EastEnders Special The One Show

Get out of my pub! Some people never change. Shall we just go to the

chippy? Come on. Hello! Hello and welcome to Albert

Square for a very special EastEnders One Show with Alex Jones. And Matt

Baker. In 25 minutes, Dame Barbara Windsor will say a final farewell to

this place as Peggy Mitchell takes her last breath. We did get an

interview and we chatted all about her years on Albert Square. We will

be reliving some classic Peggy moments. Here we are outside Beale's

Plaice. I'm sure Ian Beale would agree she can be a feisty character.

Of all the nerve? That looked painful! We have lots of stars from

EastEnders here tonight. We have the launderette over here and look who

it is! It is June Brown, AKA Dot. Hello, Dot. Dot and Peggy had a fair

few fallings out. Look at this. Had you any idea what my fil has been

through in the last few months and never mind Paul Ronnie lying there

practically at death 's door. What have you got to say for yourself?!

Don't worry, she could not see it! Look who is outside the cafe. It is

Perry Fenwick. He will give us the scoop on what it is like to get all

the Mitchells back together again. It is so bizarre to be here. It is.

Get BTS macro in! And we have Lacey Turner outside the fruit and veg

stall which is now run by your fiance. Yes! This is what we can't

believe, these are actually real. You can actually eat it and it is

fresh. I can't believe I have just done that! Also Kellie Bright is

here. The current landlady. I have just eaten a real Apple, I cannot

believe it is real! You have this baseball bat because apparently

every landlady of the Queen Vic needs one?

Another very happy EastEnders moment. Have you eaten that pair? It

is not as good as the Apple. It has just gone down the wrong way

slightly but never mind. That is better! On this square somebody or

something reminds you of Peggy Mitchell. Do you remember that time

when... All right! Thank you, fair enough! The time when Peggy had a

water pistol and she was quite in everybody in Albert Square. Very

funny. Looking a bit sheepish at the end there. When we were invited to

the Mitchells' house for a cup of tea and to catch up with Dame

Barbara, we wanted to know everything but we started right at

the beginning. Hello, Dame Barbara, thank you for

agreeing for a chat with us. Let's take us back to 1994 to the very

beginning. You said this was a role which changed your life? It was

difficult. I wanted to play my age but every time I went up for a job

they always talked about the Carrie On films. They said why has nobody

had Barbara Windsor? She is so full of the East End and she looks like a

little matriarchal figure. How did you feel with that in mind, going

for the audition with Peggy? All I could think was please don't let

there be a Carry On the night before. I just went along and did my

best. There were three ladies there. One of them said, I liked your

vulnerability. I said, yes, I am very good at vulnerability. Such a

silly thing! I didn't know what the bloody word meant!

I can't take my eyes off you, can I? Like a kid you are. Yeah, yeah. Are

you telling the truth? Why would I lie about a thing like that? You

weren't in a fight or anything? I worry about you, that is all.

How much input did you have into how Peggy turned out and how she was

loved by the audience? She was just right for me. I knew this woman.

She's the kind of woman who can be very sweet and very nice, and very

tough. There was a lot of toughness in my mother. Everything had to be

done the right way. The softness with her sons was based on the Cray

boys. My mother would have hated that character. Why'd you say that

will stop she was a cockney snob. She had elocution lessons. Peggy has

been involved in some major storylines, obviously the breast

cancer and dealing with Phil's alcoholism. That was awful for me to

do, the storyline about aids because I have so many gay friends.

You don't get aids from sitting at home with your family. Syringes in

the playground, druggies in our pub. It is all part of the same thing. If

you swim in the sewer then you catch something and Mark has! You don't

know what you are talking about. That was not good. Someone gave me a

hard time in Blackpool. I never thought you were like that! I went

through a bad time with that. They gave it to someone else and they

refused to do it so they gave it to me. I did a lot of PAs in gay clubs

to get them on side. How did it feel the Thursday when he stepped behind

the bar? I loved it. I have got it! Looks like it, ma'am.

