Victoria Wood, who died of cancer in 2016, spent her last days watching MasterChef, listening to Radio 3 – and devising a comic routine about tidying her sock drawer.
The comedian, 62, who secretly battled the ‘cancer in her tummy area’ for four years, could not accept she was dying and was determined to carry on working, a new biography, Let’s Do It, reveals.
Her longtime friend and comedy partner Dame Julie Walters – who worked with her on shows such as Dinnerladies and Acorn Antiques – said Victoria was ‘in determined denial’, adding: ‘Vic said, “I just need to get this managed – the pain… and then I’m going to write something”,’ according to The Mirror.
The new book tells how Victoria was permitted to leave hospital and spend her final days at her home in Highgate, North London.
Among those who cared for her was her close friend, TV executive Piers Wenger. He moved in for two weeks and the pair would watch MasterChef – three episodes at a time.
Victoria Wood, who died of cancer in 2016, spent her last days watching MasterChef, listening to Radio 3 – and devising a comic routine about tidying her sock drawer
Her longtime friend and comedy partner Julie Walters, who worked with her on shows such as Dinnerladies and Acorn Antiques, revealed that Victoria told her she ‘just needed to manage the pain and then said she was going to write something.’ (Above, the pair in Acorn Antiques)
Among those who cared for Victoria was her close friend, TV executive Piers Wenger. He moved in for two weeks and the pair would watch MasterChef – three episodes at a time. (Above, Piers and Julie Walters pay tribute to Victoria in 2017)
Piers, 48, then left the comedian in the care of her sister, Rosalind, and the two siblings whiled away the hours listening to Radio 3.
It was during this time that Victoria had her sock drawer sketch idea.
‘I was cursing that I couldn’t record it. It was absolutely hilarious,’ Rosalind told The Mirror.
According to Let’s Do It, Victoria had to quit directing BBC’s Loving Miss Hatto in December 2012 for a year of radiotherapy, chemotherapy and to have operations on a malignant lymph node.
Throughout her battle, Victoria kept busy with work, even delaying a procedure so she could compere the London Jazz Festival.
Her son Henry, now 28, was living at home with his mother at the time and remembered how her cancer battle was something the family ‘just have to get through’.
Victoria started her career in 1974 by winning the talent show New Faces aged 20, before going on to become one of Britain’s most popular stand-up comics
Victoria Wood, 62, who secretly battled the ‘cancer in her tummy area’ for four years, could not accept she was dying and was determined to carry on working, a new biography, Let’s Do It, reveals. (She is seen above in 2015)
Several well-known figures paid tribute to Victoria after her passing including Julie Walters, fellow comedian Ricky Gervais, author JK Rowling and former Prime Minister David Cameron
Victoria’s daughter Grace, now 32, added that her mother shared what she had to about her diagnosis but she thinks if given the choice, Victoria would have kept it all to herself.
After being forced to take a back seat on Loving Miss Hatto, Victoria reportedly chose to go to her hospital appointments by herself.
She told her friend, TV writer Peter Bowker that she could not be bothered to put a good face on and pretend to be ‘jolly’.
When she had just a week of radiotherapy left, Victoria got a sudden pain in her leg and was taken to hospital with a blood clot which required an operation.
The following year, she bounced back by fronting a documentary about tea filmed in exotic locations and felt like she was back to herself by the time she went to Edinburgh in the summer of 2013.
Victoria started her career in 1974 by winning the talent show New Faces aged 20, before going on to become one of Britain’s most popular stand-up comics.
Several well-known figures paid tribute to her after her passing including Julie Walters, fellow comedian Ricky Gervais, author JK Rowling and former Prime Minister David Cameron.
