Last modified on Tue 12 Jan 2021 12.38 EST Although physically tiny at 4ft 10in tall, Barbara Windsor, who has died aged 83, was a giant of the British entertainment industry, conquering films, theatre and television in a career that spanned 60 years, 50 of them as a top star. After some notable stage work, Windsor first came to real prominence as a member of the Carry On team for nine hugely popular films starting in 1964 with Carry On Spying. In them she usually played a wide-eyed blonde with a friendly grin, sometimes knowingly sexy and sometimes naive or innocent, but invariably given at some point to what one observer called “the dirtiest laugh in show business”. She identified her appeal with characteristic bluntness: “You could always find a barmaid who looked like me.”