Babs | |
---|---|
Written by | Tony Jordan |
Directed by | Dominic Leclerc |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Running time | 90 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | BBC One |
Release | 7 May 2017 |
Babs is a BBC biopic about the life of British actress Dame Barbara Windsor. Details of the film were announced by Charlotte Moore, the BBC's Acting Director of Television, on 26 May 2016, a week after Windsor made her final appearance in EastEnders as the long-running character Peggy Mitchell. The film, written by EastEnders scriptwriter Tony Jordan, shows Windsor in the 1990s as she prepares to go on stage and recalls events from her life, including her childhood and marriage to gangster Ronnie Knight, as well as her rise to fame as part of the Carry On cast.
It was broadcast on 7 May 2017, to coincide with Windsor's 80th birthday. Upon the announcement of the project, Windsor spoke of her delight that Jordan had been chosen to write the screenplay: "Tony knows the real me and what makes me tick and I was particularly taken by the way he wants to tell my tale which is not in the way people will expect it to be. [...] I am honoured and excited that Tony and the BBC have commissioned this." [1] [2] Windsor's cameo appearance was her last performance as an actor.
Reviewing the programme in The Guardian , Fiona Sturges said, "I so wanted to love Babs (7 May, 8pm, BBC1), the BBC's biopic of Barbara Windsor, the British national treasure best known for her rocket-propelled bikini in Carry On Camping and steady stream of bitch slaps as Peggy, the brassy matriarch in EastEnders. In the end, though, I was just baffled." Sturges praised the performances by Jaime Winstone and Samantha Spiro, but added that "the plot makes fractionally less sense than the episode of EastEnders where Peggy shoved Dirty Den's second wife into his open grave so she could apologise to his corpse for murdering him. OK, so it was the second time Den had died, but at least we weren't seeing dear old Babs in triplicate." [3]
Writing in the same newspaper, Chitra Ramaswamy described Babs as "a heartwarming and only occasionally cliche-ridden biopic". Ramaswamy said of the plot that "it's such a standard showbiz arc you feel you’ve seen it all before", whilst also praising the performance by Winstone. [4]
The Telegraph awarded Babs four stars out of five, with Gerard O'Donovan writing "Babs was undoubtedly rose-tinted in parts, but it was also heart-warming and a joyfully camp tribute to a national treasure." [5] However, Andrew Billen in The Times gave it two stars out of five. [6]
Babs was released on DVD by IMC Vision on 15 May 2017. [7]
Dame Barbara Windsor was an English actress, known for her roles in the Carry On films and for playing Peggy Mitchell in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders. She joined the cast of EastEnders in 1994 and won the 1999 British Soap Award for Best Actress, before leaving the show in 2016 when her character was killed off.
Joan Maud Littlewood was an English theatre director who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and is best known for her work in developing the Theatre Workshop. She has been called "The Mother of Modern Theatre". Her production of Oh, What a Lovely War! in 1963 was one of her more influential pieces.
Peggy Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders. Peggy was initially played by Jo Warne when she first appeared in the episode broadcast on 30 April 1991, featuring in 10 episodes. Peggy was reintroduced in 1994, recast to Barbara Windsor, who made her first appearance in the episode broadcast on 7 November 1994. Peggy became a regular character, and Windsor played the role until she was forced to take a long break due to poor health and departed on 23 May 2003. She returned for two episodes broadcast on 16 and 17 September 2004, before rejoining as a regular character on 8 September 2005. Windsor announced in October 2009 that she would be leaving the show and departed on 10 September 2010. Windsor returned to the show for guest appearances on 20 September 2013, 25 September 2014, 17 February 2015 and 15 January 2016. She then appeared in six episodes between 9 and 17 May 2016, where the character was killed off. Her voice is last heard in the following episode, on 19 May 2016. Peggy's funeral aired on 4 July 2016. An archived recording of her voice was heard on 25 January 2022. On 26 July 2022, it was announced that Peggy would feature in a flashback episode set in 1979, alongside her husband Eric and their children Phil, Grant and Sam. Jaime Winstone played the role of Peggy for this special episode, which aired on 5 September 2022.
Carry On Camping is a 1969 British comedy film, the 17th release in the series of 31 Carry On films (1958–1992). It features series regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Terry Scott, Hattie Jacques, Barbara Windsor, Bernard Bresslaw, Dilys Laye and Peter Butterworth. The film was followed by Carry On Again Doctor 1969.
Jaime Margaret Winstone is an English actress, best known for her roles in Kidulthood, Dead Set, After Hours and her portrayal of Barbara Windsor in Babs.
Aunt Sal is a recurring fictional character in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Anna Karen Introduced in 1996, she appeared sporadically from 21 March 1996 until 29 December 1997, then from 28 September 2001 until 17 September 2004, 19 July 2007 until 4 April 2011 and 22 November 2013 to 20 January 2017. She appears for just a few episodes at a time and has been collectively featured in 58 episodes of the show.
Hayley Elizabeth Atwell is a British and American actress. After appearing on various West End productions, Atwell gained popularity for her roles in period-drama films, appearing in the films Brideshead Revisited (2008), The Duchess (2008) and the miniseries The Pillars of the Earth (2010); for the latter two, she was nominated for a British Independent Film Award and a Golden Globe Award respectively.
