Iconic EastEnders writer breaks down Barbara Windsor's outstanding final episode – departure of a great matriarch

Well, speaking on the second instalment of We Started Here – which is released on Tuesday 4th February – RadioTimes.com can exclusively reveal some snippets from the episode, with Phelps dishing some details on what it was like to write Barbara Windsor's final ever episode.

Phelps said: "I always think that if you've got one of those great matriarchs, you've got to give them an ending, you've got to give them an out, a proper out. And I didn't want it to be all about masculinity.

"I wanted it to be about not just Peggy Mitchell, but I wanted it to be about Barbara Windsor. And I wanted it to be almost a kind of sense that Peggy took herself apart and put herself back together again.

"And some people said to me, 'Oh no.' I said, I want Peggy to be seen without her 'Peggy-ness', without the hair, without the makeup, without the clothes, and they went, 'Barbara won't do that.' And I went, 'You watch me!'"

Phelps continued, talking of the late acting legend behind Peggy Mitchell: "I adored her so much because, in that most vulnerable of moments, she trusted us, that we would do right by her. She trusted all the actors around her who had known her since day dot.

"She trusted Pam [St Clement], she trusted the director, and she really, really leant into that thing where she took it off and she was vulnerable and then she went back in and she put it back on and looked up at Pat and went, 'Well,' and she went, 'Not bad for a bottle blonde.'

"But it was that line that I wrote for her, which is, 'I will go as I have lived, head high, straight back like a queen,' and I was really proud of that, and I think Barbara was outstanding and I thought Pam was outstanding. It was so moving and it was a proper exit for a true soap matriarch and a cultural icon."

Read more:

• BBC shouldn't have dropped Jeremy Clarkson over Top Gear incident, says James May
• Boarders characters are in for a rough journey in season 2

Having started off in soaps, Phelps has gone on to pen many an acclaimed drama, including BBC's Dickensian, Dublin Murders and The Pale Horse, the latter of which was loosely based on the Agatha Christie novel of the same name.

Turner posed the question to Phelps of whether writing for dramas is different to soaps, with the screenwriter saying: "Well, lots of people ask me this, and they kind of sort of separate it out as though soap is one thing and writing kind of, I don't know, nine o'clock dramas is different.

"It isn't different because the thing is the attention to detail, and the attention to detail of character and story and why is this person doing it at this time?"

She continued: "Why now? Why are they doing it? Where? What is it in them that compels them? And that's the principle I work to. What are they doing when I can't see them? When they arrive on or in the scene, have they just arrived purely to say this piece of explanatory dialogue, or this piece of exposition, or to bring jeopardy?

"Bribe them with wine and pizza, give them copies, and ask them to read it. Not to offer any other comment. Read it out loud."

The new podcast, which is helmed by Turner, was announced just last month and is set to feature a variety of guests from the world of TV that started off their careers in soaps, speaking about how that experience shaped them for the industry in general.

Future guests on the podcast include Mandip Gill, Ricky Whittle, Davood Ghadami and Rakhee Thakrar, plus Jimmy McGovern and Anita Dobson.

The We Started Here podcast is available on all podcast platforms. Episode 2 with Sarah Phelps will be released on Tuesday 4th February.

Visit our dedicated EastEnders page for all the latest news, interviews and spoilers. If you’re looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide.