Cult TV show Soccer AM once accidentally booked Barry from EastEnders when they were trying to land a Premier League icon in an incredible mix-up
Barry from EastEnders once impersonated a Premier League icon on TV following a Soccer AM booking mix-up.
The iconic TV show unknowingly booked him instead of Manchester City Shaun Goater. The Shaun they had intended to invite to the programme was the striker known as the Goat and netted 84 goals in 184 caps for City between 1998 and 2003.
However, they ended up with actor Shaun Williamson, who portrayed Barry Evans in the BBC soap for a decade and has never played football competitively. TV bosses only discovered the error the night before when their booker texted the agent to ask what Shaun had been ‘up to’ so they could discuss it on air.
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The agent responded: “He’s just doing a bit of writing – he’s not going to do panto this year.” Despite the blunder, TV chiefs decided to proceed with actor Shaun as a guest.
He found the mistake amusing and agreed to pretend he was Goater, responding to questions meant for the footballer.
Soccer AM presenter Max Rushden, 43, revealed on the Football Weekly podcast: “We booked Shaun Goater for the show and then the guy Chris who was booking the footballers texted his agent saying ‘what’s he up to?'”.
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“This is on the Friday night. We’ve cut all the Shaun Goater footage and everything. And the reply from Shaun Goater’s agent was: ‘He’s just doing a bit of writing. he’s not going to do panto this year.'”.
“That’s when Chris realised he’d not booked Shaun Goater but Shaun Williamson – Barry from EastEnders.
“As you can imagine Shaun Williamson was brilliant and he just answered all the Shaun Goater questions and did it all professionally. It was a great moment.
“It was Friday night. We couldn’t be bothered to change the questions. We just asked, ‘could you just do the Shaun Goater interview?'”.
“And he did it brilliantly. He did all his research. He talked about great goals he scored for Man City, talked about playing for Bermuda, all of that. He was an absolute consummate professional.”
Goater, 52, who also netted 20 international goals in 22 appearances for Bermuda, now works as a youth coach at City.
Williamson, 56, who also featured in Inspector Morse, Ricky Gervais comedy Extras and Plebs, claimed victory on Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes whilst impersonating late rocker Meat Loaf and also succeeded on television quiz Beat The Chasers.