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Dorothy "Dot" Branning (also Cotton) is a
fictional character
In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life perso ...
from the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
, ''
EastEnders'', played by
June Brown
June Muriel Brown (16 February 1927 – 3 April 2022) was an English actress and author. She was best known for her role as Dot Cotton on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' (1985–1993; 1997–2020). In 2005, she won Best Actress at the '' ...
. In a special episode entitled ''EastEnders: Dot's Story'' (2003) a young Dot was played by Tallulah Pitt-Brown in flashbacks. A
tragicomic
Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious ...
character, Dot was known for her devout Christian faith, gossiping,
chain smoking
Chain smoking is the practice of smoking several cigarettes in succession, sometimes using the ember of a finished cigarette to light the next. The term chain smoker often also refers to a person who smokes relatively constantly, though not nece ...
,
hypochondria, and motherly attitude to those in need.
Dot first appeared in ''EastEnders'' in July 1985 as the mother of notorious criminal and original character
Nick Cotton
Nick Cotton is a fictional character from the British soap opera ''EastEnders'' played by John Altman on a semi-regular basis from the soap's debut episode on 19 February 1985. Altman has stated that his initial exit was due to producer Julia ...
(
John Altman). The character worked as a launderette assistant for most of that time, along with original character
Pauline Fowler
Pauline Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC One soap opera ''EastEnders''. She was played by actress Wendy Richard between the first episode on 19 February 1985 and 25 December 2006. Pauline was created by scriptwriter Tony Holland a ...
(
Wendy Richard
Wendy Richard (born Wendy Emerton; 20 July 1943 – 26 February 2009) was an English actress, known for her television roles as Miss Shirley Brahms on the BBC sitcom ''Are You Being Served?'' from 1972 to 1985, and Pauline Fowler on the soa ...
), and was close friends with original characters
Ethel Skinner
Ethel Skinner is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Gretchen Franklin. Ethel also features in a 1988 ''EastEnders'' special episode, entitled "CivvyStreet", set on Albert Square during World War II, in which ...
(
Gretchen Franklin
Gretchen Franklin (7 July 1911 – 11 July 2005) was an English actress and dancer with a career in show business spanning over 70 years. She was born in Covent Garden, Central London. She played Ethel Skinner in the long-running BBC 1 soap ope ...
) and
Lou Beale
Lou Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Anna Wing. Her first appearance is in the first episode, which was broadcast on 19 February 1985, and her last is in episode 362, first shown on 26 July 1988, ...
(
Anna Wing
Anna Eva Lydia Catherine Wing (30 October 1914 – 7 July 2013) was an English actress who had a long career in television and theatre, known for portraying the role of Beale family matriarch Lou Beale in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''.
...
). Dot moved away with her son and his family in 1993. In reality, Brown left the show in 1993, unhappy with the development of her character. Brown returned to the role in April 1997, and on 28 April 2017, Dot overtook
Pat Butcher
Pat Evans (also Beale, Harris, Wicks and Butcher) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders''. She was played by Pam St Clement from 12 June 1986, just over a year after the show first aired, until her departure on 1 Janua ...
(
Pam St Clement
Pamela Ann Clements (born 11 May 1942), known professionally as Pam St Clement, is an English actress. She is known for portraying the role of Pat Butcher in the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'' from June 1986 until January 2012, with a guest ap ...
) as the second-longest-serving character in ''EastEnders'', surpassed only by original character
Ian Beale
Ian Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Adam Woodyatt. He is the drama's longest-serving main character and, following the departure of Pauline Fowler ( Wendy Richard) in 2006, became the only one ...
(
Adam Woodyatt
Adam Brinley Woodyatt (born 28 June 1968) is an English actor. He is known for his role as Ian Beale in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', which he played between 1985 and 2022.
Early life and education
Woodyatt was born on 28 June 1968 in W ...
). In April 2012, Brown took a six-month break from the show to write her memoirs. Dot temporarily departed on 18 May 2012. She returned on 14 January 2013. In February 2015, Dot began appearing less frequently due to Brown gradually losing her eyesight;
this aspect of her life was written into her character the following year. In February 2020, Brown announced that her appearance in the previous month would be the character's last, as she was dissatisfied with the storylines being given to her. Following Brown's death on 3 April 2022, the character of Dot died off-screen on 1 December 2022. A special episode centring around Dot's funeral was broadcast on 12 December 2022, with past and present characters paying their respects to the character.
A recurring storyline in the serial was Dot's continuous forgiveness of her son's villainous crimes. Initially married at the start of the series to conman
Charlie Cotton (
Christopher Hancock
Christopher Anthony Arthur Hancock (5 June 1928 – 29 September 2004) was a British television and theatre actor. He was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England. His brother was actor Stephen Hancock. He and his brother trained a ...
), Dot married again in 2002 to pensioner
Jim Branning
Jim Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by John Bardon, first appearing on 29 April 1996 and became a regular character in 1999. He remained in the series until 2011.
Jim was temporarily written out ...
(
John Bardon
John Bardon (born John Michael Jones, 25 August 1939 – 12 September 2014) was an English stage and screen actor. He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 1988 (1987 season) for '' Kiss Me, Kate'', sharing the aw ...
) and the union proved to be popular with fans. Brown and Bardon won awards for their on-screen partnership. On 31 January 2008, Dot became the first character ever to appear in a monologue episode of a British soap opera, "
Pretty Baby....". The acclaimed episode saw Dot reminiscing about her years of loss and grief into a tape recorder as a message to her ailing husband Jim. Dot was used to explore topical and controversial issues such as
euthanasia,
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
,
immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...
, and
homophobia.
Dot was generally well received by critics: she has been referred to as a cultural archetype and Brown won multiple awards for her portrayal. However, aspects of the character, such as her smoking and her religious beliefs, have been criticised, with religious groups suggesting Dot's faith is used in a pejorative manner. The character has also made an impact on popular culture; she has been spoofed, most notably by
Alistair McGowan, and has been credited as inspiration for catwalk collections.
Storylines
Backstory
Dot's backstory states that she was born in
Walford
Walford is a fictional borough of east London in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. It is the primary setting for the soap. ''EastEnders'' is filmed at Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, towards the north-west of London. Much of the location work ...
