# dinnerladies (1998)

> A Victoria Wood-written BBC sitcom following the bickering staff of a northern English factory canteen.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/692

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 16
- Episode runtime: 30 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy
- Created by: Victoria Wood
- Network: BBC Two
- Cast: Maxine Peake, Thelma Barlow, Anne Reid, Shobna Gulati, Duncan Preston, Victoria Wood, Celia Imrie, Andrew Dunn
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161140/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: gentle, warm, witty, comforting, bickering

## What critics say

Reception is unknown in aggregate, but viewers remember Dinnerladies as a gentle, warmly funny ensemble sitcom about canteen workers in the north of England.

## Synopsis

Dinnerladies (1998-2000) is a British sitcom created by Victoria Wood for BBC Two. Wood also writes and stars as Brenda, the brisk canteen supervisor who tries to keep order among a motley crew of workers in a factory canteen in the north of England. Thelma Barlow plays Dolly and Anne Reid plays Jean, a pair of bickering older women who are best friends underneath it all. Celia Imrie plays the ditzy Philippa, Shobna Gulati plays the thick-as-two-short-planks Anita, Maxine Peake plays the terminally uninterested Twinkle, and Duncan Preston plays Stan, a rule-obsessed former soldier turned handyman. Andrew Dunn plays Tony, the cancer-suffering manager with a roving eye. The engine of the show is the daily grind: small workplace crises, gossip, tea breaks and the constant friction of people who genuinely like one another. Across two seasons of sixteen half-hour episodes, the stories stay loose and character-driven rather than plotted. The tone is gentle, warm and quietly observational, with character comedy rooted in ordinary working-class life. Fans of The Office (UK), Still Game and Fawlty Towers will find resonance in its ensemble of eccentric characters and its affectionate, low-stakes humour.

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