Celebrity Big Brother housemate Shaun Williamson is opening up about his infamous departure from EastEnders.
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Shaun famously played one of the soap's all-time classic characters, sad sack Barry Evans, for a decade, but left abruptly in 2004 when producers denied his request for time off to star in a pantomime.
The 51-year-old actor looked back on his decision to leave EastEnders while chatting with Derek Acorah and Jemma Lucy in the CBB house, revealing that he felt "fairly relieved" to walk away from playing Barry.
"You did find yourself after a few years thinking, 'I've done this storyline'. They've just kicked it about a bit," he remembered.
Asked if he still kept in touch with other Albert Square veterans, Shaun admitted: "When I bump into them, it's pleasant. I don't have many of them in my phonebook."
Williamson has often shut down any talk of bringing Barry back from the grave for an Albert Square comeback, joking that it'd be "pushing it" for the character to have survived in secret all these years.
The soap legend might look back more fondly on his EastEnders days when all is said and done in the Celebrity Big Brother house.
Shaun got off to a rocky start by failing his secret launch night task to convince the others that he was the most nervous housemate in Big Brother history — and then had to deliver a killer nomination to Marissa Jade.
Celebrity Big Brother continues on Friday night (August 4) at 9pm on Channel 5, followed by Rylan Clark-Neal with Bit on the Side at 11.05pm.
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