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dinnerladies (TV series)

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dinnerladies is a 1990s British television sitcom written by and also featuring Victoria Wood. The show is set entirely in the canteen of a factory in Manchester, with the caterers and regular customers as the main characters. The mostly female, mostly middle-aged characters' inner lives and social interactions are vividly and amusingly depicted.

As with much of Victoria Wood's work, there is also a counterpoint of sadder themes, including deaths in the families of two of the main characters, a painful divorce, and a long-running on-off relationship involving a great deal of heartache for the pair involved.

Episodes

There were two series of the show. The first series (6 episodes) ran in 1998 from 12th November to 17th December and the second series (10 episodes) from 25th November 1999 until 27th January 2000. Both series were shown on BBC1. Reruns air on UKTV Gold.

Series 1

  1. Monday - A typical Monday in the canteen. Jean is frantically preparing for her daughter's wedding - though she needn't bother, as we learn at the end that her daughter has had an attack of nerves at the prospect of a glitzy wedding and has already tied the knot. Bren and Dolly discuss the weekend's television offerings in great detail. Twinkle arrives late again. New Human Resources manageress Phillippa tries to rope everyone in to a group massage session, without much success. And Tony tries to keep everyone focussed on actually making some food.
  2. Royals - The dinnerladies are very excited about an impending Royal visit, though they aren't impressed to find out that they've been allocated His Royal Highness the Duke of Danby, as they've never heard of him. There are lots of rehearsals to ensure everything goes smoothly but of course things go anything but. Twinkle finds she's unable to string a sentence together because of nerves, while Anita's mouth runs away with her on the topic of underwear. Dolly and Jean compete with each other to perform the best curtsey, and Bren receives a most unexpected proposition from the Duke...
  3. Scandals - Bren is horrified when her flatulent mother Petula moves into the factory car park with her 16-year-old fiance Clint. Sheelagh, Clint's mother, is also less than happy about the arrangements and forms a picket line around the factory with the national Press. As the factory deliverymen gradually stop visiting for fear of the mob outside, Anita unexpectedly has the good idea of an impromptu Oprah Winfrey-style talk show to sort the matter out. Meanwhile, a TV researcher visits the canteen to assess whether the dinnerladies would make good docu-soap material.
  4. Moods - Tony and Bren arrive early to the canteen in much better moods than usual. Unfortunately everyone else is in a bad temper. Stan's had trouble with his father, Dolly and Jean bicker continuously, Anita is convinced her new haircut makes her look like Fatima Whitbread (and isn't happy about it) and Twinkle thinks she's pregnant. Phillippa suggests having a "Bring Your Mother To Work" day to cheer everyone up, though sarcastic Enid (Dolly's mother) and nymphomaniac Connie (Jean's mother) do little to raise the workers' spirits. And that's before Bren's mother has even arrived...
  5. Party - A merge with a Japanese company means that the factory's New Year dinner has an Oriental theme to it. Tony and Bren plan to attend as a couple but Petula throws a spanner in the works by inviting herself along as Bren's dinner partner. Anita gets very drunk at the party and makes a fool of herself, while Twinkle and her friend Tiffany are unimpressed by the older workers' dancing. Petula flings herself at every man in sight, including Jean's husband Keith. Bren and Tony try to salvage what was meant to be their night together, but first they have to fend off the respective advances of Stan and Jean - can they finally get together?
  6. Nightshift - An unexpected order comes in, prompting the factory manager to ask all the staff, including the dinnerladies, to work a 24 hour shift. With Tony off work having chemotherapy for his cancer, temporary manager Nicola Bodeux ("B-O-D-E-U-X") gives the staff a hard time, resulting in Dolly, Jean, Anita and Twinkle walking out. Realising her constant failure to connect with people, Nicola herself then resigns and decides to become a lighthouse keeper. Bren prepares for the impossible task of manning the canteen single-handedly all night - will anyone come back to help her out?


Series 2

Each episode of series 2 was set on a specific date, to help put the progress of the various running storylines into perspective.

  1. Catering (April 9th, 1999) - Gormless work experience girl Sigourney has trouble finding the canteen - in fact, she has trouble doing almost anything! When the decorators arrive a day early they cause a lot of trouble by accidentally trapping Glenda, the bread lady with the bladder trouble, behind a fifteen-foot ladder. It's then a race against time to free her before she has an accident of her own. Meanwhile, the dinnerladies debate the possibility of conceiving a baby in the queue at Homebase.
  2. Trouble (June 21st, 1999) - It may be the first day of summer, but there's trouble afoot at the factory after Jean's philandering husband Keith leaves her for his dental hygienist, Bronwen, prompting Jean to pick fights with whoever's in her path. Meanwhile, an anonymous bunch of flowers sent to Bren provokes rumours of a secret lover (in fact they're from Stan's father as a thank-you for helping him when he was ill), and Anita's continual stories about new boyfriend Pedder bores the others almost to tears. Tony invites Bren on holiday with him and some friends. Bren's elderly mother claims to be pregnant (by Leonardo DiCaprio)!
  3. Holidays (August 5th, 1999) - Everyone's very excited about their holidays - Bren and Tony are going to Marbella and Dolly's going on a luxury cruise. Petula's caravan blows up, prompting her to ask Bren for her holiday money to fix it up. Although her workmates tell her she should keep the money and tell selfish Petula she'll have to find the cash elsewhere, the death of Stan's father, and his subsequent wish that he could have the chance back to do good deeds for his dad, Bren decides to let Petula have the money. Meanwhile, Dolly and Anita discuss breast implants and biryanis.
  4. Fog (November 1st, 1999)
  5. Gamble (December 21st, 1999)
  6. Christmas (December 23rd, 1999)
  7. Minnellium (December 31st, 1999)
  8. Christine (January 9th, 2000)
  9. Gravy (February 28th, 2000)
  10. Toast (February 29th, 2000)

Theme Music

The show's theme music was composed by Victoria Wood. Whilst it is usually played without lyrics, at the end of the episodes Minnellium and Toast vocals, also by Wood, were included:

Minnellium Getting up, getting out, getting on, getting going,
Wears away at the dreams that you hold in your heart,
All the scared little choices you make without knowing,
Take away from the thing that you had at the start.
Chorus: Day by day, drops of water wear the stone away,
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday...

Toast

All the dreams that you had when it all lay before you,
All the plans that you made, all the things you would do,
All the schemes that you knew time would bring to fruition,
Did they happen? Not so far, at least not to you.

(Chorus as for Minnellium)

Cast

Crew

Guest stars include:

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