Winstone stars as the EastEnders icon throughout her twenties, during her explosive marriage to Ronnie Knight, nights out with the Kray twins, and bursting into showbiz on Broadway and, of course, the Carry On films.
Naturally, the task of playing a national treasure was “terrifying” for Jamie, though, she knew the part was hers since she was a teenager.
“This is my part,” she told press including Express.co.uk. “There are some parts that are out there that you go off and you go, ‘Oh, that was a terrible audition’, and there are some where you go, ‘Oh, this is my role, this is where I’m supposed to be.’
“I walked into that room and I was really nervous because I knew I really wanted to take this on.
“You know, I think I met Barbara when I was 15-years-old and I was sitting behind her and I did her signature laugh, and she said, ‘You should play me’. It was magic how things turn out.”
Jamie, 31, admitted that she belonged to an age kept in the dark from Barbara’s illustrious career before the days of pulling pints as Peggy Mitchell.
“I don’t know about that Barbara,” she gasped. “My generation doesn’t know about that Barbara. How she went to Broadway, how she was a massive, massive theatre star.
“She had these amazing, beautiful opportunities that when I read the script I thought, ‘Wow, she really was a singer at Ronnie Scotts’. We don’t know about that side, which is why I just wanted to keep it as real as possible.”
As for the one piece of advice Barbara stressed was key to creating the Windsor magic on screen, Jamie laughed: “Keep it camp.”
Babs premieres this Sunday at 9pm on BBC One.
Daily Express :: TV and Radio Feed
