Barbara Flynn
Encyclopedia
Barbara Flynn is an English
actress. She first became known for her appearance in the ITV drama A Family at War
, that followed the fortunes of a lower middle class
family living in Liverpool
from 1938 and through World War II
.
During the 1980s Flynn's acting skills led to her being cast in several successful comedy drama television series - including the Beiderbecke Trilogy and A Very Peculiar Practice
. She tends to play, in her own words, "feisty strong women".
. She then trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
(where she was awarded the Gold Medal
in 1968) before appearing in repertory theatre. She married Jeremy George Taylor on 27 February 1982.
production of "Pythagoras" in 1976. This was a new play by Danny Abse. Also in that production was Graham Seed
, who went on to play Nigel Pargetter in The Archers
.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
actress. She first became known for her appearance in the ITV drama A Family at War
A Family At War
A Family At War is a British drama series that aired on ITV from 1970 to 1972. It was created by John Finch and made by Granada Television for ITV. The director was David Giles....
, that followed the fortunes of a lower middle class
Lower middle class
In developed nations across the world, the lower middle class is a sub-division of the greater middle class. Universally the term refers to the group of middle class households or individuals who have not attained the status of the upper middle class associated with the higher realms of the middle...
family living in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
from 1938 and through World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
During the 1980s Flynn's acting skills led to her being cast in several successful comedy drama television series - including the Beiderbecke Trilogy and A Very Peculiar Practice
A Very Peculiar Practice
A Very Peculiar Practice is a BBC comedy-drama series, which ran for two series in 1986 and 1988. It was the first major success for screenwriter Andrew Davies, and was inspired by his experiences as a lecturer at the University of Warwick.- Storyline :...
. She tends to play, in her own words, "feisty strong women".
Early life
Her father was a pathologist, a field her brother also followed. She attended St Mary's School, HastingsHastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
. She then trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
(where she was awarded the Gold Medal
Gold Medal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
The Gold Medal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, is awarded in April of each year to the winner of the school's music competition.-List of winners of the Gold Medal:*1910: Myra Hess *1924: Isidore Godfrey *1933: Max Jaffa...
in 1968) before appearing in repertory theatre. She married Jeremy George Taylor on 27 February 1982.
Television
- A Family at WarA Family At WarA Family At War is a British drama series that aired on ITV from 1970 to 1972. It was created by John Finch and made by Granada Television for ITV. The director was David Giles....
(1970-1972 40 episodes) - Open All HoursOpen All HoursOpen All Hours is a BBC sitcom written by Roy Clarke which ran for four series a first run in 1976, a second run in 1981, third in 1982 and finally with a fourth run in 1985, with a pilot episode from the Seven of One series in 1973...
(1976–1985) - Murder Most English (1977)
- The Barchester ChroniclesThe Barchester ChroniclesThe Barchester Chronicles is a 1982 British television serial produced by the BBC. It is an adaptation of Anthony Trollope's first two Barchester novels, The Warden and Barchester Towers, and was directed by David Giles...
(1982) - SuperTedSuperTedSuperTed is a Welsh teddy bear who has magical super powers. He along with his friend Spotty try to do good. SuperTed was a series of stories created by Mike Young who eventually created a television series based on those stories.-Creation:...
and Nuts in Space (1983) - The Beiderbecke AffairThe Beiderbecke AffairThe Beiderbecke Affair is a television series produced in the UK by ITV during 1985, written by the prolific Alan Plater, whose lengthy credits to British Television since the 1960s included the preceding 4 part mini series Get Lost! for ITV in 1981...
(1984) - The Beiderbecke TapesThe Beiderbecke TapesThe Beiderbecke Tapes is a two-part British television drama serial written by Alan Plater and broadcast in 1987. It is the second serial in The Beiderbecke Trilogy and stars James Bolam and Barbara Flynn as schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne...
(1986) - A Very Peculiar PracticeA Very Peculiar PracticeA Very Peculiar Practice is a BBC comedy-drama series, which ran for two series in 1986 and 1988. It was the first major success for screenwriter Andrew Davies, and was inspired by his experiences as a lecturer at the University of Warwick.- Storyline :...
(1986 and 1988) - Inspector Morse: The Silent World of Nicholas QuinnInspector Morse (TV series)Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. Dexter makes a cameo appearance in all but three of the episodes....
(1987) - The Beiderbecke ConnectionThe Beiderbecke ConnectionThe Beiderbecke Connection is a four part British television serial written by Alan Plater and broadcast in 1988. It is the third and final part of The Beiderbecke Trilogy and stars James Bolam and Barbara Flynn as schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne...
(1988 series) - Joshua Jones (TV series)Joshua Jones (TV series)Joshua Jones was a Welsh stop-motion children's television series made by Bumper Films . It was originally shown on S4C in the Welsh language in 1991, then it was translated into English and sold to the BBC in 1992....
(1991) - Chandler & CoChandler & CoChandler and Co was a UK television programme, made 1993–96, about two female private detectives. It starred Catherine Russell as Elly Chandler. Her partner was played by Barbara Flynn in the first series by Susan Fleetwood in the second....
