Charlotte Barker

Barker was born in Wembley, the second of three children and only daughter of comedian Ronnie Barker{{Cite news |last=Lloyd |first=Kevin |date=28 April 1988 |title=Charlie's back! |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-derby-express-charlies-back/162233246/ |access-date=2025-01-04 |work=The Derby Express |via=Newspapers.com}} and his wife Joy.{{cite news |last1=Deighton |first1=John |title=The Other Other Half of Ronnie Barker |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002454/19841125/011/0011 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=The People |date=25 November 1984 |page=11}} The family moved to Pinner when she was two. Barker attended St Helen's School, Northwood, and studied drama at the Studio School of Speech and Drama, Pinner.{{cite news |title=Studio School pupils have roles in National Theatre |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/795161730/?match=1&terms=%22Charlotte%20Barker%22%20actress |access-date=4 January 2025 |work=Harrow Observer |date=29 September 1978 |page=19}} Aged 16, she was selected to attend the Royal National Theatre Youth Theatre Workshop. Her family lived in Australia for a year when she left school, and she studied American method acting at the Ensemble Studios acting school in Sydney, Australia. On her return to London, she studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Barker made her West End debut in Richard Harris's Stepping Out, at the Duke of York's Theatre in September 1984;{{cite news |last1=Hepple |first1=Peter |title=A formula to get you 'Stepping Out' |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19841004/082/0011 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=The Stage |date=4 October 1984 |page=11}}{{cite news |title=It's Hello to Ronnie's funny girl |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004848/19840924/155/0017 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Daily Express |date=24 September 1984 |page=17}} the play received the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Comedy in 1984.{{cite news |last1=Owen |first1=Michael |last2=Murdin |first2=Lynda |title=A Hall of Fame for Theatre ... |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/722124071/?terms=%22Stepping%20Out%22%20comedy%20award |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Evening Standard |pages=2–3}} In 1988, Barker received the Lloyd Award for "Best Newcomer" from critic Kevin Lloyd of The Derby Express for her performances at the Derby Playhouse.{{Cite news |last=Lloyd |first=Kevin |date=14 January 1988 |title=A good year at the Playhouse |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-derby-express-a-good-year-at-the-pla/162233320/ |access-date=2025-01-04 |work=The Derby Express |via=Newspapers.com}} Lloyd wrote that she had "charmed and impressed" in three contrasting performances in The Innocent Mistress, The Scatterbrained Scarecrow of Oz, and The Children's Hour. Other plays she appeared in at the Derby Playhouse, under the direction of Annie Castledine, included Tokens of Affection by Maureen Lawrence (1990), in which Barker played the central role of Debbie.{{cite news |last1=Eggins |first1=Frank |title=Regional Reviews - Derby: Tokens of Affection |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19900531/133/0026 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=The Stage |date=31 May 1990 |page=26}}{{cite news |last1=Lloyd |first1=Kevin |title=One of Annie's Best |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003956/19900503/038/0038 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Ripley Express |date=3 May 1990 |page=38}}{{cite news |last1=AKF |title=Tangible Emotions |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005208/19900511/181/0018 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Ripley and Heanor News |date=11 May 1990 |page=18}}{{cite news |title=Ronnie is her greatest fan! |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/865880943/?match=1&terms=%22Charlotte%20Barker%22 |access-date=6 January 2025 |work=Leicester Mercury |date=11 May 1990 |page=41}} Critic Kevin Lloyd commented "Miss Barker is obviously an actress of the very highest calibre. Her portrayal is utterly convincing and downright nasty. She makes no concessions. And our delight when the bully is beaten to the ground and made to beg for her forgiveness is a measure of her brilliance."

Barker later appeared as Hobby and other characters in Teechers at the Gateway Theatre, Chester in 1991;{{cite news |last1=May |first1=Lynn |title=Last Night's Review |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004985/19910807/017/0017 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Manchester Evening News |date=7 August 1991 |page=17}}{{cite news |last1=Briscoe |first1=Pamela |title=Comedy with real class! |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003296/19910815/019/0019 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Runcorn Weekly News |date=15 August 1991 |page=19}}{{cite news |last1=G.M. |title=Classroom mirth with a message |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/919240651/?match=1&terms=%22Charlotte%20Barker%22 |access-date=6 January 2025 |work=Hoylake and West Kirby News |date=14 August 1991 |page=17}} as Kate in Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce at the New Victoria Theatre in Newcastle in 1995;{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=John |title=Displaying the genius of Ayckbourn at its best |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000525/19950202/136/0022 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Staffordshire Sentinel |date=2 February 1995 |page=22}} as Homily in an adaptation of The Borrowers at the Birmingham Old Rep in 1995;{{cite news |last1=Perks |first1=Jon |title=Little folk hit the big time at Old Rep |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003663/19951228/025/0025 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Birmingham News |date=28 December 1995 |page=25}}{{cite news |last1=Rhodes |first1=Peter |title=Little coup success |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003126/19951215/826/0011 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Wolverhampton Express and Star |date=15 December 1995 |page=11}}{{cite news |last1=FitzGerald |first1=Ann |title=Pantomime Review. Birmingham. The Borrowers |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001637/19951229/142/0023 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=The Stage |date=29 December 1995 |page=23}} as Amelia in A Little Princess at the Manchester Library Theatre in 1996;{{cite news |title=Here's a funny thing |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004985/19961118/023/0023 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Manchester Evening News |date=18 November 1996 |page=23}}{{cite news |last1=Anglesey |first1=Natalie |title=Christmas Review. Manchester - A Little Princess |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001637/19961212/134/0025 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=The Stage |date=12 December 1996 |page=25}} and in Love Me Slender by Vanessa Brooks at the Oldham Coliseum Theatre in 2002, directed by Janys Chambers.{{cite news |last1=Anglesey |first1=Natalie |title=Theatre Review. Oldham - Love Me Slender |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001637/20020418/521/0013 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=The Stage |date=18 April 2002 |page=13}}

