McFarlane portrayed Police Commissioner Loeb in the critically acclaimed films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. He has also made numerous appearances in the Doctor Who franchise, voicing the Heavenly Host in the Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned" and playing Moran in the "Under the Lake" and "Before the Flood" episodes of the ninth series from 2015. In addition, he also appeared in the third series of Torchwood, , as the American military representative Colonel Pierce. His numerous TV credits include Judge John Deed, Jonathan Creek, Casualty, Death in Paradise, Father Brown and Holby City. He has also appeared in two of the UK's most-watched soap operas. He appeared in five episodes of Coronation Street from August to September 2010 as a consultant neurosurgeon, Mr Jordan, and played DCI Irving in an episode of EastEnders in April 2014 as part of the "Who Killed Lucy Beale?" storyline. He has also made regular appearances in British TV comedy, in the shows The Fast Show, Randall & Hopkirk, Jeeves and Wooster, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Harry and Paul and The Thin Blue Line. He played Inspector Norris in the Black Books episode The Blackout, Inspector Terrence Brown in the first episode of Dirk Gently and voiced the Judge in the 2016 revival of the sitcom Porridge. He also featured in the CBBC shows M.I. High and Hounded as the evil Dr Muhahahaha. He appears alongside Matt Smith and Natalie Dormer in the action horror filmPatient Zero. He then appeared as the governor in the 2019 thriller filmCrawl, featuring Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper.
Voice acting
McFarlane's best-known voice roles include JJ and Skip in the original series of Bob the Builder, and as the narrator on the ITV gameshow The Cube. He has also voiced God and Goliath on ', Jonah in the 1997 animated seriesCaptain Pugwash, as well as Bulgy the Double Decker Bus and Beresford the Crane in '. In addition, he played the part of dictator Thadius Vent in children's animation Oscar's Orchestra, Sergeant Slipper in Dennis and Gnasher, Elvis the horse in Iconicles, Sparky the dragon in Mike the Knight, and voiced several characters in the episode "The Sweater" of The Amazing World of Gumball.. He played US General Trent Stone in the 2014 original audio dramaOsiris by Everybodyelse Productions.
Video Games
McFarlane has lent his voice to numerous video games, the earliest being Joseph D. Tenka in 1997's Lifeforce Tenka. He also voiced Greg in the Buzz! quiz game series, the character Avalon Centrifuge in the 2011 game LittleBigPlanet 2, and provided additional dialogue for '. He played "The Forgotten One", the central villain of the two downloadable content packs for '. Also lending his voice to Thunder, in the first Fable video game.
On 12 July 1993, McFarlane married his wife, Kate, with whom he has one son, Josh. He divides his time between homes in Lincoln and north London. McFarlane is an avid supporter of Lincoln City F.C.
