Let's do it, do it while the mood is right!

From today's Guardian:

Manchester’s Victoria station briefly became Victoria Wood station on Saturday afternoon as hundreds of fans gathered for a joyful tribute to remember the late comedian, who died of cancer in April.

A clarinettist opened proceedings with the Dinnerladies theme tune, and then the Manchester Lesbian & Gay Chorus gave their take on Let’s Do It: the Ballad of Barry and Freda. The much-loved ditty became the Ballad of Carrie and Freda (Oh and Barry and Fred), with the male section relishing the line: “I could handle half the tenors in a male voice choir.” As they sang, trams rumbled past, bound for Bury, where Wood grew up.

Some people had come dressed as their favourite Wood characters. One woman arrived slightly late and alone, slathered in goose fat, wearing a swimming costume and a hat. It was as if she really were Wood’s cross-channel swimmer, sent off to swim to France alone by her neglectful parents, only to resurface as an adult years later.

Retired teacher Izzy Morris had come from Wigan as a hybrid of Mrs Overall, Julie Walters’s hunchbacked tea lady from Acorn Antiques, and various other Wood creations: her rubber-gloved hands were clutching two bowls of soup and a Woman’s Weekly. Joanne Coates, from Salford Angels WI, who provided Victoria sponge slices, was in silver spandex leggings, pink leotard and headband, an uncanny likeness of Wood’s busty aerobics instructor.

The event was compèred by singer and actor Sue Devaney, who worked with Wood on Dinnerladies. She shared her memories of “Vic” and sang Pam, which tells the story of an upright lady who has a lesbian liaison with a woman called Joan: “She drained her rum and Babycham/ Ran her fingers through her crewcut, said I love you Pam.”

Manchester’s new lord mayor, Carl Austin-Behan, a former Mr Gay UK, attended with his husband. He accessorised his ceremonial chain with a yellow beret from an audience member – a nod to Wood’s “Kimberley” sketch, in which a girl is looking for her friend who is “really, really tall and really, really wide. If she had a suitcase on her head she’d look like a fitted wardrobe.”

“I have the honour of saying on behalf of Manchester and all its people, thank you for all the laughter, Victoria,” the lord mayor said, to hearty applause. Fans were then given the chance to share their favourite Wood memories. One lady, wearing a shower cap and a bikini over her top in homage to Wood and Walter’s Turkish Bath sketch (“By god, if her bum were a bungalow she’d never get a mortgage on it”), started to cry as she reminisced about how much the comedian had meant to her...

The station was only called Victoria Wood station for one wonderful hour, but a petition is under way for the name-change to be made permanent, and for a statue of Wood to be installed on the concourse.

Hear, hear!