Roy Barraclough began his career as a draughtsman, taking time off to work as an entertainer in a holiday camp on the Isle of Wight. He then combined his day job with local amateur theatre for several years before being offered a full-time acting contract by repertory theatre producer Nita Valerie with her company in Huddersfield. Barraclough regularly appeared on stage and at times played piano in the pit, including for comedian Hylda Baker.
He later joined the repertory company at Stoke and then Oldham in 1966, appearing alongside Ben Kingsley and Barbara Knox, who later became colleagues on Coronation Street. Whilst at Oldham, he made his first TV appearances for Granada Television, including Coronation Street in 1964.
In 1969, he was cast as Harry Everitt in Yorkshire Television's first soap opera Castle Haven with Kathy Staff as his on-screen wife. Although the soap only lasted a year, Barraclough became a regular guest actor on YTV shows. He was asked to stand in for a missing actor on the first series of The Les Dawson Show, which marked the start of a working relationship with Les Dawson that would last many years.
Throughout the 1970s, Barraclough formed a partnership with Les Dawson, playing two grotesque old ladies in a series of shows. He also appeared in the Jack Rosenthal sitcom The Lovers, playing a grumpy barman, and in the Rising Damp episode "Pink Carnations", as well as ITV's sitcom George & Mildred.
In 1972, he gained a legion of young fans in the memorable children's series Pardon My Genie, playing the role of ironmonger Mr Cobbledick. He made occasional appearances in Coronation Street in 1972 and 1975, playing the rather sleazy Alec Gilroy, and returned permanently in 1986.
Barraclough was later to appear in a sitcom, Mother's Ruin, in which he played a bachelor dominated by his belligerent mother. He made a guest appearance in Last of the Summer Wine, playing opposite his friend Kathy Staff, and appeared in a variety of TV shows, including Casualty, Peak Practice, and Funland.
In 2009, he played the vicar in the BBC1 drama All the Small Things, and from 2012 to 2013, he played Maurice in Last Tango in Halifax. In 2016, he played Mr Grainger in a reboot of Are You Being Served?. He also appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank in 2001.
On stage, Barraclough appeared in everything from musicals, such as The Boy Friend and Gypsy, to high drama, such as Death of a Salesman and A Different Way Home, and Christmas shows and pantomimes. He created the role of Santa in the lavish stage musical Santa Claus, which he reprised for several Christmases.
