VICTORIA Wood is exhausted. She has had just one week's holiday this year and has spent the last week at The Lowry theatre overseeing and directing the first tour of Acorn Antiques: The Musical!

But she shows no signs of being worn out as she strides purposefully to the coffee bar for our interview, singing one of the show's tunes.

She looks younger than her 53 years and is smaller, more glamorous in the flesh.

Talking animatedly about her work, an impressive and varied list of award-winning comedy writing, she gesticulates with jerky movements which demonstrate how quickly her brain moves from one thought to the next.

"I completely re-wrote the Acorn Antiques script and added three new songs for the touring production," she says, as if this was something she got done and dusted in a couple of hours.

"I cut out the first half of the original production because it was a skit about London musicals such as Chicago and Les Misérables - it was too `West End-y' and just wouldn't have worked on tour. As a result the show is now shorter but I don't think that's a bad thing."

The musical, which was first seen 20 years ago as a sketch in Wood's show, As Seen On TV, opened at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, in February last year for a 16-week sell-out run.

Directed by Trevor Nunn, it featured most of the original cast, including Celia Imrie as Miss Babs, and Julie Walters as the infamous Mrs Overall.

Wood drew inspiration for Acorn Antiques from the ambitious and implausible storylines of soap operas, such as Crossroads, although she is not an avid soap-follower herself.

"I never watch any of them. Frankly I've got better things to do and would much rather spend time with my children," she says.

"I do sometimes listen to The Archers though - it's not unlike Acorn Antiques, actually, with all the trials and tribulations the cast endure!"

The touring show follows Miss Babs' struggle to keep her antiques business open, as shop after shop in Manchesterford's High Street is forced out by global enterprises and chain stores. Bringing the show up to date with themes such as the takeover of independent stores by faceless chains, the effects of the ``Fatkins diet'' and popularity of body piercing, was not difficult for Wood, whose observational comedy has always delighted her fans.

"The real challenge for me was writing the musical itself. It's very difficult to pull off a show and get all the elements right - the script, the songs, the dancing and the acting. Fortunately for me I had the `great lord' Trevor Nunn helping me put it together. I also have a fantastic cast who have really brought it to life."

Wood has enjoyed the return to her North West roots - she was born in Prestwich and grew up in Bury - and has even found time to do some Christmas shopping in Manchester. "It's great to be back. The city is really thriving - I've been in the centre to do some Christmas shopping at the markets. The best thing, though, is the tram - I love it!"

Her commitment can be seen in the way she completely immerses herself in her whatever her current project is and gives it 100 per cent. And I suspect she is something of a perfectionist.

This was evident in the way she researched and wrote Housewife, 49, the two-hour drama in which she plays real-life Barrow housewife Nella Last, who kept a diary in the Second World War as part of the Mass Observation exercise.

"I became a bit obsessive," she admits. "I kept visiting the family of Nella's son, Cliff, who now live in Melbourne. I did a lot of research at the Imperial War Museum and made sure the dialogue fitted in with the1940s.

"But I'm really interested in that era anyway so I'll make sure I get to the Imperial War Museum North in Salford before I leave. I write my own diary but it's nothing compared to Nella's beautiful prose."

Now Wood is looking forward to having some time off in the New Year, before she finishes filming a TV documentary about the British Empire, entitled Victoria On Victoria.

"I've had only one week off this year and I'm ready for a break. But then I'll start on some new projects in the New Year."

These projects are as yet undisclosed but you can guarantee that Wood will give them her all.

Acorn Antiques: The Musical! is at the Lowry Quays Theatre until January 6, and the Lowry Lyric Theatre between January 15 and 20. For tickets call 0870 787 5780. The musical visits Liverpool Empire between March 12 and 17, and Preston Charter Theatre, March 26 to 31.

Review - See metromagazine, Page 9

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