From Carry On to EastEnders, we pay tribute to national treasure and showbiz royalty, Barbara Windsor.
11 December 2020
Sparrows Can t Sing (1963)
Barbara Windsor, who has died at the age of 83, had a long reign. She changed her surname from Deeks around the time of Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953 and withdrew from public gaze on leaving the Queen Vic for the last time in 2016. In between times, ‘Babs’ became a national treasure, although she is bound to be remembered for the wrong reasons, as there was much more to her than that pinging green bikini in Carry On Camping (1969).
As part of Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop, Windsor had announced herself in Lionel Bart’s Cockney musical, Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be (1959), and she went on to earn a Tony nomination for the Broadway transfer of Oh, What a Lovely War! (1965). Littlewood had urged her to drop out of the Carry Ons, and Windsor took 2 wilderness decades to emerge from their shadow. The talent was a
BBC News
Dame Barbara Windsor, who has died at the age of 83, became the nation s favourite pin-up, the bubbly blonde who packed a lot of personality into her 4ft 10in frame.
Her journey from saucy minx in the Carry On films to the matriarch of the Queen Vic in EastEnders made her a national treasure.
Her teenage life was troubled. She was rejected by her father, something that drove her into a string of stormy personal relationships.
But she went on to be a consummate actress who carved out a successful career on both stage and screen.
Barbara Ann Deeks was born in Shoreditch, east London, on 6 August 1937, the daughter of a fruit and veg street seller and a dressmaker.
Barbara Windsor starred in a total of 10 Carry On films (Image: GETTY)
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Dame Barbara was born in Shoreditch, East Lindon on August 6 1937, the daughter of a fruit and veg street seller and a dressmaker.
She went on to carve out a career as an actress with her big break when she joined Joan Littlewood’s company and starred in Fings Ain t Wot They Used To Be.
Barbara earned a Bafta nomination for her role in Littlewood s 1963 film Sparrers Can t Sing as Maggie Gooding.
In 1964 she was cast in Carry On Spying, the ninth film in the successful franchise.