Synopsis

In 1993 middle-aged actress Barbara Windsor sits on a stage, conversing with John Deeks, the dead father who recognized her talent as a child but disappeared from her life after her parents divorced, her mother giving her her stage name. From stage school Barbara starts singing at Ronnie Scott's club, where she meets the charming but crooked Ronnie Knight, ending up a pregnant prisoner's wife, in need of an abortion. Things look up when she joins Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop group and gets a part in Lionel Bart's 'Fings Ain't Wot They Used to Be'. Film and television parts slowly come in, notably the 'Carry On' franchise, and despite Joan's warning that Barbara may be type-cast as the perpetual dumb blonde Barbara is smart enough to exploit the persona, acquiring a handsome young husband and becoming a national treasure.

In 1993 middle-aged actress Barbara Windsor sits on a stage, conversing with John Deeks, the dead father who recognized her talent as a child but disappeared from her life after her parents divorced, her mother giving her her stage name. From stage school Barbara starts singing at Ronnie Scott's club, where she meets the charming but crooked Ronnie Knight, ending up a pregnant prisoner's wife, in need of an abortion. Things look up when she joins Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop group and gets a part in Lionel Bart's 'Fings Ain't Wot They Used to Be'. Film and television parts slowly come in, notably the 'Carry On' franchise, and despite Joan's warning that Barbara may be type-cast as the perpetual dumb blonde Barbara is smart enough to exploit the persona, acquiring a handsome young husband and becoming a national treasure.