Nice one. My name is going above that door in the biggest gold

lettering I can find. I felt like I was Shirley Bassey

almost! I loved it. I took it very seriously. I felt proud, I felt like

I was in charge. And we will have more chat with Dame

Barbara later on. We had quite a few cups of tea. Look at us outside

Cindi's cafe. This is the sign that Barbara was talking about which went

above the pub. That will be worth a fortune. The prop store here is

incredible. You have seen a lot of matriarch 's on the square come and

go, Pam, Pauline and now Peggy. How does that make you feel and how do

you feel that Peggy decided to leave in the end? Don't forget Lou Beale

was the first. Yes, she was. I knew she wanted to leave. We were having

one of our chats which we often did because we were very

good friends. She said she was tired of coming into the square and not

having a base, nowhere to go. She did not belong anywhere because

Peggy was the pub. If she was not Inbee Park with a get out of my pub,

where else would she be? -- if she was not in the pub. I thought it was

good for her to have a very good storyline to go out on. Perry, where

you wear it -- were you expecting it? I was on a break at the time. If

you are not here, you do not hear it first hand. I was driving along and

I heard it on the radio. It was something like that or somebody text

did me and I was like, that is just something and then it panned out

that it was true. I did not see it coming at all. She has come back a

couple of times, hasn't she? When you have the scripts and there is a

big episode like this tonight coming up, do you have the entire script or

just the scenes that you are in so they can keep secret what happens

until the end? Not in this case. Sometimes they do if there is a big

reveal, sometimes scenes are censored like when we did the live

one. That is a bit unnerving, especially you are suspect for

something! You were involved in Peggy's trip around London? What was

the feeling like during those scenes? Was a celebratory? Did

Barbara turn up with cakes? It was terrifying for me, to be honest with

you! They gave me a 170 grand Rolls-Royce to drive around this

little square. I was like Parker with Dame Penelope in the back. What

if I pranged the motor with a game in the back? I could not wait to get

out of it! You are part of the Mitchell plan and we saw Grant

comeback at the end of last night's said which will be a big shock to

people. Didn't he looked like Phil? Yes, they look like brothers! It was

good to see him back. He is so good. -- she is so good in this. That is

what I am impressed with, her frailty. You can read everything in

her face, Herod soars to, the way she has two gather herself up. And

the relief when they have gone. I understand the storyline completely

that she does not want to go into this old, sad woman. What will

happen to her head? It might affect her personality and how she behaves.

And it is terminal. So, I know it is against my religion to say that, but

I think I quite understand why she would want to do what she does. Yes,

even in the promos, she really looks... It is brilliant. As June

touches on, Peggy's death tonight is because she is losing her battle

with breast cancer. But away from the sites, many can and do win their

fight against the diagnosis and many have a new lease of life.

When life throws you a curved ball, you have to make the best of it.

This is the last thing I thought I would be doing, leading a pig!

Breast cancer shown me that there is a big wide world out there, and I

want to see the most of it. With programmes like EastEnders, it is

portrayed like real life so people will get ill, but the end result is

quite often negative rather than a positive result like myself. We have

always talked about making a life changing move to the Highlands of

Scotland,, but you go on holiday, you enjoy it and come back and it

never happens. Once I had the treatment, that was a bit of a

wake-up call really. We have had this dream and we need to do it now.

Leaving Lancashire to come and live in Scotland was a huge decision.

Having cancer made us do that. It made us act quickly and make the

most of the time we have got. We're almost 42 years mag. There

can't be that many couples who have both had breast cancer. It dawned on

us and it must be pretty unusual. We got a phone call from Breast Cancer

Care elder fashion show and asked if we would take part. Ian and his

wife, may! Is not something I would ever have thought of doing. On the

day of the show, the atmosphere built and built and by the time we

got to the evening, the adrenaline was just pumping so high. Seeing May

and myself striding down the catwalk is not normally something I would

have done at all. We have had no offers of modelling contracts come

flooding in! Our little granddaughter has helped Ulster it

as well. She kept us and kept us busy -- helped us keep going as

well. She helped us pick up the threads of our life and it on with

it. I wanted to go and travel. I have always loved travelling. I

always wanted to go more exotic and further afield but I never had

thought about jumping out of a plane or diving with great white sharks.

