THERE will be thousands of tributes for that British institution Dame Barbara Windsor, who died last week from Alzheimer’s at a London care home. She was 83.
Most will concentrate on her many starring roles in the Carry On series of films or as publican Peggy Mitchell in TV soap EastEnders.
Some will deal with her close relationships with criminals and others will patronise much of her work.
Although she was known for her Conservative sympathies, her talent won admiration from across the political spectrum, and I think we should look back on the long career of a working-class actor who, long before her stardom, had been in the 1950s an enthusiastic and much-valued member of one of Britain’s most significant and influential left-wing theatre groups, Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop.