Barbara Jane Horrocks (born 18 January 1964) is a British actress. She portrayed both Katy Grin and Bubble in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. She was nominated for the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for the title role in the stage play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, and received Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for the role in the film version of Little Voice.
She is also known for her appearances in films, including The Dressmaker (1988), The Witches (1990), Second Best (1993), Life is Sweet (1990), Chicken Run (2000), Corpse Bride (2005), Sunshine on Leith (2013) and Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016), as well as the television series Fifi and the Flowertots (2005–2010), Little Princess (2006–2020) and the Sky One sitcom Trollied, as Julie Cook (2011–2015).
Early life Horrocks was born in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, the daughter of Barbara (née Ashworth), a hospital worker, and John Horrocks, a sales representative. She is the youngest of three children.
She attended Balladen County Primary School and Fearns County Secondary School. She trained at Oldham College and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art with Imogen Stubbs and Ralph Fiennes, and began her career with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Career Stage Horrocks has appeared on stage in Ask for the Moon (Hampstead, 1986), A Collier's Friday Night (Greenwich, 1987), Valued Friends (Hampstead, 1989) and The Debutante Ball (Hampstead, 1989). She appeared in Our Own Kind (Bush, 1991), Deadly Advice (Fletcher, 1993), Cabaret (Donmar Warehouse 1994), Macbeth (Greenwich Theatre, 1995) and Absurd Person Singular (Garrick Theatre, 2007).
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 at the 1993 Laurence Olivier Awards for her performance in the 1992 West End production, directed by her then-boyfriend Sam Mendes.. She then went on to star as Sally Bowles in the 1993 revival production of Cabaret, also directed by Sam Mendes.
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. She was reunited with Jones in a new musical production of Annie Get Your Gun, which opened at the Young Vic in October 2009. At London's Young Vic, in 2016's If You Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Horrocks revisited the songs of her youth to sing versions of tracks by the likes of Joy Division, The Smiths, Buzzcocks, and The Human League.
In October 2014, Horrocks played Ella Khan in the London revival of East Is East at Trafalgar Studios as part of Jamie Lloyd's Trafalgar Transformed season. In 2024, Horrocks joined the cast of the British premiere production of play Nachtland at the Young Vic theatre, directed by Patrick Marber.
In August 2024, Horrocks starred as Meg in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party at the Ustinov Studio.
Screen She appeared in Catherine Cookson's The Fifteen Streets, alongside Sean Bean and Owen Teale and portrayed Pattern, the housemaid, in Stuart Orme's The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. Both films were released in 1989. She drew critical notice for her performance in the film Life Is Sweet (1990). She also portrayed Miss Irvine, the mistreated assistant of Eva Ernst / The Grand High Witch in Nicolas Roeg's The Witches (1990). Horrocks became well known on screen for her role as Bubble and Katy Grin in the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2016).
She reprised her stage role in the 1998 screen adaptation, Little Voice, which earned nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 56th Golden Globe Awards, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 52nd British Academy Film Awards, the Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 3rd Golden Satellite Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role - Motion Picture at the 5th Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress.
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.
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 (played by Tom Hollander).
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, Jericho, Red Dwarf, Some Kind of Life, Suffer the Little Children, The Storyteller, The Garden, Fifi & the Flowertots, Little Princess (the voice of the princess) and Welcome to the Times.
She was the subject of an episode of the genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? in 2006. That year, she played the title role of Ros Pritchard in The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, a drama about a woman elected prime minister.
On 14 January 2014, Horrocks appeared as a contestant on The Great Sport Relief Bake Off on BBC Two— the celebrity version of The Great British Bake Off—hosted by Jo Brand and broadcast to help raise money for the charity Sport Relief. The other contestants were TV and radio presenter Kirsty Young, choreographer Jason Gardiner, and Olympic athlete Greg Rutherford.
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.
In 2015, she supplied the voice of the Tubby Phone in the reboot of the popular British children's television series Teletubbies. In 2021, she began starring in the Sky comedy series Bloods.
Audio Horrocks' voiceovers have been used on the films Chicken Run, Christmas Carol: The Movie, Corpse Bride, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, and Tinker Bell. She also did the voiceover of Fenchurch on radio and 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.
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' album Swing When You're Winning.
Personal life
Horrocks has two children with her former partner, playwright Nick Vivian. They were together for 21 years, separating in 2017. She currently lives in Brighton.
She was previously in a relationship with director Sam Mendes. She was in a relationship with the singer and actor Ian Dury, about whom she devised the 2022 drama, Love Pants: Ian Dury & Jane Horrocks, for BBC Radio 4, based on her own diary entries and his love letters to her during their one-year relationship in the 1980s when she was 23. They remained friends until his death in 2000.
Filmography
Film Year Title Role Directed by 1988 The Dressmaker Rita Jim O'Brien1989 Getting It Right Jenny Randal Kleiser The Wolves of Willoughby Chase Pattern Stuart Orme1990 The Witches Miss Susan Irvine Nicolas Roeg Memphis Belle Faith Michael Caton-Jones Life Is Sweet Nicola Mike Leigh 1993 Second Best Debbie Chris Menges 1994 Deadly Advice Jodie Greenwood Mandie Fletcher 1997 Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis Mavis Davis / Marla Dorland John Henderson 1998 Little Voice Laura "LV" Hoff Mark Herman 1999 Faeries Huccaby (voice) Gary Hurst Hooves of Fire Donner (voice)2000 Chicken Run Babs (voice) Peter Lord & Nick Park Born Romantic Maureen "Mo" Docherty David Kane Lion of Oz Wimsik (voice) Tim Deacon 2001 Christmas Carol: The Movie Ghost of Christmas Past (voice) Jimmy T. Murakami 2002 Legend of the Lost Tribe Donner (voice)2005 Corpse Bride The Black Widow / Mrs. Plum (voice) Tim Burton Brothers of the Head Roberta Howe Keith Fulton & Louis Pepe 2006 Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties Meenie (voice) Tim Hill 2007 Close Encounters of the Herd Kind Donner (voice) 2008 Tinker Bell Fairy Mary (voice) Bradley Raymond 2009 Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure Klay Hall 2010 No One Gets Off in This Town 2011 Arthur Christmas Lead Elf (voice) Sarah Smith 2012 Secret of the Wings Fairy Mary (voice) Bobs Gannaway & Peggy Holmes 2013 Sunshine on Leith Jean Henshaw Dexter Fletcher 2014 The Pirate Fairy Fairy Mary Peggy Holmes 2016 Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie Bubble/Shirley Bassey impersonator Mandie Fletcher 2018 Swimming with Men Heather Scott Oliver Parker 2023 Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget Babs (voice) Sam Fell
Television series