This is the story of Dame Barbara Windsor, the Cockney kid with a dazzling smile and talent to match. Preparing to perform in the theatre one cold evening in 1993, the cheeky, chirpy blonde Babs recounts the people and events that have shaped her life and career over fifty years from 1943 to 1993. She contemplates her lonely childhood and WWII evacuation; her decision to go from Barbara Ann Deeks to Barbara Windsor, inspired by the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II; her complicated relationship with her father; her doomed marriage to Ronnie Knight; capturing the attention of theatre director Joan Littlewood; and becoming the blonde bombshell in the Carry On films. Babs, ever the consummate professional, never lets her fans down whatever her personal anguish and steps on the stage to rapturous applause.
Acting
Samantha Spiro IS Babs; Jaime Winstone nails the young firecracker.
Production
Seamless stage-to-memory transitions in one frozen theatre.
Writing
Tony Jordan scripts real Barbara's actual anecdotes.
Director
Dominic Leclerc
Jaime Winstone
Barbara Windsor (Young Adult)
Samantha Spiro
Babs
Nick Moran
John Deeks
Leanne Best
Rose Deeks
Zoë Wanamaker
Joan Littlewood
Barbara Windsor
Barbara Windsor
Honor Kneafsey
Teen Barbara
Florence Keen
Child Barbara
Luke Allen-Gale
Ronnie Knight
Julia Ford
Julie Deeks
Marty Cruikshank
Aida Foster
Peter Hamilton Dyer
Producer
Alex Macqueen
Peter Charlesworth
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Barbara Windsor herself suggested Samantha Spiro for the role after seeing her in Gypsy. The queen chooses her own successor.
The Coronation name-change scene mirrors how working-class Brits reshaped identity post-war—Babs literally crowned herself.
GB
