That soapy character Barlow? (3)
I believe the answer is:
ken
'that soapy' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'character barlow?' is the wordplay.
'character' becomes 'k'.
'barlow?' becomes 'en' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'k'+'en'='KEN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ken that I've seen before include "Notice" , "Awareness" , "One's range of knowledge" , "Know; man's name" , "Identify; -- Livingstone" .)