, the main setting for ''EastEnders'', and was evacuated to Wales as a child during the Second World War. Her guardians,
Gwen (
Eve Myles
Eve Myles (born 26 July 1978) is a Welsh actress. She is best known for her television roles portraying Ceri Lewis in the long-running BBC Wales drama series '' Belonging'' (2000–2009), Gwen Cooper in the BBC science-fiction series ''Torchw ...
; Gwenllian Davies) and
Will (Dafydd Emyr), wished to adopt her, but Dot returned to Walford after Will's death and spent the rest of her childhood helping her neglectful mother care for her younger half-siblings: Gerry, Tim and
Rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
(
Polly Perkins
Polly Perkins (born Gillian Nessie Arnold, 31 May 1943) is a British actress, singer and writer. Perkins rose to fame in the 1960s as a popstar, going on to regularly appear in theatre and cabaret throughout the UK. She is known for playing Ros ...
).
Aged 18, Dot married
Charlie Cotton (
Christopher Hancock
Christopher Anthony Arthur Hancock (5 June 1928 – 29 September 2004) was a British television and theatre actor. He was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England. His brother was actor Stephen Hancock. He and his brother trained a ...
). The following year, he forced her to have an abortion, threatening to leave her if she did not; in desperation, Dot approached
Dr. Harold Legg
Dr. Harold Legg is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Leonard Fenton. Dr. Legg is Walford's original GP. He is widely trusted within the community, and is always on hand to dish out advice. Dr Legg appears as ...
(
Leonard Fenton
Leonard Fenton (''né'' Finestein; 29 April 1926 – 29 January 2022) was a British actor, director and painter, best known for his role as Dr. Harold Legg in ''EastEnders''.
Early life
Fenton was born Leonard Finestein[Nick
Nick may refer to:
* Nick (given name)
* A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat
* British slang for being arrested
* British slang for a police station
* British slang for stealing
* Short for nickname
Place ...]
(
John Altman) Charlie was having an affair with her sister, Rose, in Liverpool. She raised Nick alone, with Charlie making unannounced returns and departures sporadically, and although Dot doted on Nick, she was not an affectionate mother.
1985–1993
Dot is introduced to ''EastEnders'' soon after its launch as the gossiping, chain smoking, Christian friend of
Ethel Skinner
Ethel Skinner is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Gretchen Franklin. Ethel also features in a 1988 ''EastEnders'' special episode, entitled "CivvyStreet", set on Albert Square during World War II, in which ...
(
Gretchen Franklin
Gretchen Franklin (7 July 1911 – 11 July 2005) was an English actress and dancer with a career in show business spanning over 70 years. She was born in Covent Garden, Central London. She played Ethel Skinner in the long-running BBC 1 soap ope ...
) and
Lou Beale
Lou Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Anna Wing. Her first appearance is in the first episode, which was broadcast on 19 February 1985, and her last is in episode 362, first shown on 26 July 1988, ...
(
Anna Wing
Anna Eva Lydia Catherine Wing (30 October 1914 – 7 July 2013) was an English actress who had a long career in television and theatre, known for portraying the role of Beale family matriarch Lou Beale in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''.
...
) who works with
Pauline Fowler
Pauline Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC One soap opera ''EastEnders''. She was played by actress Wendy Richard between the first episode on 19 February 1985 and 25 December 2006. Pauline was created by scriptwriter Tony Holland a ...
(
Wendy Richard
Wendy Richard (born Wendy Emerton; 20 July 1943 – 26 February 2009) was an English actress, known for her television roles as Miss Shirley Brahms on the BBC sitcom ''Are You Being Served?'' from 1972 to 1985, and Pauline Fowler on the soa ...
) at the Walford launderette. She has a difficult life with a criminal husband, Charlie, and their son Nick, who appeared in the first episode. Charlie comes and goes, always treating Dot badly and stealing from her, until he dies in a lorry accident. Nick is also a criminal; he is involved in drugs, robberies and murder, and tries to cheat Dot out of her money. He attempts to poison her to inherit her bingo winnings, but is unsuccessful. Despite Nick's deeds, Dot believes he can be redeemed. Dot also associates herself as Walford's Good Samaritan, often taking in residents when they are homeless. Amongst these include
Colin Russell (
Michael Cashman
Michael Maurice Cashman, Baron Cashman (born 17 December 1950), is a British actor, politician, and LGBT rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands from 1999 to 2014. ...
) and
Donna Ludlow
Donna Ludlow is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Matilda Ziegler. She appears between episodes 265 and 437 of ''EastEnders'', originally appearing on screen from 27 August 1987 to 13 April 1989. Donna was s ...
(
Matilda Ziegler
Matilda Ziegler (born 23 July 1964) is an English actress, best known for her roles as Donna Ludlow in ''EastEnders'', Irma Gobb in '' Mr. Bean'', and Pearl Pratt in ''Lark Rise to Candleford''.
Television and film career
Ziegler's first screen ...
), who becomes addicted to drugs. Dot believes that she can help Donna change for the better, but comes home one day to find Donna dead in her lounge. It is concluded that she died after choking on her own vomit, and Dot is devastated.
However, Dot causes trouble for certain residents too, although not intentionally. She is responsible for the break-up of
Saeed Jeffery
Saeed Jeffery is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Andrew Johnson (actor), Andrew Johnson from 19 February to 26 December 1985.
Saeed is the original owner of the First til Last grocery store. He is never tru ...
's (
Andrew Johnson) marriage to
Naima Jeffery
Naima Jeffery is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Shreela Ghosh from 19 February 1985 to 19 November 1987.
Asian Naima tries to embrace Western culture, but this is not easy since her family constantly try ...
(
Shreela Ghosh
Shreela Ghosh (born 25 September 1962) is a former dancer, actress and reporter, became publicly known in the United Kingdom when she was cast as Naima Jeffery in 1985, one of the original characters in the BBC soap opera, '' EastEnders''. She h ...
). Due to the lack of lust in his marriage to Naima, Saeed begins visiting sex workers. After continual pressure, Naima relents and finally consummates her marriage to Saeed, improving things between the couple (their marriage was arranged to begin with, much to their disliking), but their marital bliss is short-lived. Naima receives an anonymous letter from Dot, who has discovered Saeed's sordid exploits. Dot feels it is her Christian duty to inform Saeed's wife, and when Naima confronts Saeed, he does not deny it so she leaves him.
