AN exhibition about Victoria Wood is the most popular event Bury Museum has ever staged, but the comedy legend had a number of important links with Bolton too, writes Neil Brandwood.

The museum’s galleries dedicated to the life and career of Victoria are still attracting 100 extra visitors each day, even though the exhibition opened in early September.

Although she grew up in Bury, Victoria had connections with Bolton.

Her mother, Helen, was an English and drama lecturer at Bolton Institute, and Victoria often used to attend productions at The Octagon with her father, Stanley.

It was one of these visits that shattered the young Victoria’s illusions about the glamorous world of theatre.She remembered seeing an actor from a play walking to Bolton train station and was shocked that actors did such mundane things as use public transport.

In 1999, Victoria was at The Octagon again. She was there for the world premiere of a stage play based on her award-winning television film, Pat and Margaret.

And who can forget Victoria gave Bolton’s Maxine Peake her big break by casting her in the sit-com, dinnerladies?

Maxine has gone on record as saying that Victoria was the the person who had the greatest influence on her professional life.

Susan Lord, curator of the exhibition, said: “The visitor figures have gone through the roof.

“We are already on our fourth visitor comment book, which is very unusual, and the comments, without fail, have been fantastic. It’s like people are using them as a tribute to Victoria.”

Visitors from across Britain have travelled to Bury specifically to see the exhibition. One person travelled from Spain, and a super fan even came all the way from Australia!

“A lot of our visitors are over 50 but we also have younger people, especially drama students, or people who are launching their career as comedians. They want to see Victoria’s process and see how she worked.”

The outstanding exhibition is all down to Susan herself, who was invited by Victoria’s literary estate to put it together.

She said: “I was sent a huge inventory and spent a lot of time watching DVDs and YouTube clips of Victoria’s work as part of my research. I matched up what was on the inventory with the shows and tours they featured in.”

To the envy of Victoria’s fans everywhere, she then spent three days in London at a private storage facility examining the contents of dozens of boxes containing Victoria’s possessions from across the years. It was a real treasure trove.

Susan then had the difficult decision of choosing which of the hundreds of items to include in the exhibition.

“From the outset, I knew it was going to be a chronological exhibition because I thought that’s what her fans would want,” she explained.

“I didn’t want the exhibition to have an ‘angle’, I just wanted it to be a run through of her life and career.”

Included in the exhibition are school reports and A-level results from Victoria’s time at Bury Grammar School.

Her A-level results from 1971 show that Victoria clearly excelled at English Literature, gaining an A grade.

Surprisingly for the woman who penned the classic Ballad of Barry and Freda and wrote and performed hundreds of songs throughout her career, Victoria only managed a D in Music.

Despite this, her music teacher, Miss Rosamond Collins, was clearly impressed by her piano skills, as can be seen in the music report she wrote.

Less surprising was the C grade she got for religious knowledge. An earlier school report shows she got 33 per cent in an end of year test and the unimpressed religious knowledge teacher wrote: “This is a disgraceful result and the remedy lies wholly in Victoria’s own hands”.

As a performer, Victoria was able to memorise entire two-hour shows in her head and this determination to commit things to memory was already evident at school.

At the start of a new term, she carefully wrote a list - featured in the exhibition - of her teachers and the subjects they taught, including additional details such as “red hair, young”

Life at Bury Grammar was strict which perhaps explains why Victoria’s handwriting was immaculate, as can be seen in her handwritten chemistry notes on the subject of zinc. The face she doodled on the inside cover suggests it was not a subject that fascinated her. Again, this can also be viewed in the exhibition.

Victoria was a teenager during the 1960s and the denim jacket which she embroidered with colourful stitching and flowers – as well as her name – is one of the most personal items in the exhibition.

The exhibition also displays scripts, costumes and props from Victoria’s dazzling career and visitors can leave with a souvenir tea towel, fridge magnet or postcard, decorated with some of Victoria’s hilarious quotes.

Thee exhibition runs until September 2019 and is free to visit. For details contact Bury Art Museum on 0161 253 5878.

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