After Jane Horrocks moans Lily James & Keeley Hawes bag all best roles – are viewers getting tired of seeing same stars?
IT’S bad enough having to put up with endless repeats on the telly, but there is something else giving viewers deja vu – the leading ladies dominating our screens.
Absolutely Fabulous star Jane Horrocks claimed this weekend that Sarah Lancashire, Keeley Hawes, Olivia Colman and Lily James were making TV “dull” by taking all the good parts.
She said: “There are a lot of actors out there who could bring something new to those roles.”
Is it just sour grapes – or could viewers be forgiven for getting a bit tired of seeing the same few faces on the box?
Our experts Ally Ross and Rod McPhee give their views.
To help you decide which of them you agree with, Georgette Culley has tallied up all the shows and films starring the actresses in the past five years.
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LILY JAMES
Estimated net worth: £6.5million
Age: 33
Roles: 18
LILY recently revealed how she was pushed to her limits filming Pam & Tommy and told how it took four hours of make-up to recreate Pamela Anderson’s blonde bombshell look.
She also had a gruelling fitness regime with a personal trainer to get a Baywatch bod.
Lily said: “He would make me do all my work and read my script on a running machine.”
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2022: Providence (filming), What’s Love Got To Do With It?, Sky Mobile advert, BareFace: A Night Of Mistakes (webisode), Pam & Tommy (Disney+).
2021: Beauty And The Beast panto for comic relief, The Pursuit Of Love (BBC1), The Dig (Netflix).
2020: Rebecca (Netflix film).
2019: Rare Beasts, Yesterday, One Red Nose Day And A Wedding, Miranda.
2018: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Little Woods, The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society, Sorry To Bother You.
2017: Darkest Hour, Baby Driver.
KEELEY HAWES
Estimated net worth: £2.5 million
Age: 46
Roles: 19
THE Line Of Duty star admitted she rarely turns down parts and doesn’t complain about “window-dressing” roles open to women.
She said: “I am a feminist, but I can’t bitch about something that I haven’t directly experienced.
“Of course, there are a lot of window-dressing roles and you make the best of what you can out of that.
“You are not going to turn work down when you have a family, when you have bills to pay, and you have to work.
“It would be all well and good to say, ‘I’m not going to work unless it’s some big, meaty part’, but you would sit there for ever. You would be down the dole office.”
2022: Stonehouse (upcoming ITV series), Crossfire (upcoming BBC series), The Midwich Cuckoos (Sky Max).
2021: Finding Alice (ITV), To Olivia, It’s A Sin (C4).
2020: Honour (ITV), Rebecca (Netflix), Misbehaviour.
2019: Year Of The Rabbit (C4), Summer Of Rockets (BBC2), Traitors (C4).
2018: Voiceover in Marbella Cruises ad, Mrs Wilson (BBC1), Bodyguard (2018-20, BBC1).
2017: Inside No. 9 (BBC2), Ford Fiesta ad.
2016: The Durrells (2016-2019, ITV).
2012: Line Of Duty (2012–2021, BBC1).
BIG EGOS CAN’T SEE REAL ISSUE
By Ally Ross, Sun TV Critic
IF you want someone to say something nice and sisterly about young or even middle-aged actresses, never, ever ask an older actress.
Why? Because the acting sisterhood, if it ever existed in the first place, goes out of the window once female thesps pass 50 and they turn into mad old bats, like Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, lashing out wildly at anyone younger, prettier or more employed than themselves.
It’s a brutal phenomenon, as has just been demonstrated by that very fine actress Jane Horrocks, 58, who told a discussion at The Space, in Brighton, that Olivia Colman, 48, Keeley Hawes, 46, Lily James, 33, and Sarah Lancashire, 57, landed all the plum TV roles.
But Jane’s argument, which is entirely selfless, I’m sure, is that she thinks it’s: “A bit limiting for the audience to see the same crowd.”
She’s got a bit of a point, even if I suspect her motives. The thing about actresses and actors, though, is that most of them are such demented egomaniacs they fail to see the bigger picture here. Because as much as many of us might get cheesed off with familiar faces, it’s the ideas, or lack of them, that are really limiting.
