HELEN FRASER (Karen) was born in Oldham, Lancashire and trained at RADA. She first came to widespread attention in the 1963 film Billy Liar and followed that with an appearance in another British classic film, A Kind of Loving.
On television, Helen has appeared in Z Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, The Likely Lads, One Foot in the Grave, Coronation Street and Casualty. She has worked with some of Britain's top comedians including Dick Emery, Leonard Rossiter and the Two Ronnies. Helen has also appeared with the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare companies.
Helen is probably best know to contemporary television viewers for her role as prison warder Sylvia "Bodybag" Hollamby in Bad Girls. She reprised the role in the West End production of Bad Girls: The Musical in 2007.
In 2008 Helen was reunited with her Billy Liar co-star, Tom Courtenay to play the parents of 'Dave' in the Royle Family Christmas Special. Recently, she has been playing the role of Mrs Fisher in a touring stage version of Billy Liar.
Helen filmed her scenes in Coming Home during a break from the Billy Liar tour. She had promised herself not to take on other commitments but accepted the role of Karen as a sort of tribute to her late husband, Peter Handford, an Oscar winning sound recordist 'Hearing was central to Peter's work,' said Helen, 'without it his career would have been over. Consequently, Peter always supported deaf charities/organizations - and that's why I wanted to work with Mutt and Jeff on Coming Home'