In March 1989, Nick tells Dot during an off-screen prison visit that he is married to a woman called Hazel (Virginia Fiol), and that the couple have young daughter; Nick had avoided telling her due to their strained relationship. Hazel visits Dot with the baby, Dorothy Nicola, in May of the same year, revealing that Nick got 240 hours of
community service
Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Community service can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performe ...
instead of a prison sentence. However, this is revealed to be a lie as Charlie follows Hazel and finds that the baby is actually her niece, Katy Joanna. Dot refuses to believe him at first but Hazel is forced to admit she has been lying.
In 1993, Nick's girlfriend
Zoe Newton (Elizabeth Chadwick) arrives in Walford and introduces Dot to their nine-year-old son,
Ashley Cotton
Ashley Cotton is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', the son of Zoe Cotton (Elizabeth Chadwick/Tara Ellis) and Nick Cotton ( John Altman) and the grandson of Dot Cotton (June Brown). He was played by Rossi Higgins in ...
(Rossi Higgins). Dot becomes close to Ashley and eventually Zoe asks her to move to
Gravesend with them. Dot then leaves Albert Square.
1997–2020
Dot returns nearly four years later when
Nigel Bates (
Paul Bradley) tracks her down. She reveals that Nick has been arrested for drugs possession and Zoe and Ashley have moved away. After being held hostage by a convict friend of Nick, she returns to the square and is shocked when Nick returns unexpectedly. He tries to steal her money again by claiming he has AIDS and needs money to pay for illegally imported medication. Dot believes him but later discovers it is a lie and he is on the run from the police. She contacts the police, and he is arrested a week after his return.
Dot moves in with fellow senior citizen
Lilly Mattock (
Barbara Keogh
Barbara Keogh (21 April 1929 – 25 October 2005) was a British actress. Keogh is most noted for her work on television, particularly her role as Lilly Mattock on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''.
Early life and career
Keogh was born on 21 ...
) and is arrested for the illegal use of cannabis, which she confuses for herbal tea. When Lilly leaves after she is mugged, Dot moves in with Pauline. Her oldest friend Ethel also comes to stay with the Fowlers for a time, having become terminally ill. Ethel begs Dot to help her end her life. Torn between her Christian beliefs against euthanasia and her best friend's wishes, she helps Ethel to die, but later feels she should be jailed for murder. When the police do not believe her story, Dot demands retribution in another form and she ends up in court for shoplifting. She initially avoids a prison sentence but is imprisoned for 14 days for contempt of court following an outburst in the courtroom.
When Dot reappears on the square after serving her sentence, she learns that Nick has also been released from prison. She goes to stay with Pauline's son
Mark Fowler
Mark Fowler is a fictional character in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. Mark, an original regular character when the series started in February 1985, became a semi-regular after his original portrayer David Scarboro was written out of the ...
(
Todd Carty
Todd Carty also known as Todd John Jennings (born Todd Robert Carty; 31 August 1963) is an English actor and director who has grown up on television screens in a variety of roles. His stage appearances have ranged from pantomime to serious dram ...
) for a while, and at somepoint encounters Ashley (now played by
Frankie Fitzgerald
Frankie Fitzgerald (born 28 April 1985, in South London) is an English actor, best known for his role as Nick Cotton's son Ashley in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.
Career
Fitzgerald trained at The Webber Douglas Academy of Performing Arts, ...
) after he runs away from home. Eventually, Nick himself returns to the square and reunites with Dot – who is shocked to see her son once more. Initially sceptical over Nick's previous criminality, Dot is pleased to have her family around and moves out of the Fowler household to live with them. Mark, however, is unimpressed due to his longstanding feud with Nick and the two end up clashing with each other on multiple occasions. At one point on New Year's Day 2001, Mark spikes Nick's drink and causes him to fall off a railway bridge in revenge for the trouble he has caused to his family. Nick vows revenge and calls the police on Mark, before telling Dot about the incident. At first she accuses Mark, but later believes his story and the pair work together to deal with Nick's temporarily paralysis. Months later, Nick's feud with Mark leads him to cut the brakes on Mark's motorbike in an attempt to kill his rival. However, Ashley unknowingly takes the bait instead and ends up crashing the motorbike at the launderette in front of his family and the Fowlers. Ashley is confirmed to have died and Dot is devastated. On the night before Ashley's funeral, Dot is horrified to learn that her son is responsible for Ashley's death upon overhearing Nick telling Mark about this during another confrontation between them. The following day, Ashley's funeral takes place and Dot later confronts Nick over the fact that he caused Ashley's death. She then disowns Nick, telling him that he is no longer her son, and he leaves Albert Square in disgrace.
By then, Dot has been establishing a relationship with her neighbour
Jim Branning
Jim Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by John Bardon, first appearing on 29 April 1996 and became a regular character in 1999. He remained in the series until 2011.
Jim was temporarily written out ...
(
John Bardon
John Bardon (born John Michael Jones, 25 August 1939 – 12 September 2014) was an English stage and screen actor. He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 1988 (1987 season) for '' Kiss Me, Kate'', sharing the aw ...
). He soon proposes to her, but she is overwhelmed and leaves Walford in response to this. Jim perseveres and when they go on the
London Eye one Christmas Eve, he proposes again and she accepts. They decide that they will have a platonic marital relationship. Dot is diagnosed with
kidney cancer
Kidney cancer, also known as renal cancer, is a group of cancers that starts in the kidney. Symptoms may include blood in the urine, lump in the abdomen, or back pain. Fever, weight loss, and tiredness may also occur. Complications can include sp ...
and decides not to tell anyone except her friend
Dennis Rickman
Dennis Rickman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Nigel Harman. He made his first appearance on 14 April 2003 at the funeral of his late mother, Paula, before going on to become one of the show's centra ...
(
Nigel Harman
Nigel Derek Harman (born 11 August 1973) is an English actor, best known for his role as Dennis Rickman in the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders''. He has worked mostly in theatre. He starred in the final series of '' Hotel Babylo ...
