EastEnders’ Dame Barbara Windsor has hinted she’s not friends with Danniella Westbrook.
The legendary actress bowed out of the long-running soap as matriarch Peggy Mitchell last week but she has admitted she wasn’t bothered the blonde beauty – who portrays her on-screen daughter Sam Mitchell – wasn’t involved in her exit scenes because she was only keen to have Steve McFadden and Ross Kemp, who play her sons Phil and Grant Mitchell respectively, by her side.
When asked if she was disappointed she didn’t get to work alongside Danniella before she left the show for good, Dame Barbara said: "I only worked with Steve [McFadden] and Ross [Kemp] which, as always, was a pleasure and privilege.
"To work with Steve is always incredible as he is such a fine actor and comes totally prepared. I never thought, to be honest, that the three of us would ever do a scene together again, so when Ross agreed to return it was pure magic.
"I don’t believe there is a stronger sight in soap history than the Mitchell brothers either side of Peggy. We are also close friends off set and I never see a day when we are not. There was never any mention of Peggy and Sam crossing paths."
And the 78-year-old actress – who has appeared on the show on and off since 1994 – believes her determination to persuade Ross to return to the programme for her departure has opened up more opportunities for him and she hopes he’ll be more inclined to stick around in Walford.
Speaking to the Huffington Post UK, she explained: "In an ideal world I would like to see Ross make regular returns to the show and for the Mitchell brothers to put their differences aside and rule the square as a force together."
Dame Barbara Windsor isn’t friends with Danniella Westbrook
