Chris Barrie (born Christopher Jonathan Brown; 28 March 1960) is a British actor and comedian. He worked as a vocal impressionist on the ITV sketch show Spitting Image (1984–1996) and as Lara Croft's butler Hillary in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003). Barrie starred as Arnold Rimmer in 13 series of the sci-fi space comedy Red Dwarf between 1988 and 2020, and as Gordon Brittas in seven series of the BBC leisure centre sitcom The Brittas Empire (1991–1997).
Early life and career Barrie was born on 28 March 1960 in Hanover, Lower Saxony, West Germany, to a father who was serving in the British Army, and later attended Methodist College, a boarding school, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. After dropping out of his Combined Studies course at Brighton Polytechnic, he became a grave filler. He began his television career as a sports personality impersonator on The David Essex Showcase in 1982.
He adopted the surname "Barrie" as there was already an actor named Chris Brown on the Equity UK lists. He was a regular on Saturday Live, amongst performers like Fry and Laurie, Rik Mayall and Ben Elton. Barrie provided the voice of Ronald Reagan in the pop song "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, as well as various vocalizations for other tracks by FGTH and Art of Noise. He also appeared as an impressionist on the BBC's Carrott's Lib between 1983 and 1984, and he starred in his own sketch show Pushing Up Daisies (re-titled Coming Next for the following series) from 1984 to 1985 alongside Hale and Pace and Carla Mendonça. In 1987, he appeared as a French Revolutionary in Blackadder the Third (episode "Nob and Nobility") and did various parts in The Young Ones both as an actor and a voice-over.
Red Dwarf Barrie played the character Arnold J. Rimmer in all twelve series of Red Dwarf, appearing in almost every episode of the series, absent only for a period during series 7. When an unsold pilot for an American version of the show was produced, Barrie was invited to reprise his role as Rimmer. He passed up the offer because of the constraint of the five-series contract. He starred in the 2020 special Red Dwarf: The Promised Land, alongside the main cast of Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn. In addition to starring in the TV series, Barrie also narrated the first two Red Dwarf books, Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (1992) and Better Than Life (1995), including using his vocal talents to recreate the voices of the other characters, as they sound in the show.
The Brittas Empire Barrie played Gordon Brittas, the title role in The Brittas Empire, a BBC sitcom running from January 1991 to February 1997 for seven series, with 52 episodes, including two Christmas specials. Brittas was the well-meaning but incompetent manager of Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre. Each episode featured a disastrous occurrence, which Brittas was sure he could sort out, oblivious to the fact he was usually its cause.
Barrie also appeared as Brittas in the stand alone fitness mini-series Get Fit with Brittas in 1997.
In 2014, Barrie reprised his role as Gordon Brittas in the music video for Little Mix's version of "Word Up!".
In 2017, the cast reunited for the reopening of Ringwood Leisure centre where a lot of the series was recorded.
Roles in television and films
Barrie's TV work includes Britain's Greatest Machines with Chris Barrie, screened on the National Geographic channel from 4 June 2009. Each of the four episodes features some of the most notable air, sea, and land vehicles and equipment of the 1930s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1980s, respectively. The second series of four episodes was transmitted in February 2010, with the 1910s, 1920s, 1940s, and early steam trains as the subjects of each episode.
Barrie has also hosted the television series Chris Barrie's Massive Engines and Chris Barrie's Massive Machines on the Discovery Channel, later shown on Channel 5 and released on DVD. The latest in this series Massive Speed with Chris Barrie was shown on Discovery Channel from November 2006. In 2006, he appeared as a regular team captain in the BBC Two quiz show Petrolheads and was the star of the British crime/comedy/drama film Back In Business, in which he played Tom Marks. Between 2015 and 2018 he was the voice-over for Channel 5's Car Crash TV and 2018–2019 Idiot TV.