). She initially refuses treatment and plans to die quietly, but is eventually persuaded to undergo chemotherapy and makes a full recovery. When Dot finds an abandoned baby,
Tomas Tomas may refer to:
People
* Tomás (given name), a Spanish, Portuguese, and Gaelic given name
* Tomas (given name), a Swedish, Dutch, and Lithuanian given name
* Tomáš, a Czech and Slovak given name
* Tomas (surname), a French and Croatian su ...
, in a church, she takes him home, leaving her contact details at the church and subsequently Tomas' mother
Anya (
Olga Fedori
Olga Victorivna Fedorishcheva ( uk, Ольга Вікторівна Федоріщева, Ol'ha Viktorivna Fedorishcheva; born 17 March 1984), known as simply Olga Fedori, is a Ukrainian actress who works in English language films and programmes ...
) arrives in Walford, revealing she is an illegal immigrant. Jim anonymously reports Anya and when she is deported, Dot hides Tomas from the authorities, vowing to take care of him. Dot and Jim struggle to look after the baby and, after talking to the local vicar and her old friend Dr Legg, Dot decides to hand him over to Social Services. Jim suffers a
stroke, leaving him seriously ill. Jim is placed in a nursing home, but Dot struggles with this decision and tries at a later date to care for Jim at home. However, she finds being a full-time carer exhausting and lonely. Eventually, after Dot experiences ill-health brought on by stress, Jim moves back to a nursing home.
Shortly after Jim leaves, Dot hears a doorbell ring and assumes that Jim has come back to collect his hat. She opens the door, but is surprised to find Nick waiting outside. Nick comes in the house, and claims to his mother that he has changed and is now a plumber. Dot ends up believing Nick when he introduces her to his six-year-old daughter
Dotty (
Molly Conlin
Molly Conlin (born 23 February 2001) is a former English actress, known for her role as Dotty Cotton on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''.
Personal life
Conlin was born in Canning Town, London where she lives with her mother and her brother, ...
), thus disclosing that his mother now has a granddaughter. Although Dot promptly bonds with Dotty, she continues to remain apprehensive towards Nick and quickly learns that he is once again exploiting their reconciliation for her. She refuses to pay him, so Nick responds by telling his mother that she either relents or cannot see Dotty again. This causes Dot to give Nick the money, and he in turn allows her to look after Dotty. It soon transpires, however, that Nick is plotting to kill Dot for her life insurance – and that Dotty is secretly involved with her father's plan. They work to convince Dot that she has symptoms of dementia, but their plan backfires when Dotty exposes the plot. In a rage, Nick holds various members of the community hostage in the café, resulting in an explosion. Nick survives and heads back home to find Dot expecting his arrival. She renounces Nick as her son and orders him to leave for good. Nick does, but not before informing his mother that Dotty had masterminded the murder plot in the first place. Months later, Dotty is retrieved by her mother,
Sandy Gibson (Caroline Pegg) following various devious deeds – such as accusing Dot of beating her that leads to Dot getting arrested and being questioned by the police for child abuse. Dot is released without charge and is distraught to see Dotty leave Walford.
Soon afterwards, Dot develops a friendship with vicar
Edward Bishop (
Frank Barrie
Frank Barrie (born 19 September 1936) is a British actor, director and writer. He made his acting debut in 1959 in a production of '' Henry IV, Part 2'' at the York Theatre Royal. He proved to be a successful Shakespearean actor throughout his ...
), who develops romantic intentions towards her. Dot turns Edward down, remaining loyal to her husband. She takes in various lodgers, including
Arthur "Fatboy" Chubb (
Ricky Norwood
Richard Colin Norwood (born 15 November 1986) is a British actor who played Fatboy in the soap opera ''EastEnders'' and its online spin-off ''EastEnders: E20''. Ricky appeared on ''Celebrity Big Brother 18'' in 2016, finishing as runner-up behin ...
), her sister Rose and
Cora Cross
Cora Cross is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Ann Mitchell. Cora is the mother of Tanya Branning (Jo Joyner), Rainie Cross (Tanya Franks) and Ava Hartman ( Claire Perkins) and the grandmother of Lauren ...
(
Ann Mitchell
Ann Mitchell (born 22 April 1939) is a British stage and television actress. She came to prominence in the 1980s when she starred as Dolly Rawlins in the crime series '' Widows'' as well as the sequels '' Widows 2'' and ''She's Out'', all writt ...
), who causes Dot problems with the council for failing to pay the rent, leaving her in arrears. Dot is taken to court but manages to persuade the judge to allow her to keep her home and avoids a prison sentence. Fatboy later allows his girlfriend
Poppy Meadow
Poppy Meadow is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Rachel Bright. She was introduced by executive producer Bryan Kirkwood on 11 January 2011 as the best friend of established character Jodie Gold ( Kylie Ba ...
(
Rachel Bright
Rachel Bright is an English actress, known for portraying the role of Poppy Meadow in the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders''.
Career
Bright was introduced as Poppy Meadow on the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'' in two episodes on 11 and 13 January 2 ...
) to move in with him and Dot, and Dot forms a close bond with Poppy. When Fatboy and Poppy break up and Poppy moves out, Fatboy gently assures Dot that she and Poppy are still friends.
In 2014, Dot receives a police visit, informing her that Nick has died. One of the police officers returns later to tell her that he is actually her grandson
Charlie (
Declan Bennett
Declan William Bennett (born 20 March 1981) is an English singer-songwriter, actor and playwright. He gained prominence as a member of the band Point Break, before going on to perform on London's West End and as a solo musician. He is known on ...
), whose existence she never found out about. A devastated Dot holds a funeral for Nick and grows close to Charlie in the aftermath as he moves in with Dot, causing Fatboy to move out. However, it is later revealed that Charlie is being dishonest and although he is Nick's son, he is not a policeman but a caretaker and that he has helped Nick stage his own death to avoid being arrested following a robbery. Nick reappears in Walford to Dot's shock and persuades his mother to hide him at her house. Although horrified that Charlie and Nick lied to her, she forgives Charlie and agrees to aid Nick's escape from the UK, this time for good. However, Nick later realises that he does not want to leave and gets embroiled in a feud with Charlie's fiancée,
Ronnie Mitchell
Veronica "Ronnie" Branning (also Mitchell) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, ''EastEnders'', played by Samantha Womack. She and her younger sister Roxy Mitchell (played by Rita Simons) were introduced by executive producer Died ...
