The BBC has released the first images of Jaime Winstone and Samantha Spiro in the TV biopic of Dame Barbara Windsor
Jaime Winstone and Samantha Spiro’s transformations into Dame Barbara Windsor have been revealed ahead of a new TV biopic about the veteran actress.
The pair are portraying Dame Barbara at different stages of her life in BBC One’s forthcoming drama Babs.
Jaime, the daughter of actor Ray Winstone and star of 2006 British film Kidulthood, will play the soap stalwart in her 20s and 30s.
Samantha has already tackled the role of Dame Barbara before, playing her both on stage in 1998 in the play Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle And Dick and in the TV production of Cor Blimey! This time she will portray Dame Barbara in her 50s.
The biopic will have a total of four actresses playing the role of the Carry On and EastEnders star, and she will also have a cameo herself.
Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels star Nick Moran will play her father John Deeks, and Leanne Best – who appeared in the recent Cold Feet reboot – will play Dame Barbara’s mother Rose.
My Family’s Zoe Wanamaker has been added to the cast as theatre director Joan Littlewood, someone who had a great impact on Dame Barbara’s life as a rising star.
Babs will centre on the Londoner’s lonely childhood, complicated relationship with her father and her doomed marriage to Ronnie Knight.
It will also depict how she became the blonde bombshell in the Carry On films.
Dame Barbara previously admitted she is 'thrilled' that the BBC is producing the programme and had secured Jaime and Samantha as leading stars to bring her story to the screen.
The biopic is being written by former EastEnders writer and series consultant Tony Jordan.
The Peggy Mitchell actress, who earlier this year left the long-running BBC One soap, also said it was 'the right time' for her life-story to be told.
Babs will be broadcast in 2017.
