Victoria Wood - bus tour

All aboard! Barbara Nice and Rachel Baker are your intrepid time-travelling tour guides, as we venture back to mid-70s Birmingham to revisit the stomping grounds of drama student and aspiring comedian Victoria Wood.

Our journey begins at the Hop Garden in Harborne, back then the Sportsman pub where Wood worked on the bar and occasionally played piano. An encounter with a BBC producer there led to an audition at the BBC’s Pebble Mill studios, another stop on our magical mystery tour and a regular destination for Wood. (Parts of her break-through 1985 series As Seen on TV were filmed there.)

This tour has been devised by Rachel Baker, who like Wood studied at Birmingham University and has navigated the slings and arrows of the local comedy scene. Buses play a big part in her work, as a source of inspiration and a location for her material, so it’s a delight to have a shiny new electric double-decker bus to play with today.

Please assemble at the Hop Garden to have your ticket checked by the conductor. The tour lasts just over two hours and will finish at the MAC in Cannon Hill Park.

The Victoria Wood programme is presented in partnership with Calthorpe Estates and National Express. With thanks to Jasper Rees and the Victoria Wood estate.