Victoria Wood's battle with insecurities exposed after her death

Victoria Wood spent years fighting with her demons because of her childhood.

In Becoming Victoria Wood, a 90-minute film that opened in cinemas last month and aired on U&Gold channel on Thursday, February 12, the late English actress, comedian, writer, and musician’s school friends opened up about her teenage years and how her childhood insecurities affected her life.

Victoria, the youngest of her four siblings, was raised by her “frustrated” father, Stanley Wood, who held back his passion to be a playwright just to provide for his family, including his “depressed” mother, Nellie.

In her interviews, she talked about her unhappy childhood, claiming that she was a “mess and a misfit” in her teenage years. “I was very lazy, that was the problem. That was all my fault, I just didn't work hard enough.”

Her childhood friend Lesley Schatzberger admitted that Victoria “didn't pull out the stops with things she wasn't interested in doing,” adding, “she came from what felt to me must have been an ununified family.”

“I didn't ever know her parents which was really weird, certainly for school friends. When we would take her home after she'd been at my home for tea, she would want to be dropped off on the hill and she'd walk up to the house by herself.”

“There didn't seem to be a family context for Vicky, it was just Vicky,” she explained.

Another school friend of the Little Crackers star Anne Sweeney said, “She was always quite scruffy and not very conformist. She had sort of droopy socks and a sort of slouch.”

“She just didn't fit in and her way of dealing with that was to not care. She had an independent demeanour but I think really she was very shy,” she noted.

Victoria’s battle with her insecurities ended when she passed away after a short but brave fight with cancer in April 2016.