Actor who played buffoon writes quiz book in lockdown
Ex- EastEnders actor Barry Williamson has reinvented himselfas a quiz ace and has now written a book about his general knowledge skills. Hannah Stephenson reports.
EASTENDERS’ HAPLESS buffoon Barry Evans would have been hopeless in a pub quiz – but you’d certainly want his alter ego, actor Shaun Williamson, on your team.
“The only good thing for me that came out of lockdown was trying to find out if there is a national quiz obsession and if people are as excited as I am,” says the former soap star who also sent himself up on Ricky Gervais’ hit comedy Extras and Life’s Too Short.
His quizzing victories include two Pointless trophies and he was a winner in the first series of Celebrity Mastermind in 2003 ( his specialist subject was Richard Burton).
“Quizzing combines our two national passions of drinking and wanting to be right,” he declares.
Williamson, 54, has spent time in lockdown completing his quizzing memoir A Matter Of Facts, which charts his performance in the World
Quiz Grand Prix and sees him move upwards in British quiz rankings.
Quiz questions, facts, plus his experience and knowledge are interspersed with tales of his life on and off screen, his relationship with alcohol and the discovery that he had a secret son.
He’s able to retain social histories and is an avid reader of autobiographies. His weaknesses, he says, are figures and science. The book shows how he has improved his skills through memory training, practice and even hypnosis.
And it gave him something to do during lockdown.
“Lockdown wiped out my income. This was the first year we could have broken even, but that’s gone down the Swanee because a lot of my income came from live performances. I do stand- up and singing on cruise ships, at festivals and holiday camps. I’m luckier than some actors because I’ve got savings, but this profession has been left high and dry.”
Today, he lives in Kent with his second wife, Adele, who works in childcare, and is still recognised as amiable loser Barry Evans, the EastEnders character he played for 10 years before moving on to theatre and panto as well as TV shows including Celebrity Big Brother and Britain’s Brightest Celebrity Family.
He married Adele in 2018. What’s married life like second time around?
“Great,” he says simply. “Melanie ( his first wife and former manager) was a very important part of my life. We had 25 years together and two beautiful children ( Joe and Sophie) so it’s terrible when these things end. Sometimes things just come to a natural conclusion. We keep in touch.”
He met Adele through mutual friends. “She’s funny, very protective of me and very caring and supportive.”
Yet only seven years ago Williamson’s life was unsettled when he discovered that he had another son, Gary, from a relationship he’d had with a circus performer 32 years earlier, when he was just 22. “After we split up, she told me she was pregnant. I was going to America to work but told her when I returned I would help out. When I got back, she had married a man who had gone on the birth certificate as the father. It was easy in my twisted mind to think ‘ It’s his’, but I knew in the back of my mind that this would come to the fore one day.”
When Melanie contacted him to say she’d received an email from an old friend from the circus who wanted to get back in touch with him, he knew. Gary, who was living in Ireland at the time, was looking for a reconciliation. They met in a hotel in Belfast. Williamson admits he was full of trepidation. “I felt really nervous – you’re not sure whether he’s going to be aggressive or resentful. But he was an absolutely charming lad and is a great stepbrother to Joe and Sophie. He’s a top bloke. I’m very proud of him.”