'I felt so small...' Ann Droid's Diane Morgan left devastated after meeting idol Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood did not make the impression that Ann Droid's Diane Morgan had hoped for when they met at a Dinnerladies after-show drinks event.
Diane Morgan was devastated after meeting her idol Victoria Wood.
The comedienne brushed off fellow comic Diane, 50, when she told Victoria how much she admired her at a Dinnerladies after-show drinks event.
In the new issue of Bella magazine, Diane said that Victoria - who wrote and starred in the BBC sitcom - was an inspiration for her comedy, adding: "I thought she was amazing."
However, Victoria - who died of cancer in April 2016 aged 62 - did not make the impression that the Ann Droid star had hoped for.
Diane continued: "But maybe you should never meet your heroes. I met her when my friend Maxine Peake was doing Dinnerladies. Maxine invited me to the after-show drinks.
"I said to Victoria, 'I just wanted to tell you I think you're amazing. I've watched everything you've ever done. You're such an inspiration.'
"She looked me up and down and then simply turned her back on me. Maybe she was having an off day, but I felt so small."
The encounter made Diane promise herself that she would never make someone else feel that way.
The Philomena Cunk performer said: "But I remember thinking that if I ever became successful, I would never, ever make somebody else feel like that."
Like Diane, Maxine, who played Twinkle in Dinnerladies, was "obsessed" with Victoria, and the 52-year-old star cannot believe she got to work with the comedy legend.
On a January 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 on Dinnerladies, which focused on the lives of the caterers and their interactions with customers.
Maxine - who appeared on the series 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."