But they seemed like a really good idea after cancer treatment. When I

told people I was going to jump out of a plane, they just thought I was

mad. But I was living my dreams instead of just talking about them.

When I went to book my skydive, she was like, "There's two options,

12,000 feet or 15,000 feet". I was like, "OK!" Are not that great with

heights. Feeling good, confident? I requested an instructor that could

do with really nervous people and told him, "I've got through cancer

so I can get through anything!" I've learned not to be scared. I'm

probably more confident than I thought I was. Going on the catwalk

helped me tremendously. Cancer gave us all the shahs. It made us sit up

and think, we don't know what time we've got, let's just do it. And a

big thank you to Jane, Ian, May and Clare and for sharing those stories.

And talking sharing stories we are with Sarah Phelps, who is the writer

of tonight's episode. Less than ten minutes to go before your story

starts. How are you feeling right now? I'm feeling quite emotional,

actually, quite emotional and hoping that everyone enjoys it, that it

goes really well and people don't hate it and hate what I've done.

Yes, emotional, I think is the best way to say it. Give us the lowdown

because when Dame Barbara said she had and a dark -- an idea about how

she would like to leave, what happened from there and how did the

process bring you into it and how much input did she have in the final

script for tonight? The process of being me into it was Dominick, the

executive producer rang up and said, "You are coming to write an

episode". I said I was a bit busy and he said, "You don't know what

busy is, you are just sitting there, you are doing it". He sent me the

story and obviously, I had to do it, no question. I looked at it and I

thought, "I want to do it like this, I know where we have to go but I

want to get there like this". We went round to see Barbara and Scott

and I said, "This is how I would like to her and when I had finished

talking, which took quite a long time, when I looked up, she had

tears in her eyes and I knew it had kind of worked. I had such a clear

idea of what I wanted to be in it and what I wanted to see and what I

wanted for the character of Peggy Mitchell but also, what I wanted for

Barbara. I was overjoyed that she really liked it and wanted to go

with it. Obviously, you are writing her final words as well. Did they

come to you quickly? Did you know what they were? How many drafts did

you do? Were you whipping them up and throwing it away? Almost

immediately, I knew what I wanted. It was almost working backwards from

that moment. -- ripping them up. As soon as I read the story document, I

thought, "I know what I want, I'm going to do that". Everyone now is

trying to get the final words we hear from Peggy but earlier, you

gave a little clue, something significant happens by this tree.

There is a key moment that happens kind of in this area. Not only are

you thinking about the character of Peggy Mitchell but all the other

characters around her, and you want to honour them as well. I wanted to

bring in other characters she has interacted with and had very long,

tangled and sometimes quite difficult histories with, and just

bringing them into that moment as well. Yeah, it is quite momentous

that we are standing here, in the shadow of the Mitchell residents.

Yes, but everywhere you stand on this lot, something has happened.

There's always something that has happened. You think," that happened

over there!" Every door and window has a story. It is real but isn't

it? Thank you for joining us. We look forward to the episode. I'm

sure you are looking forward to it. I'm going for Zampa Dzagoev! Good

idea, well, in about eight minutes, Peggy Mitchell will be saying her

final goodbye. It's time to the second part of our scooted into view

and here, Barbara Windsor reveals what it was like during her

emotional exit. Here we are now, 22 years on the

square and it is the end. When they burned me, I thought it was, when

they burnt up the Queen Vic. You haven't got the nerve! You haven't!

