Victoria Wood was a true pioneer among entertainers. Through her sketches, her songs and her record-breaking stand-up shows, she established herself as a national treasure.

Wood’s career was one of the most illustrious and wide-ranging in British comedy, and it was a great sadness that, when she died in 2016 at the age of 62, she had not yet got around to telling her own remarkable life story.

‘I will do it one day,’ she told journalist and author Jasper Rees, who interviewed her more than anyone else. ‘It would be about my childhood, about my first few years in show business, which were really interesting and would make a really nice story.’

Now Jasper Rees will finally tell her rich story in full. He has been given complete and exclusive access to Victoria’s extensive archive of personal and professional material, and has conducted interviews with her family, friends and collaborators – including Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Dawn French and many others.