Saying she needs time to recharge her batteries, Albert Square stalwart Barbara Windsor has announced she is to quit the BBC's award-winning soap EastEnders.
The diminutive actress, who has starred as Queen Vic landlady Peggy Mitchell for the last eight years, says she wants to take time out to spend more time with her husband Scott Mitchell, 25 years her junior. The importance of her role to the programme – she appears in virtually every scene set in the Square's ubiquitous watering hole – means that she has been unable to take more than two weeks holiday a year.
"I just feel some time off would be good for me – and for the character, too," says Barbara, who will remain with the cast until next May and continue to appear on British TV screens through to summer 2003. "This has been a very hard decision for me to make because I’m so happy here on EastEnders, but it's been a long time without a proper break."
While the actress plans on taking a year off from work, the door back to Walford's best-known pub will remain open. How she will make her departure is as yet still undecided, although spending time with her on-screen son, Grant, in Spain is apparently among the options being considered.
"Barbara has been an absolute trouper for more than eight years on this show with never more than a fortnight off a year in that time," said the show's executive producer Louise Berridge. "Of course we will all miss her enormously. But on a show as long running as this one, it is obviously important for the artists to take occasional breaks. We hope she has a great time and look forward to bring her back with a big story in 2004."
Photo: © Alphapress.com
