Dame Barbara Windsor once sang and tap-danced for husband’s Jewish family

Following the death of Dame Barbara Windsor, we recall the time she once sang and tap-danced to entertain her husband’s Jewish family as they sat shiva for his father.

The story about Dame Barbara, who died yesterday aged 83, came from her fellow actor and friend of 40 years Christopher Biggins, who she met while touring the country in the musical Guys and Dolls.

Speaking to The Mirror in August 2019, he revealed what happened when she went to visit her husband Scott Mitchell’s family while they were sitting shiva for his late father.

“When his father died she went down there to support Scott and at the shiva, which they have at the Jewish faith, she was tap dancing and singing and entertaining the women,” said Biggins.

“It was just like she came to, for a couple of hours, to give her bit to her husband’s father. It was just wonderful. She got a wonderful applause.”

Dame Barbara, known to most as ‘Babs,’ was best known for her TV roles in the Carry On films and later as Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders.

In April 2018 her husband revealed that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014.

* article originally published August 2019