Barbara Marten

Barbara Marten
Born
Barbara Mason[1]

(1947-01-03) 3 January 1947 (age 77)
Other namesBarbara Kenny
OccupationActress
Years active1985–present
SpouseMike Kenny
Children3

Barbara Marten (born 3 January 1947) 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

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Marten was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, and grew up in County Durham. She went to the all-girls William Newton School[2]) in Norton, then Stockton and Billingham Technical College.[3] She went to drama school at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art as a teenager for three years,[1] 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.[1]

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

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In 1996, Marten appeared at the National Theatre in Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.[1] She has also appeared in various other plays such as Hamlet, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (at Manchester Royal Exchange[4]), 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),[5] Everything Is Possible: The York Suffragettes (York Theatre Royal[6][7]) and a touring production of An Inspector Calls.[8][9]

From 1997 to 1999, she played the part of nurse Eve Montgomery in Casualty.[7][10][11] 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.[12][13]

Personal life

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Barbara and her husband, Mike Kenny,[14] (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,[15] when they were studying to become teachers.[1] They have lived in York since 2004,[1] having previously lived in Leeds.[7] The children have studied at the Steiner School at Fulford.[15]

Filmography

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Television

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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 4 episodes[14]
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) 15 episodes[14][16]
1997–1999 Casualty Eve Montgomery / Tamara Redpath (1 episode in 1989) 39 episodes
1995–2006 The Bill Laura Meadows / Joan Barnwood / Barbara Dean 12 episodes (10 episodes as Laura Meadows)[14][8]
1995 Band of Gold Mrs. Richards 3 episodes[14]
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[14]
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[17]
2021 A Discovery of Witches Queen Elizabeth I 2 episodes
2022 The Devil's Hour Sylvia Chambers 3 episodes
2024 Dune: Prophecy Sister Avila

Film

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Year Title Role Notes
1987 A Month in the Country Mrs. Sykes Irish drama film[18]
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

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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.[19]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "From Bible reader to bohemian firebrand". The Northern Echo. 10 February 2004. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  2. ^ Team, Picture Stockton (24 June 2015). "Production of The Merchant of Venice, William Newton School". Picture Stockton Archive. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  3. ^ "Stockton-Billingham Technical College, England, images". 12000.org. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  4. ^ Cavendish, Dominic (15 December 2007). "Review of the year: Regional theatre". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  5. ^ "Casualty launches Barbara on stage". The Scotsman. 10 January 2008. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  6. ^ Hutchinson, Charles (22 May 2017). "Barbara Marten to lead cast in York Suffragette play Everything Is Possible". York Press. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  7. ^ a b c Simcock, Georgia (21 June 2017). "York's women battle for equality in new community blockbuster show". YorkMix. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  8. ^ a b Wolf, Matt (17 December 2016). "An Inspector Calls' Barbara Marten on Soggy Costumes, a Collapsing Set & Her Show-Biz Marriage". Broadway.com. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  9. ^ "Barbara Marten , Company , An Inspector Calls". www.aninspectorcalls.com. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  10. ^ "BBC One - Casualty - Eve Montgomery". BBC. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  11. ^ Chris Perry The Kaleidoscope British Christmas Television Guide 1937-2013, p. 106, at Google Books
  12. ^ "The Mill". Channel 4. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
  13. ^ Wise, Lauren (13 September 2018). "10 times Cheshire was transformed into filming locations". Chester Chronicle. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  14. ^ a b c d e f Burton, Nigel. "Twenty years on - what happened to the cast of Harry, the BBC drama shot in Darlington". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  15. ^ a b "Caitlin, The Studio, York Theatre Royal, February 12 to March 6". York Press. 6 February 2004. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  16. ^ Norman Chance Who Was Who on TV, Volume 2, p. 32, at Google Books
  17. ^ Baron, Saskia (12 December 2018). "Mrs Wilson finale, BBC One review - stranger than fiction". theartsdesk.com. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  18. ^ Denis Gifford (editor) British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set - The Fiction Film, Volume 2, 1895-1994, p. 960, at Google Books
  19. ^ "2018 Nominees and Winners". www.dramadeskawards.com. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
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