Tuesday 2 May 2017

Samantha Spiro on Playing Babs


Actress Samantha Spiro was interviewed on BBC Breakfast this morning about reprising one of her most famous roles, as everyone's favourite Cockney sparrow, Dame Barbara Windsor. Samantha is one of three actresses to portray Barbara in the new BBC biopic "Babs" due to be screened this coming weekend.

Samantha is a terrific actress and comes across really well in person. She is obviously really fond of both Barbara and her association with the Carry On star. Samantha first played Barbara nearly twenty years ago in the stage play "Cleo, Camping, Emmannuelle and Dick". This play focussed on the relationship between Barbara, Sid James and Kenneth Williams during the making of the Carry On films. It was made into a television film, Cor Blimey, which was broadcast on ITV back in 2000. 

Samantha spoke of how much she enjoyed playing Barbara again for the new drama, written by Tony Jordan. Without giving too much away, Samantha plays an older Barbara, in her fifties and the drama uses Samantha's portrayal to tell Barbara's story through flashback sequences. Samantha spoke of the fresh challenge of playing a different Barbara at a very interesting time in her life, when times were hard and friends were few. She also praised Barbara for going with a version of the script that tells it how it was, warts and all. 

I was immediately looking forward to this new drama when I heard Samantha had been cast. Her portrayal of Barbara is spot on and it lends gravitas to the production. I for one cannot wait to see her back in the role. 

You can view the trailer for Babs here:


 Babs will be broadcast on BBC1 this Sunday, 7 May at 8pm.



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