Dinnerladies is a BBC sitcom written by and starring Victoria Wood that chronicles the antics of a group of workers in a canteen in the north of England. Bren tries to maintain a semblance of order in amongst the chaos, while dealing with the canteen supervisor, slightly sex-obsessed cancer sufferer Tony. Dolly and Jean are the bickering menopausal older women, always at odds but best friends beneath it all. Then there's thick-as-two-short-planks Anita, and the terminally uninterested Twinkle, more concerned with having a good time than anything else. Making up the motley crew are military man handyman Stan, all rules and regulations, and ditzy Philippa, who never seems to get anything right.

In 1998 Victoria Wood put pen to paper and wrote her multi-award-winning comedy, dinnerladies. Twenty years on this documentary takes a look back at what it was like working on this well-loved sitcom.

Comedy about the staff of a northern English factory. Bren (Victoria Wood), a kindly woman, tries to help everyone with their problems, while attempting to ignore her drunken mother (Julie Walters) who lives in a fantasy world where she hob-nobs with the rich and famous. Her boss Tony (Andrew Dunn) likes to make out that he's an ultra-laddish sexist pervert, although it's all just a cover for being too shy to ask Bren out. The older members of the team, Dolly (Thelma Barlow) and Jean (Anne Reid) live only for the not-so-subtle bitching war they have with each other. Dolly is preoccupied with her weight and Jean's fed up with her husband. Meanwhile, Twinkle (Maxine Peake), described sarcastically by Tony as 'The Pixie With The Laughing Face' is always in a foul mood, and Anita (Shonab Gulati) simply hasn't a clue. Add in Stan the handyman (Duncan Preston), who busies himself with 'toaster emergencies' and 'canine faeces alerts' and Phillipa the neurotic human resources officer (Celia Imrie) and it's an unusual day when 'any blooming work' gets done. Written by Roseanne Hodge {rosie@ihug.co.nz}