Michael Barrymore has opened up about finding fame again as a TikTok star and theatre director, declaring he is the “busiest and happiest I’ve ever been”.
Barrymore, 71, was once one of the UK’s biggest stars, but his decades-long career came to an abrupt end in 2001 after 31-year-old Stuart Lubbock was found dead in Barrymore’s swimming pool after a party at his Essex home.
Despite a number of failed attempts to restart his career, Barrymore has now won 1.7 million followers on TikTok.
He posts multiple videos per day to the social media platform, including clips from some of his old hit TV shows including ITV’s Kids Say The Funniest Things and Strike It Rich.
He is also co-directing of new production Laurel & Chaplin — The Feud at the West End’s Cambridge Theatre, which is about the rivalry between two of the world’s biggest entertainers, Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin.
It will tell the “true story of teenage best friends” whose relationship broke down when silent movie star Chaplin found fame in Hollywood.
Speaking to The Daily Star about his surprise resurgence, he says that despite the “s****y bits” that had happened in his life, he had never lost his passion for performing.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am now. I’m the busiest I’ve ever been and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been,” he said.
“I am probably the fittest I’ve been, too. I walk a lot, I eat well and I do what I love. I’m 71 and I feel fitter than I was when I was 40, when I was drinking and all that.”
The entertainer has always maintained that he does not know what happened to Lubbock but it cast a dark cloud over his career and saw him disappear from TV screens.
He was rarely seen again until he appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2006, where he finished in second place.
Between that and 2019, Barrymore and others were arrested and questioned on multiple occasions, but no charges were ever filed and he ultimately sued Essex Police for wrongful arrest.
He dropped his compensation claim of £2.4 million after a court ruled he was due ‘nominal’ damages.
