Victoria Wood documentary reveals comedian ‘felt ashamed’ of her body, keeping secret press cuttings with cruel words about her size

Victoria Wood on the set of the BBC television series 'Victoria Wood' — (Image credit: Don Smith/Radio Times/Getty Images)

A new documentary about legendary comedian Victoria Wood, presents viewers with a woman who suffered much sadness behind the scenes.

Airing on U&Gold on February 12, Becoming Victoria Wood explores rarely seen archive material and previously unheard audio recordings, to give fans new insight into her life nearly a decade after her death.

Becoming Victoria Wood (2026) | Official Trailer - YouTube

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Good friends of Victoria's and fellow comedy icons Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders share their thoughts on body shaming in the industry, and why it happens.

After seeing the press clippings, Jennifer says, "What awful reviews," while Dawn adds, "We have had the same thing, we're two chubsters."

"Your physical appearance seems to be the first thing that matters, or just the audacity of you to come on the stage and do the job."

Maxine Peake agrees, saying, "It's shocking, absolutely shocking. But it's because she's a woman - would they say that about a man? No, of course they wouldn't."

Dawn adds, "Is she supposed to hide away? Or change for you? Change so that she suits what you think a woman should look like? No."

As Jennifer points out, what should've really happened is that "You review someone's work, but not their body." She continues, sadly, "I think that's really hideous and Vic would've found that very hard."

Dawn shares that choosing to be in such a critical industry means you need to own your shape, despite the terrible things that might be written about you.

Old footage later depicts Victoria admitting that she had a "chip on her shoulder" about her weight, and deliberately made herself the butt of the joke in her sketches as a coping mechanism.

Her friends believe she never really managed to become comfortable as herself, and the poignant film shows that having faith in herself was something the comedian struggled with for most of her early career.

Despite the setbacks, Victoria remains one of the most celebrated talents of her time, and even though she had ongoing issues with confidence, she did find peace in achieving what she set out to do in her career by the end.

The star can emotionally be heard saying, "This is where I wanted to get all those years ago and now I'm here. The least I can do is enjoy it, and I really do make the most of it."

Becoming Victoria Wood airs on U&Gold from February 12.

Lucy is a multi-award nominated writer and blogger with seven years’ experience writing about entertainment, parenting and family life. Lucy worked as a freelance writer and journalist at the likes of PS and moms.com, before joining GoodtoKnow as an entertainment writer, and then as news editor. The pull to return to the world of television was strong, and she was delighted to take a position at woman&home to once again watch the best shows out there, and tell you why you should watch them too.

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