles (or, strictly, the parts of the fictional actors from the spoof documentary); Duncan Preston returned as Clifford as did Celia Imrie as Babs and Julie Walters as Mrs Overall. Victoria Wood alternated with Walters in that role, and her character Miss Berta was played by Sally Ann Triplett. The musical also introduced Miss Bonnie (Josie Lawrence), a sister of Miss Babs and Miss Berta (in the original series, Berta and Babs were cousins).