Enders star's TV Rap-unzel

[carmelina]

EASTENDERS’ bumbling Barry is set to make a return to our screens in a BBC production of the classic fairy tale, Rapunzel.


Actor Shaun Williamson will star in the comedy drama alongside Lee Ingleby (Life On Mars), Charity Wakefield (Sense And Sensibility, Jane Eyre) and Geraldine James (Little Britain).

The production will be the third of four comedy dramas to be made by Hat Trick Productions as part of the modern anthology of Fairy Tales for BBC1.

Updated by Smack The Pony writer Ed Roe the new version of Rapunzel is set in the world of tennis and will tell the story of failing male tennis player, Jimmy Stojkovic playued by Ingleby.

Shaun Williamson plays Jimmy’s father, Sava, who persuades his son to disguise himself as a woman in a final attempt to win the grand slam tennis final.

But, the plan goes awry when Jimmy falls in love with the beautiful reigning champion, Billy Jane Brooke (Charity Wakefield) much to the horror of her over protective mother (Geraldine James).

The comedy drama will also star Oliver Chris (Green Wing) as Vuk, Jimmy's smarmy love rival and Tony Way (Tittybangbang) as Sava's brother Boris.

Tennis Legend, Pat Cash also makes an appearance as a tennis commentator.

Other Fairy Tales featured in the anthology include Billy Goat, starring Bernard Hill, Paul Nicholls, Mathew Horne and Sarah Smart; Cinderella starring James Nesbitt and Maxine Peake.

[faceless]

the people involved make it sound like it could be quite funny - let's hope it is

[SpursFan1902]

Funny that Shaun Williamson would be part of a story so connected with HAIR!!

[faceless]

'I've always been fitter than I look'
Shaun Williamson is appearing as Buttons in Cinderella at the Assembly Hall at Christmas
Mary Harris
thisiskent.co.uk

"I don't look myself up," smiled actor Shaun Williamson when he was told about the wealth of information about him on the internet. "But I know it's riddled with inaccuracies. I think Wikipedia once said I was part Puerto Rican, but I'm a Paddy!" said Shaun, who as he readily admits, is known to millions as "Barry from EastEnders". I say even Courier colleagues had said "Ah, Barry from EastEnders" when I said I was meeting him.

Was he in danger of becoming a national treasure? "You have to remember, when I was on EastEnders there wasn't Skype, no-one had mobile phones, no-one had Facebook or laptops so television was more or less the only leisure option. And there was EastEnders or some documentary about cheese on the other side. "We'd get 14million watching EastEnders on a bog-standard night. There was 20million when I was pushed off the mountain and 32million watched Den serve Ange the divorce papers. It doesn't get bigger unless you've got England in the World Cup Final or a Royal Wedding." He says people probably warmed to him because Barry was the funny one. "EastEnders didn't do comedy as well as Coronation Street. When they had comedy, they gave it to me. I carried the comedy for years," he said.

Crowds at the Dragon Boat Festival were chanting "Barry! Barry!" when he visited the event on Saturday. So, does he mind being public property? "As long as they are nice I don't mind," he says. "Also, I am very shy, so it means I never have to start a conversation!" At drama school he was asked to sum himself up during a two-day television course. "I jumped in front of the camera and said 'cockney hard man' because I was a bit of a rough boy from a council estate. But later when the teacher went through everyone, he looked at me and said 'Mmm, harassed dad? Alcoholic doctor?' I'm a character actor, not a star. I am 45 and fat."

He's been previously described as refreshingly devoid of ego and vanity and today is no exception. I say he looks a far cry from the shabby, flabby and sun-starved "Barry" – today he's trim and tanned in a sharp suit and canary yellow shirt. He said: "I've always been fitter than I look! I enjoy power walking but it's a bit painful on the knees now."

Kent-born Shaun lives near Faversham with his wife Mel and their two children. He said "I love working" and indeed, far from his character in the cringe-making Extras, who is routinely humiliated by menial office jobs, Shaun has worked full-time as an actor since he left drama college. "I stumbled into it. I feel guilty sometimes. But I'm employable and I am grateful for that."

Earlier this year he played Norman Stanley Fletcher, in the first stage adaptation of Porridge. He is also working on his third series of the BBC's Children's series of Scoop – a gruelling schedule of 11 hour working days and then line learning all weekends. As it's just him and a dog, it is on his shoulders to "carry the show". He appeared in two series of Ricky Gervais's Bafta-winning Extras and also his Hollywood film The Invention of Lying. There is also a film set in Newcastle in the pipeline.

He's looking forward to appearing as Buttons in Cinderella at the Assembly Hall at Christmas. "I love Tunbridge Wells," he says. "It is so nice to be in a town you love and you become an ambassador for two weeks. How nice to spend time between shows wandering around The Pantiles."

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Is that a combover bouffant, or has he been at the Dimoxinil?

[SpursFan1902]

He was on when no one had mobile phones or lap tops? Uh, wasn't he on in like 2000? There may have not been as many, but I think they were out there. He makes it sound like the entire village is crowded around the one TV at the local pub!