Born in Chippenham in Wiltshire in 1959, Victoria Wicks is the grand-daughter of writer H.E. Bates on her mother's side and, along with several other family members, she is a director of Evensford Productions, a company established to promote her grand-father's work. Having graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama she became involved with several theatre groups, notably the Royal Shakespeare Company. She also became a member of The Wrestling School, a group which specialises in performing the works of dramatist Howard Barker, with whom she has appeared internationally. However, to many television viewers she will always be Sally Smedley, the vain, not too bright news anchor lady in Drop the Dead Donkey (1990) though more recently she has appeared in ongoing roles in the youth drama series Skins (2007) as the college head and with the eccentric Mighty Boosh.