Dinnerladies (1998)

Victoria Wood has yet again come up with one of the funniest programmes. Dinnerladies has her classic humour and whit and would be a treat for any of her fans with characters that are larger than life.

Bren (Victoria Wood) is a 'dinnerlady' in the works canteen at HWB Components, along with Dolly (Thelma Barlow), Jean (Anne Reid), Twinkle (Maxine Peake) and Anita (Shobna Gulati).

Other characters include Bren's mother Petula (Julie Walters), Stan (Duncan Preston), Tony (Andrew Dunn) and Philippa (Celia Imrie).

The dinnerladies are canteen staff that work in a factory in the North of England. On the relationship front Tony is constantly frustrated, asides from that he runs the canteen and, his second in command is Brenda who sorts out everyone else's problems.

With Dolly obsessing over her weight and Jean having marital problems they are continuously snapping at each other. Twinkle is an "in your face" type of girl whilst Anita is a bit slow to catch on to conversations.

Other characters include the handyman Stan who is a plain, simple chap and Philippa who is in charge of personnel although her job description isn't very accurate. Finally there is Bren's mother, Petula, who lives in a dream world and a caravan and pops in from time to time like a whirlwind.

With such a variety of characters and such a range of jokes, Dinnerladies has become a big success.