Ann Harrison McCall, professionally known as Anna Karen, was a British actress best known for playing Olive Rudge in the ITV sitcom On the Buses from 1969 to 1973 including its film spin-offs and stage version and Aunt Sal in the BBC soap opera EastEnders on a recurring basis from 1996 to 2017. She also reprised the role of Olive Rudge in The Rag Trade from 1977 to 1978, while her film roles included parts in two Carry On films: Carry On Camping (1969) and Carry On Loving (1970).
Barbara Emile is a British television producer. Emile contributed to the BBC soap opera EastEnders for several years. She first started working on the serial as script editor underneath producer Leonard Lewis, and she began producing the programme in 1992. Following the departure of Lewis in 1994, Emile was promoted to Executive Producer. Storylines that aired under her tenure included Sharongate, Nigel and Debbie Bates' wedding, and Ricky Butcher's love triangle with best friends Bianca Jackson and Natalie Price. Barbara cast actress Barbara Windsor as Peggy Mitchell. Innovating the writing talent, Emile introduced a pioneering structure to develop writing talent, led by Tony Jordan, Tony McHale, Ashley Pharaoh and Matthew Graham. In 1994 Emile took the programme from twice a week to three times per week. Under Emile's stewardship she led the series onto achieve ratings of 23 million viewers. Characters introduced included Tiffany Raymond, Roy and Barry Evans. She remained with EastEnders till early 1995 and was succeeded by Corinne Hollingworth.
Archibald Lionel "Archie" Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Larry Lamb. He first appeared on 8 July 2008 as a newest member of the Mitchell family—who had first appeared on the soap in 1990—and became the show's main antagonist until the character was killed-off on Christmas Day 2009; with Archie making his last appearance as a corpse on 28 December 2009 and later serving as a posthumous impact throughout the majority of 2010, which involves making a brief voice appearance on 19 July 2010 on a family video tape overheard by his ex-wife Glenda and their two daughters Ronnie and Roxy respectively.
Samantha Spiro is an English actress and singer. She is best known for portraying Barbara Windsor in the stage play Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick and the television films Cor, Blimey! and Babs, DI Vivien Friend in M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team, Melessa Tarly in the HBO series Game of Thrones and Maureen Groff in Sex Education. She has won two Laurence Olivier Awards.
Cor, Blimey! is a 2000 TV film that follows the relationship between Carry On film actors Sid James and Barbara Windsor.
Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick is a 1998 play written by the English dramatist Terry Johnson, who also directed the original production at the National Theatre.
Glenda Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Glynis Barber. The character first appeared in the programme on 7 January 2010. She was axed in February 2011, departing on 8 March 2011. She later returned for two episodes in January 2016 and three in May 2016. She made an unannounced return on the 30 December 2016 episode for the departures of her two daughters. She made her second departure from the show on 10 February 2017. Glenda has been described as "complex", "vulnerable"," "demure, dynamic and assured". She is the former wife of Archie Mitchell ; and mother of both her son Danny and Archie's two daughters Ronnie and Roxy.
"Pretty Baby...." is an episode of the British television soap opera EastEnders, broadcast on BBC One on 31 January 2008. It is the only EastEnders episode to feature just one character and the first of its kind in soap. It was written by Tony Jordan, directed by Clive Arnold and produced by Diederick Santer. The episode features Dot Branning, played by June Brown, recording a message for her husband Jim Branning, who is in hospital recovering from a stroke, reflecting Bardon's real-life stroke, which saw him written out of the show and allowed the opportunity for the single-hander to arise. Jordan's scripting was inspired by Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape.
"Queen Vic Fire Week" is a group of four episodes of the BBC soap opera EastEnders, broadcast between 6 and 10 September 2010 on BBC One. The episodes included a fire at The Queen Victoria public house, also known as The Queen Vic or The Vic, and the departure of the character Peggy Mitchell, portrayed by Barbara Windsor, who left the series after sixteen years in the role. During the episodes, Peggy—the pub landlady—has her crack cocaine-addicted son Phil imprisoned in The Queen Victoria, forcing him to go cold turkey. She later learns that her deceased husband Archie was murdered by the person he raped: Stacey Branning. Before she can report Stacey to the police, Phil escapes and sets the pub on fire. Stacey and her infant daughter Lily are trapped inside, but are rescued by her lover Ryan Malloy – prompting Stacey to reveal to him that he is Lily's father. In light of the incident, Peggy decides against reporting Stacey for Lily's sake. She then plans to make a fresh start, bidding her family goodbye and leaving Walford.
Nathalie "Lily" Sergueiew was a double agent who worked for MI5 during World War II under the codename "Treasure". She played a significant role in the Double-Cross System, particularly by deceiving the Germans about the location of the D-Day landings.
Ronald Knight was an English convicted criminal and nightclub owner. He became well-known through his marriage to the actress Barbara Windsor.
"Episode 6550" of the British television soap opera EastEnders was broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 5 September 2022. The episode was directed by Toby Frow and written by Simon Ashdown. It takes the form of a flashback episode, set in both the present and in January 1979, and explores the reason for DCI Samantha Keeble's vendetta against the Mitchell family.