FROM AFFAIRS TO AWARDS – AN EASTENDER’S TALE

1937

Born Barbara Ann Deeks in Shoreditch, east London on 6 August. She would take the stage name Windsor in 1953, inspired by the Queen’s Coronation, after making her West End debut in the musical

Love From Judy. 1959

Joins Joan

Littlewood’s

Theatre Workshop and gives an acclaimed West End performance in Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be. She

has a brief fling with the notorious gangster Reggie Kray. 1963

Earns a Best British Film Actress BAFTA nomination for her performance as cockney Maggie who leaves her sailor husband for a bus driver in the film Sparrows Can’t Sing (left).

1964 Stars in Carry On Spying, the first of her nine Carry On movies, and marries crook Ronnie Knight. This marriage, her first of three, would last 20 years. 1970

Plays music hall star Marie Lloyd in the West End

stage show Sing A Rude Song and ends up having an affair with co-star,

Maurice Gibb (left, with Barbara). 1973

Stars in the West End stage revue Carry On London and embarks on an affair with co-star Sid James (far right). She makes her final Carry On film, Carry On Dick, the next year.

1986 A year after her divorce from Ronnie Knight she marries chef/restaurateur Stephen Hollings. This marriage lasts nine years. 1994

Takes the role of

Peggy Mitchell (above) in EastEnders. She plays the part for 22 years, winning Best Actress at the British Soap Awards in 1999. 2000 Awarded an MBE and marries her present husband, ex-actor

Scott Mitchell, who is 26 years her junior. 2016

She’s appointed a Dame in the New Year Honours list for services to charity and entertainment.