Wood's difficult early years

Victoria Wood was a comic for four years before she got a single laugh

"You can't be original and good when you're starting out unless you're a genius.

"I spent years eating tins of mince in a bedsit. I suppose I survived on a mixture of apathy and deep-rooted self-belief."

Her comments came as she gave advice at a BBC workshop for aspiring female comedy-writers in London.

She said she continually rewriters her work, and that a script is never finished

"Each of the first episodes of Dinnerladies took roughly a month to write, as I rewrote each one about eight times.

"I wanted it to be like ER, realistic. Instead in looked like something from the Seventies, too theatrical."

Wood said she wasn't happy with the results and won't write a sitcom for a studio audience again, BBC staff newspaper Ariel reports.

Published: 7 Feb 2002