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Let's Do It cover art

Let's Do It

By: Jasper Rees
Narrated by: Julie Walters, Jasper Rees, Kate Robbins, Richenda Carey, Jane Wymark, Daniel Rigby, David Threlfall, Anne Reid, Susie Blake, Duncan Preston, Celia Imrie
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Summary

Trapeze audiobooks presents an extraordinary multi-voice tribute to one of Britain's most talented and most loved entertainers: Victoria Wood.

This audiobook features narration from some of the extraordinary voices who worked with Victoria over her career:

Susie Blake

Richenda Carey

Celia Imrie

Duncan Preston

Anne Reid

Daniel Rigby

Kate Robbins

David Threlfall

Julie Walters

Jane Wymark

With an introduction read by Jasper Rees and two recordings of Victoria Wood's classic Ballad of Barry and Freda.

I was born with a warped sense of humour and when I was carried home from being born it was Coronation Day and so I was called Victoria, but you are not supposed to know who wrote this anyway. It is about time I unleashed my pent-up emotions in a bitter comment on the state of our society but it's not quite me so I think I shall write a heart-warming story with laughter behind the tears and tears behind the laughter which means hysterics to you Philistines....

From 'Pardon?' by Vicky Wood, aged 14. Bury Grammar School (Girls) Magazine, 1967.

In her passport, Victoria Wood listed her occupation as 'entertainer' - and in stand-up and sketches, songs and sitcom, musicals and dramas, she became the greatest entertainer of the age. Those things that might have held her back - her lonely childhood, her crippling shyness and above all the disadvantage of being a woman in a male-run industry - she turned to her advantage to make extraordinary comedy about ordinary people living ordinary lives in ordinary bodies. She wasn't fond of the term, but Victoria Wood truly was a national treasure - and her loss is still keenly felt.

Victoria had plenty of stories still to tell when she died in 2016, and one of those was her own autobiography.

'I will do it one day,' she told journalist and author Jasper Rees when he first met her in 2001. 'It would be about my childhood, about my first few years in show-business, which were really interesting and would make a really nice story.' 

That sadly never came to pass, so Victoria's estate has asked Jasper Rees, who interviewed her more than anyone else, to tell her extraordinary story in full. He has been granted complete and exclusive access to Victoria's rich archive of personal and professional material and has conducted more than 200 interviews with her family, friends and colleagues - among them Victoria's children, her sisters, her ex-husband, Geoffrey Durham, Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Dawn French, Anne Reid, Imelda Staunton and many more.

What emerges is a portrait of a true pioneer who spoke to her audience like no one before or since.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Jasper Rees (P)2020 Orion Publishing Group

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    3 out of 5 stars

life's too short

I don't usually go for celebrity biographies but, adoring Victoria Wood, used a credit on this. Nobody else can nail the 'human condition' (at least the British human) the way she does. Unfortunately, the biography is a blow by blow account of her life without any actual interest or enlightenment. Minor anecdotes, such as times somebody got her name wrong, hardly significant or hilarious or affecting, are repeated. Her rather off kilter childhood is covered, but again, by repetitive and unhelpful details, plus not so untypical of its time and place to those of us brought up then. Success didn't come easily (surprise!) but fans mostly know all about how hard she worked (and she was just getting better and better towards the end of her life.)After over six hours of listening, I could hear Victoria's voice in my head, saying 'God, this is just tedious, turn it off.' I skipped ahead to later chapters, obviously very sad and moving to hear about her divorce, illness and death, but sort of wish I hadn't, her being known as such a private person. I feel the biography overall needs editing by at least half all the recounted details of dates, places etc. What a pity she never got to write her own, it would have been brilliant. Nice to hear it read by her friends, and obviously well researched, but I recommend sparing yourself these twenty plus hours on this audiobook and instead, use them to enjoy again Victoria Wood's work, because that's where she is. To learn more about her as a person, listen to her Desert Island Discs which is excellent, her documentaries, or any of the tribute programmes made about her.

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39 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A brilliant portrait

Going in, I expected this book to be the typical sort of reverential, cosy treatment of Victoria Wood which often crops up on tv.

However, this book delves much deeper and gives a far more human portrait of her which is honest, incredibly detailed and absolutely fascinating. It has a warts and all approach and is all the better for it.

So what I thought would be a warm and easy listen has turned out to be my favourite biography of the year! Superb!

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16 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Exhaustive

Exhaustive and detailed about someone I admire - whose work I love. Sometimes there is too much detail. I was pleased I bought it as an audiobook because I would have skimmed a hard copy. It was good to have a variety of voices, some of which I recognised. After hearing the long story of VW’s life, we get to the sad end, and hear her telling a joke and then singing The ballad of Barry and Freda. I was in tears. What a sad loss.

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10 people found this helpful

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Just awful......I wish I'd never read it


I don't understand Victorias family could let this book be published. It seems to me that no one liked her.

If she'd have wanted to write an autobiography, surely she would have done it her way.

To write this after her death seems disrespectful and un necessary.

As a lifelong fan of Victoria Wood, I understood she was a person with a complex personality, but this book was horrible and has tarnished my view of Victorias work.


Michael Ball doesn't look to good in it either, shame on the nasty, puffed up pair, giggling away in the Ivy at Jane McDonald.....

Just a horrid book.

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8 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great nostalgia

This was an extremely detailed account of Victoria’s life and, whilst it didn’t really get tedious, I did speed it up. The narrators were a mixed bag - it’s a mistake to think that good actors always make the best narrators.

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5 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Too tedious by far

This book is 20 hours long, I have worked my way through nearly 7 hours, I cannot tell you how depressed it made me to realise that I am only 1/3 through!
The whole tenet of the book is negative, and completely dry and unworthy of the memory of Victoria Wood! I had a positive fondness for VW, but this book is just ripping that apart, she comes across as a trifle self centred and almost unpleasant! I doubt that I will finish this!

In a nutshell:- Far too long, tedious, self deprecating, negative and dreary. And spoils all my previous memories of a very witty woman!

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4 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

I am a mega admirer of Victoria Wood and everything she achieved, but this book was far too long, protracted and didn't do her justice at all. Where was the editor? Chunks could have been cut out to make the whole thing zip along, much like a Victoria Wood monologue. No...a bit of a let down.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Essential listening for fans.

But be prepared to be heartbroken.
I loved the depth of this insight into Victoria. The reading by different friends brought her back to life. I wish I had known her but I probably had a lucky escape!
Plan to listen more than just the once.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book, amazing selection of readers

As has been said in reviews in press and reviews on Audible / Amazon, a wonderful book about an amazing career - with the details of VW's childhood quite upsetting for fans to deal with.

The book is perfectly paced, with just amount of detail for the many phases of her career. It's certainly not a hagiography, with VW's spikiness and shyness certainly not glossed over. It's particularly sad to realise that the actors that made up her regulars saw the troupe as more of a working relationship than a friendship group, but it's a tribute to VW that so many are assembled for the reading of this book. Hearing David Threlfall 'do' Alan Bennett (and many others) is one of the many opportunities for the readers to inhabit the people they are quoting from as part of the book. And Julie Walters says the 'c' word - I nearly dropped spat out my macaroon.

Lots of laughs, even to the end.

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4 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Dull

I was looking forward to listening to this, but my goodness this is boring. The writer is almost telling us what she had for breakfast every day. A book that could have done with a firm editorial hand and been cut by half so we got to understand one of my favourite ladies better

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3 people found this helpful