Ex EastEnders star Shaun Williamson eyeing up soap crossover to Emmerdale after Celebs On The Farm appearance
FORMER EastEnders star Shaun Williamson - aka Barry Evans - is eyeing up swapping soaps and joining Emmerdale.
The TV star, 55, left the BBC soap in 2004 and revealed that he would love to appear in The Woolpack playing a "cockney character".
The actor will next appear on screens on MTV's Celebs On The Farm alongside Duncan James, Montana Brown and Holly Hagan - and insisted filming the reality show has prepared him for a role on the ITV soap.
shared: "I love Coronation Street and Emmerdale. I've really got a soft spot for Emmerdale, I'd love to go up there.
"Occasionally they have a Cockney character through for a few months, so I'd love to be in Emmerdale I think.
"And after my experience on a farm doing this show I reckon I could go in and give their farmers a run for their money!" he added. "There you go.
"Cockney 50-something farmer suddenly decides to go to Emmerdale and take over!"
Shaun started off as a bit-part actor in EastEnders in 1994 before becoming a regular playing Barry Evans.
His on-screen death in 2004 — pushed off a cliff by girlfriend Janine Butcher — is one of the show’s most famous endings and was watched by 15million people.
In an interview with The Sun in September, Shaun said he finds his EastEnders fame both a blessing and a curse.
He said: "The problem with being typecast is that you never know what it costs you until later.
"I loved being on the show and am so grateful for what it gave me but they went through a phase of dressing me up in silly costumes.
"I was a big chicken, a dinosaur at Halloween and I was eating mammoth Mexican meals for the camera and being made a joke figure. And I just thought, ‘I might have had enough of this’."
In the same interview, Shaun sensationally discovered he has a love-child – fathered with a circus juggler more than 30 years ago.
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The stunned star, who also has daughter Sophie, 22, and son Joe, 20, with ex-wife Melanie Sacre, revealed he was emailed out of the blue by a man called Gary, who said he was his secret son.
After sending a paternity swab to a test centre in Canada, it was confirmed the 32-year-old was his biological child. The pair then met in 2013 at a hotel in Belfast, where Gary is form.
Brand new to MTV, Celebs on the Farm premieres early next month.