Alan Simpson, the co-writer of "Hancock", enjoyed writing for Jacques, and thought that she was "almost like a fella in terms of playing comedy; you didn't write for her thinking she's a woman so we've got to write the feminine point of view. That made it easier for us". Neville Phillips thought she was a "complete revelation", adding "although she was a large lady (very large, in fact), her movements were dainty, light and graceful, and she had a way of playing comedy that put me in mind of the great Beatrice Lillie ... a subtle, sophisticated actress". Her friend Bob Monkhouse thought that her career was overshadowed by her size: "She was such a great comedienne ... everyone wanted her but the movers and shakers of entertainment didn't perceive her as anything other than a fat lady". Garth Pearce, writing in the "Daily Express", noted that "she always chose to play women in funny situations, rather than refer directly to her weight. She concentrated on the script and its interpretation instead of winning easy laughs by playing 'the fattie'." The approach of writers differed in how they dealt with the characters they asked Jacques to portray. Morwenna Banks and Amanda Swift consider Jacques to have been "unimaginatively cast as the 'fat person'" in "ITMA", while in "Sykes", her weight was rarely referred to—and Jacques said that Sykes "hardly ever made jokes about my size which was a refreshing change". Gray considers that "although often cast in broad comedy, she never played it broadly, but with an elegance of voice and body that belied all the clichés about women and weight".