It's bean a blast, says 70-year-old baked bean superhero

Port Talbot is well known for producing a wealth of acting greats.

But there is also a baked bean superhero who has been enjoying celebrity status in the town for almost four decades.

With his fluorescent orange clothing and baked bean tattooed head and eyebrows, Captain Beany, who turns 70 on Monday, is a hard sight to ignore.

In 1986, the more conventionally named Barry Kirk spent 100 hours in a bath of baked beans.

The stunt caught the attention of the press and was the genesis of his transformation from Barry the computer technician to Captain Beany the illustrious fundraiser.

"I love to think I'm a big bean in a small can," he laughed.

"I could have studied hard to be the next Michael Sheen, Richard Burton or Anthony Hopkins but I'm the next best thing… I’m like a full-blown actor but I couldn’t be bothered to read the lines."

But unlike an actor playing a part, Captain Beany's commitment to his superhero role is perpetual.

In 1991 he changed his name by deed poll.

The same year he was issued a passport in his new name with a picture of him wearing his superhero outfit.

"In those days you got away with murder, I was orange, wearing glasses and smiling," he laughed, admitting it did occasionally cause him an issue at airports.

From 2009 he spent 13 years running a bean museum from his house until the housing association moved him to his current home just off Aberavon seafront.

He said the stunt that changed the course of his life was something of a sliding doors moment.

He was in his 30s when he discovered running as a way to lose weight while raising money for charity, earning him the moniker Captain Kirk.

Then one day he was in Port Talbot town centre when he saw The Who's The Who Sell Out album in a charity shop.

Its cover featured a young Roger Daltrey lying in a bath of baked beans.

"I thought 'I wonder if there’s currently a world record for lying in a bath of beans?' "

There was not, but there were records set when someone spent 24 hours in a bath of custard and 50 hours in a bath of spaghetti.

He decided to attempt lying in a bath of baked beans for 100 hours - four days and four nights.

The attempt took place at Aberavon Hotel between 11 and 15 September 1986.

A local business provided the bathtub and another provided a bumper supply of regular-sized cans of beans.

These were the days before ring pulls, so each had to be individually opened with a can opener and poured into the bath by volunteers.

Barry entered the bath in just his pants to the Rocky theme tune and cheers from a gathered crowd.

It was to be a cold and uncomfortable four days.

He had no padding, cushions or neck support and was allowed to get out of the bath for just five minutes each hour to use the toilet.

When he wanted to sleep a plank of wood was placed across the bathtub so he could rest his head without slipping under the beany sauce.

He recalled getting about four hours sleep across the four days. Remarkably, he completed the challenge.

"When I got out of the bath my legs were shaking and I said 'no way am I going to eat a baked bean again' - I was cured of baked beans," he said.

Bizarrely, he discovered he had gained weight and could not get back into his trousers, something he put down to his diet of hotel food and being inactive for so long.

It was after gaining this record that someone suggested he change his fundraising name from Captain Kirk to Captain Beany - and the rest is history.

Over the years he estimates he has raised somewhere between £150,000 and £200,000 for charity.

Much of his time is spent visiting schools and local events.

He has also set a number of other bean-related records and received several awards.

In 2009 he was proud to be crowned British Greatest Eccentric by The Eccentric Club.

He has been a candidate in a number of elections, including standing in Cardiff West in the 2021 Senedd election, where he gained 95 votes, placing ninth out of nine candidates, losing to the then first minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford.

All this means while strolling along Aberavon prom - albeit in his garish orange get-up, he is centre of attention.

"Everyone knows him, he's iconic," said Ethan Price, 22, who stopped for a chat and referenced the bath of baked beans challenge, despite the fact this happened 16 years before he was born.

"I was looking at buying a car that colour," laughed David Lewis, 78, while admiring Captain Beany's garish suit.

"He raises a lot of money for good causes and that's what it's all about, it's not about himself, it's what he does for charities," he said.

"It is a kind of celebrity status of course," admitted Captain Beany later.

Although he also acknowledged the unusual life he had chosen for himself had impacted some areas of his life.

"Perhaps there is a parallel world where Barry Kirk is happy bringing up a couple of kids, married," he said.

There was one long-term relationship.

"Fair dos, she would dress up - she was Tin of Beans," he laughed, recalling how they would travel around together in his orange baked bean-themed Beetle.

She died in 2018.

"I never walked down the aisle and I'll tell you the honest truth, I could never get away with what I'm doing now if I was married because I don't think anyone would have the patience," he said.

That has not stopped him from applying for a number of televised dating shows including Married at First Sight "just for the curiosity of would anybody like to go out with me?"

"But I'm happy to be who I am now."

Reflecting on turning 70, he said he hoped he was "leaving my footprint on planet Earth".

With more marathons and beany challenges in the pipeline he is not planning on slowing down.

He intends to make his 100th birthday, citing fundraiser Capt Sir Tom Moore as his inspiration.

He can see himself walking around his beloved Port Talbot with a dazzling orange zimmer frame.

"If I can generate happiness, joviality, make people happy then job's done," he said.

"There’s a lot of sauce still left in me yet."