Windsor had EastEnders 'bust-up' claims Lamb

Windsor had EastEnders 'bust-up' claims Lamb
Windsor had EastEnders 'bust-up' claims Lamb (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

EastEnders star Larry Lamb has claimed that his co-star Barbara Windsor quit the soap this week after a "run-in" with producers. Lamb - who plays her ex-husband Archie Mitchell in the show - told The Sun, "Something has happened that really upset her and I'm going to talk to her about it." I was really shocked that she is going. She loves that show and we are all like her family." He added that the actress - who announced earlier this week she will quit Albert Square next year - would never want to walk away from EastEnders, saying it was her "life and soul". He also denied suggestions that Windsor - who suffers from the debilitating Epstein-Barr virus - had been left exhausted by the hectic shooting schedule. "She is as fit as a fiddle - there's nothing wrong with her," he said. "Yes, the hours are long and there are more episodes, but the truth of it is there is rarely a day that you put in 14 hours without getting two days off." Windsor, meanwhile, admitted to the paper that she had been "upset" by bosses - but only when they told her that Lamb was leaving the show, and she insisted that had nothing to do with her decision to quit. "It is a well known fact that I was upset when I was told that the lovely Larry was leaving the show," the 72-year-old said. "But that is absolutely not the reason I am going. I would never give up my job for any man - except my husband and that is exactly why I am leaving!" Lamb is due to leave the series at Christmas, in a storyline set to keep viewers on the edge of their seats.

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.