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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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
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
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
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
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
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.”