Dame Barbara Windsor Passes Away

[fgwrich]

Some very sad news this evening. She certainly was a character and left a lasting impression whether you had been lucky to meet her or not, and certainly up there as one of Britains National Treasures of acting.

Dame Barbara Windsor: Carry On and EastEnders actress dies aged 83

She was best known for her role as Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders and parts in the Carry On films.

www.bbc.co.uk

Dame Barbara Windsor: Carry On and EastEnders actress dies aged 83​

Actress Dame Barbara Windsor, best known for her roles in EastEnders and the Carry On films, has died aged 83.
Her husband Scott Mitchell said she had died peacefully from Alzheimer's/dementia at a London care home on Thursday evening.
She had been diagnosed with the disease in 2014 and had moved to a care home earlier this year.
Mr Mitchell said her final weeks were "full of humour, drama and a fighting spirit until the end".
Dame Barbara appeared in nine of the 31 films in the comedy series Carry On, and also made appearances in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and On the Fiddle with Sean Connery.

She was well-known for her portrayal of landlady Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders, starring alongside her on-screen children Ross Kemp and Steve McFadden.
After her dementia diagnosis Dame Barbara became an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society and met Prime Minister Boris Johnson to raise awareness about the disease.

media captionBarbara Windsor visited Downing Street to highlight the concerns over dementia care
Mr Mitchell, who campaigned alongside his wife, said: "It was not the ending that Barbara or anyone else living with this very cruel disease deserve. I will always be immensely proud of Barbara's courage, dignity and generosity dealing with her own illness and still trying to help others by raising awareness for as long as she could."

 

[yorksrob]

RIP Dame Barbara.

It seems strange to think that she was only in nine of the 31 carry-on films !

"and fling, and in....."

 

[C J Snarzell]

RIP to a British icon.

I'm not a huge fan of Eastenders now, but it was watchable when BW was in it.

CJ

 

[duncanp]

My favourite line from one of the Carry On series was the lesser known Carry On Christmas, when Sid James meets Barbara Windsor and asks her what her name is:-

Barbara Windsor : "My name's Virginia, but my friends call me Virgin for short"

Sid James (turns to camera and says) : "Virgin for short, but not for long", and then gives his trademark cackly laugh.

You would not get away with a lot of the comedy in the Carry On films today, as everything is so woke and politically correct, and you can't say anything for fear of offending those who, as the late Sir Terry Wogan used to say, "..make a career out of being offended..".

To take one example of this, when Carry On Camping was repeated on ITV3 recently, the infamous where you saw a flash of Barbara Windsor's boob for a nanosecond was actually cut out.

Have to dig out some of my Carry On DVDs over the weekend and have a good laugh.

R.I.P Dame Barbara Windsor