Wood blasts 'disrespectful' BBC meddlers

Victoria Wood has expressed her frustration at meddling BBC executives who don’t trust her to make decent programmes.

The comedian says the corporation has become a ‘faceless hierarchy’ that does not respect or value its writers and performers.

And she added that the constant battles with executives leave her demoralised to the point of quitting.

In an interview with the Guardian today, 57-year-old Wood said: ‘There are great hierarchies and you can't have a personal relationship. So it's just defeating because it becomes faceless. Now it's so prescriptive and everyone's chucking in their two penneth. I want to be reasonable, and I want to be cooperative. But I want there to be mutual respect, and there isn't any.’

Of the executives doling out advice she said: ‘And you think, well that's fine, but what's your qualification for telling me what's funny? Please don't tell me what's funny, cos I know what's funny. And you probably don't. That's why I'm on television and you're not.

‘I just find the layers of people you have to deal with tiresome. And you think, “Well, fine, you make it then, I won’t make it at all. I'll go home and put the washing on, fine.”

‘You used to be trusted and now I feel like I'm not trusted, and I don't like it. Not valued, not needed on voyage – that's what it makes you feel like. I'm not trying to pull a big huff… it's on behalf of all of us who feel miffed and sidelined and overly interfered with.’

Wood – who is currently working on BBC biopic about Morecambe and Wise – also branded corporation executives ‘rude’ over their decision to move last year’s Victoria Wood's Midlife Christmas from its promised prime-time Christmas Day slot to Christmas Eve. The woman who made the decision didn't even bother to tell her, she says.

Wood also said that the big money paid to stars such as Jonathan Ross would be better off spent on higher production values for prestige shows. She said: ‘I'm not envious of people's money, but if I'm told I can't have a wig, I can't have a costume… well, when I see big sums, to me that's wig money, it's the score for your drama, it's all the things that make television so brilliant.’

Published: 27 Sep 2010