Actress
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Best Film | Carry On Spying |
| Best Character | Babs in Carry On Camping | |
| Silliest Name | Goldie Lockes in Carry On Again Doctor | |
| Films | 10 - Spying, Doctor, Again Doctor, Camping, Henry, Abroad, Matron, Girls, Dick, That's | |
| Best Line | In Spying, Mr Simpkins, gets his gun out from his holster speedily. When 'Brown Cow`(Barbara) sees this she comments, "Oh, Mr Simpkins, I hope I can get my draws off as fast as that!". |
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Shirley Eaton and Liz Fraser had supplied the romantic
interests for the first couple of films, that was until Barbara Windsor bubbled
into the series with Carry On Spying and brought with her a new dimension to the
Carry On series. Her Cockney innocence contradicted her looks, being
seductive and sexy which fits in very well with Carry On postcard humour.
Carry On Doctor sees her taking the role of a nurse, wiggling her way through the hospital, and up to the ambulance driver, who is eating fruit. Barbara says to him, "Lovely pear", and the ambulance driver says, "I was just about to say the same thing!" She then goes on to cause mayhem in the hospital by sunbathing nude on the roof. Carry On Camping sees her in possibly her most memorable role, as a 16 year old school girl on a camping trip, showing off all her assets when her bra, predictably, bursts open in a keep fit session. In Again Doctor the boot is on the other foot, when she refuses all Dr Nookey's advances until after they are married, and her persona is being developed to equal the male characters of the series. Henry is another classic Babs role, in which she plays Bettina, daughter of the Lord of Bristol (!!), scheming to marry the King, but Matron sees her back in nurses uniform again, but this time her character is more sympathetic. When you mention Barbara Windsor's name, which other Carry
Oner's name comes to mind? Sid James. She has appeared as the object of
Sid's In Dick, her last Carry On, Sid seemed more lecherous and less loving, which the censors agreed was unfit for a family film. But she does make a welcome return commentating the clips in That's Carry On with Kenneth Williams. You can see that they are enjoying themselves, and indeed they did get on well in their personal lives, and in fact, when Barbara married Ronnie Knight, Kenny and his mother went with them on their honeymoon. Barbara was born 6th August 1937 in Shoreditch, London as Barbara-Ann Deeks. Her mother was a dressmaker and her father was a bus conductor. She was bright at school but her parents wanted her to go to university, but she convinced them otherwise by appearing in a dance school show which led to her being invited to take a part in the local pantomime, but the school authorities disapproved of the missed school that would be needed for her to take part in the rehearsals and she was eventually asked to leave. Her mother spent her savings on a place at the famous Ada Foster Acting School, where the tutors, perhaps mistakenly, tried to iron out her Cockney accent. Luckily, Joan Littlewood, the producer who was committed to working-class theatre that transformed the London stage at that time, spotted Barbara at an audition and gave her the role which changed her life, the perky Rosie in Fings Ain't What They Used To Be. She then went on to appear in Littlewood's Oh! What A Lovely War and toured the United States with it. Inevi She has worked extensively in television, taking the lead in the third series of the Rag Trade, playing Nancy in Worzel Gummidge, and most famously now, moving away from her Carry On image, playing Peggy in Eastenders. At the time Eastenders started, she was desperate for a part in Eastenders and was turned down because her face was too well known, but years later, she succeeded, and after the Carrys Ons, this was the part she was best known and loved for. Although her professional career has been quite successful, her personal life is a somewhat different matter. She married Ronnie Knight, a known London criminal, and had to put up with that side of his life, which reached a peak when he was arrested for a murder. Another burden on her personal life was the initially unwanted infatuation Sid James had with her, and after numerous declines of sleeping together, she thought the best solution would be to actually sleep with him so that he could "get it out of his system". This, in hindsight, was a mistake because the infatuation continued, and Sid continued pestering her and she relented eventually and started a full-blown affair which was reasonably dangerous for Sid due to her husband's connections. Eventually things came to a head between them and she finished the affair. Barbara was made a Dame (DBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to charity and entertainment. She was awarded Freedom of the City of London in 2010. She died on 10 December 2020, aged 83 .Her funeral took place on 8 January 2021. Her body was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. Floral decorations on Windsor's coffin made out the words "The Dame", "Saucy" and "The Queen Peggy". |
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