Characters don’t come any more bubbly or loved in English football than former player and manager Barry Fry.
I bumped into him at Burton last week when he was there as director of football at Peterborough United. He gave me a big hug with that huge smile and his regular ‘pleased to see you’ manner which is always genuine.
He did the same to Laraine Astle, widow of the Baggies legend Jeff. Laraine and myself were independently guests of the Burton chairman, Ben Robinson.
Barry, who will be 79 next month, lives every moment of football and sitting behind him I watched as he gripped a rail while the Posh made hard work of it before finishing 3-1 winners.
I have a lot to thank Barry for in my career. He allowed me to make a documentary on him which won me and my producer Mitch Price a Royal Television Society gold medal for Central TV’s 24 Hours – Barry’s Blues.
It was voted the best regional documentary at the television sports awards for 1996 which were held on February 27, 1997, at the Hilton Hotel in London’s Park Lane.
Barry was a dream for TV. This particular programme was 24 hours in the life of Barry on a matchday when he was manager of Birmingham City.
We were at his house in Bedford when he woke up. We filmed him having breakfast with his family – Kirstine (who is lovely and goes everywhere with Barry) and their children Adam and Amber.
Then we were off to a local schoolboy game in Bedford where Barry watched Adam playing in a match, with the Fry voice booming encouragement and advice.
Next, my cameraman joined Fry and I in his car for the journey to St Andrew’s, where he greeted everyone from staff to fans with the usual Fry wonderful welcome.
I picked the Blues v Sunderland match because it was a network live Sunday match on ITV. The visitors won 2-0 with goals in each half.
Fry gave me access to film in the dressing room at half-time – a dream for fly-on-the-wall show makers.
Clearly the Blues players were not happy to see Central TV in there. But Barry was magic. He came in and threw his baseball cap across the floor exclaiming: “If you are going to lie down and die, then die in your own time – not mine.”
He had started: “You are scared rabbits out there. You have got to grow up. You have got to start competing. I am delighted we are 1-0 down... we should be four down!
“They should be on the bus back to Sunderland.
“It’s a man’s game; you have got to be competitive. Their two centre-halves are smashing us.
“You have got to be strong. Hey, this is on nationwide television from one end of the country to the other and we are playing like nancies.”
I left out the expletives!
I also have Barry to thank for another programme. I won the live rights for Central TV to show Birmingham City beating Carlisle 1-0 in front of 76,663 spectators at Wembley to win the Football League Trophy Final, known then, on April 23, 1995, as the Auto Windscreens Shield.
The match will be remembered for Blues player Paul Tait’s golden goal in extra time. It was the first Wembley final to be decided by the first goal scored in extra time.
Tait, a local lad, caused controversy by ripping off his team shirt to reveal a T-shirt with ‘‘**** on the Villa’’ emblazoned across it.
He was fined two weeks’ wages for the incident. Midfielder Tait had come on as a 63rd minute substitute.
From a personal point of view, I was delighted that Fry let me sit next to him for the whole match on the front row of the Blues bench with a live microphone and I was able to interview him during our match coverage. Barry was different class!
Barry was with the club from 1993-96.
David Sullivan, David Gold and Karren Brady always welcomed me in the directors box at St Andrew’s.
I recall Sullivan telling me a story about Barry signing Ricky Otto. Fry had told his chairman that he needed £1million to sign a new centre-forward. He said it was Otto.
Sullivan argued that Otto was a winger at Southend; not a centre-forward. However he gave Fry the go-ahead.
After Otto’s first match – he played on the wing – Sullivan said to Barry: “I told you Otto was a winger” to which Barry just replied: ‘‘Yeah, you were right!”