(
Samantha Womack
Samantha Zoe Womack ('' née'' Janus; born 2 November 1972) is an English actress, singer, model and director who has worked in film, television and stage. Womack initially planned a career in singing and she represented the United Kingdom i ...
), who tries and fails to ensure his departure. This leads to Nick tampering with the brakes of Charlie's car and the resulting crash leaves a pregnant Ronnie comatose in hospital. When Charlie discovers this, he demands that Nick leave, and as Charlie moves out to live at Ronnie's flat, Fatboy moves back in with Dot. However, Dot, unwilling to give up on her son, hides Nick in a derelict neighbouring house.
Unable to leave the premises, Nick starts using heroin again but cannot feed his drug addiction and asks Dot to obtain drugs for him. Dot purchases the heroin, but Fatboy catches her and urges her to cut ties with Nick. Dot urges Nick to confess to the police, but when he tells her he is unwilling to take responsibility for Ronnie's injuries, she gives him the drugs and storms out. Dot later finds Nick unconscious, having had a bad reaction to the drugs, and it soon becomes clear to her that Nick is dying. Once he awakens, Nick accuses Dot of raising him wrong and the pair start recapping on his role behind Ronnie's injuries – before bringing up his past misdemeanours such as when Nick killed Eddie and later caused Ashley's death whilst trying to kill Mark. Despite these facts, Dot remains adamant to see the best in Nick until he confesses to the one crime he never told her about; the murder of her old friend
Reg Cox
The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' in 1985, by order of first appearance. They were all introduced by executive producer Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith. The first episode of ''Ea ...
(Johnnie Clayton), who was alleged to have died by accident nearly three decades ago. Horrified to have learned that it was Nick who killed Reg Cox all along, Dot brands her son evil and slaps him when he insults her. Nick then endures another effect of his drugging and requests his mother to phone an ambulance, to which she appears reluctant to do. Dot nonetheless complies, but stops at the last second and again contemplates her decision. When she returns, Dot admits to Nick that she does feel responsible for making him the monster that he is and starts lecturing over the trouble he caused in Walford ever since he killed Reg. It is then revealed that Dot never called the ambulance in the end, but instead prayed to let the circumstances decide whether Nick should live or die. As he takes his last breaths and accepting his fate, Nick apologises to Dot for all the trouble he caused for her and asks her to forgive him; Dot tells Nick to seek Jesus for forgiveness and watches as Nick ultimately succumbs to the overdose and dies in front of her.
When Nick's dead body is later discovered, Dot wishes to accept punishment for this and decides to confess to the police; she is later charged with Nick's murder and subsequently imprisoned. Dot initially decides to plead guilty, believing she should atone for her sins in prison, but when Jim dies, she attends his funeral and realises how much her family needs her. She changes her plea and is cleared of murder at the court hearing; however, she is found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to prison for 14 months.
Four months later, Dot is released and shares her regret with Ian that she did not report any of Nick's crimes earlier in life. Fatboy tells Dot he is spending Christmas with his father, but later his friend
Vincent Hubbard
Vincent Hubbard is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Richard Blackwood. He was introduced by executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins during the show's 30th anniversary celebrations, and was later reve ...
(
Richard Blackwood
Richard Clifford Blackwood (born 15 May 1972) is a British actor, presenter and rapper. Between 2015 and 2018, he played Vincent Hubbard in the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders''. In 2020, he began portraying the role of Felix Westwood in the Chan ...
) discovers Fatboy's belongings amongst some blood in the boot of a crushed car and tells Dot that Fatboy is not coming back because of a job abroad. Dot takes salsa classes and works with her old friend
Patrick Trueman
Patrick Trueman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Rudolph Walker. He made his first appearance on 13 September 2001. His storylines include being the possible father of Denise Fox ( Diane Parish), to w ...
(
Rudolph Walker
Rudolph Malcolm Walker (born 28 September 1939) is a Trinidadian-British actor, known for his sitcom roles as Bill Reynolds in '' Love Thy Neighbour'' (1972–76) and Constable Frank Gladstone in '' The Thin Blue Line'' (1995–96). Since 2001 ...
) to prepare for a salsa show, who mistakenly thinks she wants a relationship, but she actually sets him and
Claudette Hubbard
The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' in 2015, by order of first appearance. All characters were introduced by the show's executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins. January saw the a ...
(
Ellen Thomas
Ellen Thomas (born January 24, 1947) is an American peace activist. She first became involved with the White House Peace Vigil on April 13, 1984. The daughter of a US Marine, Thomas was born in Brooklyn and grew up in California. She became opp ...
) up on a date. Dot receives a wedding invitation from her old friend, Colin, but she does not want to attend because she does not believe in homosexual marriage. Colin visits her on his wedding day to persuade her to come, which she does. Dot discovers the launderette will become a dry cleaner and is interviewed for her own job; she struggles with the technical terminology but defends herself as a people person. However, she is told that she will not be kept on after the launderette is refurbished. She tries to contact her boss by telephone but when she finally gets through, he hangs up.
Ricky Mitchell
The following are characters who first appeared, or returned, in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' during 2010 listed by order of first appearance. Executive producer Diederick Santer left ''EastEnders'' on 26 February 2010, handing over to Br ...
(Henri Charles) learns about the harvest festival and leaves a box of food on Dot's doorstep, which offends her as she does not believe she is poor or lonely, however, she realises just how lonely she is when Abi is unable to have dinner with her. Dot and
Kim Fox-Hubbard (
Tameka Empson
Tameka Empson (born 16 April 1977) is an English actress and comedian. She appeared as one of the three protagonists in the hidden-camera comedy sketch show ''3 Non-Blondes''. In 2009, she began portraying the role of Kim Fox in the BBC soap ...
) are involved in a car collision, but both blame the other as Kim has no licence but Kim accuses Dot of being too old to drive. Dot then locks her car key away. After Patrick and Dot go to the cinema together, he convinces her to see an optician because she was squinting throughout. Dot is seen hiding away in her house on Halloween and Patrick comes to talk to her. Dot says her hatred of Halloween is due to awful things happening on Halloween, such as
Stacey Fowler
Stacey Slater (also Branning and Fowler) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', portrayed by Lacey Turner. She first appears in episode 2826, originally broadcast on 1 November 2004. The character is introduced as a fe ...
