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

There’s a warmth in Bob Barrett’s voice when he talks about Belfast —
the kind reserved for places that shape you. Best known to TV
audiences as the ever-reliable Sasha Levy in Holby City, Barrett is
back in the city this week, treading the boards of the Grand Opera
House in Belfast with Death on the Nile.

But long before the stage lights and standing ovations, there was a
young student finding his feet — and himself — at Queen's University
Belfast in the mid-1980s.

“I had one of the best years of my life in Belfast,” he recalls. “I
came 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 he
arrived in Belfast with a sense of curiosity — and, initially, a touch
of isolation. “For the first two weeks, I just wandered around the
streets. I didn’t really meet anybody and thought, ‘Oh God, what’s
this going to be like?’”

That soon changed. A party invitation in student halls sparked
friendships 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 Good
Vibrations, bought records, took them back and stayed up all night
drinking, listening to music and talking. We’d go to bed about seven
in the morning, roll out of bed at one and do the same thing again. It
was just extraordinary.”

Life in halls was, by his own admission, “fairly wild” as Barrett
fully embraced student life!

“I had a girlfriend at the time and we bought a dog — I’ll never
forget this — called Floyd for £6 in a local pet shop,” he says. “I
had him in my room, with plastic bags of dog poo hanging outside the
window. I made so much noise I got thrown out of halls… and then, for
some reason, they reinstated me!”

Those trips to Good Vibrations — the legendary store run by Terri
Hooley — became the heartbeat of his Belfast experience.

“Going in there was like stepping into a museum,” he says. “I’d heard
so 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 just
buy them and leave.”

It was a golden era for music, and Belfast — despite the backdrop of
the Troubles — was alive with it.

“I saw The Smiths on The Queen Is Dead tour, New Order, Iggy Pop… you
couldn’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 asked
questions — I was fascinated by it all. You’d hear bombs go off, and
that was the strange thing, you got used to it. You were always aware
of 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 drama
school — I would have stayed. I would have never left.”

Now, four decades on, Barrett finally returns to the city as part of a
touring 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 when
you walk into the Grand Opera House, it just blows you away. I can’t
wait.”

In Death on the Nile, Barrett plays Colonel Race, bringing his own
stamp to a role once portrayed on screen by David Niven.

“It’s probably funnier — there’s a bit more humour in my Race,” he
explains. “They wanted me to have a little pencil moustache like David
Niven, 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 you
down — she’s as marvellous as you want her to be. Funny, brilliant and
fantastic in the show.”

After years on television, Barrett says returning to theatre — and
touring — has been a joy.

“I love touring. I believe in it. Theatre shouldn’t just stay in
London — it should go everywhere. And selfishly, it means I get to
come back to places like Belfast.”

Of course, for many fans, he’ll always be Sasha Levy — the
kind-hearted, unlucky-in-love doctor who became one of Holby City’s
most 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’t
last.”

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 do
six months and go back to theatre — and then suddenly it’s 12 years
later.”

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 his
Belfast 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 28
April to Saturday 2 May. Book now:
https://www.goh.co.uk/whats-on/death-on-the-nile