Dame Barbara Windsor will be played by four actresses in the forthcoming feature-length film about her life.
Jaime Winstone and Samantha Spiro will portray the 79-year-old icon from her twenties to her fifties, while two child stars will play her as a schoolchild and a teenager in the BBC’s ‘Babs’.
Jaime, 31, told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "I am so excited to step into her national treasure shoes. I have always been a huge fan of Barbara and to be able to play her throughout this stage in her life is gonna be very special. I can’t wait."
Samantha, 48, on the other hand, is no stranger to portraying the former ‘EastEnders’ star as she’s played her twice before in the television production of ‘Cor Blimey!’ and on the stage in ‘Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick’.
She explained: "It’s absolutely thrilling to be playing Barbara again. Tony Jordan has written a beautiful celebration of her life – there’s lots of surprises. She is so adored, I hope we get it right and that Barbara herself loves it."
Barbara will also make a cameo appearance as herself at the end on the short film and is "thrilled" with the recent castings.
She said: "Sam Spiro has already proved herself playing me on stage and TV to great acclaim, as well as having her own incredible career. Sam will now be playing me at a later time in my life which will be a new challenge for her and one she will undoubtedly achieve. And then to be lucky enough to have one of today’s current dynamic actresses playing the younger me fills me with such excitement, especially knowing that it is Jaime Winstone. Boy, am I a lucky lady."
‘Babs’ will hit television screens next year and will kick off with the actress preparing to perform on stage in the winter of 1993.
Viewers will then be given an insight into Barbara’s life – from her WW2 evacuation, fraught relationship with her father and doomed marriages – through to her role in the ‘Carry On’ franchise, her iconic role in ‘EastEnders’ and becoming a dame.
Dame Barbara Windsor to be played by 4 actresses in biopic
