Rimmer.com

Chris Barrie's website goes online.

30 April, 2004

Following hot on the heels of Robert Llewellyn's recent revamp, Chris Barrie has unleashed chrisbarrie.co.uk - a homepage for the man himself covering his professional life from the very beginning through Spitting Image and Brittas to Dwarf and Tomb Raider.

And beyond? The Rimmer actor certainly hopes so, and has plans to update as often as possible. But why launch a website now? "I just thought it was about time! You've got to come onto the superhighway at some point. In my situation now - doing stuff for Discoveryand everything - I just wanted to let everybody know what I'm doing."

Is this to make sure we don't forget about him. (No chance!) "There's a danger - though not at the moment with those huge posters around!" he laughs. "I just decided to let people know what conventions I'm going to be attending, all that sort of stuff. It's a way of communicating."

"The Frequently Asked Questions is one of the most important sections on the site. Though there's only ten at the moment, that will expand. I do get a lot of letters with these questions on and I just don't have time to deal with them all. 'What was going on in your head on the day you snogged Craig Charles?' 'When Rimmer was in Stasis in an episode from 1989...' You can't remember these things, but you want to give fans some sort of a representation of what it was like at those times. If I've got a website I can work on that, bring it up to date, bring in new things."

The first developments Chris has planned - work updates aside - are for this section. "In the next quarter I want to do my 20 favourite lines - because everyone asks, and I don't know. There have been so many of them!"

"Also, sometimes your answers change, you have different thoughts. Time changes people and you have different emotions towards what you've done. A website's a perfect place to keep people informed. Plus Red Dwarf fans being Red Dwarf fans, one of their biggest hobbies apart from Red Dwarf is the internet."

And is Chris much of a cyber-surfer himself? "I've become an internet user as the technology has become easier to use. I've got bang-up-to-date computers, from the last year, and it's so fast and so easy. Sometimes it's nice to go and dig up a few sites - it's so efficient. I remember when I had this old desktop [machine], and if it managed to hold onto the line for ten seconds I was thrilled! The new stuff I've got just does it so easily. Only now am I fully realising the promises about the internet - how brilliant it is. It's frightening to think, though, how reliant we are on it [for information]."

So if we checked the Barrie browser, would we find a large number of vehicle-related websites? "You probably would, yes! For the things that I do - like mucking about with cars - you just get Google up there and enter 'Riley 1.5', and you get hundreds of sites. Okay it can be a bit of a chore going through them, but at least they're there."

So what does he make of the fervent (and mostly female) adulation for him that manifests across the net? "People blow you away with their enthusiasm - and whatever the word is for the thing beyond enthusiasm... Craziness, maybe. And to think we haven't even had a new series out for five years is extraordinary. The following is still there."

You can link to Chris Barrie's website via Links.