[1] Wood is a television personality who spent the majority of her career working for the rival network ITV prior to her involvement in As Seen on TV.

Going into production in summer 1984 – with studio recordings in September and October – the first series of As Seen on TV was intended for broadcast later that year.

As a theatre tie-in, Wood arranged a short stand-up tour with the same name as the show, to capitalise on her television appearances around the same time.

Each episode began with Wood delivering a stand-up comedy monologue, often incorporating material she had previously tested during her stage tours.

[2] Gail and Carl was a regular sketch in series one featuring Andrew Livingston and Victoria Wood as a young, naïve northern couple.

It was a spoof soap opera set in an antiques shop, which, despite its provincial high street status, manages to supply an endless stream of works by Pablo Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

[2] Wood drew inspiration from the long-running ATV/Central serial Crossroads, The Cedar Tree and the BBC radio soap opera Waggoners Walk (1969–1980).

Each episode of As Seen on TV featured a spoof documentary of "slice of life" stories, such as a girl who wanted to swim the English Channel and an old man moving into a home.

The musical starts as an Andrew Lloyd Webber parody with the setting of a girl's private school but including issues such as the Spanish Civil War and the McCarthy era.

The sketch was written with a detailed knowledge of the soap opera's past: "That stuck up Ida Barlow, who's no better than she should be... it'll not be too long before she falls under a bus!

"[15] This sketch's accuracy earned Wood praise from Doris Speed, who had played Annie Walker in Coronation Street from 1960 to 1983.

All six episodes of the first series were broadcast between 11 January and 15 February 1985 at 9:00 pm on Friday evenings on BBC2.They followed the same format with an opening stand up monologue from Wood, followed by a mixture of sketches, songs and spoof mini-documentaries, with regular soap opera parody Acorn Antiques making its introduction.

This first series reached 4.55 million viewers by the penultimate show, making it the tenth most popular programme that week on the channel.

"[1] The Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy described Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV as having "a regular company of fine performers, good production values, incisive scripts and a snappy pace... the show rarely dipped below brilliant and featured numerous delights, such as Wood's hilariously authentic dialogue and her surprisingly stinging satirical characters".

[23] Wood used a regular ensemble of actors in the series, Julie Walters, Celia Imrie and Duncan Preston, with Susie Blake and Patricia Routledge doing weekly spots.

She played many two handers with Wood as well as other roles such as daytime television host Margery, a mad shoe shop lady, the elderly waitress in the Two Soups sketch, and a transsexual hairdresser.

He had even turned down the chance to play Shakespeare and an offer of a world tour as Hotspur in Henry IV, Part One at the same time.

[1] Most famously playing the recurring role of Clifford in Acorn Antiques, he advertised a men's bra, was "Corin Huntley" – a documentary presenter – and was the voice of the monster Crayola in Wood's parody of Doctor Who.

[1] Imrie played various roles throughout the run, like a co-presenter of McConomy (a spoof TV economy show), and most famously Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques.

"[30] Wood spotted Susie Blake in a musical at the King's Head Theatre and cast her in the role of the opinionated continuity announcer.

[1] Semi-regulars in the show included Jim Broadbent, who'd previously appeared with Wood in the London staging of her play Talent.

[1] Lill Roughley, who Wood first spotted when she worked with her then husband Geoffrey Durham in 1977, was given various roles, such as impersonating Coronation Street's Minnie Caldwell.

Wood hired many actors she had previously worked with and felt she could trust, such as Peter Ellis, Meg Johnson, Kay Adshead and Sue Wallace.

[1] Wood hired several celebrities for the show including Frank Bruno, Denis Healey, Claire Rayner, Pete Postlethwaite, Maureen Lipman, Hope Jackman, Molly Weir, Henry Kelly, Dora Bryan and Anne Reid (who would star with Wood again in her sitcom dinnerladies in 1999.

Wood and Walters both appeared as Margery and Joan in a sketch for Red Nose Day 1988 – A Night of Comic Relief, broadcast live.

[37] Acorn Antiques has been revived many times: firstly, Mrs Overall briefly returned in 1992's Victoria Wood's All Day Breakfast.

[38] Secondly, Acorn Antiques was briefly brought back for an episode in 2001, featuring the original cast and Nick Frost as an armed robber.

[39] In 2005 it was revived by Wood as a West End theatre production Acorn Antiques: The Musical!, starring the original cast and directed by Trevor Nunn.

[42] Barmy features a Margery and Joan sketch specially written as an introduction to the book, where they review forthcoming novels.

[43][44] 'Craft Shop', where the owner (Rosalind March) tries to tempt her customer (Celia Imrie) with the likes of "Ukrainian Prayer Shawls, woven by the mothers of Russian dissidents whilst in a state of euphoria, which doesn't happen very often which is why we've only got three.