Babs

From start to finish It was brill, Cam work, lighting etc Brill. Very theatrical in tone was perfect. Casting was so good. I was brought up in Stepney in the 60's and went on to work for the RSC for 20 years in London, Stratford-upon-Avon and Broadway. That's why Babs is Brill.

Barbara Windsor may had a complex relationship with her father but I am sure it was not like it was presented in this biographical drama.

Tony Jordan, a long time writer for Eastenders wrote this biopic which unlike Miss Windsor's chest felt a bit flat.

The framing device of an older Babs (Samantha Spiro) talking to her father about various aspects of her life is not new. It just did not work for me and made the drama episodic as we jumped around various stages of her life.

We see the child Barbara starting out on the stage with the help of her mother who disappears later on. The younger Babs (Jaime Winstone) realizes she has the assets to turn men's heads. We see her having a relationship with the crooked Ronnie Knight, both had affairs, she also had abortions. Barbara tries to break into serious acting with the Joan Littlewood theatre workshop. For a time she enjoyed success in the New York stage and even attracted the attention of Warren Beatty.

The Carry On years were quickly glossed over and we see an older Barbara Windsor still trying to understand her relationship with her father. Now with a toyboy and doing stage work for a pittance, she does not know it yet, but there is a juicy role in Eastenders just round the corner which will brighten her career and fortunes.

At one point even the real Barbara Windsor turns up which confuses matter further. I think this film just needed a straightforward narrative that was bubbly as the subject in her various happier times.

I was looking forward to this, but what a massive disappointment. The constant jumping back and forth completely destroyed any flow. Jaime Winstone was completely miscast. She's lovely enough, but she's not Babs, and she sounds like a rabbit being put through a mangle when she's singing... totally unpleasant.

There were plus points. Samantha Spiro was excellent, as was Honor Kneafsey... and Robin Sebastian was again fabulous as Kenneth Williams.

The BBC have produced some excellent stuff, but this simply wasn't up to snuff. In terms of Carry On films, this was more Carry on Abroad than Carry on Camping.

A heinously self-indulgent love letter to herself from Barbara Windsor, penned by her long-time friend and collaborator, Tony Jordan, with heavy input from herself including far too many cameo appearances speckled throughout.

If the subject matter wasn't so self-serving, and if it hadn't already been done better previously (also with Ms Windsor in a cameo as herself), this might have been a little less vomit-worthy, since technically it is a pretty well-made film with excellent cinematography, production design, and editing. There are also some very good performances.

However, the structure of this piece is annoyingly self-conscious, with a middle-aged Babs (and occasionally the elderly one played by herself) interacting with younger incarnations of herself and other characters from her past, all backstage at a seedy theatre, as she narrates, converses, and analyses her way through a history of daddy-issues and gangster boyfriends, with occasional shrill renditions of "Sunny Side of the Street" to alleviate the tedium.

Essentially this is written and structured like a stage play, and it would probably have worked much better in that medium. On film, however, it comes off as tacky, forced, and muddled.

As well as having far too many actresses playing Ms Windsor, including herself - often all at the same time - there are also archive film clips of her, giving us in the end a rather unpleasant case of too-much-Babs-itus!

The final embarrassing self indulgence occurs at the very end when the real Barbara Windsor steps into a spotlight and sings "Sunny Side of the Street" to an audience of her friends and family, including Tony Jordan.

All in all, then, a cinematic circle-jerk. Sometimes it's a good selling point for a movie to recommend that you bring plenty of Kleenex. Not in this case!

Samantha Spiro absolutely stole the movie, playing Babs looking back over her life, she played the part so well and looked like her so much you would be mistaken for thinking it was Babs who also played herself in a cameo role.

Another person wrote they felt the back flashes with her talking to her father were tedious, they felt the director had gone of track with the story line. I on the other hand felt it gave a better understanding to where Babs was emotionally within herself as a woman, person, actress.

Not forgetting she played herself within this film and it was about her life, i doubt very much she wouldn't allow something she felt did not give people a insight into her true self (at one point having a dig at her own sexual conquests).

I felt the actress who played her as a young actress was all wrong, unlike Samantha Spiro she looked nothing like her. In her heyday Babs was a stunning Goddess, even to me as a child at the time i first saw Carry on movies. Unfortunately Jaime Winstone who played her was just not right for the role, looked nothing like her and i don't wish to sound rude but if you saw Babs in Carry on Spying she was skinny as hell with a big chest whereas Jaime Winstone was big all over. And unlike Babs she just couldn't sing, i wish they had dubbed Babs singing over hers as she does sing at the end and a hell of a lot better.

As mentioned before, we all grew up with her in Carry on Movies yet only about 2 minutes of the whole movie covered it, nothing about her relationship with Sid James or her long life friendship with Kenneth Williams.

The film just ends with the last 25 years of her life missing, all we get is a footnote at the end which to me is poor quality writing about a national treasure who is loved by millions of people.

The only thing i felt heart warming about the footnote is her marriage to her partner Scott is still going strong, at last she has a man in her life she can depend on.