Acorn Antiques

This article is about the parodic soap opera. For the musical, see Acorn Antiques The Musical.

Julie Walters (Mrs Overall), Victoria Wood (Berta), Rosie Collins (Trixie) and Celia Imrie (Miss Babs) in Acorn Antiques (1986).

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 Waggoners Walk.^[1][2] 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.

References to other daytime television devices featured; after one episode a continuity announcer mentions an exhibition of costumes from the show touring several British towns, and after another episode a range of novelisations is mentioned (bearing such archetypical purple titles as A Waning Moon, and little resemblance to screened storylines). The announcement that the show's theme tune was available to buy as Anyone Can Break A Vase sung by Miss Babs, was a reference to the release of Anyone Can Fall In Love, based on the EastEnders theme and sung by one of its cast members, Anita Dobson.

Wood also created a spoof arts documentary about the show for her As Seen on TV special, in keeping with similar straight-faced 'behind-the-scenes' shows produced about soap operas, which revealed the shambolic production of Acorn Antiques being put together, and interviewed the self-obsessed fictional actors behind the fictional characters. At one point, when an obvious continuity error is pointed out, the hard-nosed producer 'Marion Clune' (played by Maggie Steed) summed up the directorial attitude: "We professionals notice - Joe Public never clocks a darn thing." The documentary also depicted the actress portraying the drudge Mrs. Overall as being an archetypal soap diva called Bo Beaumont (although in the series the fictional end titles shows Mrs Overall credited to Julie Walters).

In the final show of Victoria Wood As Seen on TV a sketch was shown where the actors playing Mrs Overall and Mr Clifford are supposedly sacked from the soap and killed off and Bo Beaumont/Julie Walters breezes out of the studio, complaining to the TV news crew outside "Does a faithful dog expect to be kicked? That show was my life."

The sketches even lead to a fanzine and appreciation gatherings where fans would dress up as the characters.^[3] In 2004, in a poll on its website, Channel 4 voted Acorn Antiques the 7th best comedy sketch of all time.^[4]

The show made a brief return to television in 1992 in Victoria Wood's All Day Breakfast, her satire on daytime television.^[5] A sketch of its soap, The Mall, ends with Mrs Overall returning to reopen Acorn Antiques, mentioning that the other principal characters had been killed in a bus crash (even though she herself had been killed off in the final episode of the original series). A special one off episode was broadcast in 1996 in a programme to commemorate 70 years of BBC1 being on air. One final sketch was shown in 2001 with the original cast and Nick Frost as an armed robber (as part of Victoria's History of Sketch Comedy BBC1 series).^[6]

The Musical

Acorn Antiques! - The Musical logo/Copyright Phil McIntyre Entertainments Ltd. All rights Reserved

Main article: Acorn Antiques: The Musical!

In 2005, Victoria Wood created a musical version, with key members of the original cast (Julie Walters, Celia Imrie amongst others - Wood alternated with Julie Walters in the role of Mrs Overall), which had a sellout season in the West End.

The show earned several Olivier Award nominations, and winning Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for Celia Imrie. The original run was directed by Trevor Nunn. Standout songs included "Have You Met Miss Babs?" and "Macaroons".

It was revived on tour in 2007, directed by Victoria Wood.

Leighton Maqueraders in 2010 were the first amateur drama group to do the show in 2010. Acorn Antiques The Musical ran at Leighton Buzzard Library Theatre from June 16–19. Leighton Masqueraders performed the comedy to a full house and the production impressed their star guest Victoria wood, writer of the musical.^[7]

Cast

• Miss Babs (Celia Imrie): the overwrought and lovelorn owner of Acorn Antiques, who moves from one 'crisis' to another. Opens each episode on the phone introducing a never again mentioned plot line. Wife of Mr Kenneth, who was himself never seen on screen, mother of unnamed triplets afflicted with "dangerously straight hair" (and, we discover in one episode, Trixie Trouble). The triplets are kept amused by trips in the Wolseley, Get Carter at the cinema and bedtime stories by Simone de Beauvoir. Miss Babs' torrid romances are hinted at but never seen: Mr Clifford once abandoned her by the handbags in a well-known store. Distinguishing features include a birthmark shaped like a moped. Her humanitarian credentials are revealed when she allows Mrs Overall a couple of hours off to attend her husband's funeral, provided she pops back at five for the hoovering.

• Miss Berta (Victoria Wood): a partner in the business who begins the series emerging from intensive care to discover that her deceased father (believed murdered in Dakar) has been seen buying a padded envelope in the post office. She later develops amnesia and gets married to Clifford (the Bishop of Manchesterford officiating) before discovering that she is not only the twin sister of Derek, but also the daughter of Mrs Overall, and the mother of an unnamed baby. In the musical version, Berta is revealed to be Babs's sister: both siblings are the daughters of Mrs Overall.

