Frances Barber (née Brookes, born 13 May 1958) is an English actress. She received Olivier Award nominations for her work in the plays Camille (1985), and Uncle Vanya (1997). Her film appearances include three collaborations with Gary Oldman in Prick Up Your Ears (1987), We Think the World of You (1988) and Dead Fish (2005); as well as Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987); Soft Top Hard Shoulder (1992); and latterly Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017). Barber's numerous television credits include The Street (2009), Doctor Who (2011), Silk (2012–2014), and Whitstable Pearl (2021–2022).

Filmography

• 2026A Hand to Hold — Moira
• 2026MUSIK
• 2026The State of Us — Joan
• 2025The People Before
• 2025The Secret Santa Project — Carol
• 2024Hamlet — First Player / Player Queen / Second Clown
• Dreamland — Cheryl
• 2022A Bird Flew In — Marie
• The Chelsea Detective — Olivia Arnold
• 2021A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Mezzotint — Mrs Ambrigail
• Whitstable Pearl — Dolly Nolan
• Semi-Detached — Patricia
• Let's Talk About Sex — Narrator
• Queens of Mystery — Viv Collins
• 2019Trick or Treat — Miss Ferguson
• 2018An Ideal Husband — Mrs. Cheveley
• 2018Blue Iguana — Princess
• 2018McKellen: Playing the Part
• 2018The Escape — Alison
• 2018The Queen and I — Princess Margaret
• 2017Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool — Joy
• Summer Comedy Shorts — Mum
• 2017The Bookshop — Jessie Welford
• 2016The Chosen — Natalia Sedova
• The Rebel — Angela
• Britain's Busiest Airport: Heathrow — Narrator
• 2015Mr. Holmes — Matinee "Madame Schirmer"
• 2014Bucky — Miss Eversham
• Inside No. 9 — Lesley
• Mapp and Lucia — Amelia, Contessa di Faraglione
• 2013Bad Education: Christmas Special — Alfie's Mum
• Father Brown — Davina Malmort
• 2013May I Kill U? — Bernice
• Psychobitches — Bette Davis, Doris Stokes, Catherine the Great, Elizabeth I, St Catherine, Whistler's Mother, Thora Hind, Josephine-Joseph, Barbara Cartland
• The Spa — Ginny
• Playhouse Presents — Bette Davis, Doris Stokes, Catherine the Great
• 2012We'll Take Manhattan — Diana Vreeland
• Death in Paradise — Diana Watson
• Friday Night Dinner — Sheila Bloom
• Great Expectations — Mrs. Brandley
• Silk — Caroline Warwick QC
• Pete versus Life
• The Nativity — Elizabeth
• Vexed — Pat Poynter
• Law & Order: UK
• 2009The Fattest Man in Britain — Janice
• Beautiful People — Miss Prentice
• Bremner, Bird and Fortune: Silly Money — Dinner Guest
• 2008King Lear — Goneril
• Benidorm — Daisy
• 2007Goal II: Living the Dream — Carol Harmison
• Hotel Babylon
• The IT Crowd — Doctor Mendall
• The Street
• 2005Dead Fish — S & M Prostitute
• Doctor Who — Madame Kovarian, Eye Patch Lady
• Funland — Connie Woolf
• 2005Goal! — Carol Harmison
• 2005His Passionate Bride — Narrator (voice)
• Agatha Christie's Marple — Lizzie Hinchcliffe
• 2004Evilenko — Fenja Evilenka
• Hustle — Clarissa
• New Tricks
• 2004The Legend of the Tamworth Two — Miss Piggy (voice)
• 2003Boudica — Agrippina
• 2003Flyfishing — Frances
• 2003Listening — Woman
• Monkey Dust — (voice)
• Celeb
• Having It Off
• 2002The Red Siren — Eva
