Theatre News

Dinnerladies Dishes up some fun at Palace in June

Following its sell out success at the Lowry last year Victoria Wood’s hit BBC TV sitcom dinnerladies
comes to The Palace Theatre in June. The stage play, produced by
Jan Hunt and David Graham, stars Andrew
Dunn
, and Sue Devaney recreating their original roles from the TV series.

dinnerladies
is based on the second TV series, following the reluctant love story of
Bren and Tony, originally played by Victoria Wood and Dunn.
They are egged on by their work colleagues, Dolly, Jean, Twinkle and
Anita, The show,
which initially ran for two series from 1998 to 2000, was voted 9th in
the all-time list of favourite sitcoms, a remarkable feat for a
programme with only 16 episodes ever made.

Dunn, well-known for his role in Coronation Street as Roger Stiles plays Tony but Shobna Gulati who featured in the stage show last year as her TV creation Anita, has since returned to Coronation Street but fans of the cast of Wood’s TV series will be delighted that Sue Devaney is back on board reprising her role as toast-loving Jane.   

Born
in Prestwich and educated at Bury Grammar Girls School, Victoria Wood
CBE became an Honorary Patron of The Lowry in 2006 where the tour of
the hugely successful Acorn Antiques: The Musical!
began. dinnerladies first appeared on TV screens in 1998 for a single
series of six episodes. Victoria remembers its creation, “About two
years earlier I had this idea for a sitcom. I knew it was called
dinnerladies and it would be set in the canteen of a factory and I knew
it had a small ‘d’ but that was about it.” It became a huge success,
ran for an extra series and the rest is history.

dinnerladies runs at the Palace Theatre, Manchester from 21st – 24th June.