Barbara Marten
British actress (born 1952)
title: "Barbara Marten" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["living-people", "1947-births", "actresses-from-county-durham", "actresses-from-leeds", "alumni-of-the-london-academy-of-music-and-dramatic-art", "british-television-actresses", "people-from-norton,-county-durham", "actors-from-the-borough-of-stockton-on-tees"] description: "British actress (born 1952)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Marten" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary British actress (born 1952) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Barbara Marten |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
| birth_name | Barbara Mason |
| othername | Barbara Kenny |
| years_active | 1985–present |
| occupation | Actress |
| spouse | Mike Kenny |
| children | 3 |
| :: |
| name = Barbara Marten | image = | caption = | birth_date = | birth_place = Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England | alma_mater = | birth_name = Barbara Mason | othername = Barbara Kenny | years_active = 1985–present | website = | occupation = Actress | spouse = Mike Kenny | children = 3 | awards = Barbara Marten (born 31 January 1952) is a British actress. She is most known for playing Eve Montgomery in Casualty. She has appeared in various soaps, including EastEnders and Brookside, as well as many other drama serials, such as Harry, The Bill and Band of Gold.
Early life
Marten was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, and grew up in County Durham. She went to the all-girls William Newton School in Norton, then Stockton and Billingham Technical College. She went to drama school at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art as a teenager for three years, and later said that it put her off becoming an actress. Marten trained as a teacher in Birmingham and taught for two years before being drawn back to the stage.
After becoming involved with a theatre group in Coventry, Marten joined a newly formed theatre group in Doncaster. They toured Yorkshire, performing plays about various subjects, including the St Leger, and another about battered wives.
Career
In 1996, Marten appeared at the National Theatre in Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.), The Winter’s Tale (at the Royal Exchange), Get Up & Tie Your Fingers (Customs House), The Awkward Squad (West End), Heldenplatz (Arcola), The Enemies Within, Some Kind of Hero (at the Young Vic), The Glass Menagerie (Lyceum, Edinburgh), Everything Is Possible: The York Suffragettes (York Theatre Royal) and a touring production of An Inspector Calls.
From 1997 to 1999, she played the part of nurse Eve Montgomery in Casualty. Since then, she has appeared in many TV dramas, receiving much acclaim for her work in dramas such as Bob & Rose and Fat Friends. Marten played the lead role of Ellen in the film Between Two Women (2000), and then in A Passionate Woman (2010) as Moira. She appeared in the 2012 series Public Enemies.
Marten then played Hannah Greg in the period television drama series The Mill (between 2013 and 2014) which was about life at Quarry Bank Mill during the Industrial Revolution.
Marten appeared as Elizabeth I in the fantasy television series A Discovery of Witches, and has played Sylvia Chambers on the drama thriller television series The Devil's Hour since 2022. In 2024, Marten began portraying Sister Avila in the HBO science fiction series Dune: Prophecy.
Personal life
Barbara and her husband, Mike Kenny, (writer of The Railway Children play) have three sons, Theo, Josh and Billy. Marten met Kenny in the 1980s, while acting in a student pantomime in Birmingham, when they were studying to become teachers. They have lived in York since 2004, having previously lived in Leeds. The children have studied at the Steiner School at Fulford.
Filmography
Television
::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | The Practice | Barbara Quinn | 4 episodes |
| 1988 | Christabel | Freda | 1 episode |
| Screen Two | Marlene | 1 episode | |
| The Ruth Rendell Mysteries | Katharine Freeman | 1 episode | |
| 1985–1989 | Brookside | Margaret Jefferson | 9 episodes |
| 1989 | Screen One | Bill's wife | 1 episode |
| 1992 | The Life and Times of Henry Pratt | Ada Pratt | (TV Mini-Series), 1 episode |
| In Suspicious Circumstances | Mrs. Browning | (TV Series), 1 episode | |
| 1993 | Love and Reason | Mel Lynch | (TV Mini-Series), 3 episodes |
| 1993–1995 | Harry | Rita Salter (Harry's ex-wife) | dqLRaPDcbTgC |
| 1997–1999 | Casualty | Eve Montgomery / Tamara Redpath (1 episode in 1989) | 39 episodes |
| 1995–2006 | The Bill | Laura Meadows / Joan Barnwood / Barbara Dean | last1=Wolf |
| 1995 | Band of Gold | Mrs. Richards | 3 episodes |
