EastEnders' Barry comes 'back from the dead'
- sheppeyscene
- Nov 19
- 3 min read
Sheppey’s Shaun Williamson has been given an early Christmas present following a surprise top-secret phone call from the producers of EastEnders.
Top quizzer Shaun, 60, had been unceremoniously killed off by BBC soap bosses more than 20 years ago after signing up for panto at Canterbury’s The Marlowe Theatre against their wishes.
Viewers were shocked when they watched his scheming on-screen wife Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) push his hapless character Barry Evans off a cliff in 2004.
It looked like there was no way back.
But in a scene worthy of Dallas*, BBC EastEnders is bringing Barry back from the dead for a one-off episode next month.
Shaun’s real-life wife Adele quipped on social media: "This call definitely wasn’t on my bingo card for 2025. But we’ll take it!”
Barry will appear in a vision to Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley), who is suffering from dementia, in the Queen Vic pub. With him will be Barry’s stepmother Pat (Pam St Clement).
Barry previously had a feud with Pat, who he refused to forgive for her affair with Frank Butcher. But the two will put aside their differences to help Nigel in his time of need.
Ben Wadey, the soap’s executive producer, said: "I’m delighted to welcome Shaun back.
"Barry Evans was renowned for being one of Walford’s unluckiest residents. So it was a privilege to welcome him back alongside Pat for these special scenes in The Vic."
Barry, a hapless minicab boss, first appeared in the soap in December 1994. His first wife Natalie (Lucy Speed) left him and his second wife murdered him.
Pat, too, is coming back from the dead. She married Barry’s father in 1996 but died of cancer on New Year’s Day 2012.
Shaun admitted: “It was a complete shock getting the call to go back to Albert Square. But it is so exciting!
"I have to admit to having a few nerves when I walked back onto the set of The Queen Victoria but it was so great to work with old friends and colleagues on such a brilliant episode.”
He added: “It just goes to show, you never know what’s around the corner!"
The Maidstone-born actor now lives on Sheppey and has built up a successful career as a celebrity karaoke star touring his Barrioke show across the country and abroad.
He has also proved himself a top quizzer having raised more than £350,000 for charity. Shaun spent a year competing in the UK Quiz Grand Prix as research for his book A Matter Of Facts which details the world of elite general knowledge quizzing competitions.
During this time he became a Top 50 ranked player in the UK.
During an appearance on ITV's Beat the Chasers (in which he won £120,000 for The Paul Strank Charitable Trust based in south London), the Dark Destroyer described him as "celebrity quizzing royalty".
Quiz fans might like to know that Barry was not the only character Shaun played in EastEnders. He also had a brief role as a paramedic in 1994.
After a stint in the Royal Navy, Shaun returned to civvy street and took a job in Safeway supermarket in Walderslade. But in 1991, aged 26, he decided to switch careers and signed up to the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.
Shaun will be back in panto next month playing the baddie Abanazer alongside Rustie Lee in Aladdin at the King’s Theatre, Portsmouth.
The panto which got him into trouble with BBC bosses was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with Toyah Willcox at the Marlowe Theatre.
He played Muddles the Court Jester.
Newspaper reports suggested he had been sacked from the BBC soap but he said at the time it had been his decision to go.
He said: "I have accepted the lead in a Kevin Wood musical pantomime at the Marlowe in Canterbury for Christmas 2003. Unfortunately, EastEnders contracts don't allow it. So I have taken the decision to leave."
EastEnders renewed his contract until November which gave bosses just enough time to kill him off!
• In 1986 Bobby Ewing’s ex-wife Pamela discovered him alive and having a shower after “dreaming” he had been killed off for the entire previous season.
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