Barrymore: The Body in the Pool

In the early hours of 31st March 2001, a phone call is made to Essex Emergency Services to say a body had been found in the swimming pool of television presenter, Michael Barrymore. At the time, Barrymore was one of the most popular entertainers in Britain. When Paramedics arrived, Stuart Lubbock’s lifeless body was found by the side of Barrymore’s swimming pool.

Every detail of the story was poured over by the media. Was it a drug-fuelled orgy? Was Stuart gay? Did Stuart drown or was there another cause of death? Why did Barrymore flee from his home? Would Barrymore’s career ever recover from the disturbing event?Now, 19 years on, this feature length documentary explores the full story behind one of Britain’s most high-profile unexplained deaths, as told by the people closest to it.

18 months in the making and with access to never-before-seen material from inside one of Essex Police’s most controversial unsolved cases. This documentary forensically pieces together the perspectives of the Lubbock family, detectives, forensic pathologists and eyewitnesses, to explore what happened that night at Barrymore’s Essex bungalow and the extraordinary events that followed.

Channel 4 – Thursday, 6th February 2020