Jane Horrocks
Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010
BBC
4.4 • 804 Ratings
🗓️ 8 October 2006
⏱️ 35 minutes
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Summary
Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the actress Jane Horrocks. She specialises in unconventional, complex roles - from the eccentric secretary Bubble in the cult sit-com Absolutely Fabulous to a bulimic teenager in Mike Leigh's film Life is Sweet. But the role that brought her the greatest public recognition and critical acclaim was Little Voice. Written especially for her, it told the story of a cripplingly shy girl who only finds liberation and expression when she takes on the voices of musical legends. Jane Horrocks's ability to sing like Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe, among others, was so convincing that the film's credits had to make it clear she had sung every note and not been dubbed by the originals.
The film had parallels with Jane's own life - as a shy school-girl, she too had discovered her facility for copying voices and would entertain family and friends with her portrayals of Shirley Bassey and Julie Andrews. She says that as soon as she found her gift she used it to win friends - and knew she had discovered her niche in life.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy. |
| 0:05.4 | My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:10.7 | The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that. |
| 0:17.4 | With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to helping |
| 0:22.7 | you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put together |
| 0:28.7 | by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life, |
| 0:34.9 | check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. |
| 0:41.3 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:44.3 | The program was originally broadcast in 2006. |
| 0:48.3 | Music My castaway this week is actress Jane Horrox. |
| 1:08.1 | In the film The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, |
| 1:10.7 | her on-screen transformation from cripplingly shy Northern teenager to a succession of show-stopping Hollywood divas transfixed both audiences and critics. |
| 1:20.7 | Her ability to metamorphose into Dietrich, Garland, Monroe and the rest were so entire that the movie's credits had to make it clear that she had sung every note and hadn't been dubbed by the originals. |
| 1:32.3 | She seems to specialise in the quirky and complex. For ten years, she was the brainless bubble in the cult sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, |
| 1:40.9 | and her experience playing an unconventional Lady Macbeth on stage left her so drained |
| 1:45.7 | that she's vowed to never do Shakespeare again. Jane Horrocks, what is it about these |
| 1:50.8 | larger-than-life, pretty extreme characters that so appeals to you? I think I've always been |
| 1:55.9 | attracted to quirky people in general actually. It's more interesting as an actor to play. |
| 2:02.9 | Somebody who's a bit larger than life, |
| 2:04.8 | or who's a bit different or off the wall. |
| 2:07.8 | I've never felt comfortable just playing a sort of ordinary, |
| 2:11.9 | an inverted commas person, |
... |
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