(
Lacey Turner
Lacey Amelia Turner (born 28 March 1988) is an English actress. She is known for portraying the role of Stacey Slater on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' (2004–2010, 2014–present), for which she has won over thirty awards, including four ...
) getting electrocuted and
Max Branning
Max Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Jake Wood. He made his first appearance on 27 June 2006. Wood took a four-month break from the show in 2011 and the character was absent between August and No ...
(
Jake Wood
Jake Dylan Wood (born 12 July 1972) is an English actor and podcaster, known for his role as Max Branning in the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders''. He has also made guest appearances in series including ''Only Fools and Horses'' and '' Red Dwarf'' ...
) getting run over. She then tries to read the Bible to Patrick but cannot see the words. Patrick tells her she isn't scared of Halloween but of the world. Dot reveals that she thinks she is going blind but then kicks Patrick out of the house. When he leaves, it is revealed that Dot cannot see anything clearly. Patrick books Dot a doctor's appointment; the doctor suspects
age-related macular degeneration
Macular degeneration, also known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD), is a medical condition which may result in blurred or no vision in the center of the visual field. Early on there are often no symptoms. Over time, however, som ...
, which is later confirmed. Dot starts treatment but she is annoyed that her eyesight does not improve much. She turns down Ronnie's offer of paying for surgery to permanently fix her sight.
Abi invites Dot to Christmas in Exeter but Dot insists she has plans of her own. The launderette closes on Christmas Eve, but everyone is too busy to visit her. She finds a Christmas mixtape recorded by her deceased friend
Heather Trott
Heather Trott (also Peterson) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Cheryl Fergison. She made her first appearance on 26 June 2007. The character was introduced as a guest character, but later became a regula ...
(
Cheryl Fergison
Cheryl Fergison (born 27 August 1965) is an English actress. She is known for portraying the role of Heather Trott in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' a role in which she starred in from 2007 until 2012.
Career
After training at Rose Bruford ...
), and takes in a stray cat, which she eventually names
Dave Dave may refer to:
Film, television, and theater
* ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver
* ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film
* Dave (TV channel), a digital television channel in the ...
. She spends Christmas Day alone, but when Patrick realises she has not gone to Exeter, he invites her to
The Queen Victoria
The Queen Victoria (more often referred to as The Queen Vic or The Vic) is the Victorian public house in the BBC soap opera, ''EastEnders''. It has the fictional address of 46 Albert Square, Walford, London E20.
Appearance and developmen ...
public house
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...
where everyone is celebrating Christmas, and her neighbours present her with the gift of a washing machine. When Ronnie, the wife of Dot's stepson,
Jack Branning
Jack Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Scott Maslen. He made his first appearance on 29 October 2007. He is the youngest child of Jim (John Bardon) and Reenie Branning (Joy Graham) and the brot ...
(
Scott Maslen
Scott Alexander Maslen (born 25 June 1971) is an English actor and model, best known for his portrayal as DS Phil Hunter in ITV's ''The Bill'' and Jack Branning on the BBC's flagship soap ''EastEnders'' since 2007. He also took part in the 20 ...
), and her sister
Roxy Mitchell
Roxanne "Roxy" Mitchell (also Slater) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, ''EastEnders'', portrayed by Rita Simons.[Rita Simons
Rita Joanne Simons (born 10 March 1977) is an English actress and singer from London. She is best known for playing Roxy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' from 2007 to 2017, when her character was killed-off, alongside her on screen ...]
), mother of one of Jack's children, both die, Dot tells the children that they are in heaven, helping them to understand after Jack struggles to find an appropriate way to tell them. When Jack is unable to take Dot to the garden centre, she decides to drive herself with her great-grandson,
Matthew Mitchell Cotton
The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' in 2015, by order of first appearance. All characters were introduced by the show's executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins. January saw the ar ...
, but drives through a no entry sign into oncoming traffic and ends up in the verge. Dot is surprised when Charlie returns but he is only back for his son and she is upset when he leaves again with Matthew. Dot's step-granddaughter
Abi Branning
Abi Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Lorna Fitzgerald. She was introduced by executive producer Kate Harwood on 3 July 2006 as an extension to the Branning family, along with father Max (J ...
(
Lorna Fitzgerald
Lorna Katie Fitzgerald (born 17 April 1996) is a British actress from Northampton. Her most notable role to date is that of Abi Branning in the BBC soap opera, '' EastEnders''. Since leaving ''EastEnders'' in January 2018, Fitzgerald has develo ...
) lives with her for a while but moves out with Dot's blessing.
Dot trips over Dave and falls awkwardly onto a chair. Nobody knows she is injured until her step-granddaughter,
Sonia Fowler
Sonia Fowler (also Jackson) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Natalie Cassidy. Her first appearance was on and she departed on She returned briefly in 2010 along with other members of the Jackson fam ...
(
Natalie Cassidy
Natalie Ann Cassidy (born 13 May 1983) is an English actress. She has played Sonia Fowler in ''EastEnders'' since 1993, appeared in the BBC Two sitcom-horror '' Psychoville'' and was a contestant on the seventh series of ''Strictly Come Dan ...
), finds her. Dot is then taken to hospital and Sonia blames her neighbours for not looking out for her and scolds Sharon and Ian. Dot is worried when the doctor tells her that she will need an operation on her hip but she refuses physiotherapy. Dot goes to stay with Dotty for three months, returning when she hears that Abi is
brainstem dead after falling from a roof. Dot is surprised to see the launderette had reopened and
Karen Taylor (
Lorraine Stanley
Lorraine Stanley (born 28 June 1976) is an English actress, known for playing Kelly in the 2006 film ''London to Brighton'' and Karen Taylor in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''.
Personal life
Stanley was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, the da ...
