How Peggy Mitchell saved Barbara Windsor – and EastEnders – from the gloom
As terrifying as she was tender, the Queen Vic's steely landlady showed us another side of the Carry On star – one rooted in her real life
The late Barbara Windsor as Peggy Mitchell
Credit: BBC
London’s East End, both real and fictional, is in mourning following news of Dame Barbara Windsor’s death, aged 83. From saucy Carry On infamy to cosy EastEnders familiarity, she was one of our best-loved and most quintessentially British actresses.
Shoreditch-born Barbara Deeks, a real-life East Ender, took the stage name Windsor in 1953, inspired by the Queen’s coronation. She went onto become screen royalty herself. The cultural landscape is a duller, greyer place without her irrepressible personality and immense talent.