| Medics | Barbara Lawson | 1 episode | |
| 1997 | The Sherman Plays | Gwen John | (TV Series),1 episode |
| 2000 | Badger | Marie | 1 episode |
| Where the Heart Is | Frances Barrow | 1 episode | |
| 2000–2002 | Fat Friends | Liz Ashburn | 3 episodes |
| 2001 | Bob & Rose | Carol Cooper | 1 episode |
| 2005 | Rome | Diviner | 1 episode |
| The Royal | Assistant Matron Thelma Parker | 1 episode | |
| EastEnders | D.S. Haydon or DS Haydon | 7 episodes | |
| 2006 | Goldplated | Beth White | 8 episodes |
| Silent Witness | Mary Duncan | 3 episodes | |
| 2007 | Dalziel and Pascoe | Louise Roach | 2 episode |
| 2008 | Heartbeat | Margaret Watson | 1 episode |
| 2009 | Waking the Dead | Penny Cain | 2 episodes |
| Doctors | Liz Frobisher | 1 episode | |
| The Street | Nessa | 1 episode | |
| Law & Order: UK | Phillipa Keegan | 1 episode | |
| 2010 | A Passionate Woman | Moira | 1 episode |
| Five Days | Ellie Gooding | 1 episode | |
| 2011 | Walk Like a Panther | Margaret Bolton | 1 episode |
| In with the Flynns | Mrs. Cooper | 1 episode | |
| 2012 | Vera | Diane Barton | 1 episode |
| Kidnap and Ransom | Janet Taylor | 3 episodes | |
| Whitechapel | Adelina Grace | 1 episode | |
| Public Enemies | Kathy Whiteley | 3 episodes | |
| 2013 | Frankie | Jean Winters | 1 episode |
| 2013–2014 | The Mill | Hannah Greg | 10 episodes |
| 2018 | Mrs Wilson | Mrs. McKelvie | 2 episodes |
| 2021 | A Discovery of Witches | Queen Elizabeth I | 2 episodes |
| 2022–present | The Devil's Hour | Sylvia Chambers | 8 episodes |
| 2024 | Dune: Prophecy | Sister Avila | 6 episodes |
| :: |
Film
::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | A Month in the Country | Mrs. Sykes | Irish drama film |
| 1989 | Home Run | Bill's wife | |
| The Fifteen Streets | Hannah Kelly | (TV Movie) | |
| 1990 | Shoot to Kill | Stella Stalker | (TV Movie) |
| 1996 | Goodbye My Love | Jean Humphry | (TV Movie) |
| 2000 | Between Two Women | Ellen Hardy | |
| 2002 | Flesh and Blood | Barbara | (TV Movie) |
| A Is for Acid | Emily Haigh | (TV Movie) | |
| 2003 | The Debt | Gwen Dresner | (TV Movie) |
| In Search of the Brontës | Tabitha Aykroyd | (TV Movie) | |
| 2005 | Faith | Doreen | (TV Movie) |
| 2008 | Florence Nightingale | Fanny, Florence's mother | (TV Movie) |
| 2010 | Capture Anthologies: Fables & Fairytales | Margaret Travis | (Video) |
| Oranges and Sunshine | Mary | ||
| 2015 | I Hamlet | Gertrude | |
| 2020 | The Turning | Mrs. Grose | |
| 2022 | The Twin | Helen | |
| :: |
Awards
In 2018, she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her role in People, Places and Things at National Theatre/St. Ann's Warehouse.
References
References
- (10 February 2004). "From Bible reader to bohemian firebrand". The Northern Echo.
- (24 June 2015). "Production of The Merchant of Venice, William Newton School".
- "Stockton-Billingham Technical College, England, images".
- (15 December 2007). "Review of the year: Regional theatre". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
- (10 January 2008). "Casualty launches Barbara on stage". [[The Scotsman]].
- (22 May 2017). "Barbara Marten to lead cast in York Suffragette play Everything Is Possible". [[The Press (York).
- (21 June 2017). "York's women battle for equality in new community blockbuster show". YorkMix.
- "Barbara Marten, Company, An Inspector Calls".
- "BBC One - Casualty - Eve Montgomery".
- Chris Perry {{google books. IJQACAAAQBAJ. The Kaleidoscope British Christmas Television Guide 1937-2013
- "The Mill". [[Channel 4]].
- (13 September 2018). "10 times Cheshire was transformed into filming locations". [[Chester Chronicle]].
- O'Keefe, Meghan. (11 January 2021). "‘'A Discovery of Witches’' Season 2 is the Best Time-Traveling Romance Since ‘'Outlander'’".
- Kanter, Jake. (22 June 2021). "''The Devil's Hour'': Jessica Raine, Peter Capaldi to Headline Amazon Thriller Series".
- Bardini, Julio. (24 December 2024). "Our Biggest Unanswered Questions After the ‘'Dune: Prophecy’' Finale".
- "Twenty years on - what happened to the cast of Harry, the BBC drama shot in Darlington". [[The Northern Echo]].
- (6 February 2004). "Caitlin, The Studio, York Theatre Royal, February 12 to March 6". York Press.
- Norman Chance {{google books. dqLRaPDcbTgC. Who Was Who on TV, Volume 2
- (17 December 2016). "An Inspector Calls' Barbara Marten on Soggy Costumes, a Collapsing Set & Her Show-Biz Marriage". Broadway.com.
- (12 December 2018). "Mrs Wilson finale, BBC One review - stranger than fiction". theartsdesk.com.
- Denis Gifford (editor) {{google books. 1c7eCwAAQBAJ. British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set - The Fiction Film, Volume 2, 1895-1994
- "2018 Nominees and Winners".
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