Interview: Jane Horrocks

1:38pm Friday 8th August 2008

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RAWTENSTALL'S Jane Horrocks is one of Britain’s best known actresses but somehow manages a low-key life outside her work and garners little attention when she is out and about with her family and she admits, that’s exactly how she likes it.

“People do recognise me perhaps but they’re incredibly respectful so they do a bit of nudge to their friend,” she says. “A few come up to me but they’re always very nice.”

It was a deliberate decision the petite 44-year-old actress made when she first shot to fame not to cultivate celebrity: “I used to go to parties every now and again and then it became less and less appealing, especially as the gossip magazines got more profile.

"I didn’t want to be part of the circuit. So I did consciously stop.”

After a long career spanning TV, film and acclaimed theatre performances; her enduring appeal has extended in the last three years to the under fives in the hit TV series Fifi and The Flowertots in which she voices both the central character Fifi who lives with her friends in a magical garden and the prim and proper Primrose.

Now a global phenomenon, since it premiered on Five’s Milkshake! and Nick Jr in May 2005, the show was the brainchild of Bob The Builder creator Keith Chapman and is hitting the road in theatres across the UK for the next year.

We meet for our interview in the recording studios in Soho where Jane is putting the finishing touches to additional voiceover work for the tour before heading off for her family holidays in the Scilly Isles.

She loves working with her fellow voiceover stars and there is a sense of camaraderie with the crew as they prepare the show for its 100 date regional tour which kicked off last weekend and ends in June next year: “I’m not surprised Fifi's been a success,” she says.

“When they were talking about a female version of Bob for girls, I thought it would do extremely well and it has.

"There’s something in it for all kids. The music’s catchy and the animation is beautiful. Keith’s a clever guy. But she does appeal to adults too.

"My dresser on my last theatre job told me Fifi woke her up like an alarm clock every morning.

"She watched the episode and then went to work. I asked her ‘Have you got children?’ And she said ‘No!’ It was really sweet.”

Since her breakout role as petulant teenager Nicola in Life Is Sweet, Jane has switched between serious and comedy work with ease – playing scatty PA Bubble in Absolutely Fabulous and the singing prodigy in Little Voice, which she played on stage and screen and won her Olivier, Bafta and Golden Globe nominations.

Jane’s latest roles have been as a bored housewife embarking on an affair in Jimmy McGovern’s The Street – although she refused to take her clothes off: “I even kept my shoes and socks on.

"The director just raised an eyebrow!” and BBC’s The Amazing Mrs Pritchard about a supermarket manageress who became prime minister.

More recently she was in the West End in the Alan Ayckbourn farce Absurd Person Singular and starred in the acclaimed Young Vic production of Bertholt Brecht’s The Good Soul of Szechuan which she describes as a career highlight: “I loved it.

"The director Richard Jones was superb and it was one of the best experiences I’d ever had.

"I’ve enjoyed doing the live work recently and am talking about doing another play.”

She has also voiced the US version of the Fifi: “I decided that Primrose was a bit of an LA WAG type like a character in that movie Mean Girls, whereas Fifi’s drawl is Middle America, sweeter and softer,” she explains.

Motherhood is a huge priority with Jane. She took time off to be a mum to Molly, 9, and Dylan, now eleven, but insists it was not the eight years that has often been quoted: “It was actually two years.

"The figure keeps going up! I consciously didn’t work as much when my daughter Molly was young, but in fact, I did a whole series of Ab Fab during that time but I was very focused on her.

"Now they’re much more self-sufficient they’re fine about me working, but they do miss me a lot because I’ve been doing a couple of theatre jobs back to back.

"That’s why voice over work is so handy when you have a family.

"I’m fortunate I have this other career. You couldn’t manage a family doing theatre alone, you have to have some financial backing.”

She smiles when asked what her children make of her: “I think I infuriate them because I’m a Luddite and can’t use a computer.

"We haven’t got broadband at home. They think I’m a comic mum because they take the mickey out of me permanently and they don’t do anything they’re told!

"Things have gone downhill since I started to work again…”

The children also come to see her perfomances: “I had to kiss another actor in The Good Soul Of Szechuan.

"They were repulsed and looked at my fella as if to say ‘Poor Dad!’ "Afterwards, when I asked Dylan what he thought of the play he simply asked ‘Can you buy the props? I liked that swivel chair. Can I have it for my bedroom?”

Having loved ones in the audience doesn’t affect her performance, but if there is an admired director in the house, she admits she does feel nervous.

During intense theatre productions she often sees an acupuncturist to combat any tension.

Earlier this month Jane, who was born in Rawtenshall, received an honorary doctorate from Lancaster University: “I was hugely nervous.

"I went into the ceremony quite cocky. My mum said ‘Won’t you be scared?’ and I was going ‘Of course not.’ "But when I got up onto the stage to get it, I could hardly speak.”

Jane is a rare breed of actor - talented and funny but someone who doesn’t take herself too seriously.

Her quirky prettiness and uniqueness means she will always be in demand for roles: “HD is the kiss of death for actresses over a certain age because you don’t want everything highlighted! I’m sure a lot of actresses have Botox because of that.”

At the end of the interview when asked how it feels to be a national treasure, she laughs in surprise: “That’s very difficult to answer!”

Then smiling at the head of production, who is wearing a dress she rather likes: “Now I’m supposed to be a national treasure, I think I deserve that dress.

"Because national treasures should be able to get what they want!”

Interview by Jane Oddy.

* Fifi and the Flowertots flies is at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool on Wednesday 5th November and Thursday 6th November at 10.30am and 2pm. All tickets £9 with a family ticket at £30 (2 adults and 2 children or one adult and three children).