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Tuesday, 29 August 2006

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Babs discovers her famous ancestor

Barbara Windsor finds out that distant relative is Haywain painter John Constable

When EastEnders actress Barbara Windsor agreed to take part in the BBC1 genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, she had no idea that researchers would turn up a famous relative.

Barbara, 69, discovered that her gran had been an East End dancer and her great-great-grandfather had died a pauper in the workhouse.

She found out that her mother's family originally hailed from Cork and was shocked to learn that a distant relative on her father's side was the painter John Constable.

'I can't paint, I can't draw,' Babs tells the Daily Mirror. 'But when I now look at a reproduction of The Haywain, I feel a surge of pride.'