EastEnders fans have showered Jaime Winstone with praise for her performance as Peggy Mitchell in the flashback episode.
The actress, 37, played the character made famous by Barbara Windsor, for a special one-off episode which saw the family facing hardship as they struggle to get by in the late 1970s.
The episode garnered a strong Twitter reaction from fans, with many calling on the soap to create a spin-off.
Reaction: EastEnders fans have showered Jaime Winstone with praise for her performance as Peggy Mitchell in the flashback episode
And Jaime’s performance was singled out as ‘brilliant’ and ‘superb’, with many viewers declaring Barbara would have been ‘proud’.
One fan tweeted: ‘#EastEnders tonight made me miss Barbara Windsor even more than I already did. That is how convincing Jaime Winstone is as Peggy.
‘Phenomenal casting for Phil and Billy. Kind of gutted this was just a one off flashback episode. I need a spin off series, please!’
Praised: The actress, 37, played the character made famous by Barbara Windsor, for a special one-off episode which saw the family facing hardship as they struggle to get by in the late 1970s
Another echoed: ‘Well Jaime Winstone was brilliant as the younger Peggy Mitchell wasn’t she? Great episode! #EastEnders1979’.
A third agreed, writing: ‘Absolutely brilliant episode,Daniel Delaney as a young Phil Mitchell was so uncanny,his mannerisms were spot on & Jaime Winstone as Peggy was superb,made you think it really was the original actors ,well done All’.
A fourth added: ‘Wow Jaime Winstone has the Peggy Mitchell voice down to a tee it’s unbelievable’.
Success! The episode garnered a strong Twitter reaction from fans, with many calling on the soap to create a spin-off. And Jaime’s performance was singled out as ‘brilliant’ and ‘superb’, with many viewers declaring Barbara would have been ‘proud’
While someone else shared: ‘I know Barbara Windsor would be looking down and smiling watching Jaime Winstone play Peggy Mitchell, she would be proud for sure’.
And a sixth said: ‘WHAT AN EPISODE. The only bad thing is it was too short! I’d seriously watch a Mitchell spinoff. Great casting but especially Jaime Winstone as Peggy & Daniel Delaney as Phil. The resemblance between Daniel & Steve McFadden is uncanny.’
The episode also finally explained why DCI Keeble has a vendetta against the Mitchells.
Motives: The episode also finally explained why DCI Keeble has a vendetta against the Mitchells
The flashback revealed that Phil and his brother Grant and cousin Billy had got caught up in a robbery arranged by his father Eric.
When it went wrong, Eric ordered Phil to shoot the security guard, but he refused to do so and when they all left, Eric shot the guard instead.
At the end of the episode DCI Keeble revealed that the guard had been her father and told Phil to rat out Billy.
She ominously told him: ‘Dish the dirt or face the consequences.’
Connection: At the end of the episode DCI Keeble revealed that the guard had been her father and told Phil to rat out Billy
Foreboding: She ominously told him: ‘Dish the dirt or face the consequences’
The flashback episode comes after Jaime revealed she heard the late Barbara’s voice after putting on the famous Peggy wig.
The soap star also admitted she had difficulty shaking off the ‘wiggle and giggle’ of Dame Barbara’s Carry On persona when playing her a second time, the first being 2017’s BBC biopic Babs.
She told The Mirror: ‘It’s f***ing nerve-wracking. You’re just playing the most iconic character in British TV history! I tried to turn the nerves into excitement. As soon as I put the wig on, I could hear her saying, “You’ve got this.”‘
‘You’ve got this!’ The flashback episode comes after Jaime revealed she heard the late Barbara’s voice after putting on the famous Peggy wig
‘Those words, “Get out of my pub!” were ringing in my head. I’ve played so many parts in Barbara’s life but not Peggy Mitchell and it had been niggling at me.
‘I had to strip all the Carry On stuff away – like the wiggle, the giggle – and implement all the stuff Peggy grew from. It took a long time. Peggy is different, she’s tough, she’s vulnerable but nobody’s seen her at this point in her life.’
The actress also claimed it was the excellent script that persuaded her to play Barbara in the upcoming episode.
It comes after Jaime revealed she was sent ‘signs’ by the late Barbara that she should take on her role of Peggy in the special flashback episode of EastEnders.
Talented: The soap star had difficulty shaking off the ‘wiggle and giggle’ of Barbara’s Carry On persona when playing her a second time, following 2017’s BBC biopic Babs
She admitted she was ‘scared’ to take on the star’s iconic role in the one-off episode, and she had to ‘think about it properly’ when she was offered the part.
Speaking on Thursday’s This Morning, Jaime added that she ‘loved’ the chance to play one of Barbara’s iconic characters in an ‘epic’ flashback episode, which focuses on the Mitchell family as they’re thrown into turmoil.
Jaime told hosts Ruth Langsford and Rylan Clark that she got the chance to meet Barbara when she previously played her in a 2017 biopic.
She said: ‘I didn’t get to Peggy [when she portrayed Barbara Windsor previously in her biopic] so this is a real bookend of my journey [playing Peggy] and I had to shake that Carry On-esque and it took a long time to shake that wiggle and that giggle.
Candid: It comes after Jaime revealed she was sent ‘signs’ by the late Barbara that she should take on her role of Peggy in the special flashback episode of EastEnders
‘But I got to implement all the stuff personally with Barbara… I got to see her at home and I got to sit around the piano and sing with her.’
‘She was so gorgeous and so generous with her time and had so much love and energy.’
Barbara died in December 2020 at the age of 83, two years after her husband Scott Mitchell publicly shared she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Proud: Speaking of Barbara she said: ‘She was so gorgeous and so generous with her time and had so much love and energy’
She explained: ‘It’s really about the family before the Mitchells became the Mitchells… and also see why Phil is who he is. It’s set in 1979, the backdrop is London, grim, quite skint, there’s rubbish on the streets… and different for women then, women knew their place and did the cooking, the cleaning and were very proud home keepers…
‘It’s a turbulent episode – there’s lots to take in. It’s fast paced… you’ll see a more vulnerable side to her. It’s the making of how Peggy Mitchell became Peggy Mitchell.’
Sharing her response when she got the call to play a young Peggy, Jaime added: ‘It was scary.
‘I had to think about it properly, I had a deep chat with my agents about it but when it’s an opportunity like this – Peggy Mitchell – the landlady of our nation – it’s an honour for me.
RIP: Barbara died in December 2020, six years after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, and two years after publicly revealing her health battle (pictured in December 2018)
‘She’s such a tough mum and she really believed in her boys and that deep protection. And you know I got a lot of that from Barbara myself, I put a lot of that into it, and once I put that wig on… that was it.’
Jaime then revealed: ‘I did sort of speak to her and say, ”is this the right thing for me? Am I allowed to do it?” And I had a few signs.’
Asked whether viewers could see more of her on The Square, she added: ‘Watch this space! I really love the idea of doing a working class period drama – going back and doing something in the 70s was just epic.’
Torn: Discussing the moment she was called to take on the role, she said: ‘It was scary. ‘I had to think about it properly
Legendary: The matriarch of the Mitchell family was a role inhabited by Dame Barbara Windsor, who joined the long-running soap in 1994 before becoming its biggest star (Dame Barbara pictured as Peggy in EastEnders in 2016)
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