Lowry serves up Dinnerladies

Brought to the stage for the very first time, Victoria Wood’s hit BBC TV sitcom dinnerladies comes to The Lowry from Mon 7 September. The stage play, produced by Jan Hunt and David Graham, stars Oldham’s Shobna Gulati with Andrew Dunn, 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 Andrew Dunn. They are egged on by their work colleagues, Dolly, Jean, Twinkle and Anita, the slightly dippy character portrayed by Gulati. 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 and Gulati are also well-known for their roles in Coronation Street, Shobna having played Sunita Alahan for six years and Andrew having recently finished playing the role of Roger Stiles.   

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 Lowry from 7 – 12 September.