Filmography +Film Year Title Role(s) Notes1985Honour, Profit & PleasureAlexander PopeTV Movie1988TestimonyCarnival Thin ManAppearance in film at 15.25 with Frank Carson1994White GoodsMickie ScottTV Movie2001Lara Croft: Tomb RaiderHillary The Butler2003Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of LifeHillary The Butler2007Back in BusinessTom MarksThe Scum Also RisesMr BroomTV Movie2008The OpticianJohn Short Film
{| class="wikitable sortable" |+TV |- ! Year ! Title ! Role(s) ! Notes |- | rowspan="2" |1982||David Essex Showcase||Sports Personality||1 Episode |- |Six Fifty-Five Special||Various||1 Episode |- |1982, 1984||The Young Ones||Voice of a Rat, Captain||Demolition 1982, Nasty 1984 |- |1983||Carrott's Lib | rowspan="2" |Various||10 Episodes |- |1983-1984||The Entertainers||2 Episodes |- | rowspan="3" |1984||Pajamarama||Stand up||1 Episode |- |Stomping on the Cat 2||Stand Up/Impersonations||Channel 4 |- |Pushing Up Daisies | rowspan="5" |Various
|1984-1991||Spitting Image||Voices Also a Puppeteer for the First Two Series. |- | rowspan="4" |1985||Coming Next
| The Lenny Henry Show|| Series 2, Episode 6. |- |Alas Smith and Jones||Series 2, Episode 2. |- |Happy Families||Sammy||Episode 2, Cassie |- |1985-1987||Saturday Live||Michael FootJohn ColeRichie BenaudRobin DayDavid ColemanRonald Reagan||2 Episodes |- | rowspan="3" |1986||Zastrozzi: A Romance||Waiter||TV Mini-Series, 2 Episodes |- |Lenny Henry Tonite (Pratt Outta Hell) ||Boss||Series 1, First Episode |- |Spitting Image: Down and Out in the White House||Various Voices||TV Special |- | rowspan="3" |1987||Filthy, Rich & Catflap||Trevor The Director|| 1 Episode |- |Blackadder The Third||Ambassador||Series 3, Episode 3, Nob and Nobility |- |Spitting Image:The Ron & Nancy Show||Ronald Reagan, Prince Charles||TV Special |- | rowspan="2" |1988||Open Air||Guest||Discussing the first series of Red Dwarf |- |The New Statesman||Various||Voice, 1 Episode |- |1988-2020||Red Dwarf||Arnold Rimmer||All Episodes apart from 4 in series 7 |- | rowspan="2" |1989||Ten Glorious Years-A Thatcher 'Tribute'''||Various Impressions Including Ronald Regan/John Cole||BBC TV Special |- |Spitting Image: The Sound of Maggie!||Various Voices||TV Special 6/5/89 |- |1991||Happy Birthday Switzerland||Various Character Voices||Animated Short
|1991-1997||The Brittas Empire||Gordon Brittas||All Episodes |- | rowspan="2" |1992||Grace and Favour(Are You Being Served? Again!)||Commentator||Voice, Series 1, Episode 3 |- |Wogan||Guest||Series 12, Episode 11 |- |rowspan="2"|1993||Comic Relief: The Invasion of the Comic Tomatoes||Arnold Rimmer||TV Special |- |ABC Weekend Special||Voice||1 Episode, The Legend of Lochnagar. |- |rowspan="2"|1993-1994||Jackanory||Storyteller||5 Episodes |- |Noel's House Party||Gordon Brittas||2 Episodes |- |1993-1995||The Legends of Treasure Island||Captain Smollett/Ben Gunn||Voices |- | rowspan="2" |1994||Ben Elton: The Man from Auntie||Mastermind Presenter/Lingua-Learn narrator (voices only) ||Series 2, Episodes 3 and 6 |- |Know Your Europeans: The United Kingdom||Voice Only|| |- |1995||Chris Barrie's Motoring Wheel Nuts||Various Characters||Video |- | rowspan="2" |1996||Kevin Saves the World||Voice Only||Animated Short |- |The Big Breakfast||Guest||18 April |- | rowspan="2" |1997||Get Fit with Brittas ||Mr Brittas|| |- |Managing the Brittas Way||Mr Brittas||BBC Learning Business Video |- |1997-1998||A Prince Among Men||Gary Prince|| All Episodes |- | rowspan="2" |1998 ||Can't Smeg, Won't Smeg|Rimmer |Special edition of Can't Cook, Won't Cook, (Red Dwarf 10th anniversary) |- ||Universe Challenge|Jeremy Paxman/Himself as a Contestant |Special Red Dwarf (10th anniversary) Edition of University Challenge|- |1999||Hancock's World of Sport||Guest||BBC One 15/9/99 One off Special |- |2003||Top Gear ||Himself||Series 2, Episode 2 |- |2004||Massive Engines with Chris Barrie||Presenter||1 Series, 10 Episodes |- |2004-2005||Massive Machines with Chris Barrie||Presenter||1 Series, 10 Episodes |- | rowspan="3" |2006||Massive Speed with Chris Barrie||Presenter||1 Series, 10 Episodes |- |Petrolheads|| |Team Captain||All 6 Episodes |- |When Evil Calls||HeadmasterSamantha's Father||2 Episodes |- | rowspan="2" |2007||Fifth Gear||Guest||Episode 2 |- |Midsomer Murders||Lionel Poulter||Series 10, Episode 8 |- |2009-2010||Britain's Greatest Machines with Chris Barrie||Presenter||2 Series, 8 Episodes |- | rowspan="2" |2010||Carpool||Guest|| |- |The Wright Stuff ||Guest|| |- |2011||The Fruit Cases||Happy Apple/Peelin/Sour Lolly (voices) ||Animated Short |- |2015-2018||Car Crash TV||Narrator||4 Series |- |2018-2019||Idiot TV||Narrator||2 Series, 20 Episodes
+Audiobooks Year Book Role(s) Notes1992Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers" Narrator (Impersonates the Whole Cast)1995Red Dwarf: Better Than LifeNarrator (Impersonates the Whole Cast)Gordon Brittas: Sharing the Dream Narrated and performed as Gordon Brittas 1998 The Man on Platform 5 Narrator/Performer1999MonstersNarratorYoung Children's Book2012Opal MoonbabyNarratorChildren's Book2021Stephen Llewelyn Dinosaur: Book 1Narrator/Performer2023Stephen Llewelyn Revenge: Book 2Narrator/Performer2026Red Dwarf: TitanNarrator (Impersonates the Whole Cast) +Music Videos Year Artist Title Role(s) 1984Art of Noise"Close (to the Edit)"Robin Day1985Frankie Goes to Hollywood"The Power of Love"Voice of Mike Read"Tag"Voice of Prince Charles"Two Tribes" (12" Mix)Voice of Ronald Reagan1986Genesis"Land of Confusion"2014Little Mix"Word Up!"Mr. Brittas +Video Games Year Title Role(s) Notes1993Simon the SorcererVoice of Simon2025Simon the Sorcerer OriginsVoice of Simon
Personal life Barrie's interests include collecting vintage metal signs, vintage motorbikes, and old British cars. He also collects model railways, which he purchased from the now closed model shop in Cookham, Berkshire, formerly a Lloyd's Bank featured in the TV hit Fawlty Towers. In 1995, he released a video called Chris Barrie's Motoring Wheel Nuts'', a showcase for his personal car collection. , his classic car collection consists of a Triumph TR2, MGB-GT, Wolseley 1500 and a Jaguar XJ6.
He has been married twice: first to Monica De Meo from 1987 to 1990 and then to Alecks (1997–present) with whom he has two sons. He lives in Cookham, Berkshire.
In 2010, Barrie was awarded an honorary DTech (Doctor of Technology) by Loughborough University for his contribution to promoting Engineering and Technology.
References
External links
Chris Barrie on National Geographic Channel
Interviews AYME Interview – Association of Young People with ME 26 September 2005: BBC – Wiltshire – Films – Interview with Chris Barrie Play audio 11 August 2005: BBC – Wiltshire – Mark Seaman Interview with Chris Barrie Play audio Video Interview with Chris Barrie