SHE was the pint-sized screen legend with a larger- than-life personality and infectious giggle.
And after 70 years in showbiz, Dame Barbara Windsor was never short of a story or two.
Best remembered for her iconic roles in the Carry On films and as EastEnders landlady Peggy Mitchell, her death on Thursday aged 83 has left fans broken-hearted.
But Barbara’s husband Scott Mitchell, 57, says her life was full of humour right until the end.
Testament to that cheeky nature, the busty 4ft 10in legend once quipped: “They say an actor is only as good as his parts. Well, my parts have done me pretty well, darling.”
Here we pay tribute to Babs by telling her story in her own words.
Babs on men
In her autobiography, she confesses to quickies with a string of men including gangsters Reggie and Charlie Kray, jazz great Ronnie Scott, entertainer Anthony Newley and Bing Crosby’s son Gary.
She said: “Once I started to have sex, I suppose I got a bit carried away. I was a right little goer.”
On first husband, villain Ronnie Knight: “My first husband was a bit of a rascal but he was a good rascal, he was a very sweet man.”
While married to Ronnie she had an affair with Carry On co-star Sid James, who was 30 years her senior: “He’d been pestering me for months.
“He obviously thought I was this raving, sexy little thing and I thought if I did the dirty deed he’d leave me alone.” The affair lasted ten years.
On taking late Bee Gees star Maurice Gibb to bed in a bid to ease his stage fright: “He was very good in the show but director Ned Sherrin came up to me and said, ‘He has no balls on stage, you have to do something’.
“So I asked him for dinner but he said, ‘Let’s just go to bed’. He was better [on stage] next time.”
Barbara even admitted a crush on her EastEnders sons Ross Kemp (Grant Mitchell) and Steve McFadden (Phil Mitchell), cackling: “I fancy them both rotten.
“[Ross] loves Mrs Merton and I got a bit miffed, actually. I thought, ‘if you are going to go for the older woman you might as well go for me’. But he thinks of me as Mum.”
On revealing she had sex with more than 100 lovers: “I was very late starting. I was 17 and a half. I’d gone from being a schoolgirl to having this tiny waist and enormous boobs. Blokes loved it.”
On EastEnders co-star Larry Lamb: “I told him, ‘You are tall, never mind darling, we’re all the same height lying down’.”
On the modern man: “I feel sorry for a lot of the geezers today. I think we’re cutting the balls off the geezers a little bit. Let’s still be feminine. Be feminist, but keep that word feminine in.”
On Carry On co-star Kenneth Williams: “He was strange but I loved him. I don’t think there’s a week that goes by that I don’t miss him.
“He said he’d like to marry me because, ‘You’re the only one that cleans her teeth after lunch on the Carry On set’.”
On second husband Steve Hollings, who she was married to for nine years until 1995: “He’s a bit tasty isn’t he.”
On PM Boris Johnson: “Give me a kiss.”
On her “fabulous” sex with late football legend George Best: “He was so beautiful. In the bar, he came over. I said, ‘Look, don’t waste your time with me, darling, you’ve got all these lovely ladies after you’.
“And he said, ‘Well, when do I ever get to talk to somebody like you?’ Well, that did it. The sex was great, he was fabulous.”
On Sid James: “He was great. One day he’d have an American accent, the next South African, because that’s where he came from, and the next day he was cockney. He was very sharp and, of course, women fancied him.”
Babs on carry on
“I’ve been incredibly lucky. I’ve worked in two iconic shows, Carry On and EastEnders. If it all ended tomorrow — and it could — I’d just be terribly grateful. I’ve been fortunate enough to do what I love and get paid for it.
“People know me for Carry On but I’m more theatre actually. I started out when I was 13 years old.”
On her famous boob-flashing scene in Carry On Camping: “It’s in all the Top Ten film scenes and that’s bloody amazing. I was terrified of people seeing my boobs. The first time it didn’t work and I fell into the mud head first.They said, ‘Get her up, wipe her down and let’s go again’.”
Babs on life: “I don’t have any regrets about not having kids. I’ve just never had those maternal feelings. I am a nurturer by nature, but I nurture adults — my friends, the people I work with.” My mother used to get so upset about my accent. She said, ‘You’re still common’. She sent me to the convent and elocution lessons.”
“My mother spent her whole time getting away from the East End. I often sit and think, ‘Oh mummy, mummy, if only you knew. You could not now afford to go back there’.”
“My childhood and my parents’ divorce were particularly difficult and painful times for me.”
“Kenneth Williams came on my honeymoon [with husband Knight] and whenever someone came up to ask for an autograph he would say, ‘P**s off, I’m on holiday’. I told him, ‘Hang on a minute, they’re our fans’.
“I get very angry with my fellow artists who can’t be bothered to say hi or sign an autograph. But I was brought up that way. You’ve come into this business to entertain people, so you don’t switch off when you walk outside.”
On losing all her money to failed business investments: “I was two weeks away from losing my house.”
Talking to Michael Aspel on This Is Your Life: “How can you do my life, Michael, there are so many naughty bits, isn’t there?”
“I found myself in the doldrums in the early Nineties. I was too old to play the dolly bird any longer and I looked too young to play a woman of my real age. No one ever saw me as the aunt, mother or grandmother.”
“I have a vast showbiz life, I’ve been on Broadway and done loads of plays. I was playing my age on stage but wasn’t given that chance on screen and that’s because they bought the Carry On films for television and I wasn’t like that person any more.”
Babs on EastEnders
“I was as scared starting on EastEnders as I was when I stepped on the Carry On set. I had to prove myself in a different world.”
“EastEnders didn’t just revive my career, it saved my life.”
“I’m known for being part of two great British institutions — Carry On and EastEnders. I love them both and I’m so proud to be part of them. My heart leans towards EastEnders because 14 years ago they gave me a chance to reinvent myself and I will be eternally grateful to them.”
“Jessie Wallace was the first time I erupted. She was late, she was young. She’s not like that any more. I lost my temper. It was silly and I burst into tears and ran up to the producer. I said I had been terrible and amateur.”
“Amy Winehouse used to come to the house and read EastEnders scripts with me — and she always insisted on playing Peggy.”
“The beautiful thing is that ageism just doesn’t exist on EastEnders. The show saved me.”
“We started to do more Saturdays, far more than ever before.
“There were a lot of lines to learn and I had created this character that talked very fast. I only had Sundays in the end and I used to get up, have a kiss and cuddle then it was heads down.”
On Dot Cotton actress June Brown: “We do eight episodes at the same time. June is nearly 81 and I could hate her sometimes. She picks up the script and has a fag and a cup of coffee and she knows it spot on. I’m not as good as her. I’ve found as I’ve got older I really have to learn.”
“Me and Scott couldn’t watch my last episodes in EastEnders. I really grieved for Peggy and I think that’s right.”
Babs on husband Scott
“I sensed it was serious when I did something out of character: I rang Scott and invited him out. I felt like Mrs Robinson in The Graduate.”
“Meeting Scott is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“He’s good for me because he’s tough, and I need that because I’m getting a bit stupid. I still think I can run around like a teenager.”
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