Ross Kemp pays tribute to Dame Barbara Windsor

The Carry On and EastEnders actress died aged 83 after suffering from dementia.

Ross Kemp and Dame Barbara Windsor (Myung Jung Kim/PA)

By Sherna Noah, PA Senior Entertainment Correspondent

December 14 2020 09:45 AM

Ross Kemp has recalled Dame Barbara Windsor’s first scene on EastEnders.

The Carry On and EastEnders actress died aged 83 after suffering from dementia.

Kemp, 56, told Good Morning Britain of her debut in Albert Square: “We were being watched by 28 million people …

“She turned around to me and said, ‘Hold my hand dear’. I hold her hand. She said – ‘I’m going to be sick’.

“She walked over to the corner of the market and was properly sick and then she turned it on. That’s the pro she was.”

'She said, "I just want everything to be good for you in your life". That will stay with me for the rest of my life.'@RossKemp recalls the last conversation he had with Dame Barbara Windsor as he shares his memories of the legendary actress with @piersmorgan and @susannareid100 pic.twitter.com/7BMMXeTUzs
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) December 14, 2020

Kemp, who played Grant Mitchell, the son of Dame Barbara’s character Peggy on the BBC One soap, said: “She had time for everybody, no matter who they were, what their class, whether they were royals, whether they were taxi drivers, everybody she came into contact with.”

Even when the dementia was taking its toll she was thinking of others, he said.

“I spoke to her three weeks ago on FaceTime and by that time Barbara was in a very bad state”.

But “she just turned around to me and said, ‘I just want everything to be good for you in your life’,” Kemp said.

“She was a genuinely good person and she was very, very lucky to have someone like Scott who stayed by her side and was a rock for her,” he said of the late star’s husband Scott Mitchell.