) is working there. After attending Abi's funeral, Dot goes to stay with Charlie, Liz and Matthew in Ireland. Dot returns several months later. She is worried about her health and despite being told by her doctor that she is fine, she visits Dr Legg. He confirms that she is in good health and reveals he is dying of
pancreatic cancer. Dot is shocked that he is refusing treatment but eventually accepts his decision and decides to make the most of the time they have left together. Dot cares for Dr Legg in her home until his death. She inherits his entire estate and goes away to visit her family.
Dot returns with Dotty and she buys her council house with her inherited money. She later discovers that an attempt to take £5,000 out of her bank account has failed. It is revealed that Sonia tried to take the money. Sonia is later blackmailed after
Martin Fowler (
James Bye) is involved in a hit-and-run and she successfully steals £8,000 from Dot when Dot signs a blank cheque for Sonia to pay for some baby clothes she bought for the baby that Charlie and his wife are now expecting. Dot tells Sonia that this money was stolen and when Sonia tells Martin what she did, Martin tells Dot that he took the money. Sonia convinces Dot to visit Charlie again in Ireland and Dot leaves Sonia a message asking her to find out why Martin took the money and to let her know.
In December 2022, Sonia receives news from Charlie that Dot has died peacefully in her sleep. The residents of Walford honour her in The Queen Vic where they toast her, and they dedicate the Christmas light switch on in her memory. Many Albert Square residents, past and present, gather at her funeral to pay their respects and share their memories of Dot whilst Sonia delivers a moving eulogy. She is buried next to Ethel, reuniting them both for the first time in over twenty years.
Creation
Although Dot had been referred to since the very early episodes of the programme as the mother of villain
Nick Cotton
Nick Cotton is a fictional character from the British soap opera ''EastEnders'' played by John Altman on a semi-regular basis from the soap's debut episode on 19 February 1985. Altman has stated that his initial exit was due to producer Julia ...
(
John Altman), she did not actually appear on-screen until episode 40 in July 1985.
Dot was conceptualised by show creators,
Tony Holland
Anthony John Holland (18 January 1940 – 28 November 2007) was a British screenwriter, best known as a writer and co-creator (with Julia Smith) of the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders''.
Early life
Holland was the oldest of three children born to ...
and
Julia Smith, along with the other original characters.
Introduced as the "bible thumping arch-gossip" of the launderette, Dot was a character who bridged the generations.
The actress
June Brown
June Muriel Brown (16 February 1927 – 3 April 2022) was an English actress and author. She was best known for her role as Dot Cotton on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' (1985–1993; 1997–2020). In 2005, she won Best Actress at the '' ...
was given the role after being recommended by actor
Leslie Grantham, who played original character,
Den Watts
Dennis "Den" Watts is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by actor Leslie Grantham. He became well known for his tabloid nickname, "Dirty Den".
Den was the original landlord of The Queen Victoria public house fr ...
.
Brown was offered the part of Dot Cotton for a period of three months initially and in her own words, she was brought in "merely to be Nick Cotton's mother because Nick was coming back again".
Brown has told
Decca Aitkenhead
Jessica "Decca" Aitkenhead (born 1971) is an English journalist, writer and broadcaster.
Early life and education
Aitkenhead's family lived in Wiltshire when she was born; she has three older brothers. Her father was a teacher in Bristol befo ...
of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' in 2009 that she was wary of joining a soap opera as she had seen ''EastEnders'' once on television, "and there was an argument going on, and I thought, 'Oh, I don't want to watch all that,' so I switched it off. I didn't watch it again until I was asked to be in it."
The role was extended and the character has become one of the longest-running to have featured in ''EastEnders''.
Becoming Dot; characterisation
Appearance
To become the character of Dot Cotton, Brown is required to wear a wig to replicate Dot's 1950s "Italian Boy" hairstyle that has remained in a largely unchanged style since she first appeared in 1985.
Originally, the hair sported by Dot actually belonged to the actress, but Brown later started wearing a wig. Brown has stated that as soon as Dot's hairpiece is on, she becomes the character.
The unchanged style of Dot was deemed so important by the programme makers, that when Brown requested to have dental work carried out to improve her prominent front teeth, the producers refused to allow it, arguing that Dot could not afford expensive tooth capping. Brown was not permitted to alter her teeth until early 1991 when they became loose.
Brown has indicated that she does not want Dot's style altered.
She claimed in 2002 that Dot had the same coats in her wardrobe that she was given in 1985. The fur-collared coat Dot wears for special occasions was donated by the character
Angie Watts
Angie Watts is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Anita Dobson from the first episode of the series until 1988, when Dobson decided to leave, and the character was written out.
Angie is well known for her ...
(
Anita Dobson
Anita Dobson (born 29 April 1949) is an English stage, film and television actress, and singer. She is best known for her role from 1985 to 1988 as Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. In 1986, she reached number four in the UK Si ...
) in 1988 when she left the serial.
Brown commented, "I like the older clothes
.. I don't want new clothes, I'm happy the way she is. She thinks she looks really smart. She's got a terrible opinion of herself that woman!"
Personality and religion
Brown has said that when she was cast as Dot, she was given a list of illnesses the character had. She added, "It meant she was a because she had nobody to care about her. She was quite a selfish woman
nitially"
Dot has been described by author Hilary Kingsley as a "born victim." She adds that "with each blow that life delivers
otbobs back up again, almost asking for more trouble, more pain, more suffering."
Dot is renowned for being a
hypochondriac
Hypochondriasis or hypochondria is a condition in which a person is excessively and unduly worried about having a serious illness. An old concept, the meaning of hypochondria has repeatedly changed. It has been claimed that this debilitating cond ...
, her Christian faith and quoting from the Bible. She has been described by Rupert Smith, author of ''20 Years in Albert Square'', as "God-bothering" and self-righteous.
According to Kingsley, "nothing shakes Dot's view that the world is good because the creator made it so. Her faith sustains her through the most appalling ordeals."
The character once expressed part of the reason for her faith on-screen in 2000, commenting to a vicar, "I couldn't manage without my faith, not with the life I've had"; former executive producer of ''EastEnders'',
John Yorke, has stated that this is his favourite line of EastEnders' entire existence.
Author Antony Slide has noted that Dot's religious beliefs have given her solace, but has given her an excuse to be prejudiced against her neighbours, and to deal with the criminal antics of her wayward son. He described her as a "simpleminded woman whom one loved to hate".
