Of course it's unfair to blame the actor for his alter egos, but so successful has Barrie been in portraying small-screen, small-minded monsters that it's hard to separate the man from the mask.
As far as most of the nation is concerned, Chris Barrie is Gordon Brittas, the jobsworth Leisure Centre manager from 'The Brittas Empire', who gave new meaning to the term petty dictatorship. Either that or he's Rimmer, the most loathsome crew member on 'Red Dwarf', who proved that it is possible to hate a hologram as much as a human.
Now Chris is back, playing an even more obnoxious character. In BBC1's new sitcom, 'A Prince Among Men', Barrie plays ex-professional footballer Gary Prince, a man whose ego knows no bounds. With his designer clothes, his parade of executive toys and his strut like a peacock on heat, Gary is the epitome of a self-made man for whom modesty is an insult to success.
The irony, of course, is that Chris Barrie in person could not be further removed from the vainglorious fools he plays for a living. Modest, unassuming, quietly spoken, he is the complete antithesis of everything that Brittas and Rimmer have come to represent. Sharing tea and scones in a hotel suite high above the traffic drone of Piccadilly, London, he seems more like a successful sales executive than one of Britain's leading comic actors.
It is Barrie himself who first suggests that, compared to his televisual identities, he is frankly a bit disappointing. "As a personality, I am quite bland, boring, plain even", he says and seems quite happy admitting it. "Sometimes I wish I was more like Robson Green, all steely-eyed, charming, tough, sexy and heroic, but it just wouldn't work".
It's the voices that are his forté. An accomplished mimic, whose first TV job was impersonating Prince Charles on 'Spitting Image', Barrie has the remarkable ability to adopt one of a hundred curious accents which are as convincing as they are entertaining.
All through our meeting he slips in and out of different vocal identities. There is Mr Willens, his prep school history teacher, there is an army recruitment sergeant from his teenage years, there's a perfect Tom O'Connor, a brief stint as Kenneth Williams and the occasional detour to pay homage to Gordon Brittas. It is an agile and accomplished display which seems more of a natural affectation than a well-rehearsed routine.
Chris has been "doing the voices" since childhood. The son of an army major general and his Yorkshire-born wife, he spent most of his early years in Northern Ireland. "I grew up surrounded by different classes and nationalities, so my ears were subjected to all sorts of accents. I suppose I was a bit of a clown so from the age of 15 onwards I started doing these impersonations which gave me popularity among the in-crowd".
Now the voices are his profession. "I consider myself a comic actor, but at the end of the day I'm just a mimic who tries to bolt on various bits to create a character. The voice comes first, then the look, the n the walk and whatever else seems to fit".
The result, as Chris puts it, is that he has "cornered the market in comic monsters". But while Brittas and Rimmer have garnered professional acclaim and public recognition, little is known about Barrie himself.