GREY-haired, snaggle toothed and slightly wobbly on his feet - you'd be forgiven for underestimating 82-year-old Barry from Watford. But, despite appearances, this little old man is no pushover. He's got a bark and a bite and a big bucket list to get through before he pops his clogs.

“He's no nonsense,” says Alex Lowe, Barry's creator and the man behind the prosthetic mask, “he'd hate the kind of post-Diana wringing of hands and breaking down in tears at everything. He's certainly got a sort of British stiff upper lip, but by the same token he's not a curmudgeonly old get, he's not Alf Garnett.”

“He's got a real dignity and an opinion - he's lived a life.”

Barry began as a voice that would call in the Iain Lee show on LBC, where his tell-it-like-it-is points of view quickly found him a cult following. A move to the Steve Wright show on Radio 2 boosted his fanbase still further and the character was soon hosting live quiz shows, cabaret nights and bingo bonanzas.

“I'd always had this character up my sleeve,” says Alex, from Oxhey. “I fooled him for about five minutes, but it picked up a following, it built up this head of steam.

“What I do like about that age group is that they do actually speak their mind. They're not like this massive apathetic middle ground of which I'm very much a part, which is always seeing both sides of everything. Frankly as long as there's a Waitrose being built opposite that's all they care about.”

Alex has a genuine fondness for his character, “I still love doing it” he says, as well as the people he speaks for.

“I've always tried to make him three-dimensional and give him a sort of dignity because he's based on all my cockney forebears,” says Alex. “He's not just there to serve jokes about old people.

“He's sort of based on my grandmother, who was no-nonsense and had lots of stories about the war and had an opinion on things. It wasn't all ‘lovely in the old days', she still had a keen eye on everything that was going on around her.

“She had all these inconsistencies - she didn't particularly like posh people and yet she was a supporter of the Royal Family. And that way of speaking, it's very much an old-style cockney that you don't hear so much nowadays, that intonation is disappearing.”

On Monday, Barry features in his own episode of Sky Atlantic comedy series Common Ground. Written by Alex and comedy writer Fraser Steele, the story begins with Barry losing his wife and digging up a tin in his back garden containing a bucket list. With help from his daughter Michelle (Linda Robson) and grandson Leyton (Ayuk Marchant) he sets about achieving his dreams.

The series stars the likes of Jessica Hynes, Charles Dance, Katy Brand and Johnny Vegas and will be Barry's biggest platform to date. Packed with pathos and laugh-out-loud moments, it’s hoped the short could lead to a full series for the Barry character.

“Anything I do as Barry I hope has a soul to it,” says Alex. “He speaks for people who see their towns turning into clone towns, his own community is disappearing under a mountain of fake marble at the Harlequin Centre.

“At least there are people who believe it's important to make a statement about something. They're not frightened of a bit of fight.”

Common Ground: Barry airs on Sky Atlantic HD on March 4 at 9.15pm.