Barbara Rafferty

Barbara Rafferty (born 15 January 1950 in Clydebank), is a Scottish actress. She was credited as Barbara Ann Brown in her early acting career. She is known for her roles as Ella Cotter in the long-running BBC Two sitcom Rab C Nesbitt, then firstly as Shirley Henderson and currently as Bernie O'Hara in BBC Scotland soap opera River City. She playec Agnes Meldon in mystery series Hamish MacBeth and Grandma Mainland in the CBeebies comedy Katie Morag.

Rafferty is best known for playing Ella Cotter in Rab C Nesbitt between 1990 and 1999, and then again from 2008 and 2011 when the show made a comeback (and again in 2014). Other notable television roles include playing pub landlady Agnes Meldrum in Hamish Macbeth and Alice MacAllister in The Young Person's Guide To Becoming A Rock Star. She took over the role of Alice Taylor from Muriel Romanes in Take The High Road in 1988. Also, in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland, Barbara Rafferty starred as Mrs. Garrigan. Until 2009 she was appearing in the BBC Scotland soap River City as Shirley Henderson and since 2018 as Bernie O'Hara.

Barbara's daughter, Amy Rafferty (born 1972), is a singer, songwriter, and musician with the cult Glasgow music collective The Recovery Club.

Her son, Bob Rafferty, fronts the well known Glasgow alternative rock band El Dog.

In 2013 it was announced that Rafferty would join the cast of His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen Pantomime Cinderella with her friend Elaine C. Smith.

She portrayed Grandma Mainland in the CBeebies TV series, Katie Morag. It started airing on 3 November 2013.

Other appearances