Dame Barbara Windsor at 80: Fings turned out pretty well for the Cockney Sparrow!

IT’S telling that Barbara Windsor subtitled her first book Autobiography Of A Cockney Sparrow.

Because whether she was playing Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders or Nurse Sandra May in Carry On Doctor, she never strayed far from her roots.

Born Barbara Ann Deeks — the 1952 Coronation influenced her stage name — in Shoreditch 80 years ago on August 6, 1937, London’s East End has been a touchstone throughout her career.

“My first big break was a musical, Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’be, and, yes, it was a Cockney show,” laughs the much-loved lady made a Dame by that other Mrs Windsor last year.

“So I went from a Cockney musical to a Cockney film — Sparrows Can’t Sing — then to a Cockney telly programme!

“Well, I’m a Cockney lady and damn proud of it.”

Babs could have become a star on the other side of the Atlantic as starring in the musical Oh! What A Lovely War on Broadway in 1964 saw doors opening for the blonde bombshell.

“It was an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything,” she nods.

“Our show was on at the Broadhurst Theatre, directly across from Sardi’s restaurant, the Broadway hang-out.

“I’d sit there with Barbra Streisand, who was doing Funny Girl around the corner, and Sammy Davis Jr who was doing Golden Boy down the road, and we’d all have tea together between the matinee and evening performances.

“People like Paul Newman and Warren Beatty and Cesar Romero came to our opening night.

“Most of the time, the audience didn’t have a clue as to what the show was about because it was set during the First World War, and I’d look out and see some very confused faces.

“At least Paul Newman got it. In fact, he said it was one of the best bits of theatre he’d ever seen, but he’s not the norm, is he?”

The show’s success saw Barbara invited to audition for Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, but she says: “Quite frankly, I wanted to go back to London and be a star on my home turf.

“I wanted to make my mark here and get married here. I know I made the right decision.”

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Mind you, Barbara’s first marriage wasn’t exactly a bed of roses.

She was wed to Ronnie Knight for 22 years — her Carry On co-star Kenneth Williams went on honeymoon with them — but both are rumoured to have had affairs and Knight was branded a gangster because of his friendship with the notorious Kray twins.

In 1983, £6m was stolen from a security depot in East London and, after a decade on the run, Knight was jailed after admitting handling some of the proceeds, though he denied taking part in the robbery.

Barbara has spoken about having five abortions, and admits: “I knew it was wrong, against what you should do.

“But before I married Ronnie, my mother never told me anything about the facts of life. It was ridiculous. I’d make a mistake then go straight on and do it again. I was so naïve.

“I consider myself a warm and lovely person, but I never had any maternal feelings.”

Barbara admits to having a lot of “emotional baggage” from a childhood that saw her parents divorce when she was 16.

She was forced to give evidence against her father, and wasn’t allowed to tell his side of the story, which shattered their previously close relationship and led to him rejecting his daughter.

But the woman known to her friends as “Bar” found happiness after marrying Scott Mitchell in 2000, describing meeting him as “the best thing that’s ever happened to me”.

They met when she was 55 and he 30, and some feared he was just after her money, but Scott says no-one realised she was £1 million in debt.

“I’ve never had therapy, but Scott and I talk a lot and I’ve worked a lot of things out about myself — particularly that I’m a people-pleaser,” reveals Barbara.

“He picked up instantly on all the stuff about my dad and said: ‘You don’t have to keep pleasing men to make up for what happened.’

“I’m the generation where you kept your feelings to yourself. So I always made out everything was fine.

“But I went through a lot of mental stress. I thought a lot about God and what he would think of me.”

That comes as no surprise considering Barbara once had thoughts of being a nun, though she says: “I did receive a scholarship to Our Lady’s Convent School, but that obviously wasn’t my calling, was it?

“I loved performing from a very early age and I suppose singing in a choir just wouldn’t do it for me.”

What finally did it for her was the Carry On comedies.

She says: “I made nine and they were all simply brilliant to work on, but my favourite was Carry On Henry as it was a period piece.

“It was set during the reign of Henry VIII and I got to wear these wonderful frocks, including one which was also used in the film Anne Of A Thousand Days.

“Some critics thought our film was better, and I agreed with ’em!

“Those films were always dismissed as rubbish, but they were obviously loved by the public and constantly get shown on telly these days.”

Babs is famous for her bikini top pinging off in Carry On Camping, but you actually saw less of her than you think — she wasn’t even allowed to show her belly button in the early Carry Ons.

“Absolutely true,” she nods. “Isn’t that silly?”