Glynis Barber gives Harriet Makepeace enough composure to make her partner's swagger look slightly overeager. Her comic timing with Michael Brandon is reason to watch, even when the police work offers few surprises.
Fi1m perspective
In Dempsey and Makepeace (1985), Glynis Barber meets Michael Brandon's wisecracking detective with a composure that stops him taking charge of every exchange. We laughed at their sparring because her steadiness makes his efforts to provoke her seem all the more eager. As Harriet Makepeace, she gives the familiar police partnership a reason to keep watching when the investigations run short of one. It is good, undemanding television, and her comic timing is a substantial part of its appeal.
Makepeace followed Soolin in the final series of Blake's 7 (1981) and the title role in Jane (1982), and brought wider recognition. The later move into soaps included DCI Grace Barraclough in Emmerdale (2006), Glenda Mitchell in EastEnders (2010) and gangster Norma Crow in Hollyoaks (2022). Authority recurs across these parts, from the police officer to the matriarch and the gangster. There is a risk of predictable casting here: an imposing woman can be a useful character or simply a requirement the script has filled.
Barber's restraint matters because Brandon gives Dempsey enough warmth to make his lack of tact tolerable. A permanently disapproving partner would soon make their scenes tiresome; she gives him resistance without spoiling the good humour. The rough American and the posh English detective are hardly an unexpected pairing, but the two actors make their differences worth watching. We never need to mistake the setup for a fresh idea to enjoy how they handle it.
Tony Wharmby's series is less resourceful when it gets back to solving crimes. Its investigations can feel perfunctory, and the predictable friction between the leads does not amount to much surprise. That limits our enthusiasm for the programme without cancelling what Barber achieves within it: she makes a familiar role worth spending time with. Start with Dempsey and Makepeace for her partnership with Brandon; choose something else if an ingenious case is the evening's main requirement.
Biography
Glynis Barber is a South African-British actress. Born Glynis van der Riet on 25 October 1955 in Durban, she trained at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London.
She is known for her role as Sgt. Harriet Makepeace in the ITV series Dempsey and Makepeace (1985–1986). Other television credits include Soolin in Blake's 7, Glenda Mitchell in EastEnders, DCI Grace Barraclough in Emmerdale, and Norma Crow in Hollyoaks. She has also appeared in Night and Day and numerous guest roles.
Barber married actor Michael Brandon, her co-star on Dempsey and Makepeace, in 1989. They have one son.
