Colin McFarlane

Mcfarlane's first professional television role was in 1985 with a three episode guest stint, as Detective Sergeant Watson, in ITV's hit police procedural Dempsey and Makepeace.[6] From there, he would go on to feature in London Weekly Television's made-for-TV film Dutch Girls, alongside Colin Firth and fellow Outlander alumni Bill Patterson.[7] In 1988, McFarlane guest starred in a season two episode of ITV's drama Bust, which followed a man in the wake of bankruptcy.[8]

His numerous TV credits include Judge John Deed, Jonathan Creek, Casualty, Death in Paradise, Father Brown and Holby City.[9] He has also appeared in two of the UK's most-watched soap operas. He appeared in five episodes of Coronation Street from August to September 2010 as a consultant neurosurgeon, Mr Jordan, and played DCI Irving in an episode of EastEnders in April 2014 as part of the "Who Killed Lucy Beale?" storyline.

He has also made regular appearances in British TV comedy, in the shows The Fast Show, Randall & Hopkirk, Jeeves and Wooster, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Harry and Paul and The Thin Blue Line. He played Inspector Norris in the Black Books episode The Blackout, Inspector Terrence Brown in the first episode of Dirk Gently and voiced the Judge in the 2016 revival of the sitcom Porridge.

He also featured in the CBBC shows M.I. High and Hounded as the evil Dr Muhahahaha.

McFarlane portrayed Police Commissioner Loeb in the critically acclaimed films Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008). He has also made numerous appearances in the Doctor Who franchise, voicing the Heavenly Host in the Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned" and playing Moran in the "Under the Lake" and "Before the Flood" episodes of the ninth series[10] from 2015. In addition, he also appeared in the third series of Torchwood, Children of Earth, as the American military representative Colonel Pierce.

He appears alongside Matt Smith and Natalie Dormer in the action horror film Patient Zero (2018). He then appeared as the governor in the 2019 thriller film Crawl, featuring Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper.

McFarlane's best-known voice roles include JJ and Skip in the original series of Bob the Builder, and as the narrator on the ITV gameshow The Cube. He has also voiced God and Goliath on Testament: The Bible in Animation, Jonah in the 1997 animated series Captain Pugwash, as well as Bulgy the Double Decker Bus and Beresford the Crane in Thomas & Friends and its 2017 feature film Journey Beyond Sodor.[11] In addition, he played the part of dictator Thadius Vent in children's animation Oscar's Orchestra, Sergeant Slipper in Dennis and Gnasher, Elvis the horse in Iconicles, Sparky the dragon in Mike the Knight, and voiced several characters in the episode "The Sweater" of The Amazing World of Gumball..

He played US General Trent Stone in the 2014 original audio drama Osiris by Everybodyelse Productions.

McFarlane has lent his voice to numerous video games, the earliest being Joseph D. Tenka in 1997's Lifeforce Tenka. He also voiced Greg in the Buzz! quiz game series, the character Avalon Centrifuge in the 2011 game LittleBigPlanet 2, and provided additional dialogue for Batman: Arkham Knight. He played "The Forgotten One", the central villain of the two downloadable content packs for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.[12] Also lending his voice to Thunder, in the first Fable video game.

In 2013, McFarlane appeared with Lenny Henry in a critically acclaimed revival of August Wilson's Fences at the Duchess Theatre in London's West End.