Acorn Antiques was a parodic soap opera featured regularly on the sketch show Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, which ran from 1985 to 1987.

The show spoofed the real soap Crossroads, and its apparent low production values; specifically the "stagy" look of the show, and the tendency they had to keep going when someone fluffed a line or missed a cue. The cavalier attitude some soaps had to continuity was also spoofed; in one episode the antique shop is, for no referred-to reason, a health farm. References to other soaps were also featured; one episode ended with the announcement that the show's theme song was available to buy as Anyone Can Break A Vase, a reference to the pop song Anyone Can Fall In Love, which was based on the EastEnders theme.

One of the show's spoof documentaries, presented by Duncan Preston , took us behind the scenes at Acorn Antiques. When the presenter noticed an obvious continuity error, the producer ('Marion Clune', played by Maggie Steed ) summed up the shows attitude: "Joe Public never clocks a darn thing."

The cast were:

• Miss Babs (Celia Imrie): The overwrought owner of Acorn Antiques, who moved from one crisis to another. Was usually on the phone, being told of a disaster the budget wouldn't stretch to showing.

• Miss Berta (Victoria Wood): Miss Babs' very similar cousin, prone to nervous collapse and amnesia. She is also a partner in the business, but Miss Babs is effectively sole owner while she recovers.

• Clifford (Duncan Preston ): The stolid, reliable leading man who has a doomed relationship with Miss Babs. Or possibly Miss Berta.

• Mrs Overall (Julie Walters): The elderly tealady, who believed all problems could be solved with a nice cup of tea, a macaroon, and an irrelevant story about her late husband. In one episode she is revealed to be Miss Berta's mother.

• Trixie (Rosie Collins ): Known as Trixie Trouble, she is a sort of watered-down femme fatale. Revealed as Miss Babs' daughter, shortly before reforming and entering a convent.

• Derek (Kenny Ireland ): The handyman, and possibly Mrs Overall's other child.

• Cousin Jerez (Peter Ellis): The villain of the series, whose unlikely plans to take over the shop are foiled in equally unlikely ways.

• Extras (Albert & Michaela Welch): An elderly couple who appear at the beginning of every episode, looking at an antique and then leaving the shop.

In 2005 Acorn Antiques: The Musical opened at the Theatre Royal. The musical features almost all the actors from the original reprising their parts (or, strictly, the parts of the fictional actors from the spoof documentary), with the exception of Wood herself; Miss Berta is played by Sally Ann Triplett . Instead Wood alternates with Julie Walters in the part of Bo Beaumont/Mrs Overall.

A routine from the show closed the 2005 BAFTA tribute to Victoria Wood.