(1994-95 series) - Wives and DaughtersWives and Daughters (1999 miniseries)Wives and Daughters is a 1999 four part BBC serial adapted from the novel Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story by Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell...
(1999) - CrackerCracker (UK TV series)Cracker is a British crime drama series produced by Granada Television for ITV and created and principally written by Jimmy McGovern. The series is centered on a criminal psychologist , Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, played by Robbie Coltrane. Set in Manchester, it consists of three series which were...
(series) - Lorna DooneLorna DooneLorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor is a novel by Richard Doddridge Blackmore. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, particularly around the East Lyn Valley area of Exmoor....
(2001) - The Forsyte SagaThe Forsyte Saga (2002 miniseries)In 2002 the first two books and the first interlude of John Galsworthy's trilogy The Forsyte Saga were adapted by Granada Television for the ITV network...
(2002) - The Inspector Lynley MysteriesThe Inspector Lynley MysteriesThe Inspector Lynley Mysteries is a series of BBC television programmes about Detective Inspector Thomas "Tommy" Lynley, 8th Earl of Asherton of Scotland Yard and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers...
(2004) - He Knew He Was RightHe Knew He Was Right (TV serial)He Knew He Was Right was a 2004 BBC TV adaptation of the novel of the same name by Anthony Trollope. It was directed by Tom Vaughan.*Jenny Uglow consultant*Nigel Stafford-Clark producer-Cast:*Oliver Dimsdale - Louis Trevelyan...
(2004) - Agatha Christie's PoirotAgatha Christie's PoirotAgatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that has aired on ITV since 1989. It stars David Suchet as Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was originally made by LWT and is now made by ITV Studios...
- Death on the Nile (2004) - Sea of SoulsSea of SoulsSea of Souls is a BBC paranormal drama series, based around the fictional activities of a group of investigators into psychic and other paranormal events. Produced in-house by BBC Scotland, initially in association with Sony Pictures Television International, the series debuted on BBC One in the UK...
(2004) - Malice AforethoughtMalice AforethoughtMalice Aforethought is a murder mystery novel written by Anthony Berkeley Cox, using the pen name Francis Iles. It involves a Devon physician who slowly poisons his domineering wife so that he may be with the woman he loves. It is an early and prominent example of the "inverted detective story",...
(2005) - Elizabeth I (2005)
- The Line of BeautyThe Line of BeautyThe Line of Beauty is a 2004 Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst.-Plot introduction:Set in Britain in the early to mid-1980s, the story surrounds the post-Oxford life of the young gay protagonist, Nick Guest....
(2006) - CranfordCranford (TV series)Cranford is a British television series directed by Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was adapted from three novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 and 1858: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow, and Mr Harrison's Confessions...
(2007–2009) - The Queen: The Enemy WithinThe Queen (2009 docudrama)The Queen was a 2009 British drama-documentary showing Queen Elizabeth II at different points during her life. Broadcast on Channel 4 over five consecutive nights from 29 November 2009, the Queen was portrayed by a different actress in each episode. The Queen was portrayed by Emilia Fox, Samantha...
(2009) - New Tricks (2011)
- Midsomer MurdersMidsomer MurdersMidsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...
(2011)
Narration
In addition to her acting work, Flynn has provided voice overs for numerous TV documentaries, including:- Body Styles (1989)
- Time of Her Life (1993)
- Network First (1996)
- The Lost Gardens of Heligan (1997)
- Deaf Century (1999)
- The 1900 House (1999)
- Horizon (numerous episodes, 2002 to present)
- The 50s and 60s in Living Colour (2003)
- George Orwell: A Life in Pictures (2003)
- From Here to Paternity (2004)
- The MonasteryThe Monastery (BBC TV series)The Monastery was a documentary television series made by Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC Two which aired in the UK in May 2005. The programme follows five modern lay men as they embark on a 40 day and night introduction to Roman Catholic monastic life at Worth Abbey, West Sussex, England under...
(2005) - The Ghost in Your Genes (2005)
- Time Shift: Alan Plater (2005)
- The Queen's Castle (2005)
- The RestaurantThe Restaurant (UK TV Series)The Restaurant was a British reality television series in which a group of couples competed for the chance to set up a restaurant financially backed and personally supported by French chef Raymond Blanc. The winning couple were given their own restaurant to run...
(2008) - Big Fat Gypsy Wedding (UK TV series) (2011)
Film
- Britannia HospitalBritannia HospitalBritannia Hospital is a 1982 black comedy film by British director Lindsay Anderson which targets the National Health Service and contemporary British society...
- King LearKing LearKing Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
(1998) - You Are Dead (1998)
- Miss Potter (2006)
Early Theatre Work
Barbara Flynn appeared in the Birmingham Repertory TheatreBirmingham Repertory Theatre
Birmingham Repertory Theatre is a theatre and theatre company based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England...
production of "Pythagoras" in 1976. This was a new play by Danny Abse. Also in that production was Graham Seed
Graham Seed
Graham Seed is an English actor.He trained at RADA and is best known for his role playing Nigel Pargetter in the BBC radio series The Archers from 1983 until January 2011, although actor Nigel Carrington briefly played the role when Graham Seed took a break in the late 1980s...
, who went on to play Nigel Pargetter in The Archers
The Archers
The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...
.