Maxine Peake still in disbelief she worked with Victoria Wood
Maxine Peake has reflected on her time starring in Dinnerladies and working alongside her idol Victoria Wood.
Maxine Peake still cannot believe she worked with Victoria Wood on Dinnerladies.
Maxine, 51, played Twinkle in the BBC sitcom - which focused on the lives of the caterers and their interactions with customers - and she is glad she got to know her idol Victoria, who died of cancer aged 62 in April 2016.
Speaking about the Dinnerladies' writer and cast member on the latest episode of the Scarred for Life podcast, Maxine told hosts Andy Bush and Dave Lawrence: "I still get a bit emotional.
"And we weren't best of friends, but still, as a fan, I mean, to be able to work with her was - I still don't quite believe I did that. From being 10 when I was frightened to death of being blown up in a nuclear annihilation, I was obsessed with, I mean, really obsessed with her."
Maxine was aged 24 and fresh out of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) when she landed a role on the series - set in the canteen of HWD Components, a fictional factory in Manchester - and she was nervous about working with Victoria (Brenda 'Bren' Furlong) and the rest of the cast.
Maxine - who appeared in Dinnerladies from 1998 until 2000 - recalled: "It was really overwhelming [working with Victoria]. And they're all there: Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Thelma Barlow, Anne Reid, Duncan Preston.
"We did an episode with Dora Bryan, Thora Hird and Eric Sykes. I mean, I was 24 years of age, just sort of with my bum cheeks wobbling - well, I mean, because I'm large - but because of nerves.
"You know, going, 'I can't get my head around it.' I don't think I ever really computed it until it was over, in a way."
Asked what was "so special" about Victoria, Maxine said: "It's the alchemy, isn't it? Observation. Timing. There was nobody like her. She broke through with comedy, especially comedy that was about the sort of working-class experience.
"People say she's working class, but I think Vic would have seen herself, maybe, as middle class, but she knew the North. She knew those characters. And her observation was second to none.
"And her use of language. Her dialogue is like music, and that's something in Dinnerladies, if you got a word wrong, it pinged out like a bad note because the joke would end; it would follow through like a piece of musical score.
"But, yeah, I was a bit awkward and a bit odd around her."
And Maxine - who, with other stars, including comics Dawn French, 68, and Jennifer Saunders, 67, will tell Victoria's story in her own works in the documentary, Becoming Victoria Wood - still watches Dinnerladies if it is on TV.
Maxine said: "If it's Thelma Barlow doing that speech about when she thinks she's taken a Viagra and it's 'like a Range Rover going the wrong way down a cul-de-sac, it's the most genius piece of comedy acting I think I've ever seen."
Becoming Victoria Wood airs on U+Gold in February.
