Dinnerladies is a British sitcom

British sitcom

A British sitcom tends, as it does in most other countries, to be based on a family, workplace or other institution, where the same group of contrasting characters is brought together in each episode. Unlike American sitcoms, where twenty or more episodes in a season is the norm, British sitcoms...

 written, co-produced by and starring Victoria Wood

Victoria Wood

Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...

. It ran on BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 for 16 episodes from 1998 to 2000.
The show is set entirely in the canteen of HWD Components, a fictional factory in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, featuring the caterers and regular customers as the main characters. The inner lives and social interactions of the mostly female, middle-aged characters are vividly and amusingly depicted.

As with much of Victoria Wood's work, there is also a counterpoint of sadder themes, including deaths in the families of two of the main characters, a painful divorce, one of the characters living with cancer, one character becoming a single parent, and a long-running on-off relationship involving a great deal of heartache for the pair involved.
Involving only one set throughout its run (with the exception of a quiz show set and hospital set — both seen only on a television screen in the last two episodes), Dinnerladies was entirely filmed at BBC Television Centre

BBC Television Centre

BBC Television Centre at White City in West London is the headquarters of BBC Television. Officially opened on 29 June 1960, it remains one of the largest to this day; having featured over the years as backdrop to many BBC programmes, it is one of the most readily recognisable such facilities...

 in front of a live studio audience.