10 Iconic Voice Roles You Probably Had No Idea Were Played By Miriam Margolyes

Posted on 14/10/2023 by Boris Clair

Over the years, Miriam Margoyles has accumulated an eclectic array of acting roles, including performances in big-name franchises and even a Bafta win. However, what many people might not realise is that she is also a renowned voice actor.

The Call the Midwife star has lent her voice to adverts for brands such as Cadbury, PG Tips and Dolmio in her day, as well as contributing to audiobooks, animated features and even audio porn in the past.

Ahead of Miriam’s long-awaited debut in Doctor Who, where she’s set to voice Meep in the 60th anniversary special episode, we’re looking back at some of the more unexpected places her voice has popped up in over the years…

Babe (1995)

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Back in the mid-90s, Miriam moved into the world of movie voice acting when she played Fly, a sheepdog, in the beloved farmyard classic, Babe.

Based on Dick King-Smith’s book, The Sheep-Pig, the comedy-drama followed a young farm pig who wanted to do the work of a sheepdog.

The wholesome film exceeded expectations and went on to be nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Visual Effects. Miriam also reprised her role in the sequel, Babe: Pig in the City.

James And The Giant Peach (1996)

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In this Roald Dahl adaptation, Miriam voiced the Glowworm as well as appearing on screen as James’ Aunt Sponge.

The musical film combined stop-motion animation and live-action segments and featured a star-studded cast including Richard Dreyfuss, Joanna Lumley, David Thewlis, Susan Sarandon and Jane Leeves.

Though it wasn’t a huge box office success, it was a firm favourite with fans of the original novel and with critics.

Mulan (1998)

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It seems surprising that Miriam’s voice hasn’t been featured more in Disney films, with her sole credit with the studio coming in 1998, when she voiced The Matchmaker in the animated movie Mulan.

Agents of Shield star Ming-Na Wen held the titular role of the young heroine, while the cast also featured voice performances from Eddie Murphy, BD Wong and Miguel Ferrer.

The beloved classic garnered a Golden Globe award, an Oscar nomination and took home several Annie Awards. There was a much-less-revered direct-to-video sequel, Mulan II, in 2004 (in which Miriam reprised her role as the Matchmaker), before the live-action remake in 2020.

Happy Feet (2006)

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Alongside Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman, and Nicole Kidman, Miriam played Mrs Astrakhan in the computer-animated musical, Happy Feet.

The film followed Mumble, an emperor penguin who is extremely talented at tap dance, and went onto become the sixth highest-grossing movie of 2006 and landed the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

However, it was apparently one of the more forgetful projects for Miriam.

Asked about her character during an interview on The Graham Norton Show years later, she responded: “I can’t remember… I don’t know, I didn’t watch it.”

Flushed Away (2006)

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In 2006, Miriam also voiced another animated character in Flushed Away.

Though the film didn’t garner the audience or box-office success it expected, it racked up a host of nominations during awards season and boasted a star-studded cast, featuring Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, and Bill Nighy.

Again, when asked on Graham Norton’s chat show about the movie, she struggled to remember who she played in the film: “I did Flushed Away… I don’t know what I was either… a piece of shit, I should think.”

Early Man (2018)

Over a decade later, Miriam worked with the Aardman Animation team again, but this time on a classic stop-motion, akin to Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit.

The actor voiced Queen Oofeefa, the queen of the Bronze Age City in Early Man, who sent out Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) to decimate the Stone Age cavemen.

As with most of Aardman’s projects, it boasted an impressive cast list featuring Eddie Redmayne, Maisie Williams, Timothy Spall, Rob Brydon and Richard Ayoade. Sadly, it was the least commercially successful instalment for the studio, but still an enjoyable family film.

Cadbury’s Caramel

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Alongside her film and TV work, Miriam lent her voice to the animated brown rabbit in the famous Cadbury Caramel Bunny advert in the 1980s.

The iconic ad character appeared in a long series of ads back in the day, usually encouraging various woodland pals to “take it easy” in her dulcet tones, while enjoying a slab of chocolate .

Dolmio

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After her success with Cadbury, Miriam became a firm favourite for voice roles in TV adverts.

It will probably have gone over most viewers’ heads that she plays the role of “Mama” Dolmio’s ads, where the Italian family tucks into a hearty meal of Bolognese, made, of course, with Dolmio sauce. It’s a small, but memorable entry to an already-impressive CV.

