Barry Evans (EastEnders)

Barry Evans
EastEnders character
Portrayed by	Shaun Williamson
Introduced by	Barbara Emile
Duration	1994–2004
First appearance	27 December 1994
Last appearance	2 January 2004
Classification	Former; regular
Profile
Date of birth	1 September 1961
Date of death	1 January 2004
Occupation	Car salesman
Family Wife Natalie Price (1999–2003) Janine Butcher (2003–04) Father Roy Evans Mother Doreen Evans Half brothers Nathan Williams Sons Jack Evans

Barry Evans is a fictional character played by Shaun Williamson. He appeared in the BBC soap opera EastEnders between 1994 and 2004. The character was portrayed as a "buffoon." Williamson controversially left the serial after ten years in 2003 after executive producer Louise Berridge refused to allow him time off to star in a seasonal pantomime. Barry was killed off in an episode that aired early in January 2004.

Storylines

Barry arrived in Albert Square in 1994 as an acquaintance to David Wicks, and his initial role was to provide a trysting spot for David's adulterous affair with Cindy Beale. Barry later aided Cindy's escape from Walford, after she was wanted by the police for the attempted murder of her husband Ian Beale.

Barry was son to car dealer Roy Evans. He moved to Albert Square when Roy and his new romantic interest, Pat, moved in together. Barry initially managed Roy's car business, Manor Wood, which was situated outside Walford. Roy later went into partnership with David Wicks when he bought into the car lot in Albert Square. Problems arose in 1996 when Pat's ex-husband, Frank Butcher, returned to the Square and attempted to reclaim his wife, his house and his business from Roy. Barry tried to get rid of Frank by hiring a man to torch the car-lot, with the hope that Frank would be frightened off. However, Frank had already cut his losses and departed and it was Phil Mitchell who was unwittingly trapped inside when the lot went up in flames. Phil survived, the arsonist was soon traced by the police and it wasn't long before he'd implicated Barry. Barry was arrested trying to flee the country and was subsequently imprisoned, although he was released a few months later.

Upon his release, Barry was given a chance to prove his capabilities by running the car-lot on Albert Square while Roy enjoyed retirement. Following David's departure the business was renamed 'Evans & Son', much to Barry's glee. Barry was forever searching for the respect and pride of his father, but however hard he tried he always messed things up and ended up trying his father's patience instead. Barry's management of the car lot was no exception. Barry risked the business and his family's savings by handing his monetary assets over to con-woman Vanessa Carlton. Barry was fooled into believing that Vanessa loved him, and after persuading him to invest the money in a fabricated business venture in 1997, she disappeared and left Barry to face up to a furious Roy. Barry's blunder forced Roy out of retirement and Barry was never able to regain Roy's full trust again.

Losing his job at the car lot, Barry was forced to seek employment elsewhere. He soon replaced Robbie Jackson (through back-stabbing) as manager of the local video shop. It was around this time that Barry began to desire the love of a woman and he sought the help of a local dating agency to get it. This led to his first encounter with Walford returnee Natalie Price. Years earlier Natalie was driven out of Walford by Bianca Jackson when her affair with Ricky Butcher was uncovered. Unaware of Natalie's history, the two grew closer while Natalie attempted to set him up on many disastrous dates. After much bumbling from Barry, he eventually realised his true feelings for Natalie and a romance began. Natalie soon moved in with Barry, Roy and Pat and they married in a millennium double wedding with Ian Beale and Melanie Healy.

Barry and Natalie remained happy for a while, until Natalie discovered she was pregnant with Barry's baby. Barry was over the moon about the news but Natalie wasn't so pleased and almost aborted the baby. However, Barry promised to help out with the baby duties so Natalie could continue with her career and in 2002 Jack was born.

