A close friend told The Sun newspaper: “She was sat up in bed talking and joking at 11pm with her family around her but the next morning she died”.
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The actress died at home surrounded by family after a short battle with cancer on Wednesday. Photo credit: Steve Parsons/PA Wire Victoria Wood with children Henry and Grace Durham after receiving her CBE at Buckingham Palace, London, Photo credit: Steve Parsons/PA Wire Victoria Wood, who has died aged 62 after a short battle with cancer, her publicist has said.
She started her career in 1974 by winning the ATV talent show New Faces – she was still attending university at the time.
Wood found fame in the 1980s and was best known for her BBC sketch Acorn Antiques and comedy Dinnerladies.
In 2007, Wood won her fourth and final BAFTA for her performance in ITV’s wartime drama Housewife, 49, which was later adapted for stage.
Wood’s long-time comedy partner Julie Walters said: “Too heart sore to comment”.
Viewers in Wales will get an hour-long version of the show from 8pm.
The couple, who married in 1980, had two children together before they separated in 2002.
Victoria Wood and Julie Walters met in 1978 when they both had parts in a London play called In At The Death, and they formed a friendship that lasted for over 35 years.
Presenters Ant and Dec also paid tribute to Victoria, saying “Very sad to hear of the passing of Victoria Wood”.
Actor Danny Dyer said: “A world without Victoria Wood is a sad sad thing”. She had previously participated in Moonwalks, a British charity walk that raise money for breast cancer research. “My thoughts are with her family”.
“Am devastated that she has gone and my thoughts are with her family”, Saunders said.
“Thanks @VictoriaWoodUK for being a brilliant, bold women and making us laugh”. She then wrote, produced and starred in Dinner Ladies in 1998, a BBC sitcom about staff working in a fictional factory canteen in Manchester.
The famous Victoria Wood comedy sketch where the dippy waitress serves “Two soups!” to two impatient customers was said to have been inspired by Lubin’s cafe in Morecambe.
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“It was her northern roots which she drew on as inspiration and I think the fact that an ordinary northern girl like her can use her talent to such great effect in a fabulous career is a real inspiration for our pupils”.
