Jane Horrocks

'Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie': film review

An endearing shambles, much like the original show.

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie - wearing its yeas well

The plotting is lazy, but this big-screen reboot of the much-loved sitcom gets by thanks to its stars and to the endless goodwill cameos.

Jane Horrocks hints Ab Fab movie appearance may be last

Jane Horrocks has hinted her outing as Bubble in the Ab Fab movie, released next month, will be her last.

Pictures: Jennifer Saunders & Jane Horrocks filming

Jennifer Saunders suits up as Edina as Jane Horrocks pulls off Bubble's weirdest look yet in a hashtag outfit, as Absolutely Fabulous filming resumes.

Radio Times review

It's "Black" Christmas Eve at the discount supermarket Valco: as well as bargains being snapped up by hordes of feral shoppers, there are new and familiar faces in the sitcom that attracts top-quality comic actors, then doesn't do quite enough with them. Gavin (Jason Watkins) has become a Scrooge-like hard man, denying his staff a party and prowling around for vulnerable team members he can corral into working on Christmas Day. Will the return of Julie (Jane Horrocks), the tender guidance of rival store manager Cheryl (Sarah Parish) or the arrival of mysterious head-office enforcer Frank (Richard Wilson) lead to a softening of his spirit?

Radio Times review

Is there any life left in Trollied? After all, when loads of original cast members leave a show, it usually ends up being the kiss of death. Look what happened to ER, New Tricks and - of course - the greatest ensemble drama of all time: Monarch of the Glen.

But despite the fact that the likes of Jane Horrocks and Mark Addy are now long gone, there's still some fun to be had in this series opener, mainly thanks to the introduction of Sarah Parish as the owner of a budget supermarket called Lauda (hmmm, wonder what the inspiration for that could be?), which looks set to be a rival for the mighty Valco.

Cold Comford was this week's Inside No. 9, the number nine in this case being the booth at a version of the Samaritans, the Comfort Support Line.

Steve Pemberton was Andy, its new occupant who quickly realised, first, that his co-workers were not folk anyone should ever confide in and, then, that he too had no talent for "active listening".

Jane Horrocks was good as the office gossip "politely encouraged to move on", but the ultimate twist was crude, and the insight that those who offer help need it most just a little banal - by this series' standards, at least.

Radio Times review

More warped brilliance from the minds of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, Cold Comfort is set at a branch of Comfort Support Line as volunteer Andy (Pemberton) starts his first day listening to tales of woe from random callers. It unfolds almost entirely via footage from a fixed camera in booth nine, with other CCTV angles, increasingly important, displayed split-screen on the side. Jane Horrocks plays the snarky Liz, sitting in the booth behind, while Shearsmith is their uptight overseer.

As the calls get bleaker and Andy's sympathetic nature is sorely tested, any real helpline volunteers watching this episode may well wince, but it remains gripping throughout. And there's a creepy pay-off.

The latest in Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's superb second series of unsettling playlets, this centres around the volunteers art a Samaritans-like helpline and the newest recruit, Andy (Pemberton), who starts to receive regular calls from the mysterious Chloe. She is a troubled teenager, but is there more to her rants about an unhappy home life and threats to overdose? It co-stars Jane Horrocks, on fine form as another volunteer and the drama is shot to look as though it is being picked up on security cameras, which provides very effective for the denouement. Another corker.

Having produced two small masterpieces in a row, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have set an impossibly high standard for themselves and it's only fair they should be allowed a breather. In tonight's episode, a volunteer (Pemberton) has joined a Samaritans-type call centre called Comfort Support Line. "Whatever the caller wants to talk about," says his boss (Shearsmith), "we offer active listening." There are two volunteers (Jane Horrocks and Nikki Amuka-Bird) who loathe one another, and the boss may be more disturbed than any of the callers. It's a promising set-up, but the episode doesn't unfold with the same simple, logical elegance as others in the series.