Barry had a turbulent time when his half brother Nathan Williams came onto the scene. Nathan, born out of an adulterous affair between Barry's father and Nathan's mother Jane, was resentful towards Barry for having his father's unconditional love, though Nathan had never even known his father. Meanwhile Barry was extremely angry with his father for being unfaithful to his mother, and their relationship was severely tested. Despite attempts by both Barry and Roy to accept Nathan into the fold, Nathan did his best to exclude and diminish Barry. Things reached a head when Barry discovered that Nathan had kissed his wife Natalie, and realising Nathan's agenda Roy disowned him. Barry eventually came to forgive Natalie for her brief fling, but he never really trusted her fully again.

Although Barry tried to make his marriage work, Natalie had fallen out of love with him and it wasn't long before she strayed again with old flame Ricky. Unbeknownst to Barry, Natalie and Ricky planned to leave Walford with their sons Jack and Liam. However Barry discovered them just before they planned to leave, and although Natalie called off the affair with Ricky, she also left Barry. In a cruel twist of fate, Barry's night got worse, when his father was rushed to hospital after suffering a heart attack, and died not long after. Devastated, Barry blamed his father's death on his stepmother Pat, whom he had never forgiven after she cheated on his father with prior husband Frank Butcher. As Barry was the sole beneficiary to his father's house and business, he threw Pat out onto the street and left the grieving widow with nothing.

Barry spent a long time after this feeling sorry for himself and became a bit of a recluse. It was around this time that Barry's employee Janine, sensing an opportunity to manipulate some money out of her boss, started worming her way into Barry's affections. With the help of her secret boyfriend Paul Trueman, she concocted a plan to make Barry fall in love with her, so she could get her hands on Barry's wealth. Feeling vulnerable since his split with Natalie, Barry fell for Janine's lies and the two got engaged. Meanwhile a mix-up with Barry's doctor had foolishly led Barry to believe that he was not long for this world. Thinking that he would soon be dead and believing that Janine really loved him Barry whisked her away to Scotland for his second New Year's Eve wedding in 2003. However, feeling a sudden twang of guilt, Janine's accomplice, Paul, called off his affair with her after the wedding. To make matters worse, Barry had discovered that he was not dying after all, leaving Janine with the realisation that she was stuck married to Barry and couldn't get her hands on his money for the foreseeable future. The very next day on January 1, 2004, a blissfully unaware Barry forced Janine to go for a romantic walk with him on the Scottish moors. However, while at the edge of a steep hill, Janine, unable to stand Barry any longer, hurled venomous abuse at him and confessed that their entire relationship was fake and that she had been sleeping with Paul behind his back. Barry still wanted to be with her, however, and said that he could forgive her for sleeping with Paul if she would only stay with him. He begged Janine not to leave him and went toward her to hug her. Janine pushed him away and this caused him to stumble back, falling straight over the cliff edge, where he hit his head on rocks at the bottom. Janine left him to die, and inherited his business and wealth.

Creation and development

An early image of Barry in the 1990s.

The character was originally intended to appear in four episodes, debuting in December 1994. According to Barry's actor Shaun Williamson, the character was originally conceived as a tall, blond haired man. Williamson was neither particularly tall nor blond, and after being called for an audition to read for the part, he thought about dropping out as he was not a physical match. However, the Director stated that "nothing is laid in cement" with regard to the character, so Williamson went ahead with the audition. Williamson has said that Barry was meant to be a vehicle to bring his father Roy Evans (Tony Caunter) into the show, as Roy was being scripted as a new love interest for the regular character Pat Butcher (Pam St Clement); in Barry's first appearance he meets Pat to apologise for a dodgy car he had sold her, paving the way for Roy to be introduced to her. For the next year and a half, Barry made sporadic appearances, in Williamson's own words "popping in and out". When a storyline in 1996 saw Barry imprisoned for arson, Williamson has said that he was uncertain whether his character would appear again; however the character was brought back on a more permanent basis later in the year.

