From Punk Records to Poirot: Bob Barrett’s Belfast Homecoming Takes Centre Stage

“Icame to Queen’s for a year — 1985 to ’86 — and it was heaven on earth.I bloody loved it.”Speaking on the Robin Elliott Tonight TV chat show, Barrett says hearrived in Belfast with a sense of curiosity — and, initially, a touchof isolation. “For the first two weeks, I just wandered around thestreets. I didn’t really meet anybody and thought, ‘Oh God, what’sthis going to be like?’”That soon changed. A party invitation in student halls sparkedfriendships that endure to this day — including one with Paul McLoone,frontman of The Undertones.“All we did was buy records,” Barrett laughs. “We’d go down to GoodVibrations, bought records, took them back and stayed up all nightdrinking, listening to music and talking. We’d go to bed about sevenin the morning, roll out of bed at one and do the same thing again. Itwas just extraordinary.”Life in halls was, by his own admission, “fairly wild” as Barrettfully embraced student life!“I had a girlfriend at the time and we bought a dog — I’ll neverforget this — called Floyd for £6 in a local pet shop,” he says. “Ihad him in my room, with plastic bags of dog poo hanging outside thewindow. I made so much noise I got thrown out of halls and then, forsome reason, they reinstated me!”Those trips to Good Vibrations — the legendary store run by TerriHooley — became the heartbeat of his Belfast experience.“Going in there was like stepping into a museum,” he says. “I’d heardso much about it. He was exactly the man you think he is —extraordinary. I was too scared to talk to him about records, I’d justbuy them and leave.”It was a golden era for music, and Belfast — despite the backdrop ofthe Troubles — was alive with it.“I saw The Smiths on The Queen Is Dead tour, New Order, Iggy Pop youcouldn’t believe it. It was one of the great years of pop music.”Beyond the music and the madness, there were deeper conversations too.“We talked a lot about the Troubles,” Barrett reflects. “I askedquestions — I was fascinated by it all. You’d hear bombs go off, andthat was the strange thing, you got used to it. You were always awareof it.”Yet it’s the people, not the politics, that left the deepest impression.“Everyone was just incredible. I was ashamed to leave to go to dramaschool — I would have stayed. I would have never left.”Now, four decades on, Barrett finally returns to the city as part of atouring production of Christie’s classic whodunnit — his third,following And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express.“I’ve always wanted to come back,” he says. “Everyone tells me whenyou walk into the Grand Opera House, it just blows you away. I can’twait.”In Death on the Nile, Barrett plays Colonel Race, bringing his ownstamp to a role once portrayed on screen by David Niven.“It’s probably funnier — there’s a bit more humour in my Race,” heexplains. “They wanted me to have a little pencil moustache like DavidNiven, but I ended up with more of a Frank Zappa one — and they said,‘We’ll go with that.’”The production also features Dempsey Makepeace Star Glynis Barber.“Didn’t we all have a crush on Glynis?” he grins. “She doesn’t let youdown — she’s as marvellous as you want her to be. Funny, brilliant andfantastic in the show.”After years on television, Barrett says returning to theatre — andtouring — has been a joy.“I love touring. I believe in it. Theatre shouldn’t just stay inLondon — it should go everywhere. And selfishly, it means I get tocome back to places like Belfast.”Of course, for many fans, he’ll always be Sasha Levy — thekind-hearted, unlucky-in-love doctor who became one of Holby City’smost beloved characters.“He was a lovely guy, an everyman,” Barrett reflects. “Unlucky in love— very unlucky. Even when he found happiness, you knew it wouldn’tlast.”Originally signed for just two episodes, Barrett ended up staying for 12 years.“You never know how these things will go,” he says. “I thought I’d dosix months and go back to theatre — and then suddenly it’s 12 yearslater.”Back in Belfast, though, it’s clear his story has come full circle.“It was wild, it was heady, it was extraordinary,” Barrett says of hisBelfast days. “And it still means the world to me to be back.”Death on the Nile runs at Belfast’s Grand Opera House from Tuesday 28April to Saturday 2 May. Book now:https://www.goh.co.uk/whats-on/death-on-the-nile