Fourteen Again – Victoria Wood Theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere

Ria Jones and Sally Ann Triplett in Fourteen Again at the Victoria Wood Theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Fourteen Again continues at the Victoria Wood Theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere until 6 June 2026.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The legend that was Victoria Wood had a monumental record of success as a performer, winning awards for stand-up and TV comedy and drama, and famously holding the record for a comedian playing 15 consecutive sold-out shows at the Royal Albert Hall. But the creator of Acorn Antiques and dinnerladies never became too grand for smaller venues.

And this one in Bowness, the Old Laundry Theatre now renamed in her honour, had a special place in her heart. The stage version of her successful TV film, Housewife, 49, premiered here, and she was a close friend of the theatre’s founders, Charlotte Scott and Roger Glossop. So no better place for the premiere of a fabulous new musical which uses Wood’s music and lyrics, with a book by Tom MacRae (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie).

Fourteen Again is named after the nostalgic song which places Wood firmly in her time in history:

Pretend to like the taste of rum and Coke
Chuck my school hat in a bush
Spit on my mascara brush
Buy Consulate and teach myself to smoke

But what would it really be like to turn back the clock and be 14 again? And if imagination can stretch that far, how about changing the course of your own history, rewriting your own story, to create a happy ending instead of disappointment?

That’s the basis of the tale here, of Peggy (Sally Ann Triplett) and Lou (Ria Jones), two of musical theatre’s best-loved leading ladies. They were best friends at school, then drifted apart and find one another again at the age of 50. But Lou mysteriously disappears again, and in turning the clock back Peggy discovers the tragedy of her friend’s life.

This part of the story is based around another of Wood’s songs, the achingly sad and poignant ‘Litter Bin’, and if the the tears are starting to well up, there’s more than enough comic relief throughout the show. Like Jones owing a nod to ‘Vicky Pollard’ in the maths lesson song, and the fabulous hit duet from the Wood and Walters show, ‘Pretend to be Northern’. Indeed, Triplett and Jones dominate the stage with exactly the sort of dynamic and affectionate bonding that Wood and Walters had themselves. It does leave Michael Chance, playing the hapless Duncan, somewhat in the shadows, but maybe that’s the whole point of the story?

On to the finale which just has to be ‘The Ballad of Barry and Freda’:

Let’s do it, let’s do it, do it till our hearts go boom
Go native, creative, living in the living room
This folly
Is jolly
Bend me over backwards on my hostess trolley
Let’s do it, let’s do it tonight

The fact that everyone in the audience joined in and clearly knew all the words says a lot about Wood’s generational appeal, but looking around the auditorium, there were plenty of younger fans who probably had no idea who The Spinners were, or what a tufted Wilton was.

This is a divinely entertaining and heartwarming show which is a fabulous credit to this lovely little theatre. Directed by Jonathan O’Boyle, with musical supervision by Nigel Lilley, and produced by the venue’s co-founder Scott, the show has a gala night on 19 May 2026 which will raise funds for the Victoria Wood Foundation.

Eileen Jones