‘I love playing a VILLAIN!'

Larry Lamb tells Woman’s Weekly about his favourite roles and remembering the late Dame Barbara Windsor

- JULIE ANN TRAINOR

He’s famed for his iconic roles, including EastEnders’ evil Archie Mitchell and Gavin & Stacey’s voice of reason, Mick Shipman. But in the past 12 months, actor Larry Lamb has thrown himself into writing – and lockdown proved to be a blessing in disguise for him.

‘I started off in the UK and finished up in the Normandy countryside, where I have a house,’ he says, reflecting on the past year.

‘Surprisingly, I didn’t find lockdown lonely. I was writing a novel and so I needed solitude, to be honest. I can’t write when I’ve a life going on around me, so it fed into it well.’

The star bought a home in north-west France three decades ago. ‘My reason was its closeness to the UK, and the price,’ he explains. ‘You can still buy places there at a very reasonable cost. I was always pretty good at French and it was the first language I learnt. But you need to be able to speak it if you’re going to be there, otherwise it’s hopeless.’

With an acting career spanning over four decades, Larry has played a variety of roles. And, for him, the easiest to portray is a baddie.