Jaime Winstone: Reprising Peggy Mitchell role in EastEnders was ‘overwhelming’
The actress is returning to the role as part of a mental health storyline on the BBC soap.
Actress Jaime Winstone has said it was an “overwhelming feeling” reprising the role of a young Peggy Mitchell for an upcoming EastEnders episode because the matriarch is “such a strong, amazing character”.
Winstone, who portrayed Dame Barbara Windsor in 2017 biopic Babs and later took on the actress’s role as formidable pub landlord Peggy in a 1979-based flashback episode for EastEnders in 2022, is returning to the BBC soap as part of a mental health storyline.
The episode will see Phil Mitchell, played by Steve McFadden, experience symptoms of psychosis as his depression continues to take hold, with hallucinations that take him back to the Mitchell family home in 1985, including seeing his mother Peggy in her younger years.
Reflecting on her return, Winstone said: “Peggy Mitchell is so iconic: Everybody refers to her still, everybody knows her, and it’s such an honour.
“When I knew I was going to be reprising the role, at first, you go, ‘wow, this is really exciting’, then you read the context of the script and get into it.
“We all grew up with Peggy in our front rooms so it’s an overwhelming feeling because she’s such a strong, amazing character.”
Dame Barbara played the head of the Mitchell clan for more than two decades after she joined the long-running soap in 1994 and became one of its biggest stars.
The actress died in December 2020 aged 83 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2014.
Winstone played Peggy in a 2022 flashback episode of EastEnders that took viewers back to 1979 which saw Peggy struggling to keep things afloat as her marriage to Eric started to show cracks.
The actress said she found the flashback interesting as it revealed why Peggy was “so feisty, so proud of her boys and fiercely protective”.
“She’s a real representation of a woman who had been through domestic violence and had to protect her children”, she added.
To prepare for her return, Winstone rewatched the character’s most “iconic moments” but said the moment she dons Peggy’s classic voluminous blonde wig is when it all “hits home”.
“As soon as I put that wig on in the make-up chair, I always feel such warmth and confidence because I feel like Barbara’s giving me the go-ahead”, she said.
“The moment the wig goes on, everybody is quiet in the make-up room.
“It happens, and then, all of a sudden, I look at myself in the mirror, and the giggle comes out, and she’s just there, she just makes her presence known.”
Peggy’s return sees Phil still struggling with loneliness following his former partner Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) forming a relationship with his long-lost cousin Teddy Mitchell (Roland Manookian), and the end of his own marriage to Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace).
The flashback to 1985 will show Phil as a teenage bystander to a pivotal moment and offers him the chance to talk to his younger self, played by Daniel Delaney.
George Russo, who played Eric Mitchell in the 2022 flashback, and Teddy Jay, who portrays Phil’s brother Grant as a child, also reprise their roles.
Winstone said it was “very exciting” to be given new material about Peggy which could help viewers fill in more gaps about her past.
She also commended the soap for its approach to difficult subject matter by grabbing “the bull by the horns”.
“There is such a stigma around men’s mental health, particularly. I think the way the writers haven’t rushed this storyline has been incredibly important”, she added.
“EastEnders has been so clever doing this story with such a beloved character and an amazing actor.
“Steve McFadden has just done an amazing job committing to where his journey is going, and it’s been so important and handled so carefully because it is a tough subject to talk about.”
EastEnders has said it is working closely with The Samaritans, Rethink Mental Illness, the Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm) and Mind to ensure Phil’s depression story is portrayed as accurately and as sensitively as possible.
To mark this year’s 40th anniversary, Ross Kemp will also return to EastEnders as Phil’s brother Grant after an absence of almost 10 years.
