Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
Actress best known for her effervescent cockney humour in the Carry On films and musicals like Things Ain't What They Used To Be.
On the island
Eight records
I Heard a Robin Singing
Guest mentions 'every girl was singing I heard a Robin singing' at an audition.
Frank Sinatra and the Count Basie Orchestra
I felt I grew up when I discover Sinatra. I didn't know what life was about at all and and suddenly I remember listening to a Frankson Archer record and there was a feller and it it just made me go all funny and I felt like a woman.
I had this piece of Verdelies which I was supposed to have learnt, and I learnt it within a week. And I suddenly suddenly one day I said, Mum, I want to play you something I played for Delece. And she said, Oh. Just like your father.
He wrote me Sparrows Can't Sing and I'm just so proud of it.
I'm absolutely mental about Elvis Presley, and it's my greatest regret I never got to see him live.
I just will never forget that. That moving moment, Bandaid. And I remember that they showed a picture of all these starving children. And they went to go and talk about it and they they oh, I'm going now, you know, reduced to tears and I I and this was the music they were playing and I just don't think we ever should forget.
The Secret Life of Anthony HancockFavourite
Tony Hancock, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams
I've been talking about Kenny and uh obviously I and I I love Tony Hancock and of course he worked a lot with Tony, didn't he? And and Hattie Jakes, who's just the most sweetest, gentlest lady ever... I thought wouldn't it be nice to get something that they're all in?
When Steve and I got married... the local disco guy stood up and he said, We have that wonderful actress from the Carry-On Films and she said, She's chosen our little island to get married. And so I'm going to sing a song and dedicate it to her and her husband. And he sang Every time you go away. And we only just got married.
Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D Major (Land of Hope and Glory)
BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus, conducted by James Loughran
I'm very patriotic and I thought, well... I can imagine me standing on that, tears flowing down land of hope and glory being played.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:08What part of London do you come from, Bubba?
At the east end.
Presenter asks
0:15Any show business tradition in the family?
Uh no. Uh my grandfather was a docker, but in his spare time he did a bit of a music hall and uh my father was a Charleston champion.
Presenter asks
0:27How did it all start with you? What was your first contact with show business?
Well, it has to go back. I mean, when I was six, I was evacuated to Blackport and sent to a local dancing school. And uh when I came back to London, there was a little label and a letter saying to my mum. Uh this is from the people who Barbara was staying with. You must let her carry on dancing because she adores it. She's a proper show off. So my mother thought, Oh, that's smashing you know. And uh that's it. So I went to a local dancing school from the time I was six to twelve.
Presenter asks
1:25What was your first professional appearance, then?
The keepsakes
The book
I love reading about all the stars, and I'd I'd I'd want to read about all the glamour and all the rest of it. Yes, that's what I'd like.
The luxury
writing materials and a Union Jack flag
I think what I'd like is a lot of writing materials. I want an a union jack. To wave to the land of everyone.
At Golders Green in Sleeping Beauty is one of the Ada Foster babes.
Presenter asks
4:21How did [the film Sparrows Can't Sing] come about?
Believe it or not, I didn't find out till a couple of years ago and um it was through Bernie Winters. Um Lionel Bart was auditioning with Joan Littlewood. Things ain't what they used to be. … Bernie Winter said, Well, there's a little funny girl at the studio I was making too hot to handle at the time. … And he said, Why didn't you call Barbara Windsor? Why don't you get her down here and audition for you? And that's how I got to audition for things in what they used to be.
Presenter asks
9:07What's your ambition if the telephone rang tonight and said, when you're free? What would you like that offer to be?
Well … To do a film in [with] … No super comedy with somebody like Jack Lemmon.
Presenter asks
1:12Is it true that you once wanted to be a nun?
Yes. My mother said that she came home one day and I was prancing around the kitchen with a tea towel over my head, practising to become a nun.
Presenter asks
5:48What effect did all the arguing [between your parents] have on you?
I don't think you really understood. It wasn't till I stood in the divorce court, uh, when I was fifteen did I realize that it that was it was serious... and I just I think even then I understood that they were just two totally different people and and they weren't meant to be together.
Presenter asks
7:02Did [your father] ever speak to you again after [the divorce court]?
No, never. Never, ever. I used to to wait by the bus stop sometimes and see if I could see him, and I felt he saw me one day and And didn't acknowledge me. And then many, many years later, this woman came up to me and said... I'm married to your father... So I wrote to him and we got back together. But um and it was lovely for just a few months, but There was there there was all that thing about whether he could see mummy in me and then there was suddenly a row and it I just thought this is not meant to be.
Presenter asks
19:04How horrified were you when you discovered the true extent of [the Kray twins'] villainy?
Well, it's an awful thing to say, but I just thought, Oh, those two awful men I mean, murder is is dreadful and I just thought, Well, they weren't very nice people. It actually did not do anything to me, it didn't phase me at all... Do you still have a soft spot for them? Oh, yes, absolutely. I write to Reggie and Reggie writes to me and he always sends me flowers.
Presenter asks
20:14Do you ever wonder how you stood [the stress of your marriage to Ronnie Knight]?
It was afterwards when when I had the nervous breakdown, because I kept that to myself. I didn't let anybody know that I was having a nervous breakdown. I thought, How the hell did I do it? But I was very tough, you see.
Presenter asks
30:02Will you have a regret or two to brood on at all?
Well, yes, that that I wasn't more together with my mother, that I didn't understand her, that she she was only doing it for me, you know... and that I I didn't get that relationship with my father going, which I regret. And uh [Children?] Yes, that yes. I would I would love children with with Stephen because he's got great qualities... But I never had the desire to have children. It never really worried me.
“When I was twelve, Mammy got a few quid together, and uh sent me to Ada Foster's.”
“She had been advised, I must tell you this, Roy, to get rid of my cockney accent, you know, because they said she'll never get on with that accent.”
“I went in with white socks and flat shoes and came out teetering on high heels and paint. Knew it all, didn't I, I thought.”
“I went for umpteen auditions and then I got to about eighty. I dec I thought this is the last one I'm going for.”
“We all thought it would be super to get together, all the mates and things ain't what they used to be, and do another show together, but we'd forgotten we'd all changed.”
“Much better than I ever imagined, actually.”
“I still think I'm Barbara Ann Deeks at heart. I like that, you see, and I think that's why I've survived in the business. I mean, when they say, Oh, sexy and bro I mean, I look at myself, four foot ten and a half when the hair's all screwed back and no face, I think, Oh, get out You see, I don't believe all that rubbish and I can be me.”
“I always thought it was the rea the reaction of the gentleman, of a Sid James. I mean, if if you look actually look at a scene, it's not me showing a left boob or whatever. It's it always pans onto the man's face going, Oh And that's what they laugh at. It's they laughed at Kenny Williams reacting to My Boobs and Sid James and Peter Butterworth. I never think it's the actual boobs, the bodies.”
“I don't think negatively. I don't think about the rotten things and I won't think about those things. I will pick out all those wonderful things that have happened in my life and all the terrific people I've known and how lucky that I got paid paid for doing something that I absolutely adored.”