Victoria Wood has beaten other queens of comedy to be named the funniest woman of all time.

A poll commissioned by the Radio Times credits the 53-year-old comedian from Bury with "an unrivalled capacity to make the homespun hilarious".

Dawn French, aged 48, and Kathy Burke, aged 42 - most famous as Waynetta Slob - take second and third place.

French, star of Vicar of Dibley, is described as "a great big playful pixie with a God-given gift for clowning but also the capacity to reach right into the nation's hearths and hearts".

Burke, says the magazine, no matter "however grotesque her characters. . . manages magically to make them appealing".

Wood's comedy partner Julie Walters, aged 56, is fourth, followed by Jennifer Saunders, aged 48.

Walters, star of Billy Elliot, Calendar Girls and Educating Rita, is credited with having the ability to "play every kind of funny there is".

Saunders is both an "unnervingly accurate mimic . . . and spectacular leading lady".

Stand-up comic Jo Brand, aged 49, is sixth in the poll of 4,200 people, followed by Joyce Grenfell, who died in 1979 when she was about to be made a Dame.

"Totally fearless" US star Joan Rivers, aged 73, follows in eighth place.

The newest name in the list is Catherine Tate in ninth place, famous for her catchphrase "Am I bovvered?".

The late Lucille Ball, best remembered for I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, and Here's Lucy, is tenth.

With so few newcomers in the top ten, French says she is concerned about the dearth of young women rising up in comedy.

French, who is fronting a new BBC series, Girls Who Do Comedy, tells the Radio Times she and Wood were both surprised "that we hadn't been overtaken by a new wave of younger women comedians".

"We both thought that once the way had been opened up, there'd be a new breed of female stand-ups playing all the big venues," she says.

"When I was younger, I knew that if I was, say, out with friends in a pub where there were lots of young men, I ought to temper my humour a bit. Quite a lot of women said there had been occasions when they too had curbed some of their funniness, out of respect for the egos of men, who needed the approval more.

"On balance, I'd say that's quite a common thing; as a woman, you're supposed to step back and let the men through."

She adds: "So we've arrived; I'd just like to see more of us."

A life making us laugh

Victoria Wood is born on May 19, 1953, in Prestwich. Attends Bury Grammar School for Girls.
Studies drama at the University of Birmingham.
Wins TV talent show New Faces in 1973.
Appears as novelty act in BBC's That's Life! in 1976.
Her first play, Talent (1978), wins her an award for Most Promising New Writer.
Marries magician Geoffrey Durham in March, 1980. They have two children, Grace and Henry, but separate in October, 2002.
Appears in Wood and Walters with Julie Walters in 1981 and Victoria Wood As Seen On TV in 1984. Highlights include spoof soap opera Acorn Antiques.
Awarded an OBE in 1997.
Writes and stars in sitcom Dinnerladies in 1999.
Acorn Antiques the musical opens in 2005 and goes on UK tour in 2006.