Jane Horrocks: ‘I’d love to be a baddie in a Tarantino movie’

The actor answers your questions on working with Mike Leigh, starring in a New Order video and dressing as a giant Snoopy at Harrods
Jane Horrocks
Jane Horrocks and Alison Steadman in Mike Leigh’s “Life Is Sweet”
The actor answers your questions on working with Mike Leigh, starring in a New Order video and dressing as a giant Snoopy at Harrods

Each year I convince myself that you’re beneath one of the costumes on The Masked Singer, but I’m proved hopelessly wrong! Has your drama school holiday job – wearing a Snoopy costume in Harrods’ linen department – put you off? VerulamiumParkRanger

have been offered The Masked Singer, but it’s not something I want to do. It’s not because of Snoopy, although that wasn’t a great experience. The associate director at Rada [Royal Academy of Dramatic Art] was asked whether any of the students would be prepared to get into a Snoopy costume in the linen department during the Easter holidays. I don’t know why, but they asked me and I got the gig. I was at Rada with Imogen Stubbs, so she came into Harrods to see me. She looked at me and said: “Jane? Is that you inside that costume?” She was absolutely mortified. It was so hot in Harrods, and twice as hot inside the Snoopy outfit, but so cold outside that I ended up with glandular fever and missing half a term at Rada because of it.

How do you get in character to voice a chicken (Chicken Run), turkey (this year’s Peta [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] adverts) or duck (Garfield)? Ever worry you are being typecast as poultry? TopTramp

I guess I have a bit of a history voicing similar sorts of birds. They often send you the pictures first so you can get an idea of the character. Babs in Chicken Run has a very outstretched Wallace and Gromit-type mouth. Babs is such a large chicken, so I thought a sweet little voice would work well. For Tessa the turkey from the Peta campaign, I wanted more of a throaty, slightly jarring voice.

When did you discover you had an amazing voice? chargehand

From starting impersonations, really. My first impersonation was Julie Andrews when I got The Sound of Music album when I was nine. I fell in love with sounding like Julie. My mum and dad were massively into Shirley Bassey and I found I could impersonate her and Barbra Streisand. That’s when I started to realise that utilising my voice was going to be a good thing for me. It’s brought me a lot of pleasure, and I’ve made people laugh, which is great.

Watch a trailer for Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

What was it like working with Nic Roeg and Anjelica Huston on [1990 Jim Henson Roald Dahl fantasy horror] The Witches, a far superior, nastier and funnier adaptation than the Anne Hathaway remake? Mesm and Roedelius

I loved it. I don’t think I realised at the time what a privilege it was to work with Nic Roeg. It was so well cast. The group cast to play the witches were absolutely crazy. I’d never worked with a group of actors like that before, or since. I used to live in Twickenham and went into the local fish shop where this very eccentric and extraordinarily dressed woman said: “Hello, Jane.” I thought: “How on earth do I know this woman?” She said: “We were in Witches together.” I thought: “Yep. Stands to reason.”

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Watch: Rob Brydon & Jennifer Saunders

Brydon & Podcast

Well done. You’ve sorted through the embarrassment of riches that is the modern podcast landscape and found me, Rob Brydon, on my podcast. In this season of Brydon &, I talk to, among others: Harry Hill, Ben Elton, Julia Davis, Steve Coogan and Dame Harriet Walter. It’s terrific conversation, full of anecdotes and reminiscence where appropriate.

– Rob Brydon

This clip is from Brydon’s terrific podcast, “Rob Brydon &”. Rob talks with Absolutely Fabulous’ star Jennifer Saunders. As well as being one of the most loved British comedians for her years on AbFab, Ms. Saunders is a lover of British Folk Music.

Rob Brydon is best known for his work on The Trip, Gavin & Stacey and presenting the BBC One comedy panel show Would I Lie To You?

