HE played hopeless Barry Evans on EastEnders and is now back on the stage as hapless Moonface Martin but Shaun Williamson is no fool.

The 49-year-old actor was on one of the country's biggest soaps for 10 years and worked with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant when the pair were at the height of their powers after The Office.

Now he has reinvented himself as a stage actor having taken on 27 shows in the last decade.

Shaun will be in Manchester for Anything Goes at the Opera House from April 7 to 18. It is part of a nine-month tour.

He said: "I trained for the theatre and then I got gobbled up by EastEnders as soon as I left drama school.

"So I was determined that when I left I was going to do as much stage work as possible. I’ve done a lot of musicals but the last one I did was Guys and Dolls back in 2007.

"So this was a great opportunity to get my teeth stuck into a big Broadway musical again. With those lovely big songs, big dance numbers and 10 in the orchestra you can’t beat it live."

But Shaun admitted that there are times when acting work can dry up and that is another reason he loves clinching a role on a big stage show.

He added: "Like any job if you do a tour you’re earning regular money and you can get stuff on credit just like anyone else.

"The alternative is sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring to get an episode of Midsomer Murders

"Rather than being at home sweating and having someone else dictate your life I just like being out on the road, earning a regular wage and having great fun and doing a great show."

There are occasionally benefits to waiting for the phone to ring though – like when Ricky Gervais called out him of the blue to appear on Extras, his follow-up to The Office.

"He never calls people’s agents," Shaun told Weekend.

"He drives agents mad because he somehow gets hold of your number and calls you directly. Straightaway I was thinking it’s a radio wind-up.

"I’m guessing that for some bizarre reason he liked my character in EastEnders. I don’t know why but he picked me.

"So I went to meet him and Stephen Merchant and they had put up story boards on the wall of their office.

"They said Kate Winslet was going to play a nun and Ben Stiller was in it. I said I’ll be in it. It was as simple as that.

"I was very lucky because when you leave something like EastEnders you need to something to keep the ball in the air otherwise people think you’re a one trick pony.

"Ricky gave me so much work that I can never thank him enough. I was in 10 episodes of Extras, four episodes of Life’s Too Short and a film called The Invention of Lying.

"I could do with something else now to be brutally honest but it definitely kept the ball in the air and I’m eternally grateful."

Shaun played an unemployable version of himself in Extras as well as Life's Too Short.

He said: "I had no qualms about sending myself up because it was so well written. I’ve been sent stuff since in the same vein but it’s just not as good.

"The idea was I was playing this incredible loser who was like a nightmare version of myself if my career hadn’t panned out – but it was written by the two hottest writers in the country.

"So I think anyone with half a brain got the crack.

"I was present when David Bowie did the Pug Nosed Face song and I was in the awkward scene where Stephen Merchant’s character is enjoying the pen with the naked woman a bit too much.

"I really wanted to be in the scene at the end where Robert De Niro takes the pen off Stephen at the end but I wasn’t there that day. There were lots of bizarre moments but it was such great fun."

But, for better or worse, Shaun will probably always be best known for his luckless antics and tragic end on EastEnders.

In true soap fashion, his character Barry was pushed off a cliff by his manipulative fiancée Janine (Charlie Brooks). Janine left him to die and then inherited his estate.

Shaun added: "If you’re going to get killed it might as well be in a way that people remember.

"It was watched by 20 million people so it has gone down as one of these iconic EastEnders moments.

"You might as well go out with a bang and I have no regrets because if Barry hadn’t have been killed there’s always that temptation to go back if you have a bad year.

"If you know you’re not going back you can just get on with it. To be honest it feels like it happened to someone else now. It’s really weird."

But long before that Shaun actually started his career as a bluecoat at Pontins so singing two songs for Anything Goes feels like coming full circle.

He said: "I couldn’t sing a note as a kid so I learnt to sing standing in front of the mirror with a tennis racket pretending I was Tony Hadley.

"No seriously, my neighbours would hammer the walls down. I must have sounded awful."

And Shaun still takes up almost opportunity he can to belt out a tune.

He added: "I’m not proud. If there’s nothing on the horizon I will gladly turn up at the bowls and sing a song as long as the cheque doesn’t bounce.

"I’ve got no qualms about doing that at all. If I have a quieter year you will find me in the summer entertaining people at Haven holiday parks."

- Shaun plays Moonface Martin in Anything Goes at Manchester Opera House from April 7 to 18

DAVID MORGAN