I was going, "My Vic, my Vic! " But they decided to save me. I thought

that was the end but then it wasn't and then I started to come back and

do the odd ones. I thought I had to say goodbye to her. It's no secret

that tonight is the last time we will see Peggy Mitchell on the

square which will be really sad for yourself and all the viewers

watching. But how did the conversation come about with

Dominick, the boss of East Enders? I heard on the grapevine that he might

be leaving and I thought, "Well, he will want a good storyline", so what

about if I go? I said I could get grant back, if he killed me off and

he could have a good going away storyline. Add you spoken to Grant

before? No, but I'm very friendly with Ross and I knew. We bumped into

each other in Majorca, funnily enough and he said he would give it

a go. Phil? Ma'am? Guess my invite got lost in the post. And he loved

it. We had a wonderful time. And a treat for the audience. And he was

nervous, what was great, I was nervous and he was nervous but Steve

was not, be staunch old warrior. I got this funny feeling when I did

the scene with them either side of me,... I'm getting a bit tearful, I

mustn't, there you go. It was lovely! What was it like when they

finally said "Cut"? You have two hold everything in. Your stomach,

your bottom, everything, so you don't go... Like that! It is not a

nice picture, I know, but you just think, your stomach is turning over

and churning. It is turning now, talking about it. Well, people are

going to be absolutely heartbroken tonight. No, because the show is

good and it still goes on and Phil is still there. But for how long,

the way he is carrying on with the drinking? It is awful, isn't it? I

think Ross, they could tempt him back again. You can, obviously. "Go

On, get yourself back there", because he enjoyed it and we had

such fun, such a laugh, we really did. Would you ever come back? As a

ghost? Already! It has started already! I have not even gone! I

shall come flying back. If you could write Peggy's epitaph... Oh, gosh.

What would you put? That she was a good bird, a good bird, a good,

kind, strong bird. Do the line one more time. Of course. Get out of my

part! -- pub. My mother would rather it has been in a posh voice. That it

wasn't. -- but it wasn't. APPLAUSE And her laugh is tremendous. That

was hilarious, Perry Dan Rowe because he thought she was stood

behind him! We have set up the servers outside the spur job of

Peggy, the Queen Vic. Everyone has a drink apart from us. They are

waiting for us to come off air. We have been joined by Lacey Turner and

Kellie Bright. Thank you for joining us. Lacey, you had a huge storyline

with Dame Barbara because in the end, you killed Archie. How was it

to act those scenes with her because they were really intense and you

must have been onset quite a lot together around that time? Yes, it

was quite a surprise because it was during the first live episode. I had

no idea it was happening until half an hour before and I don't think

anyone else did. But it was really, it was quite a shock at the time and

then it came so quickly after that we filmed all of that stuff. It was

great and I love working with Barbara, she's such a legend, and it

is just you know, she is just fantastic. She gives so much and it

is just easy to back. We have seen you quietly burying the hatchet with

her recently but do you prefer those quiet seems all the more shouting

and screaming ones with her? -- quiet scenes. It is always nice to

have a row... There's history there! She does have a good row so that is

always good but it was lovely, I had one scene with Barbara before she

left and it was just lovely, it was a really heartfelt scene. I really

enjoyed it. I was really happy that I got to say a final goodbye to

Peggy. Kellie, you only recently did your first scenes with Peggy. In the

final episode, the one that goes out the night. No spoilers! I won't say.

How does that feel because it's your name above the door now and things

have switched over? Was it lovely? She was so... She has been so

supportive, I will say, of me and Danny White from the beginning, when

we joined, and particularly for me, she has always been really warm and

what struck me, working with her, she is professional to her core. But

she is the ultimate leading lady. It is something you don't get much any

more. She really, it makes everybody onset feel as important as each

other. She has time for everybody. And just, honestly, I loved my scene

with her. I loved it. I felt very lucky to be part of it and as soon

as I read the script, I text Dominick and said, "I'm so excited

about this! Thank you so much! ". Perry, as they mature, this place is

not going to be the same. No, it's not! It will be very strange. Shall

we have a drink? She's done 1662 episodes over 22 years we are going

to raise a glass, and here is Tracey, the barmaid. To the landlady

of the Queen Vic, the best ma'am in Walford and probably the best pub

landlady of all time, to Peggy! -- the best mummy. And we will leave

you with Dame Barbara Windsor. Dear viewers, thank you so much for

having Peggy Mitchell in your living rooms for the last 22 years. And

now, for the very last time, I would like to