Julie Walters shares her memories of dinnerladies, which was written by Victoria Wood, who also played Brenda 'Bren' Furlong
Julie Walters has spoken about how she relished playing off the wall character Petula Gordino in Victoria Wood’s classic comedy dinnerladies.
The 68-year-old actress is reuniting with other stars of dinnerladies for a new Gold documentary, dinnerladies diaries.
Julie, who worked with Victoria [who passed away in 2016] on many classic shows, including Wood and Walters, played Bren’s eccentric, man hungry mother, Petula.
“Vic knew I loved playing old women so she wrote them for me. I loved Petula. It was ingenious. I think in some ways it was Vic’s writing at its best, so off the wall and strange but truthful, funny and mad. I loved it.”
Julie, who joins Anne Reid [Jean], Thelma Barlow [Dolly] and Maxine Peake [Twinkle] on the documentary, added: “You never knew what sort of life Petula had – she was probably drunk the night before – so I’d have a big bruise on my face or I’d put my dinner down my front and wipe the plate on whatever I was wearing. It was just heaven.”
dinnerladies ran from 1998 to 2000, with just 16 episodes being made.
dinnerladies diaries, which also features an archive interview with Victoria Wood, is being shown on Gold next Wednesday [14th March] at 8.00pm.
Main pic: Matt Baron/REX/Shutterstock. dinnerladies pic: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock
