After Victoria Wood died in 2016, a plan was formed with the help of her elder brother Chris Foote-Wood, to erect a statue in her honour in their home town of Bury, Lancashire. Since its unveiling in May of 2019, the bronze life-sized statue created by sculptor Graham Ibbeson has come in for much derision and some disappointment due to a general sense that it simply looked nothing like her.
In spite of Ibbeson receiving many plaudits for his similar sculpture of Eric Morecambe, situated on the sea-front of Victoria’s old home-town of the same name, his attempt to capture the beloved Queen of Comedy had sadly failed miserably. In my stage-show, ‘Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood‘, we liken the bronze to footballer Peter Beardsley and also ‘all the female characters from a Wallace & Gromit, smushed together in bronze’ to the delight of our audiences around the country. Indeed, I performed the routine in front of Chris Foote-Wood in his home-town of Barnard Castle last week, and he still spoke to me after the show!
But I am getting ahead of myself. Rewind to last March and an event which had us Victoria Wood fans giddy with delight – a news report citing that our beloved Victoria’s travesty of a statue had been knocked down by a taxi colliding with it in the early hours of the morning. Taken away from repairs soon after, we heard little more until this month – a year after the (rather tasteful and thoughtful) deed was done.
YES! Victoria’s statue had not only been re-installed outside Bury Arts Museum and Library, but – with the insider help of her brother Chris – it had been given a full face-lift whilst away for those 12 months! Don’t get me wrong, it still doesn’t look like Victoria Wood. But where before it was more akin to former England football coach Beardsley, it now looks like Sally Webster from Coronation Street!
So, we’re getting there – four more collisions with uber drivers, and a few more nips and tucks, maybe one day the lump of bronze may end up looking like the late, great Victoria Wood.
In any event, most of us lovers of the great woman believe she’d have seen the funny side of the entire debacle.
Looking for Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood is currently touring the UK, get tickets here.
Recent Comments