Bubbly Barbara Windsor MBE, star of many of the Carry On films and BBC1 soap EastEnders, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award on the second evening of this year’s festival.

Born in the East End in 1937, Barbara is best known for her roles as Britain’s most famous landlady, Peggy Mitchell, in EastEnders, and as the archetypal 60s/70s swinging ‘dolly bird’ in the Carry On films.

On stage since 1950, on the big screen since 1954 and on the small screen since 1957, Barbara Windsor entrenched her position in popular culture by playing Walford’s Queen Vic landlady for 16 years.

But it would be a mistake to assume that her career is topped and tailed by her Carry On appearances with Sid James and Kenneth Williams and nearly two decades on Albert Square.

Her screen career also encompasses a 1964 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.

She 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!

Festival Co-Director Tom Vincent said: “Barbara Windsor has been an irrepressible presence on film, television, stage and the radio for over 50 years.

“She’s the very definition of a ‘national treasure’ and, as our selection of her early 1960s films will show, 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.”

The Festival will be featuring three of her 1960s comedies: Carry on Spying, directed by Gerald Thomas in 1964, and Crooks in Cloisters, directed by Jeremy Summers in 1964. The third, Sparrers Can’t Sing can be seen immediately after her Screentalk interview on stage at Pictureville on April 20.

She’ll be tickled to know that on the following evening Hackney-born Ray Winstone will be in her seat talking about his life and times on the screen since making his television debut in 1979 Alan Clarke’s play about borstal called Scum.

Barbara Windsor’s Screentalk is on April 20 at Pictureville, starting at 7.30pm. The £12.50 tickets include admission for a screening of Sparrers Can’t Sing, following the Screentalk. The box office number is 0844 8563797.