She has starred in several plays by Harold Pinter. She also portrayed Elizabeth Longford and Margaret Thatcher in the television films Longford and Margaret , respectively. Duncan was born into a working-class family in Scotland ; one parent was from Edinburgh and the other from Glasgow.
Despite her origins, she speaks with a received pronunciation accent. Duncan's father died in a car accident when she was Duncan's first contact with theatre was through school productions.
She performed in the first productions at the Royal Exchange and appeared in eight plays in Manchester in the next two years. She appeared on the television in small roles in a special episode of Up Pompeii! On 8 January , the production transferred to the seat theatre The Pit in London's Barbican Centre , with its original cast.
In October of that year, the production moved to the Ambassadors in the West End. In April , the cast, including Duncan, took the play to Broadway. At the same time, she became a regular in the plays of Harold Pinter and the television work of Alan Bleasdale and Stephen Poliakoff. Alan Bleasdale asked Duncan to appear in his first work for television after ten years of absence, The Sinking of the Laconia , aired in January She played an upper-class passenger in the two-part drama based on a true story of World War II.
In October—November , Duncan read extracts of the King James Bible at the National Theatre, London as part of the th anniversary celebrations of the translation. In , Duncan starred in The Morning Show. They have one son, Cal McRae, born September Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Scottish actress born Edinburgh , Scotland [ 1 ]. Early life and education [ edit ].