PG Tips

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Another curveball for the actress was a voice appearance in a PG Tips’ iconic adverts as a Chimp called Charlady Chimp.

The advert featured a family of chimps as they made a pot of tea and did a crossword, before declaring that “nothing beats” the PG Tips brand..

Anusol ad

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That’s right, Miriam put her well-known voice to good use, as she read the voiceover for an Anusol advert, aka the UK’s number one piles treatment.

It’s a humorous, but informative advert that makes the most of Miriam’s cheeky (ahem) tone of voice to promote the cream that fights “pains in the posterior.”

Sexy Sonia: Leaves from my Schoolgirl Notebook

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In her early years, Miriam took on an alter ego “Sexy Sonia” as she lent her voice to read audio pornography.

She explained to The Mirror: “I recorded a soft-porn audio called Sexy Sonia: Leaves From My Schoolgirl Notebook… it was one of my first ever shows.

“It was for sale in sex shops and one day I went into Ann Summers and told the man behind the counter I was Sexy Sonia.

“He was very distressed and told me to keep my voice down because he didn’t want people to know she was this short, fat, and rather unattractive person.”

On This Morning, Miriam elaborated that the recording “was just a nasty episode which people could take home and pleasure themselves with”.

However, she stopped recording the series after one episode as she found it “exhausting”.

She continued: “You have to keep breathing heavily to simulate orgasm – as many women have to anyway. I found it very exhausting. I came home with a headache. I don’t know what the engineer thought! I put my whole soul into it.”

16 Celebrities Who Appeared In Game Shows Before Finding Fame

Posted on 12/02/2022 by Boris Clair

We’re used to people using shows like The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent to launch themselves into the spotlight – but what you might not realise is that plenty of household names made their TV debuts in a very different way.

Everyone from Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell to Stephen Fry and Johnny Vegas made their starts appearing on game shows back in the day, with varying levels of success.

Here are 16 examples of celebrities who made appearances on game shows years before making a name for themselves…

Amanda Holden – Blind Date

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Long before shows like Cutting It, Wild At Heart and Britain’s Got Talent came calling, Mandy made her TV debut when Cilla Black tried to find her a match on Blind Date.

During her 1991 appearance on the show, Amanda introduced herself as a drama student who loved singing the blues as well as classics like Knees Up Mother Brown (??), as well as confessing her ultimate celeb crush was Jack Nicholson.

Sadly, though, it wasn’t to be, with the future BGT star going home without a date… which her potential suitor seemed more than a bit gutted about when he clapped eyes on her for the first time.

Simon Cowell – Sale Of The Century

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But Mandy isn’t the only member of the BGT panel with a surprising game show appearance near the top of her CV.

Simon Cowell’s very first TV appearance was as a contestant on Sale Of The Century, two years before his eventual co-star’s stint on Blind Date.

He may be best known now for his business decisions, but his time on Sale Of The Century ended in him leaving with 20 quid’s worth of cooking utensils. We wonder when the last time he picked them up was…

Olly Murs – Deal Or No Deal

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Olly Murs’ optimism came back to bite him somewhat when he was a contestant on Deal Or No Deal, during which he turned down an offer of £26,000 and ended up pocketing just a tenner.

The future chart-topper appeared on the Channel 4 game show two years before shooting to fame on The X Factor, and after becoming a household name, he was invited back to compete in a celebrity special.

Unfortunately, he fared even worse second time around, ending up with just 50p. To make it up to his chosen charity, Olly pledged to donate £5000 of his own money.

Naughty Boy – Deal Or No Deal

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Someone who fared much better on Deal Or No Deal was record producer Shahid Khan, who we all know better as Naughty Boy.

He appeared on the show the same year as Olly, but was somewhat more successful, dealing at £44K, which he put towards launching his career as a music producer.

It was money well spent, too, with Naughty Boy going on to work with stars like Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and Beyoncé.

Aston Merrygold – Stars In Their Eyes Kids

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We know him best as a member of JLS, who became one of The X Factor’s most successful acts ever in 2007, but Aston has actually been singing on screen for a lot longer than that.

As a teenager, he appeared on Stars In Their Eyes Kids, telling host Matthew Kelly: “Tonight, Matthew, I’m going to be Michael Jackson.”

He performed a cover of The Jackson 5’s Rockin’ Robin, ultimately finishing in second place.

