Barbara Jane Horrocks is an English stage, screen and television actress,
voice artist, musician and singer. She played "Bubble" in the TV series
Absolutely Fabulous and is known for her distinctive voice and strong Lancashire
accent. Early life
Horrocks, the youngest of three children, was born in Rawtenstall,
Lancashire, the daughter of Barbara, a hospital worker, and John Horrocks, a
sales representative. She attended Balladen County Primary School and later
trained at Oldham College and subsequently at the Royal Academy of
Dramatic Art with Imogen Stubbs and Ralph Fiennes, and began her career with
the Royal Shakespeare Company. She drew critical notice for her performance in
the film Life Is Sweet, followed by her award-winning performance in the West
End play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice in which she sang all the songs.
Horrocks became a name with the role of Bubble in Absolutely Fabulous.
The Rise and Fall of Little Voice While working on Road, a play directed
by Jim Cartwright, Horrocks warmed up by doing singing impressions of Judy
Garland, Shirley Bassey and Ethel Merman. Cartwright was so impressed with
her mimicry he wrote The Rise and Fall of Little Voice for her. She was
nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performance in
the 1992 West End production, directed by her boyfriend Sam Mendes. She
reprised her role in the 1998 screen adaptation, Little Voice, which earned
nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture
Musical or Comedy, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, the
Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, the
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female
Actor in a Leading Role - Motion Picture, and the British Independent
Film Award for Best Actress. In 2000, Horrocks made the CD Further
Adventures of Little Voice, again singing in the style of favourite divas.
The recording includes duets with Ewan McGregor, Robbie Williams and Dean
Martin. Horrocks collaborated once more with Robbie Williams the following year,
for a cover of the Bobby Darin song "Things" on Williams's album Swing When
You're Winning. Career
Horrocks has appeared on stage in Ask for the Moon, A Collier's Friday Night,
Valued Friends, and The Debutante Ball. She appeared in "Catherine Cookson's The
Fifteen Streets, alongside Sean Bean and Owen Teale in 1989, Our Own Kind, Deadly
Advice, Cabaret, Macbeth and Absurd Person Singular. Her last West End
appearance was in Sweet Panic, the 2003 Stephen Poliakoff drama in which she
portrayed a neurotic mother locked in a battle of wills with her disturbed son's
psychologist. She starred in Richard Jones's critically acclaimed production
of The Good Soul of Szechuan at the Young Vic in 2008, and was reunited with
Jones in a new musical production of Annie Get Your Gun, which opened at the
Young Vic in October 2009. Horrocks's voiceovers have been used on
Chicken Run, Christmas Carol: The Movie, Corpse Bride, Garfield: A Tail of Two
Kitties and Tinker Bell, and on radio as Fenchurch in the audio adaptation of
Douglas Adams' science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for
BBC Radio 4. She has voiced Donner in all three Robbie the Reindeer films in
aid of Comic Relief. Other television credits include
Absolutely Fabulous, Victoria Wood - We'd Quite Like To Apologise, Bad Girl,
Boon, Heartland, Hunting Venus, La Nonna, Leaving Home, Never Mind the
Horrocks, Nightlife, Wyrd Sisters, Foxbusters, Red Dwarf, Some Kind of
Life, Suffer the Little Children, The Storyteller, The Garden, Fifi & the
Flowertots, Little Princess and Welcome to the Times. She was the subject of an
episode of the genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? in
2006. That year she played the title role in The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, a
drama about a woman elected prime minister. For 10 years, Horrocks
appeared with Prunella Scales in commercials for the UK supermarket chain
Tesco. She narrated BBC Two's television series The Speaker in April 2009.
Also in 2009, Horrocks took the lead in the BBC TV production Gracie!, a drama
portraying the life of Gracie Fields during World War II and her relationship
with the Italian-born director Monty Banks.
On Tuesday 14 January 2014, Horrocks appeared as a contestant in The Great
Sport Relief Bake Off on BBC Two. This programme is the celebrity version of
The Great British Bake Off, whose purpose is to help raise money for the
charity Sport Relief, and was hosted by Jo Brand. The other contestants were: TV
and radio presenter Kirsty Young, choreographer Jason Gardiner, and
Olympic athlete Greg Rutherford. In October 2014, Horrocks will play Ella
Khan in the London revival of East is East at Trafalgar Studios as part of
Jamie Lloyd's Trafalgar Transformed season.
On 9 May 2015 she gave a reading at VE Day 70: A Party to Remember in Horse
Guards Parade, London that was broadcast live on BBC1.
Personal life Horrocks lives with playwright Nick
Vivian in Twickenham with their children, son Dylan and daughter Molly.
In 2011, Horrocks caused minor controversy by admitting to no longer
shopping in Tesco, stating that '(t)here's always a set type of people
doing their shopping ... whether it's pensioners holding everyone up or
screeching kids. Or sometimes you can have rather a lot of chavs in, and that
gets a bit scary.' Writers Julie Burchill and Barbara Allen branded
Horrocks snobbish and hypocritical for her comments, drawing particular
attention to the fact that Horrocks had famously fronted a series of adverts for
the supermarket chain in the 1990s. Filmography
= Film= = Television=
= Television films= = Short film, television and video=
Awards and honours BAFTA Awards: Nomination for Best
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for Little Voice
British Independent Film Awards: Nomination for Best Actress for Little
Voice Chicago Film Critics Association Awards:
Nomination for Best Actress for Little Voice
Golden Globes: Nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion
Picture -Comedy/Musical, for Little Voice
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards: Won Award for Best Supporting
Actress for Life is Sweet National Society of Film Critics Awards:
Won Award for Best Supporting Actress for Life Is Sweet
Satellite Awards: Nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion
Picture - Comedy or Musical for Little Voice
Screen Actors Guild Awards: Nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast,
for Little Voice, shared with Annette Badland, Brenda Blethyn, Jim Broadbent,
Michael Caine, Philip Jackson and Ewan McGregor.
Screen Actors Guild Awards: Nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female
Actor in a Leading Role for Little Voice Sitges - Catalonian International Film
Festival: Won Best Actress Award for Deadly Advice
References External links
Jane Horrocks at the Internet Movie Database
BBC interview Jane Horrocks on BBC Drama Faces
The many faces of Jane Horrocks Jane Horrocks on Who Do You Think You
Are? Horrocks as Shirley Bassey on YouTube