Loveable Barry from EastEnders gets his Hooks into Southsea panto

Hook – The Further Adventures of Peter Pan will be at the Kings Theatre from December 1-31, with Shaun taking on the Hook role for the fifth time.

“When I started in panto when I came out of EastEnders I was playing all the lovable cuddly characters. Because of Barry I was given all the goodies to play but then something shifted and I found out that playing the baddies is much more fun. You can legally wind up the children! And it's just so much fun to be booed. I just love being booed. The baddies really are the best roles in panto.”

Quite how you approach Hook obviously depends on the script: “If the script is quite literal then you've got this character who really does feel hard done by. He is very well educated. He is an old Etonian. But he has lost his hand and he feels a huge sense of grievance. He genuinely feels a sense of revenge and that's the back story really as to why he's become such a rotter.”

And with this particular version being the further adventures: “It just carries on really. Certain things happened that didn't happen in the usual one and there are number of new characters but it's just all going to be great fun.”

But didn't Hook get eaten at the end of standard version of Peter Pan? “Yes, but I'm a bit of a lump and I think the crocodile regurgitated me. He spat me out again and I'm back and I'm out for revenge.”

Shaun concedes that Hook really hasn't got much going for him in terms of good points: “But I suppose he is loyal to his crew at least, but actually the difference at the end of this production is that at the end he is very, very sorry… and you will have to see it to find out why.”

This is Shaun’s 20th panto: “But I didn't get into the business until I was 30 and then I was with EastEnders until I was 40 and then I've done 20 pantomimes since then.”

Shaun is quick to stress that 20 is really not such a huge number. There are some people who've done 60. But it is still pretty good going.

“EastEnders was my first job out of drama school. My first job on EastEnders was as a paramedic and then six months later I came back as Barry. It was an incredible experience. The first couple of years were a bit patchy and Barry started off as a villain. He was a bit of a naughty boy and then they decided that they wanted the lovable guy which is what he became,”

But there were some serious moments: “I remember one scene where he had to wreck Pat’s front room. Barry had just had enough and he just wrecks her front room and we had just one take. But I did it. The great thing about being ten years in a soap is that you know exactly what you're doing and I did it. When you do that number of years in a soap you learn to be efficient.”