Michael Underwood – The Crystal Maze

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And speaking of celebs who appeared on TV classics as teenagers, let’s talk about Michael Underwood, who was a contestant on a kids’ special of The Crystal Maze when he was 15.

The presenter was the first of the young contestants to take on a challenge, but failed to win his team any crystals in either of the physical or skill-based tasks he took on.

Michael’s presenting career began almost a decade later, when he began hosting the dream-fulfilment show Whatever You Want.

Joe Wicks – The Bank Job

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A recently-unearthed clip revealed The Body Coach made an appearance on the short-lived Channel 4 game show The Bank Job a decade ago.

Minus his trademark beard, Joe Wicks suffered a very stressful blunder when his buzzer appeared to not be working, leaving him rather vexed, as you can see in the video above.

Stephen Merchant – Blockbusters

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Just four years before The Office would achieve huge success, Stephen Merchant was a contestant on Blockbusters back in 1997.

Despite getting off to a good start, it wasn’t ultimately a strong showing for the comedy writer and actor, finishing with 15 points to his opponents’ 50.

Alex Horne – Countdown

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Another comedy star with a previous game show appearance in their past is Taskmaster favourite Alex Horne.

Alex did a great job on Countdown, winning three consecutive shows in 2008 during Des O’Connor and Carol Vorderman’s tenure, before he was eventually bested.

Having gone on to become a popular comic, Alex has returned to Countdown several times, appearing as a guest in Dictionary Corner as well as a panellist on the show’s 8 Out Of 10 Cats specials.

Johnny Vegas – Win, Lose Or Draw

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We know him best as Johnny Vegas, but in 1996, he appeared on the game show Win, Lose Or Draw under his legal name Michael Pennington.

During the episode, he did repeatedly reference his comedic ambitions, as well as the fact he performed under the stage name Johnny Vegas.

The celebrity guests for his episode included puppeteer John Eccleston and Bucks Fizz singer Cheryl Baker.

Mark Labbett – Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

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Mark “The Beast” Labbett is one of the UK’s most famous quizzing experts, so it’s probably no great surprise that before finding fame on The Chase, he gave a few game shows a go, including Mastermind and Fifteen To One.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? was perhaps his most successful attempt. Having failed to land in the hot seat when he played Fastest Finger First in 2005, Mark – who was then working as a supply teacher – returned a year later, leaving with an impressive £32,000.

Much later, he made an appearance on the rebooted version of the show in 2020, serving as Charlotte Church’s “phone a friend” during a celebrity special.

Anne Hegerty – Mastermind

Like her co-star on The Chase, Anne “The Governess” Hegerty competed on Mastermind way back in 1988.

Her specialist subject was “The Life And Works Of Lorenz Hart”, the lyricist behind standards including Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered, The Lady Is A Tramp and My Funny Valentine. Sadly, no clip exists of Anne in action, but enjoy this snap of her looking ever-so-80s in the Mastermind studio all the same.

Stephen Fry – University Challenge

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Then in his early 20s, comedian and actor Stephen Fry appeared as a contestant on University Challenge in 1980, representing Queen’s College, Cambridge.

He’d later achieve huge success as a quiz show host, when he began presenting the hit panel show QI.

Miriam Margolyes – University Challenge

Another iconic Cambridge alum to compete on University Challenge was the always-outrageous Miriam Margolyes.

We say “always-outrageous” because Miriam has long claimed that this appearance on University Challenge was the first case of anyone saying the f-word on the BBC after struggling to contain her disappointment about a botched answer.

The moment itself was censored, though Miriam has insisted it was very much apparent what she was saying – though sadly a clip of the explicit outburst doesn’t appear to exist.

Sir Captain Tom Moore – Blankety Blank

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Around the celebrations for Sir Captain Tom Moore’s 100th birthday, the BBC dug out this old clip of him competing on Blankety Blank, where he tried to match his answers to celebrity panellists like Freddie Starr, Ruth Madoc and Roy Kinnear.

He went out on the first round during a 1983 Christmas special – but at least he got to keep the iconic Blankety Blank cheque book and pen, eh?

Meghan Markle – Deal Or No Deal

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Deal Or No Deal worked a little differently in America, where contestants had briefcases opened by models, rather than boxes being unveiled by their fellow players.

One such model was the future Duchess of Sussex, then an aspiring actor by the name of Meghan Markle. She would, of course, later achieve success as part of the cast of Suits, before her humanitarian work led her to meeting (and, indeed, marrying) Prince Harry.