Babs: 'I can't believe we did the live episode!'

Babs: 'I can't believe we did the live episode!'
Babs: 'I can't believe we did the live episode!' (Image credit: PA Archive/PA Photos)

Barbara Windsor has claimed the EastEnders cast got through the live episode last week 'by the skin of our teeth'. The 72-year-old actress - known for playing battle axe Peggy Mitchell in the soap - was speaking at the premiere of Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland, and claimed voicing The Dormouse was much easier than the live episode of the soap. Barbara laughed: "Well, don't talk to me about that, I'm still... I can't believe it that we did it, well, by the skin of our teeth - but it was good to get under our belt." The Dormouse is usually asleep in Lewis Caroll's book which inspired Burton's film, but Babs plays the character very differently. "I said, 'She's normally so quiet,' but he said 'No, I want her a little bit fiesty,' so that's what I gave him." Barbara told how she was looking forward to seeing herself represented in the film, and all the other magical characters too. She said: "I'm a great friend of Matt Lucas (who plays Tweedledum and Tweedledee)." Alice In Wonderland is released in cinemas in 3-D on March 5. Get EastEnders storylines first! Sign up to receive our EastEnders Extra newsletter

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.