Acorn Antiques: The Musical

I was amazed at how good this show was, shame Victoria did not make any more musicals as her unique brand of comedy and musical timing is gold.

The loved the first act, as it introduces the characters rehearsing in a amateur production with a awful self absorbed director (Neil Morrissey) and in one scene is a direct nod to Les Misérables.

The second act is where the real acorn antiques really starts and comes alive, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston are as fun ever and Sally Ann Triplett brings her own style to Miss Berta. Julie Walters is definitely the star of the show.

Victoria's Music and lyrics are as charming as ever and shows the broad range of her talent and the love song later in the act, has a lot of emotion and is my favourite and will always remain in my heart.

In April 2016 we lost our Victoria, she was a comedy legend and genius and this musical and her shows will go on R.I.P Victoria you were one of a kind.

My best advice with Acorn Antiques the musical is to skip ahead to the second half of the musical (e.g chapter 7 onwards). This is because the first half is ....well....extremely extremely odd. The second half however is the musical you are expecting and you will not be disappointed - great songs and in-jokes.

I hear as the show travelled they did indeed cut out a lot of the first half and God only knows why it made it onto the DVD.

The songs in the second half are superb and you will find yourself singing them for days afterwards. There are also a lot of laugh out loud moments and in-jokes for fans of the original series.

It is very rare for me to laugh out loud when I watch something on my own (which is a very different experience from watching a comic drama with others), and despite being very tired last night I laughed out loud a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the DVD.

Julie Walters sparkles as always both as the hunchbacked crone Mrs Overall and as the pretentious, self-absorbed actress Bo Beaumont. Celia Imrie and Duncan Preston, both also cast member from the original Acorn Antique TV sketches were also excellent.

Josie Lawrence was a welcome addition I have only seen her perform on the improvisational comedy game show "Whose Line is it Anyway" but continue to be impressed by her as I was by Neil Morrissey – both as the pompous John and the slimy Tony.

However it is Victoria Woods writing which has to be the star of the show. It is so full of wit and irony and self-effacing sarcasm.

A wonderful show which I thoroughly enjoyed – I only wish I had seen it on stage in the West End!

When this was on in the West End I was desperate to get tickets but never managed to. Thank goodness, what a waste of £ 65 that would have been. I'm still angry at paying £15 for the DVD, having not seen it before I bought it ( something I rarely do but felt I could not go wrong with this?) I have always been a fan of Victoria Wood,right from the beginning and acorn antiques was always my favourite sequence from her TV show so was intrigued and excited to see how she would translate a 5 minute sketch into a musical. I cannot fault the acting, although Neil Morrisey gets very annoying after a while - Julie Walters is fabulous as ever and Celia Imrie is wonderful but the problem is it just isn't that funny.Wood seems to think mentioning heamorriods all the time will get the laughs but it just got boring.There is one wonderful song a dance scene the tip top tap ( or something like that!)but the rest of the songs are dull and go on too long. And that is the major problem, the whole thing just goes on, and on ,and on. Wood should have just left Acorn Antiques for us to remember warmly in the 80s instead of making a total hash of a musical.Also on 'bingo nights' when Walters wasn't performing as Mrs Overall, we have DVD extras of scenes featuring Wood as Mrs O. This is embarrassing to the point I had to turn off. There is only one Mrs O !

Acorn Antiques became an iconic part of British comedy history when it debuted as part of Victoria Wood's 'As seen on TV' show.

This musical version came along in 2006, and was a lukewarm critical hit, but again was loved by the public. And really that was who Victoria Wood wrote for.

I didn't like the first half. I thought it was all a bit self-indulgent and wasn't the Acorn Antiques show we hoped to see.

The second half was much better, and much more in the style of the original sketches.

Your enjoyment of this musical will really depend on whether you can sit through the first half.