• Clifford (Duncan Preston): the stolid, reliable leading man whose advances are rejected by Babs. Shortly afterward he reveals he has married Miss Berta who is suffering from amnesia. Mr Clifford's voice mirrors that of David Hunter, sometime shareholder of the Crossroads Motel. He has a jet-setting lifestyle: "Bored with Zurich or did Zurich get bored with you?" asks Miss Babs. In the series he is electrocuted whilst unplugging an iron. In the musical, it is revealed that Mr Clifford's father knew of the paternity of the triplets, since he had sheltered the pregnant Mrs Overall, one rainy night.

• Mrs Overall (Julie Walters): the elderly tea lady, who believes all problems could be solved with a nice cup of tea, a macaroon and an anecdote. One of her many specialties is home-made sherry served in a mug. Her late husband referred to her as Boadicea. Asked why, she confesses, "He was barmy, Miss Babs". She is revealed to be the sole beneficiary of Berta's father's will, and mother of Miss Berta and Derek. The rather grand actress who "plays" Mrs Overall (Bo Beaumont) was a former lover of Lord Delfont. In the series she dies after choking on her own macaroon. According to Wood, the character of Mrs Overall was inspired by Mrs Mack in Take the High Road (overall being a deliberate pun on mac) and Amy Turtle in Crossroads (originally played by Ann George).^[2]

• Trixie (Rosie Collins): also known as Trixie Trouble, a feisty, tarty femme fatale who works in the antiques packing department until she discovers she is Miss Babs' daughter. After her off-screen marriage to Bobby she mentions having had jaundice, 'lots of' extramarital relationships (which may have included Derek, with whom she was in a car crash), and is seduced by her mother's cousin Jerez, shortly before she briefly runs away to Morocco with Derek. She also had a romantic interlude at the Formica Motel with Mr Kenneth, who gifted her a leotard and a wet-look bra. She returns to become a nun, and later a Mother Superior.

• Derek (Kenny Ireland): the handyman, and revealed latterly Miss Berta's twin brother and Mrs Overall's other child. A long running affair with Miss Babs is hinted at and is briefly rekindled when his unseen girlfriend Marie-Therese Francine Dubois runs off, but this is interrupted by Trixie, with whom he also seems to have a relationship. He and Trixie later announce that they are 'traveling overland to Morocco' to find Trixie some nice jumpsuits. It is also mentioned that he and Clifford are secretly playing the accordion and the ukulele together. Derek is based on the character Benny from Crossroads. Kenny Ireland says he is still remembered best for his regular part in As Seen On TV. "Twenty-odd years ago I played Derek the handyman in Acorn Antiques. To this day, nice camp waiters quote my dialogue at me, and are slightly disappointed that I don't remember any of the lines." ^[8]

• Cousin Jerez (Peter Ellis): the foreign villain of the series, and previously unmentioned Spanish cousin of Miss Babs, who makes a rejected offer to buy the shop. Undaunted he disguises himself as a postman (whose signature whistle is the theme to Limelight) to misdirect mail which would have warned Babs of a new motorway to be built nearby. His plans are thwarted by Clifford but not before he has attempted to seduce Trixie. He later returns, completely reformed, while on his way to begin a sandwich course in computer studies at Fuengirola Polytechnic, and gives Babs £25,000, thus conveniently solving a cash flow problem at the shop.

• Extras (Albert Welch & Michaela Welch): the only customers to appear in the entire series. An elderly couple who appear at the beginning of every episode, looking at an antique and leaving the shop.

References

1. ^ "Waggoners Walk". Archived from the original on 2009-10-24. http://www.webcitation.org/5km8YWCxo. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "BBC Suffolk interview with Victoria Wood". BBC. 2007-03-11. http://www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/content/articles/2007/01/25/victoria_wood_acorn_antiques_interview_feature.shtml. Retrieved 2007-09-13. 
3. ^ Brandwood, Neil (2002). Victoria Wood – The Biography (1st Edition ed.). London: Boxtree. ISBN 1-85227-982-6. 
4. ^ "50 Greatest Comedy Sketches". Channel 4. http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/G/greatest/comedy_sketches/results.html. Retrieved 2007-09-15. 
5. ^ "search.com - Acorn Antiques". search.com. 2007-08-28. http://www.search.com/reference/Acorn_Antiques. 
6. ^ "thoughtworthy.com - Nick Frost". BBC News. 2007-08-28. http://www.thoughtworthy.com/contact.cgim?cookie_refresh=1&partner=twm&contact_id=17256&tab=BIOGRAPHY_AWARDS&tab_id=0&transparent=1. 
7. ^ "TV star Victoria Wood at Leighton Buzzard show premiere". Leighton Buzzard Observer. http://www.leightonbuzzardonline.co.uk/news/tv_star_victoria_wood_at_leighton_buzzard_show_premiere_1_998635. Retrieved 2011-08-12. 
8. ^ "Swingers and Roundabouts - Interview with Kenny Ireland". Scotland On Sunday. 2007-03-15. http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/review.cfm?id=144252007. 

External links

• Victoria Wood
• As Seen On TV
• Acorn Antiques: The Musical!
• A spoof tour website