Jane Horrocks gives daft characters a precise voice and dependable comic timing. We value that skill, but her naturalistic acting and vocal impressions make the familiar eccentric roles look like a rather narrow use of her.
Fi1m perspective
Babs knits while the others organise the break-in in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023). Jane Horrocks voices her, and we laughed at the knitting set beside Mac’s engineering and Fowler’s lengthy briefing. It is a small joke, pitched at the right size for a busy ensemble. We rate Horrocks most for that comic precision: she can make a daft character funny without making the whole scene about her. The sequel is only intermittently sharp, but this is a good use of her.
Absolutely Fabulous (1992) gives that eccentricity a more conspicuous place, with Horrocks as Bubble alongside Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. Her comic timing belongs in our account of why the regular cast works so well, even if the central partnership does most of the heavy lifting. There is a danger in the daft supporting role: once the audience knows what to expect, eccentricity can become the entire joke. Horrocks’s vocal distinctiveness helps, but it should not become an excuse to ask nothing else of her. The programme is better served by its regulars than by the celebrity appearances that sometimes interrupt it.
The earlier work makes that narrow expectation look particularly wasteful. In Mike Leigh’s Life Is Sweet (1990), as Nicola, she was already capable of sharply observed, naturalistic ensemble acting. Jim Cartwright wrote the stage role in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (1992) for her vocal impressions, before she took LV into Little Voice (1998). Her imitations of Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey and Marilyn Monroe require close attention to the particular ways other people sound. Those parts make a better starting point for understanding her than the assumption that she is chiefly there to be peculiar.
Voice work became a substantial part of the later career, including Babs in Chicken Run (2000) and its sequel. In the latter, editor Stephen Perkins keeps the caper moving between the teams inside and outside, while Harry Gregson-Williams supplies muted brass and a ticking rhythm. Her small contribution works within that brisk pace, although it leaves us wishing for a part that asks more of her. For the comedy, start with Absolutely Fabulous; then try Little Voice before deciding what sort of actor she is.
Biography
Jane Horrocks is a British actress. She was born on 18 January 1964 in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, England. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company early in her career.
Horrocks is known for her role as Bubble in the television series Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012) and its 2016 film. She originated the title role in the stage play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (1992) and reprised it in the 1998 film adaptation. Her voice work includes Babs in Chicken Run (2000) and Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023), as well as roles in Corpse Bride (2005) and various Tinker Bell films.
She received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Little Voice. Other film credits include Life Is Sweet (1990) and The Witches (1990).
