Frances Barber

Barber was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire.^[1] Her parents are S.W. Brookes and Gladys Simpson; Barber is the fourth of six children. She attended the Wolverhampton Municipal Grammar School.^[2]

Barber studied drama at the University College of North Wales in Bangor, where she was a contemporary of director Danny Boyle, who became her boyfriend.^[3]

She appeared in the Pet Shop Boys' musical Closer to Heaven in 2001 as well as being guest singer for the song "Friendly Fire" on the Pet Shop Boys' 2006 live concert at the Mermaid Theatre. She also appeared alongside Ian McKellen and Roger Allam in the Old Vic's pantomime production of Aladdin in the 2005–2006 Christmas season. She again starred with Ian McKellen in 2007 playing Goneril in Trevor Nunn's production of King Lear and as Arkadina in Chekhov's The Seagull with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon followed by a world tour throughout the year.^[4] They again performed the two plays in repertory at the New London Theatre on Drury Lane,^[5][6] opening in November 2007 and closing mid-January 2008.

In 2011, Barber guest-starred in the Doctor Who episodes "A Good Man Goes to War" and "The Wedding of River Song" (and five other episodes, sometimes uncredited) as Madame Kovarian.^[7] She also acted in the television film We'll Take Manhattan as Diana Vreeland. In 2019, she starred in the Pet Shop Boys' musical Musik.

In May 2022, Barber appeared as Lesley in series 8 episode 4 of BBC dark comedy series, Inside No. 9 (2022), in the episode titled "Love Is a Stranger".^[8][9]

She signed a letter supporting a No vote ahead of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. After the Scottish National Party won 56 seats at the 2015 general election, she caused controversy after making comments on Twitter comparing the SNP to the Third Reich, further stating "God help us all is all I can say when the racist S.N.P. try to take over, England will react we will have civil war."^[10]

She supported Remain during the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.^[11][12]

Barber urged a vote for the Labour Party at the 2017 UK general election. Critical of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, she said "I will vote Labour holding my nose. Urge you too."^[13] In September 2017, she resigned from the party, saying: "I can't belong to a party full of Misogyny, Anti-Semitism and Thuggery".^[14] In the 2019 United Kingdom general election, she backed the Liberal Democrats.^[15]

In 2018, she was among the signatories to a letter published in The Observer arguing that debate surrounding reforms of the Gender Recognition Act were being silenced.^[16] In September 2020, she signed a further letter in support of J.K. Rowling, against what The Scotsman described as "the abuse and death threats" Rowling had received after publicising her views.^[17]

In 2006, Barber received an honorary fellowship from the University of Wolverhampton.^[18]

• Polonius in Hamlet (Theatre Royal Windsor, 2021)
• Elsa Jean Krakowski in The Unfriend (Chichester Festival Theatre, Chichester, 2022 and The Criterion, London, 2023)