I must have been about 16 or 17 years old when I met Barbara Windsor very briefly outside a bank in Portsmouth, England.

Barbara Windsor.

I was an apprentice for British Gas at the time and was based at Highbury College in Cosham a lot of the time and had gone to meet my dad at work in his office in Hilsea.  I used to meet him there sometimes and get a lift home if my motorbike was being serviced. I had gone to meet him at the office he worked in and as he had been busy in a meeting when I arrived, I waited in the office canteen for him until he had finished work.

Meeting Barbara Windsor.

After a while, Dad met me in the canteen, and we jumped in his car and drove around to a bank in Hilsea. He stopped at this bank because there was parking in a layby outside. We both got out of the car and walked a few short steps to the bank. As we approached the bank, the front door opened, and a lady began to come out. My dad held the door open, and as she came out, she said hello to my dad, calling him Brian, and my dad answered by saying, "Hello, Barbara, this is my son Alan". She said hello to me and then said goodbye to my dad before leaving.

My dad continued into the bank, did whatever he had gone in for, and then we returned to the car to go home. I had been trying to figure out who the beautiful woman was. I hadn't remembered seeing her at my dad's office parties. I suddenly remembered where I had seen her before, in The Carry On films. I suddenly realised the lady who had said hello to me at the door to the bank was Barbara Windsor. I looked at my dad and asked him if it was Barbara Windsor and, if it was, how he knew her.

He replied that it was Barbara Windsor and that he knew her from work. It turned out that my dad, a tax inspector, had been interviewing her that morning. She was why my dad kept me waiting in the canteen when I arrived at the Inland Revenue office where he worked. My dad would never say anything about work or who he met during his work. I think this is the only time I ever knew who he may have worked with, and he only told me this because she had said hello to us both at the bank and knew his name.

It is strange that years later, Barbara appeared in Eastenders as Peggy Mitchell and because of my mum's likeness to her in appearance and how she sounded like Barbara's character in the show, we gave my mum the nickname Peggy. I remember one of my bosses at British Gas, Chris, do you remember this, had come to see a band with me one time and I had told him my mum's name was Peggy. When my mum opened the door, he knew he had been set up but still said "Hello Peggy" to my mum.

Barbara Windsor was a legend, but my mum was a bigger one. Chris, you were a legend at the Gas Board, mate.