3:17pm Wednesday 7th February 2007
By Citizen reporter
Acorn Antiques was first seen on BBC Television 21 years ago and has been a firm favourite with the nation ever since. Catch the stage musical version in Preston from March 26 to 31.
There was only ever half and hour in total of the timeless spoof soap opera, Acorn Antiques, in the original BBC1 series of Victoria Wood As Seen On TV.
And yet, some 21 years after they first appeared, those sketches have taken on legendary status. They are viewed _ quite rightly _ as iconic moments in the history of television comedy.
Victoria's diehard fans _ known as "the Woodettes" _ often gather together to re-enact the antics of the hilariously rubbish cleaner Mrs Overall (played in the original by Julie Walters), the impossibly posh shop-owner, Miss Babs (Celia Imrie), her loyal assistant, Miss Berta (Victoria Wood), and their forgetful friend Mr Clifford (Duncan Preston).
So it was an inspired idea of Victoria's to draw on such well-loved material to create Acorn Antiques The Musical!
Transferring those hugely popular characters to the arena of musical theatre proved a massive success.
People simply flocked to see it when it played last year at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in the West End.
Trevor Nunn's production sold out its entire 16-week run, and T-shirts carrying the show's logo _ a yellow Marigold glove _ flew out of the foyer.
Acorn Antiques The Musical! merely underlined Victoria's standing as what her fellow comedian Dawn French has called "a national treasure."
With book, music and lyrics by Victoria, the show was a palpable hit.
The show is now embarking on a hotly anticipated UK tour _ with the added bonus that this production is directed by Victoria herself.
Boasting a new cast, the show charts Miss Babs' desperate battle to keep her struggling antiques business going.
Shop after shop in the high street of Manchesterford is being closed to make way for faceless chain stores.
Acorn Antiques The Musical!, a splendid all-singing, all-dancing show, which features such priceless moments as Mrs Overall singing about why she prefers a cup of tea to illegal drugs any day, throws up any number of vital questions.
Can Miss Babs afford to reject an offer from The Guilty Bean (the world's second biggest chain of coffee shops _ "we're second, so we grind harder").
And if the anonymous retail corporation do take over, will they keep on the shop's ageless cleaner and tea-maker, Mrs Overall?
Will Mr Clifford's memory return, and will he ever remember to whom he's engaged?
And, most crucially of all, will Mrs Overall be able to tap-dance while holding onto her trademark tea-tray?
The show is wrapped up in the sort of wonderfully winning humour and impossibly infectious show-stopping numbers that you'd expect from a writer and composer as gifted as Victoria.
I meet Victoria for afternoon tea in her promoter's office in the West End of London.
She is as warm and witty as she is on stage, and an hour in her company simply flies by.
Sporting a smart black trouser suit and a sleek blonde hairdo, she looks a picture of good health.
She begins by reflecting on the lasting affection audiences feel towards Acorn Antiques.
"When I started thinking about turning it into a musical, what I didn't quite realise was quite how wedded people are to those characters.
"Why has Acorn Antiques proved so enduringly popular?
"I suppose it was the first spoof soap and the first send-up of all those wobbly cameras, shaky sets and actors forgetting their lines.
"In 1985, when Acorn Antiques started, everybody knew about how laughable Crossroads was, but no one had ever articulated it before.
"Suddenly it just took off and became a bit of a phenomenon."
Victoria was taken aback by the breadth of the sketches' appeal. "They became a big hit with gay men.
"They used to play Acorn Antiques on big screens in gay clubs.
"I wasn't there, of course, but certain gentlemen told me that happened!"
She reckons that the scarcity of Acorn Antiques sketches only added to the attraction. "They had energy and a certain style.
"It was one of those moments where everything just gelled.
"But there was only ever half an hour of material from the TV series all in all, and that left audiences wanting more."
The performer, who also recently wrote and starred in ITV1's Housewife, 49, a deeply moving one-off drama about a repressed wife who is emancipated by her contribution on the Home Front during the Second World War, continues by explaining what she hoped to achieve with Acorn Antiques The Musical!
"Before it opened in the West End, my only wish was to get people laughing.
"I just hoped the show would give audiences a fun night out.
"I got the idea because I've always written songs and I've always loved musicals.
"It's a joyous experience writing songs, and the thought of putting a lot of them together in a story and seeing them brought to life on stage was really energising."
Victoria continues: "there is nothing more uplifting than being in an auditorium when a musical is really flying.
"The sheer noise of the orchestra combines with the energy of the cast singing and dancing to create a truly exhilarating experience. When it works, it's completely joyful and soulful.
The biggest challenge, she recollects, was fleshing out the Acorn Antiques TV characters for the stage. "In the original, they were quite cardboardy,"muses Victoria.
"So I had to dig around and give them some human stories.
"The show can't just be froth _ it has to have heart."
And, with the thread of the "little guy" antiques shop threatened by the "big bully boy" chain, heart is what the story possesses.
Victoria admits that she was initially reluctant to make her directorial debut with the touring production of Acorn Antiques The Musical!, but was won over by friends. "They all said, why don't you direct?' "And I thought, why don't I? I've always directed actors anyway and told them what they should be doing!' "But this is very much based on Trevor Nunn's original production.
"It's not as scary as doing something totally from scratch.
"I'm not going to be doing anything very radical. But I'm really looking forward to it."
So what qualities does Victoria feel she brings to the role of directing?
"In the first place, casting is vital _ everything flows from that.
"Then it's about taking an overview and giving actors an arena where they feel they can try things out.
"It's about timing and how a moment works _ which, if you've done stand-up, you instinctively understand."
She is especially relishing taking the show on the road. "It's going to be such a laugh taking it on tour," Victoria beams.
It promises to be a frantically busy few months for Victoria.
This spring she will be presenting BBC1's Victoria on Victoria, a fascinating exploration of the furthest reaches of the British Empire, as well as featuring in an ITV1 South Bank Show Special.
What is occupying her most at the moment, however, is getting Acorn Antiques The Musical! absolutely right. "I'm just polishing the opening number to the show," Victoria reveals.
"I want it to be like the top of Cabaret or Chicago, with the twist that it's about Manchesterford.
"Come and see the show: it's the Manchesterford version of Chicago!"
Acorn Antiques - The Musical is at the Guild Hall in Preston from Monday, March 26 to Saturday, March 31 at 7.30pm. Matinees on March 29 and 31 at 2.30pm. Tickets £22 to £28 - call 01772 258858.
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