Richard Norton-Taylor and Simon Hattenstone write:Barry Jackson's best-known role may have been the pathologist George Bullard in Midsomer Murders, but his favourite was the title role of Horace, the hero with learning difficulties of a BBC Play for Today (1972) and a series for ITV (1982), written for him by Roy Minton.
He was quietly determined and ludicrously brave. One night when he was making the film The Bofors Gun (1968) he was out with its fiery star Nicol Williamson– not a man to mess with. Williamson challenged him to a game of darts with a difference: while one placed his hand on the dart board, the other would throw round it. Barry went first, and duly threw round Williamson. Then Williamson went and threw the dart straight through Barry's hand. Barry smiled and didn't utter a world. You didn't dare show weakness in front of Nicol, he later told us.
Barry was a wonderful friend and renaissance man to us and to many others. There was Barry the bee keeper, Barry the bread-maker, Barry the bird whistler, the allotment vegetable grower, the red van driver, the martial arts champion, the healer, the wood sculptor, the poet. His tremendous cross-court tennis passes earned him the nickname "Bangle" – short for Barry the Angle. Every time you thought you'd got to grips with him, a new side of Barry would reveal itself. Yet in all he did he was consistent: loving, optimistic and bursting with humanity.
Jack Gold writes: I had the privilege of working with Barry Jackson several times over the decades since The Bofors Gun. His unaffected humanity and quiet humour made him the least demonstrative of actors: he inhabited his characters. He was always surprising with his casual revelations of his multitasking – building a house, turning wood and green fingering. At tennis, his sudden, incisive angled winners were followed not by fist-pumping, but just an inward smile. He was a great and good companion.