In 1999, executive-producer Matthew Robinson decided to introduce a new love-interest for Barry. He decided to bring back a former character, unrelated to Barry but who had connections with several other characters in the serial. The character was Natalie Price, played by Lucy Speed, who had appeared from 1994-1995. The biggest storyline involving Barry and Natalie in 1999 was their joint double wedding with the characters Ian Beale and Melanie Healy (Adam Woodyatt and Tamzin Outhwaite) - the lead up to which included a hen/stag night celebration episode, which was filmed on-location in Amsterdam, Holland. The episode evoked criticism by the Broadcasting Standards Commission for its inclusion of “almost relentless drunken and promiscuous behaviour, sexual innuendo and drug-taking, before the watershed”, which included Natalie having to acquire three love bites from strangers. The BBC defended the episode, claiming that its content would have “come as no surprise to viewers” and adding that the depiction of this behaviour conformed to an EastEnders tradition - that questionable conduct "only leads to further trouble…One character's quest for drugs led to embarrassment and nausea and a drinking binge led to the calling off of [Barry and Natalie’s] wedding while the prospects for another became bleaker."

Natalie and Barry’s screen wedding was featured as part of the Millennium Eve episodes, which drew in 20.89 million viewers – the biggest soap audience since the character Tiffany Mitchell (Martine McCutcheon) was killed off in EastEnders precisely one year earlier (New Year's Eve 1998). An EastEnders spokeswoman commented: "This is a remarkable endorsement of the power of EastEnders that over 20 million viewers chose to see the Millennium celebrations in Albert Square." The episodes were also broadcast on screens in London's Trafalgar Square, a typical “haunt for New Year's Eve revelers”.

In 2001, a pregnancy was written into the Evanses' narrative. Natalie was shown to be distressed by the prospect of being a mother and planned to have an abortion. Viewers saw a “devastated Barry” react badly to the news in a special extended four-hander episode (written by Christopher Reason and directed by Clive Arnold) – the episode had a maternal theme with the action flitting between Barry and Natalie’s saga and scenes between Steve Owen and his dying mother, which included revelations of child abuse and incest. An EastEnders spokesman said: "We are very proud of the programme. The storylines involving Steve and his mother and Barry and Natalie are the stuff of intense drama. All four actors give incredible performances." The following episode Barry was seen to chase Natalie to the abortion clinic, where he persuaded her to go through with the pregnancy. The scenes between Natalie and Barry have been described as some of “the most powerful moments in soap, with the couple battling to decide the fate of their unborn baby”.

Viewers saw Natalie and Barry’s marriage sour towards the end of 2002 when, in the New Year’s Eve episode, Natalie rekindled a secret affair with her former lover Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen), which continued into 2003. Speed commented “Natalie's always had strong feelings for Ricky. And now she's grown tired of being a mother to baby Jack and Barry." The storyline reached its climax in March 2003. On-screen Natalie's plan to abscond with Ricky were thwarted by Barry’s discovery of the affair, leading to a public confrontation between the three protagonists. Shaun Williamson has commented “Barry is absolutely devastated as his whole life is ripped apart. He can’t believe Nat has betrayed him. He loves his life with Natalie and Jack, and would do anything to make it work as a family again. Losing Natalie is going to be really difficult for Barry, but I think the hardest thing will be losing his son.” The storyline signified the end of the characters’ three year marriage.

In popular culture

In 2002 the character was featured in a spoof of the Michael Jackson hit video, Thriller, which was made as part of the annual fund-raising event, Children in Need. Shaun Williamson as Barry played the Michael Jackson role, while Lucy Speed as Natalie took on Ola Ray’s role as his date. Unlike the original video - where Jackson was seen to turn into a zombie - the spoof saw Natalie transformed into the walking dead. A dozen cast-members took part in the spoof where they recreated the dance routine made famous in the original video.

Following his stint on EastEnders, Shaun Williamson — the actor who depicted Barry — had a regular role as a comically unemployable version of himself in the Ricky Gervais / Stephen Merchant BBC-HBO comedy series Extras, in which his career has bogged down partially as a result of the incompetence of his agent Darren Lamb (played by Merchant). A frequent running gag is that even Lamb is unable to remember his client's real name, instead referring to him as "Barry from EastEnders", in reference to Williamson's EastEnders character. The character of Barry Evans has also been spoofed in the cartoon sketch show 2DTV.

External links

• Barry Evans at BBC Online