peggy mitchell, initially played by jo warne when she first appears on 30 april 1991, features in the series on a recurring basis over several weeks. peggy is reintroduced in 1994, recast and played by barbara windsor. peggy becomes a regular character, and windsor played the role for 16 years. she announced in october 2009 that she would be leaving the show, and departs in september 2010. the character has made annual returns from 2013 onwards for singular episode stints, however, in january 2016, it was revealed that peggy would be killed off as her cancer would return. peggy returned to albert square for one week in may 2016 for her death, with her character finally committing suicide on 17 may 2016.