Bradford News
Barbara Windsor gets Bradford Film Festival honour
9:00am Thursday 23rd February 2012
Bubbly Barbara Windsor, star of the Carry On comedy films and long-running TV soap EastEnders, is to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 18th Bradford International Film Festival in April.
Born in London’s East End in 1937, the actress is best known for her roles as Britain’s most famous landlady, Peggy Mitchell, in EastEnders, and as the archetypal 60s and 70s swinging ‘dolly bird’ in the Carry On films – especially Carry On Camping, the film that exposed her buxom charms to the world.
However her screen career also encompasses a Bafta-nominated lead role in Joan Littlewood’s Sparrers Can’t Sing in 1963, which developed from the ground-breaking theatre workshops held at Littlewood’s Theatre Royal, Stratford East.
Windsor came to prominence in their early stage productions, joining the company soon after drama school. She also received a Tony Award nomination for her role in the 1965 Broadway production of Oh What a Lovely War!
The Festival will show two of her 1964 comedies: Carry on Spying, directed by Gerald Thomas, and Crooks in Cloisters, directed by Jeremy Summers.
She will be at the National Media Museum for a Screentalk on April 20, starting at 7.30pm, before a screening of Sparrers Can’t Sing.
Festival co-director Tom Vincent said: “Barbara Windsor has been an irrepressible presence on film, television, stage and the radio for over 50 years, as our selection of her early 1960s films will show.
“She is an arresting screen presence that has earned her both Bafta plaudits and mass affection. Barbara also has a story or two to tell and her interview event promises to be a real highlight.”
This year’s Fellowship Award will be given to French film director Olivier Assayas, best known for his 1996 film Irma Vep starring Hong Kong star Maggie Cheung in which Cheung plays a version of herself, cast in a remake of silent classic Les Vampires.
Cheung also took the leading role in the acclaimed Clean, for which she won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival.
Assayas’ most recent film, the 2010 epic Carlos, was made in both cinema and TV versions – the latter winning the Golden Globe for Best Mini-Series.
The festival will screen a selection of films by Assayas who will be present for a Screentalk on April 25 with festival co-director Neil Young.
Mr Young said: “Olivier Assayas has been one of the major figures in European cinema for three decades, first as a brilliantly influential critic and then as a superb film-maker.
“Of all the directors I’ve met, he’s definitely one of the most articulate and illuminating.”
The festival in partnership with Virgin Media runs from April 19-29. Further details from bradfordfilm festival.org.uk or 0844 8563797.