How politically committed is Barbara Windsor, the Cockney actress who stars in all those “Carry On” films? Having opened in the film “The Boy Friend” last week, Miss Windsor opens in London on Thursday in a new production of Brecht’s highly political play “The Threepenny Opera”, his satirical attack on corruption in the Weimar Republic. Vanessa Redgrave is in it too, which doesn’t surprise us.
“Well, dear,” said Miss Windsor, “I’ve always voted Conservative, if that’s what you mean. Most actors do.” She said that apart from Jennie Lee, Labour Governments were bad for the profession: they stuck the prices up. “Of course we all know Vanessa’s a raving socialist, but she’s a lovely girl, so you just don’t mention E Heath in her company.” Brecht? “No, dear, I don’t know him. We used to call Joan Littlewood ‘Mother Courage’. ‘Barb,’ she’d say, ‘you must do me a bit of Brecht one day. It would be nice for you.’”
Miss Windsor applied false eyelashes. “This is the most fantastic theatrical part I’ve ever had. I don’t come on till the second half. It’s what I call a doddle. Of course, the whole thing has lost a lot in translation. I once heard a record of Lotte Lenya singing those Kurt Weill songs – marvellous. No, I don’t speak German.”
Miss Windsor put on a wig and added that to tell the truth she hadn’t really seen much of this production because she’d been commuting to rehearsals from Liverpool, where she played an Ugly Sister in pantomime.
Taken from the Observer’s Pendennis diary
