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South African born actor Glynis Barber narrates When Luxury Holidays Go Horribly Wrong, which features first-hand accounts of people whose dream holidays turned into nightmares. In this interview, Barber shares more about the series and tells us more about her television career in the UK.
If you've watched a royal documentary or come across The Wonderful World of Chocolate docu-series, you're probably familiar with Glynis Barber's voice. But did you know that she's South African?
The 66-year-old was born and bred in Durban and made her way to the UK when she was 18 years old to attend drama school. Since her breakthrough role in the 1981 BBC sci-fi series, Blake's 7 Barber has had a successful career in theatre, TV and film, with numerous credits to her name.
Barber narrates the first episode of When Luxury Holidays Go Horribly Wrong on CBS Reality (DStv 132).
The episode - which airs Saturday 4 June at 07:00 and 20:40 - features first-hand accounts of what happened when a dream holiday turns into nightmares - from a honeymoon couple surviving an infamous Los Vegas shooting in 2017 to a spider bite with horrific consequences; these tales might give you second thoughts about that dream getaway.
Barber said that she was invited by Channel 5 to narrate the episode.
"I'd already done a couple for them all different kinds of subjects, and they all did quite well. So when this one came up, they asked me and invited me to do it. In fact, this was the first one I did in this series. And funnily enough, we've now done more. I've done four more this year which had just been going out.
"I did two more, and they're very popular. Documentaries have become very popular, and Channel 5 does great documentaries."
The Emmerdale actor shares that she had a similar experience – not as scary, though – as one of the participants in the episode when she was bitten by 'something' on a trip.
"I do sometimes react to bites, and I've actually been on little holidays where I've had a mosquito bite or a spider bite that's become so swollen. I have had to go to the local hospital, and I did once. I was in Corfu a few years ago, and I got stung by a wasp, nothing like the one in this documentary. But my leg got very red and a bit swollen.
"I said, 'Oh, it's fine, it'll go down'. Well, it didn't go down. It was on my upper thigh, which was as big as a watermelon. And in the end, I did have to go to the local hospital, and I had to go on antibiotics, but it was fine in the end."
Spider bites aside. Barber says that she's always prepared whenever she goes on a holiday.
"I always have things that I know I will need. I never rely on being able to get it where I'm going. So, if I like a particular sun block or want a certain supplement, or if I know it's a place where something could happen to me, they have a certain illness. I will arrive prepared with anything I could possibly need to save my life."
'I suppose I'm lucky'
Barber has been in the UK for over 40 years and says she was fortunate in the early part of her career and stayed and worked there.
"I suppose I'm lucky that I'm still going. I've done a bit of everything. I've done loads of television. I did a series in the 1980s called Dempsey and Makepeace, which was a series that was incredibly popular. So, I became known for that. I mean, the fans are still there; people still talk about it."
Recently she's joined the cast of the soap opera Hollyoaks, where Barber plays Norma Crowe, who she says is a gangster.
"Hollyoaks is this little village near Liverpool and all these characters, and it's about them. It's drama, and it's heightened; there are a lot of bad boys and bad girls. Everybody in the village seems to have killed somebody, and there are a lot of bullies and people threatening.
"And what's brilliant for me is that I'm bigger and badder than any of them. So here we have the situation where you've got quite a few macho men; everybody's scared of them, and they're threatening. And here I am. I'm a woman in my sixties coming into the village and literally terrifying everybody."
Barber says that playing a baddie is great fun, "traditionally, it's a part that a man would have played. And they deliberately decided for that reason to cast a woman. So, I love that it's a great part to play."
When Barber isn't in baddie mode, she has a keen interest in healthy ageing and has a website, Ageless by Glynis Barber and a YouTube Channel where she has health tips and speaks to experts.