To listen to the full audio interview on the Brydon & podcast, The Hobbledehoy reluctantly suggests Spotify

Watch: Rob Brydon & Richard E. Grant

Brydon & Podcast

Well done. You’ve sorted through the embarrassment of riches that is the modern podcast landscape and found me, Rob Brydon, on my podcast. In this season of Brydon &, I talk to, among others: Harry Hill, Ben Elton, Julia Davis, Steve Coogan and Dame Harriet Walter. It’s terrific conversation, full of anecdotes and reminiscence where appropriate.

– Rob Brydon

Two longtime favorites of The Hobbledehoy are Rob Brydon and Richard E. Grant. This clip is from Brydon’s terrific podcast, “Rob Brydon &.”

 Richard E. Grant made his film debut in the comedy Withnail and I (1987). That film, and Grant’s tour-de-force performance as the title character, greatly inspired the creation of The Hobbledehoy.

Since Withnail, Grant has had supporting roles in the films Henry & June, L.A. Story, The Player, Bram Stokers Dracula, The Age of Innocence, The Portrait of a Lady, Spice World, Gosford Park, Bright Young Things, and Penelope.

In 2018 Grant’s critically lauded performance as “Jack Hock” in Can You Ever Forgive Me? earned him an Academy Award.

In September 2022, Grant released a memoir, A Pocketful of Happiness, mostly written in the last year of his wife Joan’s life.

To listen to the full audio interview on the Brydon & podcast, The Hobbledehoy reluctantly suggests Spotify

Watch: Rob Brydon & Alison Steadman

Brydon & Podcast

Well done. You’ve sorted through the embarrassment of riches that is the modern podcast landscape and found me, Rob Brydon, on my podcast. In this season of Brydon &, I talk to, among others: Harry Hill, Ben Elton, Julia Davis, Steve Coogan and Dame Harriet Walter. It’s terrific conversation, full of anecdotes and reminiscence where appropriate.

– Rob Brydon

Two longtime favorites of The Hobbledehoy are Rob Brydon and Alison Steadman This clip is from Brydon’s terrific podcast, “Rob Brydon &”

Alison Steadman was married to director Mike Leigh from 1973-2001, and appears in one of Leigh’s best films, Life is Sweet (brilliant as “Wendy”, the mother of twin 22-year-old daughters, Natalie and Nicola) as well as creating the unforgettable stage role of “Beverly” in Leigh’s acclaimed play Abigail’s Party.

Ms. Steadman and Mr. Brydon were regulars on the hugely-popular British tv comedy Gavin & Stacey, which ran 2007-2019.

To listen to the full audio interview on the Brydon & podcast, The Hobbledehoy reluctantly suggests Spotify

Bill Antoniou takes a look at the films of British master filmmaker Mike Leigh

Whenever people tell me that Mike Leigh is one of their favourite filmmakers, I’m always surprised to hear it.  Even though he’s also one of mine, I forget to think of him as an actual filmmaker.

His brilliant work is derived from his achievements in theatre and it bears those origins on screen, though I don’t mean that as criticism. He returns to some character archetypes frequently (the soulful homeless man, the hopelessly chirpy working-class woman) and the conflicts he puts his characters through feel like the stuff of stage drama. He makes them relevant in cinema from the beginning, then as he goes along, directing more films and making his multi-levelled narratives feel more cinematic. (Meantime just feels like watching people, while Another Year plays almost like a thriller.)

A common mistake people make about Leigh’s work is saying that it is improvised. It’s absolutely not, but is rather a script created from work that he does with his actors, creating characters from birth to death and putting them in situations together in which their improvised interactions eventually result in a finished work. In the eighties, he revolutionized the kitchen-sink melodrama. These films were celebrated for nailing the anxieties of the less fortunate under Thatcher’s conservative reign. In the nineties, he applied his observations of simple lives in the less glamorous parts of London to high concept dramas (and in the case of his Palme d’Or-winning Secrets & Lies, created his masterpiece). Continue reading