Victoria Wood: At It Again, Oxford Apollo

The wonderful Victoria Wood began her four-night run at the Apollo with a sell-out show which at once revealed her warmth, wit, versatility and consummate professionalism.

Victoria Wood In these days of tacky so-called 'comedians', with their unconvincing drolleries on the way life is supposedly led, it is refreshing to encounter an artist with a genuine eye for humour crafted from the mundane.

And I mean crafted; for while everyday life in the Wood household provides the basis for many of the routines, it is the delicious inventions with which Ms Wood overlays it that have us rocking in the aisles.

Her recent hysterectomy - no laughing matter, you might think - is the basis for much of the humour in the first half, which might have been a little too 'below the decks' for some.

Happily, gynaecology is forgotten in the second hour, when stand-up is pushed aside to start with for a wicked send-up of the dreadful chanteuse Jane Macdonald (hilarious mucky songs!) of BBC's The Cruise fame.

Ms Wood clearly has no time for these manufactured celebrities, or for self-created daytime TV 'stars'. But her devastating put-downs are delivered in what Dame Edna Everage would call "a most caring way".

She can afford to be contemptuous of them, in view of her own formidable talents as actor, scriptwriter, songwriter and, of course, comedian.

She is an ornament to her profession - nothing less than a national treasure whose shining brilliance can be savoured at the Apollo (a few tickets left: grab 'em!) until Sunday.