By Jennifer Bradbury FARNWORTH playwright Jim Cartwright's award winning work, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice has been transferred to the big screen. Little Voice goes on general release on January 8, but at a special premiere in Blackpool we managed to get a sneak preview of the film, that will no doubt emerge as one of the best movie offerings of 1999. JIM Cartwright's widely acclaimed, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, was premiered at the National Theatre in London back in 1991 and almost immediately negotiations began to bring it to the big screen. Initially, the idea had been to relocate the story to the States and use big name Hollywood actors. Cartwright was signed up to write the screen play, and Gwyneth Paltrow's name was mooted to take the role which had been specially written to showcase Jane Horrocks' amazing ability to mimic a vast range of singers from Shirley Bassey and Judy Garland to Marilyn Monroe and Gracie Fields. But the plans fell through for Cartwright, the one-time Octagon writer-in-residence, and Mark Herman, fresh from his success with the film Brassed Off, was signed up to re-write the script and direct the movie, now renamed Little Voice. Its all star British cast includes the Lancashire actress Jane Horrocks alongside Michael Caine, Brenda Blethyn, Ewan McGregor and Jim Broadbent.

Herman, who lived in Bolton during the early 90s, admits that he wouldn't have become involved in the film if they hadn't guaranteed that Jane Horrocks would play LV.

He had seen the play, starring Horrocks, early in its run, years before his involvement in the film. He recalls: "On the very first night I was knocked out by it. I usually hate the theatre, but this was one of my few really enjoyable experiences. It was magical. Still, at the same time I couldn't quite imagine it being adapted for the screen. It was totally uncategorisable."

When first approached to take over the direction and film script, he still had some reservations. "There were some initial similarities to Brassed Off, because it was also a mixture of humour, tragedy and music. But for Little Voice there was a whole additional magical fairy tale layer which made it a very different challenge."

He went on: "I can easily say it was the hardest writing job I've ever done, because in essence the original story was about a girl who never leaves her room, and that's not very cinematic. But I concerned myself instead with staying true to the original themes, rather than the settings "

And that's why the action has been transferred to the fishing village of Scarborough from its original home in Bolton.

"I know the Bolton area well and I felt it was a place were you could imagine stripping steelworkers walking up the street. It was too close to the setting for Full Monty. Plus I couldn't see Michael Caine in Bolton, but I could see his character washed up in somewhere like Scarborough with its cabaret seaside nightlife."

In rewriting the script Herman toned down Jim Cartwright's playfully poetic language - to make it more accessible to a movie audience, although he did retain a lot of the original for Mari, LV's motormouth mother played beautifully by Blethyn.

I put it to Herman that one of his greatest difficulties in transferring this stage play to the big screen, was in recreating the impact and magic that was attached to the incredible live performance of Jane Horrocks.

He agreed, explaining that in an attempt to convey the power of her performance they had taped her singing live.

"Even on stage a lot of people left the theatre wondering if she really sang all those different voices herself. So we thought it was very important than no-one should think there was any trick to it. I thought it had to feel like it was happening in the here and now. Technically, it was extremely difficult, but it definitely paid off."

The film has already received a showing in New York. And the response has been overwhelmingly positive. New Yorkers are positively raving about it.

But did they understand the broad Yorkshire accents without subtitles?

"They seemed to get it all," Herman laughs, "but they didn't understand Brenda. So we got her to revoice the first 20 minutes. But then we found the more they understood her, the less they liked her, so we put the original soundtrack back in."

Critics have suggested that Little Voice is a platform for northern stereotypes. But Herman makes no apology.

"Brassed Off was very real and I don't think the characters in it were caricatures. But this is a fairy story, it's fantasy, a fable, and so to some extent there are caricatures in it. It was necessary."

So has Jim Cartwright - who now lives in Chorley -seen the film yet? "Yes, he has and the feedback we've had back suggests that he's very pleased." BRENDA Blethyn, hot on the heels of her success in the Mike Leigh film Secrets and Lies, for which she was nominated for an Oscar, puts in another award winning performance in Little Voice as the wanton widow Mari. Although funny at the beginning, Mari develops into a screaming, nasty harlot, who terrorises her daughter LV. But Blethyn manages to make you feel something for her character. Through her performance you realise that this woman can't shut up because she can't face herself in silence. The reality of her life terrifies her.

In the flesh Blethyn is very pretty and slim with a disarming ability to make you feel like you're the only person in the room.

After a bit of prodding she reveals that Little Voice has already been nominated for five awards in the International Critics Award, but looks genuinely shocked when I put it to her that her name's being mentioned as a possible Oscar nominee in 1999.

"I don't think so," she says. "Horrible characters don't get nominated for awards. I know there's a bit of a mania about the film in the States, but you have to remind yourself why you make films, and it's not to win awards. Anyway there's not that many to go around."

She says that Jim Broadbent, who plays the washed-up comic/club owner Mr Boo, told her during film that he thought she was extremely brave to take on the role of a character with no redeeming features.

"But I thought he was brave to play a comedian who is so unfunny he's funny," she said, screaming with laughter."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.