EastEnders star Pam St Clement has denied a report that she has been unable to visit her friend and former co-star Dame Barbara Windsor since it was revealed she has Alzheimer’s, because her condition has worsened.

St Clement, 76, was speaking as a panellist on ITV programme Loose Women. She said she firmly supported Windsor’s husband Scott Mitchell over his decision to reveal she was diagnosed with the disease in 2014.

St Clement said: “I was horrified and very angry to see an article that basically said, ‘Pam St Clement fears for poorly pal Barbara Windsor, Pam has sparked new fears for ailing Dame Barbara’ – what’s going on here?”

Continuing to paraphrase the article, she added: “‘She revealed she hasn’t been able to visit her pal because Babs’ Alzheimer’s disease has got worse’.

“Now, for a kick-off, anyone who knows me will know I would never use the words ‘ailing’ and ‘poorly’. I’m not my great-grandmother.

“Basically what’s happened is somebody has misinterpreted the fact we have had to three times change our plans about meeting up.

“I am seeing her in a couple of days. She is actually doing some charity work. In fact she may be doing it right now.

“If she is, I hope she will do this on catch-up. So can we all wish Babs all the very best and lots of love?”

St Clement was also asked about another former co-star, Leslie Grantham, who played Dirty Den in the BBC soap. Grantham died in June aged 71.

Cast Photocall – Beyond Reasonable Doubt – New Wimbledon TheatreLeslie Grantham died in June aged 71 (Yui Mok/PA)

St Clement said: “I was never particularity close to Leslie, apart from in a work sense.”

He was a devil you know. He’d test you. If you didn’t pass the test then he left you to your own devices.

“One time we were joking about and I walked into the Vic and he said, ‘Oh hello, its the great white whale’. Charming.

“But then I could see him laughing. And I thought, ‘You were just waiting to see how I reacted, you naughty boy!’

“There were people who used to get upset by Leslie, because he didn’t behave particularly well.

“Whatever, it is very sad that he’s died, and it’s very sad that he has died because he was in the dire circumstance after he left EastEnders, under a cloud, somewhat, I’m afraid to say.

“Nobody should have to pay for their misadventures by dying. I’m sorry for that and I’m sorry for his family.”