Barbara Windsor fans are sharing utterly charming stories about the 'EastEnders' star
Dame Barbara Windsor fans have paid tribute following the star’s death at 83, revealing how she would sign autographs for hours and went out of her way to chat to everyone and make them feel comfortable.
The EastEnders legend died on Thursday at a London care home, six years after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Social media was flooded with tributes and stories about the actor after the sad news was announced.
Read more: Barbara Windsor: A life in pictures
One fan told how they saw Dame Barbara after a screening of Sparrows Can’t Sing, saying you could “feel the giant waves of love for her filling the room”.
“After I left, I came back to the BFI to go to the loo hours later and she was still there signing things and speaking to people,” the person said on Twitter.
Watch: Relive some of Barbara Windsor's most iconic moments on screen
Another tweeted: “My niece saw her out once and wanted to say hello, but she had quickly been swamped by others that spotted her, so my niece didn't want to add to the numbers, but Barbara had seen her and beckoned her over anyway.”
One fan said Windsor was “completely lovely and absolutely glorious all round” after she took the time to chat to everyone after her job at an event had finished.
Read more: Barbara Windsor’s husband pays tribute to ‘wife, best friend and soulmate’
“Met Barbara Windsor when I was 16 (waiting for Joe Jonas at ITV) & she was just as gorgeously fabulous as you’d expect,” said another.
“‘ALLO my darlings’ she beamed at us excited teenage girls screaming ‘Peggy!’... When I asked her to smile for a pic she did this,” the person added, sharing a picture of the star smiling.
Met Barbara Windsor when I was 16 (waiting for Joe Jonas at ITV) & she was just as gorgeously fabulous as you’d expect. “ALLO my darlings” she beamed at us excited teenage girls screaming “pEgGyY!”... When I asked her to smile for a pic she did this🥺 she was a class act. pic.twitter.com/ofz272M0ZV
— The Unusual Stereotype. (@unusualstereo) December 11, 2020
Another said he had met the star many times when he did a show with her husband Scott Mitchell.
“She made a point to learn everybody’s names and at least one fact about each of us, so that when we talked with her she made us all feel special,” he said.
Others shared that they had had a glimpse of Dame Barbara’s cheeky humour.
“Met Barbara Windsor very briefly as an 8yr old when she was the VIP opening the giant new Key Markets supermarket in Spalding - the first store ever to have barcode scanners. She walked past as we were checking out and made a suggestive comment about the baguette I was holding...” one person tweeted.
One man shared: “A really kind and sweet lady, I met her at a book-signing in Barking, when she gave me a kiss she looked at my wife and said ‘you should keep an eye on him, he could come home with me’.”
The Carry On star’s many good deeds also came up, with one person talking about how she gave free tickets of a play she was in to Quakers holding a vigil in Times Square for the victims of the Vietnam war.
Others talked about how kind she was to work with.
Read more: Boris Johnson pays heartfelt tribute to Barbara Windsor
“I met Barbara Windsor in 1991,” one person tweeted. “I was a terrified work experience boy who took her some tea. She called me a ‘handsome gentleman’. She struck me as a kind person.
“What else matters?”
Watch: Stars pay tribute to Dame Barbara Windsor