Editing Victoria Wood (section)

==Early life==
Victoria Wood was the youngest child of Stanley and Ellen "Nellie" Wood (''née'' Mape).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://discoveryourancestors.co.uk/articles/a-comedy-heroine-descended-from-a-ww1-hero-6/|title=Sample Articles Archive – Discover Your Ancestors|website=discoveryourancestors.co.uk|access-date=27 May 2019}}</ref> Stanley worked as an insurance salesman, who also wrote songs for his company's Christmas parties, was the author of the musical play ''Clogs'' (based in a Lancashire village in 1887) and wrote part-time for ''[[Coronation Street]]'' and others.<ref>{{cite news |last=Iley |first=Chrissy |date=12 June 2011 |title=Victoria Wood interview: 'I fear being my mother'|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/actors/victoria-wood-interview-i-fear-being-my-mother/ |newspaper=The Telegraph |access-date=20 April 2014 }}</ref>  She had three siblings: a brother, Chris, and two sisters, Penny and Rosalind.<ref name="Whetstone">{{cite news|url=http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/victoria-woods-supermum-4584918|title=Victoria Wood's supermum|last=Whetstone|first=David|date=11 February 2006|work=[[The Journal (Newcastle upon Tyne newspaper)|The Journal]]|access-date=20 April 2016|archive-date=9 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009115839/http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/victoria-woods-supermum-4584918|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Wood was born in [[Prestwich]] and brought up in nearby [[Bury, Greater Manchester|Bury]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB |doi=10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.111692|title=Wood, Victoria (1953–2016) |year=2020 |last1=Gray |first1=Frances}}</ref> She was educated at Fairfield County Primary School<ref>{{cite news |last=Holland |first=Daniel |date=20 April 2016|title=Comedian Victoria Wood dies, aged 62, after cancer battle |url=http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/14440140.Comedian_Victoria_Wood_dies__aged_62__after_cancer_battle/|newspaper=Bolton News|access-date=20 April 2016}}</ref> and [[Bury Grammar School (Girls)|Bury Grammar School for Girls]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/celebs/broadcasters4.html |title=Manchester Stars & Celebrities of Television & Film |encyclopedia=Papillon Graphics' Virtual Encyclopedia & Guide to Greater Manchester |publisher=manchester2002-uk.com |access-date=22 August 2010 |archive-date=19 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819164131/http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/celebs/broadcasters4.html |url-status=usurped }}</ref> where she immediately found herself out of her depth.

{{blockquote| I was always top of the class, and when I went to [[grammar school]] I could not deal with everyone being as clever... I went under. I was a mess, a bit of a misfit. I didn't have any friends, let alone try to be funny...I didn't do any work, didn't have clean clothes and didn't wash. If I didn't have any money I'd steal from people, and if I hadn't done my homework I'd steal someone else's. I was envious of all the groups: the horsey group, the girls who went out with boys, the clever ones. Looking back, I feel really sorry for that little girl.<ref>''Desert Island Discs'', Radio 4, 24 December 2007</ref>}}

Wood developed [[eating disorder]]s, but in 1968, her father gave her a piano for her 15th birthday.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/04/20/victoria-wood---obituary/|title=Victoria Wood – obituary|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=20 April 2016|access-date=27 May 2019|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}</ref> She later said of this unhappy time "The good thing about being isolated is you get a good look at what goes on. I was reading, writing and working at the piano all the time. I was doing a lot of other things that helped me to perform."<ref name=manchester>{{cite news|url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/how-victoria-became-funny-1015096|title=How Victoria became funny|first=|date=23 December 2007|newspaper=Manchester Evening News|access-date=27 May 2019}}</ref> Later that year, she joined the Rochdale Youth Theatre Workshop, where she felt she was "in the right place and knew what I was doing" and she made an impression with her comic skill and skill in writing.<ref name="manchester"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/04/20/victoria-wood---obituary/|title=Victoria Wood –&nbsp;obituary|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=20 April 2016|access-date=19 May 2017}}</ref> She went on to study in the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts at the [[University of Birmingham]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/68405f22-a1f7-11e0-b485-00144feabdc0.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/68405f22-a1f7-11e0-b485-00144feabdc0.html |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=The Inventory: Victoria Wood|date=2 July 2011|work=[[Financial Times]]|access-date=20 April 2016}}</ref>