Barri Haynes

Barri Haynes
Times Obituary image
Series information
Function	Announcer for Series 14

Barri 'Baz' Haynes was a radio and TV continuity announcer.

History

Barri Hiley Haynes was born in October 1932 in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight to Peggy and George Haynes, a police inspector. In 1941, they relocated to Catford in south London. Shortly afterwards, George was killed in the Blitz. The subsequent death of Peggy left Barri, then 11, an orphan. He was brought up by his beloved grandmother on Barry Island, near Cardiff.

After completing his National Service with the Welsh Guards in London, Barri obtained work proof-reading at The Western Mail newspaper in Cardiff. To make ends meet, the 21-year-old Barri also played drums in Cardiff nightclubs. After the death of his grandmother, Barri married Mary (née Yeates). They separated shortly after the birth of their daughter, Laura, who reconnected with Barri in her twenties, after telephoning him when she had watched him on television. This sparked a growing closeness. By then, Barri was also a father to Nick and Emma, his children by his second wife Angela (née Forrester).

Initially, they had settled in Ireland, where Barri became a presenter for Ulster Television, once presenting the evening news after the usual presenter became inebriated upon imbibing an excess of Guinness at lunchtime. Returning to Britain, he became a presenter on Associated Television. In 1968, he interviewed a slim, blonde lady barber at “Bubbles”, an establishment in Herefordshire, asking, while she snipped his thick, wavy black hair, how men reacted to a “very attractive” lady hairdresser. A fondness for women led Barri to always seek their company at parties.

After separating from Angela, he briefly married a third time, before meeting Sue Dehaan, and her children Rachel, Josh and Ben while holidaying with Nick and Emma in Corsica. In June 1987, they married, settling with their five children in a converted barn in Burford. Sue’s youngest child, then 7, was astonished during a school trip to see his stepfather presenting a film on the local sewage works. Barri had moved into video production.

The new family lived in an atmosphere of noisy chaos: Sue’s calm temperament contrasted to Barri’s tendency to panic when things went wrong. This led his stepson Ben to christen him “Baz” in reference to Basil Fawlty. The name stuck.

A gifted mimic, who was deeply courteous, Barri always took care of others. He delighted in visits from his 15 grand and step-grandchildren.

He died peacefully on 3rd March 2019, aged 87, and was cremated at Hawkinge on Friday 15th March.