So, ITV has a monster success with Downton Abbey? BBC brings back Upstairs Downstairs. Netflix subscriptions go through the roof because of Bridgerton? ITV introduces Belgravia. And before you know it, the entire schedule is filled with corseted period dramas.
It’s even worse with detective dramas, as Olivia Colman herself demonstrated with the arrival of Broadchurch, in 2013. Since which time, hardly a single ITV murder has taken place more than about 20 yards from a windswept beach in southern England.
Nothing anyone says, of course, will ever convince actors it’s not all about them. So I hope The Space, in Brighton, invites Olivia, Keeley, Lily and Sarah to throw their tuppence worth in next year and pipes them all on stage with Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves.
SARAH LANCASHIRE
Estimated net worth: £14million
Age: 57
Roles: 10
AS an up-and-coming young actress, Sarah had to hide her crippling depression and exhaustion to bag acting roles.
Sarah, who became a household name playing ditzy barmaid Raquel Wolstenhulme in Corrie from 1987 to 2000, didn’t tell anyone about her struggles out of fear she would be left without work.
Sarah revealed: “I ended up in a terrible mess.
“My twenties were a write-off. I was too debilitated and terrified to tell anyone why I couldn’t get on a train from Manchester for auditions in London.”
At her lowest ebb she found herself “hysterical” at the thought of getting out of bed in the morning.
2022: Julia (Sky Atlantic).
2021: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
2020: Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads (BBC1).
2019: The Accident (C4), Yesterday, MotherFatherSon (BBC2).
2017: School of Roars (CBeebies).
2018: Kiri (C4).
2014: Happy Valley (BBC1, 2014-2022).
2012: Last Tango In Halifax (BBC1, 2012-2020).
OLIVIA COLMAN
Estimated net worth: £6.5million
Age: 48
Roles: 22
JUGGLING motherhood and acting can be a challenge – as Oscar-winner Olivia has discovered .
She revealed in an interview: “My family, I would die for them. But when they were smaller and I was exhausted, I had those moments of, ‘Just leave me alone for a minute’ or ‘Put the telly on’.
“And you felt bad, because you were that mummy who was trying to sleep on the floor.”
2022: Wicked Little Letters (in production), Great Expectations (upcoming BBC drama), Secret Invasion (upcoming Disney+ series), Joyride (in production), Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (animated film, due for release 2023), Heartstopper (Netflix).
2021: Superworm (BBC1 animated comedy), Landscapers (Sky Atlantic), The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain (Amazon Prime), The Lost Daughter, Mothering Sunday, Ron’s Gone Wrong (animated film), The Mitchells vs The Machines (animated Netflix film), The Father.
2020: Thomas & Friends Storytime (podcast), The Simpsons, Fleabag (BBC Three), The Crown (Netflix), The Favourite.
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2019: Them That Follow.
2018: Les Misérables (BBC1), Watership Down (BBC1).
BEST IN THE BUSINESS
By Rod McPhee, Biz TV Editor
THERE was once a time when female roles on TV were filled by a conveyer belt of women.
They would be served up for leading parts and enjoy a decade or so of fame before executives – mostly male – decided they were past their best and duly replaced them with the next wannabe.
Thankfully, these days more women wear the trousers in the world of television and actresses are increasingly working behind the camera as well.
Sensational female writers naturally lean towards bringing female stories to life – often true stories that have been overlooked – and they want to cast women at the peak of their powers.
So Jane Horrocks has a warped view of the landscape where a small band of females hog all the best roles.
Sure, her central claim may be true, but that’s because they are the best in the business. And they now stay in the business longer by being better than their forebears.
Men have been doing this for years, but nobody bats an eyelid. To this day there’s still a relatively narrow band of blokes getting the top roles.
But no one criticises James Nesbitt, Martin Compston or David Tennant, to name just a few.
Keeley and her cohorts are simply catching up with their male counterparts – and it should be celebrated, not derided.