Barbara, Peggy AND ME

JAIME WINSTONE on reconnecting with Barbara Windsor to play a young version of Peggy Mitchell

- ALISON SLADE

EASTENDERS

MONDAY-THURSDAY, 7.30 PM, BBC1 SOAP

Five years after she played a young Barbara Windsor in the BBC1 biopic Babs, Jaime Winstone is taking on the role that the now late national r treasure credited with not just reviving her career but saving her life.

In a much-anticipated flashback episode of EastEnders on Monday, Jaime - who has previously portrayed working-class women in the likes of Brit film Made in Dagenham (2010) and BBC1 factual drama Four Lives (2022) - is Peggy Mitchell in 1979, when her brutish husband Eric (George Russo) ruled the roost and sons Phil (Daniel Delaney) and Grant (Teddy Jay) were on the cusp of adulthood. The special is set to give viewers a deeper understanding of the Mitchell clan.

TV Times caught up with Jaime, 37, to talk about her time-travelling Walford adventure...

What can you tell us about this special episode?

Essentially, it's about a family who are being held together, but cracks are starting to show. The boys are growing up, becoming men before Peggy's eyes. It's a turbulent episode, and there are highs and lows.

It's to set up why the characters are like they are now, and to show how certain choices were made that really shouldn't have been.

Did you use your experience doing Babs to help play Peggy?