‘It’s really daft to be 80 isn’t it? But I’m in a good place’
For Dame Barbara her life’s journey has reached a happy place. ‘It’s really daft to be 80, isn’t it?’ she laughs. ‘But I’m in a good place in my life, I’ve got a great husband, I’m still working and I can do all my charities.
Life’s going along nicely and I’m thrilled this programme has happened because I knew Tony would do it the right way.
I knew he wouldn’t sanitise things. But then again I’m an honest cockney sparrow, you know all about me, so it would be wrong to gloss over things. So that was that, and we got it right I think.’
Much of the drama’s focus is on Barbara’s complicated relationship with her parents: her mother Rose, played by Ripper Street actress Leanne Best, and her adored bus conductor father John (Nick Moran).
John cut off contact with his daughter following his divorce from Rose and they were estranged for years, a perennial source of sadness for Barbara, who inherited her famous giggle from him. In some of the drama’s more poignant scenes, her younger self confronts her father about his absence. Barbara admits it was odd to see her parents, now long dead, being brought to life by actors. ‘I had to stay away a couple of times during filming because you’ve got to let them do it how they see it – the temptation is to say, “No, Daddy didn’t have that much hair” and that sort of thing. So it’s weird, but they’re both fantastic.’
Best, in particular, she says, perfectly captures her mother’s snobbishness and her ambition for her daughter. ‘She got Mum just right. She was always trying to better herself and me, which I understand.
Times were hard back then, her husband had gone off to war for four years and she had this little girl in the East End. So she tried to make me into a little lady, with the elocution lessons and so on. It was all, “Babs, don’t do this, always act like this.” She only wanted the best, whereas at the time, when you’re young, you think, “No, this is the way I want to do it.” Of course, she hated the Carry On films.’ Happily for Rose, in Babs the balance has been redressed – the Carry On era is covered only fleetingly, a deliberate decision by Jordan.
‘She was hijacked by the Carry On films and pigeonholed as “the sexy little blonde”,’ he argues. ‘That’s not who she is – she’s been on Broadway, she’s been in the West End, she’s too good to be defined by one particular thing.’
Not, Barbara hastily emphasises, that she’s ashamed of the films, or her role as pub matriarch Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders. ‘I don’t mind being known as the Carry On girl, I’m very proud of the films, and I’m very proud that I worked with some of the greatest people,’ she says. ‘Not everybody knows what I’ve done, so of course they do mention Carry On and EastEnders – but if I get away with that, I’m happy. I’ve made mistakes, and I’m ashamed of some of the mistakes I’ve made – but they’re my mistakes. I’m a nice lady.’ And it seems there’s not a single soul who would argue with that.
Kathryn Knight ÷Babs will air on BBC1 in early May.
‘There’s no reprise of the flying bra scene, – thank God’