‘She loved chatting’: Steve Allen pays tribute to Dame Barbara Windsor

11 December 2020, 15:01 | Updated: 11 December 2020, 15:56

This is LBC presenter Steve Allen’s powerful tribute to Dame Barbara Windsor, following her death aged 83 after a battle with Alzheimer’s.

One of Britain’s most beloved entertainment stars, she first found fame in her role as a buxom blonde in the Carry On films and later became a household name playing Peggy Mitchell, the Queen Vic’s battle-axe landlady in BBC soap EastEnders.

Her husband Scott Mitchell confirmed the tragic news, saying that she died in a London care home at 8.35pm on Thursday evening.

Steve said: “Everybody has got stories about Barbara Windsor. Everybody has got stories.”

He added: “When she went out to something that involved her putting herself forward, you couldn’t get her out…She loved chatting.”

He later said: “She was known as ‘busty Barbara Windsor’. But for people who knew her, she was somebody who had stories about everybody.

“I mean she really did. She could regale you with stories that make your hair curl. 

“She liked a bit of naughtiness, as indeed you can well imagine.”

Dame Barbara was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2014 and made the news public in 2018.

Both Dame Barbara and her husband campaigned to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s following her diagnosis.

Boris Johnson, who met Dame Barbara through her dementia campaigning, tweeted: “So sad about Barbara Windsor, so much more than a great pub landlady & Carry On star. She campaigned for the lonely and the vulnerable – and cheered the world up with her own British brand of harmless sauciness & innocent scandal.

“Thoughts with Scott and all her family & friends.”