Belated felicitations to Barbara Windsor, who was 70 yesterday. My rare viewings of EastEnders have not convinced me that she is much of an actress, but her appearance in Carry on Camping means she will always have a place in British cinema history.As Wikipedia records, the young Barbara came to prominence in the Joan Littlewood Theatre Workshop'sstage and film production of Sparrows Can't Sing in 1963.
This gives me the chance to uncork a great trivial fact. Sparrows Can't Sing was written by Stephen Lewis, who went on to play Blakey in On the Buses.
Who am I to disagree with Wikipedia?---but as far as the British public is concerned the BBC's 'Rag Trade' sitcom brought her to prominence in 1961, alongside Peter Jones,Miriam Karlin, Reg Varney,Sheila Hancock and Esma Cannon.At the time IIRC 'Sparrows Can't Sing' merely seemed a career development from that.
ReplyDeleteAdding that gives you 2 more links with 'On the buses':the same writers wrote both comedy series and Reg Varney of course starred.
ReplyDeleteA smaller world those days...