Barbara Windsor has been fondly remembered by her former co-star ahead of the fifth anniversary of her death. Ross Kemp, who played the late star's on-screen son in EastEnders, shared what she was really like when the cameras were not rolling as he described her as a "close friend".

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Ross, 60, remembered the Peggy Mitchell actress who died aged 83 in 2020, as he said: "She was an incredible lady. It's coming up to five years since she passed, now. But she was an incredible force of nature pretty much up to the day that she left us. She was funny and she was articulate. She was very witty but she was also very professional. She was a really good friend."

The Grant Mitchell actor added that he has remained in close contact with her family, including her partner, sharing: "We were very close. We were very good mates. And I am still good mates with her widow, Scott. She was a legend."

Barbara was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2014 and campaigned to improve dementia care before her passing. A year after her diagnosis, Windsor was written out of EastEnders when her character Peggy committed suicide by taking an overdose of pain medication.

Her partner, Scott, who married Windsor in 2000, revealed the first signs of the soap star developing health issues were when she “froze at work” on the set of EastEnders.

In an interview with Good Morning Britain, the widow heartbreakingly shared: "She came home and said ‘I don’t know what’s happened, I just went blank. For the life of me, not only could I not remember the lines, I didn’t know why I was here or what I was doing.' And that was way before diagnosis. I’d say that was a good three years before diagnosis.”

Ross is currently working on a new project, away from TV as he teams up with Smart Energy GB on a myth-busting campaign focused on online reviews, recommendations from loved ones and tech. Speaking about the campaign, Ross told us: "We worked out that seven in 10 people in Britain don't buy anything without reading a review or a recommendation. In terms of smart meters, seven in 10 people, who read negative things about them before getting them installed, still had a good experience with one.

"And I know, as somebody who has one in their house, that four out of five people who have a smart meter are happy with it. So it goes to show that, basically, there can be a lot of negatives about stuff that is not necessarily true because it is subjective. It is down to the individual's personal experience."