Sheila: Now, Malcolm. What do you think he meant by ‘lively social life’?
Victoria: Drink.
Sheila: He wants ‘a breezy, uninhibited companion’.
Victoria: To drink with.
Sheila: What do you think he meant by ‘life peppered with personal tragedy’?
Victoria: Hangovers.
Sheila: I think you’re right, he had half an Alka-Seltzer stuck in his moustache.
from Victoria Wood, ‘The Library’ (1989)
Which I recommend, by the way.
Tags: Victoria Wood
January 19, 2011 at 11:40 am |
Shades of Joe Orton – who used to document, in his diaries, things overheard on the bus (hence some of the wonderful exchanges in his plays). This morning, I heard a woman in the gym tell her companion that she “ate a whole chicken leg for breakfast” and “half a chicken for lunch”. What did she do with the rest of the chicken, I ask? Shared it with her cat?
January 19, 2011 at 12:08 pm |
I’ve never quite ‘got’ Orton as a writer, but his life interests me. I enjoyed Prick Up Your Ears by John Lahr, and love the Alan Bennett-scripted film (lots of Alan Bennett/Victoria Wood parallels, I’m sure, related to their ear for the cadence of Yorkshire/Lancashire speech). I must have a proper browse through the Orton diaries. All I remember is the Edna Welthorpe correspondence at the back, which of course is great fun.