Coronation Street star Barbara Ferris has died aged 85. 

The actress was known for playing barmaid Nona Willis at the Rovers Return, but left the soap after 10 episodes because she struggled to understand the Lancastrian accent.

Barbara also had roles in Catch Us If You Can and Children Of The Damned. Her last film role came in 1990, in Peter Medak’s The Krays. 

Her younger sister Pam also went into acting, starring in The Darling Buds of May and Call The Midwife. 

They also also had another sibling Liz, a champion springboard diving champion, who won a bronze medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics. 

Barbara, who is survived by her husband and their children, Nicholas, Christopher and Catherine, died on May 23, 2025. The cause of death has not been confirmed. 

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Coronation Street star Barbara Ferris has died aged 85 (pictured with James Bolam in Oranges and Lemons)

The actress was known for playing barmaid Nona Willis at the Rovers Return (pictured) but left the soap after 10 episodes because she struggled to understand the Lancastrian accent

Barbara’s younger sister Pam also went into acting, recently starring as Sister Evangelina in Call The Midwife (pictured in 2013) 

Barbara’s younger sister Pam previously told the Mail how her sister ‘changed her life’. 

In a 2014 interview, Pam explained that Barbara was responsible for her moving to New Zealand at the age of 13, where she then fell in love with acting. 

She explained: ‘My older sister Barbara had emigrated to New Zealand with her husband and their tiny baby. I remained in Bridgend, Wales, with my parents, where my father worked for the police force.

‘We didn’t have a telephone at home, so one afternoon we arranged for her to call us at our local phone box. We all huddled around the receiver.

‘It was a hugely emotional telephone call because in those days she may as well have been in another world. She’d travelled by boat, and letters and rare telephone calls were our only form of communication.

‘It was wonderful to speak to my sister, but that telephone call upset all of us because we missed her so much. Weeks of debate followed until it was decided that we’d move to New Zealand, where my parents could see their grandchild grow up.

‘I’d already had a nomadic childhood, caused by my father Fred’s careers as a civil servant and with the police force.

‘I was born in Germany and moved to Wales when I was six. I’d got used to being flexible about setting down roots and making new friends.’

Barbara pictured with John Neville  in Sunday Night Theatre, Blinkers’ TV programme in 1973

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Pam continued: ‘Then, aged 13, I was transported to New Zealand. 

‘It was wonderful to be close to my sister again but there was so much more that I loved about my new surroundings.

‘I remember not needing a winter coat and rarely wearing shoes because you could walk around barefoot. A couple of years later, I also had a lovely boyfriend with a speedboat.

‘Welsh schooling was ahead of New Zealand’s, so I was drumming my fingers with boredom in class. 

‘I enjoyed drama though, and my teacher encouraged me to join an amateur dramatics group, which I loved. Soon I knew I wanted to be a professional actress.

‘I went on to train at a theatre company in Auckland and the more experience I gained, the more diverse roles I wanted to play.

‘At 21 I was cast as Britannia, the ɴuᴅᴇ, in the play The Entertainer. New Zealanders were a bit prudish, though, so I wasn’t allowed to be starkers. I stood on a plinth, wearing three micro Union Jacks, which I was grateful for.

‘As much as I adored my sister, her family and my parents, by the age of 23 I knew I had to return to London if I was to make a good living as an actress.

Barbara had roles in Catch Us If You Can and Children Of The Damned. Her last film role came in 1990, in Peter Medak’s The Krays (pictured in Oranges and Lemons) 

‘It was a huge decision and a very painful one for all of us. Luckily the move to London worked out well for me. 

‘I got an agent and enough work to afford somewhere to live. Long before series like The Darling Buds Of May and the Matilda and Harry Potter films I was cast in wonderful TV dramas like The Rag Trade.

‘My parents have pᴀssed away now but Barbara still lives in New Zealand, and these days we fly to see each other as often as possible.

‘The older we get, the closer we become. And if it hadn’t been for her phone call that afternoon, my life could have turned out quite differently.’