In 1993 and again in 1995, Barker played Rose Hunter in Nice Girls, a documentary drama created by the New Victoria Theatre about four miners' wives protesting against pit closures by occupying a shaft at Trentham Colliery.{{cite news |last1=Brugger |first1=Geoff |title=Vic stages an epic protest |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000525/19931020/159/0023 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Staffordshire Sentinel |date=20 October 1993 |page=23}}{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=John |title=Theatre Review. Newcastle-under-Lyme. Nice Girls. |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19931202/100/0016 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=The Stage |date=2 December 1993 |page=16}}{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=John |title=Do not miss this superb drama |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000525/19950427/125/0021 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Staffordshire Sentinel |date=27 April 1995 |page=21}}{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=John |title=Theatre Review. Newcastle-under-Lyme. Nice Girls |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001637/19950518/111/0016 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=The Stage |date=18 May 1995 |page=16}} Arthur Scargill was present at the first performance in 1993, and declared "This is an outstanding play. The acting was superb". An archive recording of a performance in November 1993 was made by the Theatre Museum.{{cite news |title=Signalman's Diary: Nice Girls on screen |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000525/19940622/078/0008 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Staffordshire Sentinel |date=22 June 1994 |page=8}} A reviewer in The Stage wrote "The New Victoria Theatre revival of Nice Girls has inexplicably transformed it into a masterpiece of documentary drama ... [with] superlatively natural performances from a cast whose varied characters dovetail into a marvellous dramatic unit." The company also gave four performances of the 1995 revival of Nice Girls in France, at Cergy-Pontoise, where they received a standing ovation.{{cite news |last1=Signalman's Diary |title=Fanfares for French Vic |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-sentinel-fanfares-for-french-vic/162240515/ |access-date=7 January 2025 |work=Evening Sentinel |date=25 May 1995 |location=Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England |page=8}}

In 1998, Barker appeared in the play Mum, which was written for her by her father. The Stage editor and critic Peter Hepple described Mum as "a bleak little play ... largely a monologue about loneliness ... But Charlotte Barker makes Alison a very real character as she sorts through the family mementoes which recall her generally unexciting life."{{cite news |last1=Hepple |first1=Peter |title=Theatre Review. King's Head. Mum. |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001637/19981001/079/0012 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=The Stage |date=1 October 1998 |page=12}} Nick Curtis of the Evening Standard, however, said that "it reveals Barker senior ... to be a very poor playwright, and it neither stretches nor flatters Barker junior."{{cite news |last1=Curtis |first1=Nick |title=Goodnight from her (and him) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/723592805/?match=1&terms=%22Charlotte%20Barker%22%20actress |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Evening Standard |date=29 September 1998 |page=292}} Writing in the Daily Telegraph, critic Charles Spencer described the play as "a theatrical hell of sentimentality and squirming embarrassment", but continued, "Charlotte Barker is in no way to blame for this. She has a scrubbed, honest and expressive face, a strong stage presence and a gift for pathos. If anything good is to come out of this misguided production it is that she will promptly be signed up to play Sonya in Uncle Vanya, a role in which she would undoubtedly excel."{{cite news |last1=Spencer |first1=Charles |title=Ronnie Barker really should have kept mum about this one |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/752294624/?match=1&terms=%22Charlotte%20Barker%22%20actress |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=30 September 1998 |page=21}}

Her television debut came in 1984 as Miss Turner in one episode of Fresh Fields; she appeared in the same role in two more episodes in 1985. The same year, she appeared in an episode of the television sitcom Open All Hours (with her father).{{cite news |last1=Standard Reporter |title=Comics' girls are a scream |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/725453686/?match=1&terms=%22Charlotte%20Barker%22 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Evening Standard |date=8 April 1992 |page=134}} She then appeared in the BBC Screen Two film Frankie and Johnnie in 1986, and in 1987 played Gillian in the film Wish You Were Here, and Bridget Sotheby in Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: At Bertram's Hotel. Other parts came in The Widowmaker (1990); Carla Lane's Screaming (1992; 6 episodes){{cite news |title=Stars' daughters are Screaming |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000578/19920409/148/0011 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Aberdeen Press and Journal |date=9 April 1992 |page=11}} the crime series Maigret (1992); The Bill (1996);{{cite news |title=Five days - all the week's viewing highlights |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003126/19960720/319/0020 |access-date=5 January 2025 |work=Wolverhampton Express and Star |date=20 July 1996 |page=20}} Birds of a Feather (1998); and Hearts and Bones (2001).{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0054848|name=Charlotte Barker}}

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Category:1962 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century English actresses

Category:21st-century English actresses

Category:English film actresses

Category:English television actresses

Category:English stage actresses

Category:Actors from the London Borough of Brent

Category:Date of birth missing (living people)

Category:Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama