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“I’m so sad for Barbara Windsor, so much more than just a great pub landlady and Keep going star, ”the prime minister wrote on Twitter.
“He campaigned for the lonely and the vulnerable, and he animated the world with his own British brand of harmless mischief and innocent scandal.”
The tribute appears to have prompted searches for the Prime Minister’s own on-screen encounter with Dame Barbara in Eastenders during his time as Mayor of London.
In 2009, Johnson walked into Albert Square as part of a story that saw Dame Barbara’s beloved character Peggy Mitchell decide to run for local elections.
The scene of his arrival was set with a furious Peggy saying that she would “give him a piece of her mind” if she ever looked at him.
Lo and behold, a “bike puncture” soon makes Mr. Johnson appear at the Queen Victoria, or, as the culture secretary called it, the Old Vic, briefly propping up the bar to utter all but four short lines, beginning with : please call me Boris ”.
As Peggy says she almost got involved in politics, Johnson responds, “If you have any ideas on how I could help Walford, here’s my card.”
“It wouldn’t occur to me to tell the Mayor of London what to do,” laughs the Dame Barbara character, before quickly taking the card from him.
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As the first time a serving politician appeared on a UK soap opera, the former mayor’s performance generated some controversy.
It came just days before the Conservative Party conference, where the Conservatives set their austerity agenda ahead of an election that saw them regain power after 13 years.
Admitting to being turned down twice to appear on the soap opera, which averaged eight million viewers per episode at the time, Johnson’s mayoral predecessor Ken Livingstone was definitely not impressed.
“Obviously there has been a Damascene conversion here,” he said. The Guardian at the time. “There is no reason why the BBC shouldn’t give the mayor a cameo – I just wish they did it for everyone, not just their favorites.”
London Labor Assembly member Murad Qureshi went further and said: “It’s a blow to Boris, to be portrayed as quite a straight guy on such a popular show, but I would wonder if it’s in the mandate of the BBC to influence. in public perception in this way.. “
A spokesman for the national broadcaster was quoted at the time as saying that Mr Johnson’s appearance was “consistent with both the BBC’s editorial guidelines and the principle of due impartiality.”
It wasn’t the last time Johnson and Dame Barbara would meet.
Since the actress and her husband Scott Mitchell were appointed ambassadors for the Alzheimer’s Society, following Dame Barbara’s diagnosis in 2014 and the subsequent campaign for better care for her victims, the couple met with the Prime Minister in Downing Street in September 2019.
They delivered a letter signed by 100,000 people, urging the government to reform and properly fund the UK’s dementia care system.
“We will do this. It is very hard. We have to fix it. I will do my best for you. It’s a great job, ”Johnson told them.
After Dame Barbara’s passing on Thursday, Mitchell said his wife’s final weeks were typical of how she lived her life, being “full of humor, drama and fighting spirit to the end.”