• Love in a Cold Climate — The Bolter
• 2001Superstition — Isabella Flores
• 2001The Children's Midsummer Night's Dream — Thanks
• 2001The Gentleman Thief — Julia Sinclair
• 2000Esther Kahn — Rivka Kahn
• 2000Shiner — Georgie
• Bremner, Bird and Fortune
• Gimme Gimme Gimme — Janine
• 1999Plastic Man — Louise Ferman
• Plastic Man — Louise Ferman
• 1999The Escort — Jessica
• 1999Toy Boys — Mrs. Chambers
• 1998Just in Time
• Real Women — Anna Nicholls
• 1998Still Crazy — Lady in Black
• 1998Tea — Woman
• 1997A Royal Scandal — Lady Jersey
• Midsomer Murders — Ingrid Lockston, Constance Fielding
• 1997Photographing Fairies — Beatrice Templeton
• The Ice House — Diana Goode
• 1996Circles of Deceit: Sleeping Dogs — Annie Shepherd
• Dalziel and Pascoe — Amanda 'Cap' Marvell
• Rhodes — Princess Catherine Radziwill
• 19953 Steps to Heaven — Andrea Wallis
• 1995Aristophanes: The Gods Are Laughing — Adonia
• 1995It Might Be You — Wendy
• 1995Rik Mayall Presents: Dirty Old Town — Sally Denton
• 1994Deep in My Heart - Germaine and Benjamin — Anna Lindsay
• 1994Fish Tale — Helen Wormsley
• 1994Giorgino — Marie
• 1994In The Cold Light Of Day — Mother
• 1994Return to Blood River — Karen
• 1994Scarborough Ahoy! — Maria
• Space Precinct — Erika Brandt
• 1993A Statement of Affairs — Pip
• Chef — Anita Lawrence
• Rik Mayall Presents — Sally Denton
• 1993Soft Top Hard Shoulder — Miss Trumble
• 1993Thatcherworld — Penny Jenkins
• 1992The Leaving of Liverpool — Ellen, Lil's Mother
• The Leaving of Liverpool
• 1991Do Not Disturb — Jenny
• 1991Hancock — Freddie Hancock
• Murder Most Horrid — Gloria Twigge
• 1991Secret Friends — Angela
• The Orchid House — Joan
• The Storyteller: Greek Myths — Medusa
• 1991The Storyteller: Greek Myths - Perseus & the Gorgon — Medusa
• 1991Young Soul Rebels — Ann
• 1990The Grasscutter — Claire Deeds
• Agatha Christie's Poirot — Lady Millicent, Merlina Rival
• Behaving Badly
• Screen One — Freddie Hancock
• 1989Separate Bedrooms — Gert
• The Nightmare Years — Helga Bauer
• 1988Duck
• Red Dwarf — Genny
• The Modern World: Ten Great Writers — Winnie Verloc
• 1988Twelfth Night, or What You Will — Viola / Cesario
• 1988We Think the World of You — Megan
• Inspector Morse — Nicole Burgess
• 1987Prick Up Your Ears — Leonie Orton
• 1987Sammy and Rosie Get Laid — Rosie
• 1986Castaway — Sister Saint Winifred
• Casualty — Nancy
• 1985A Zed & Two Noughts — Venus de Milo
• Screen Two — Jenny Coldfield, Karen, Mother
• 1985White City — Alice
• 1984Hard Feelings — Viv
• 1983A Flame to the Phoenix — Wanda Grabinska
• 1983Acceptable Levels — Jill
• Reilly: Ace of Spies — Dagmara
• 1983Those Glory Glory Days — Woman
• 1982Home Sweet Home — Melody
• 1982The Missionary — Mission Girl
• Timewatch — Annie Besant
• A Ghost Story for Christmas — Mrs Ambrigail
• Play for Today — Melody
• Omnibus
• A Mother For An Hour — Nestan
• From London with Love

Appearances as themselves (6)

• 2021Friday Night Dinner: 10 Years and a Lovely Bit of Squirrel — Self
• 2014The IT Crowd Manual — Self
• 2013Muse of Fire — Self
• Celebrity Antiques Road Trip — Self - Participant
• Ruby — Self
• An Audience with... — Self