In Kathryn and Phillip Dodd's published essay, ''From EastEnd to EastEnders'', Dot has been used as an example of the media's representation of the working-class as community-orientated, but defensive: "evangelist-cum-launderette supervisor. Eagle-eyed, she patrols the Square, confronting evil and despair and asking those stricken with doubt to trust God, while simultaneously organizing the local
Neighbourhood Watch
Neighbourhood Watch in the United Kingdom is the largest voluntary crime prevention movement covering England and Wales with upwards of 2.3 million household members. The charity brings neighbors together to create strong, friendly and active comm ...
scheme."
The character has taken on a matriarchal role in the absence of her own family, taking on the burdens of numerous waifs and strays throughout the show's history, including
Donna Ludlow
Donna Ludlow is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Matilda Ziegler. She appears between episodes 265 and 437 of ''EastEnders'', originally appearing on screen from 27 August 1987 to 13 April 1989. Donna was s ...
(
Matilda Ziegler
Matilda Ziegler (born 23 July 1964) is an English actress, best known for her roles as Donna Ludlow in ''EastEnders'', Irma Gobb in '' Mr. Bean'', and Pearl Pratt in ''Lark Rise to Candleford''.
Television and film career
Ziegler's first screen ...
),
Rod Norman
Roderick "Rod" Norman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Christopher McHallem from July 28, 1987, to February 27, 1990. Rod the roadie, is a modern-day hobo. He dosses in squats and never settles anywhe ...
(
Christopher McHallem
Christopher McHallem (born 1960) is a British actor, writer, musician and director.
McHallem began his career in 1977 with the punk rock/post-punk band the Transmitters under the pseudonym "Dexter O'Brian", but left the band shortly after its ...
),
Disa O'Brien
The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' in 1990, by order of first appearance.
Harry Osborne
In January 1990, a mysterious old man (John Boswall) is seen lingering around Albert Square. ...
(
Jan Graveson
Janice Margaret "Jan" Graveson (born 1965 in Easington, County Durham) is an English actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in Eastenders as Disa O'Brien and Benidorm as Susie .
Career
An actress who had dreams from an early ag ...
),
Nigel Bates (
Paul Bradley) and
Clare Bates
Clare Bates (also Tyler) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Gemma Bissix. Bissix originally played the character as a schoolgirl from 1993 to 1998. She left the serial with her screen stepfather Nigel Bat ...
(
Gemma Bissix
Gemma Bissix (born 6 June 1983) is an English actress. She has been acting since the age of 9. Her most prominent roles have been in soap operas, as Clare Bates in ''EastEnders'' (1993–1998, 2008) and Clare Devine in '' Hollyoaks'' (2006–20 ...
). Author Christine Geraghty asserts that Dot's role in the mothering structure of the serial has been confirmed.
Describing Dot, Brown has said, "I love playing her – she's a strong character. Dear old Dot, she's got strong moral views and odd religious beliefs, but her heart's in the right place. She has that awful worried expression on her face the whole time".
Brown has noted the changes within Dot since the show's inception, saying that initially Dot was sharp and selfish, but since her character remarried in 2002, she has gained security and has "no reason to have the hypochondria she had in the past
..She's become more caring over the years. She enjoys the company of young people. She loves her church. She can get in an anxious state – I like it when Dot's hysterical! She's also amusing, mostly because she doesn't realise she is".
Comedic role
As well as being tragic, Dot is scripted as a comic character.
Brown has discussed the humour she incorporates into her performances: "I think Dot would be awfully boring if she weren't a bit comic
..I always thought I had to put an edge on it, an edge of comedy, which just means doing it more seriously than you would do. If you want to play comedy then you have to be very intense about it
..very, very serious."
Some of Dot's catchphrases are used for humour, such as "Ooh I say!", uttered when she is "stuck for words". In 2004, Brown discussed the origin of the saying: "It was written once in the script and I quite enjoyed it, so I used to say it occasionally when it wasn't in the scripts. It was useful because it could be said in all different ways. Dot's very straight-laced, so it helped to express her horror at what went on."
Brown revealed in 2008 that she has tried to cut down the use of this, along with the mispronunciation of her employer,
Mr Papadopolous, as she has become a little embarrassed by them now they are so known.
Mr. Papadopolous is the owner of the launderette where Dot works. In a long-running joke, Dot has difficulty pronouncing his surname, and for much of the show's history he has been referred to as Mr. Oppodopolus, Oppydoppy, or varying other mispronunciations.
Brown has said she enjoys playing the comical aspects of Dot, stating, "She's not dreadfully funny but she's amusing and I like that because it lightens it up a bit."
Smoking
Smoking cigarettes has become synonymous with Dot, and Brown has suggested that the habit is "intrinsic" to the character. Dot's smoking was criticised by private healthcare company
Bupa in 2008, when they rated her television's most unhealthy character. They suggest that, in order to spread a public message, Dot should appear breathless, not with "implausibly good health". They added, "Though Dot Cotton has a smoker's voice – deeper than you might expect, she does not seem to be short of breath or wheezy" and that viewers would be influenced by this. However, Dot's smoking has been described by broadcasting watchdogs
Ofcom as "justified in the context of the programme as a representation of an East End character" and they therefore stipulate that enforcement of broadcast smoking-sanctions would be unlikely on ''EastEnders''.
Development
The gossip
Upon her arrival, Dot Cotton was quickly established as the gossip, whose purpose, as author Anthony Slide sees it, was "that of a
Greek chorus
A Greek chorus, or simply chorus ( grc-gre, χορός, chorós), in the context of ancient Greek tragedy, comedy, satyr plays, and modern works inspired by them, is a homogeneous, non-individualised group of performers, who comment with a collect ...
, commenting on the foibles of her fellow residents of Albert Square, from her vantage point as manager of the local launderette".
The "gossip" is a soap opera role that author Christine Geraghty has described as "crucial to the audience's engagement with a serial and provides both a source of information and a means of speculation for the viewer."
She asserts that a fundamental aspect of British soap is the idea of supporting members of community, based on the sharing of intimate knowledge, allowing "practical and emotional needs to be met" within the enclosed community.
However, according to Geraghty, there is nevertheless "an unease about the price paid for such support and an acknowledgement of the fine-line between neighbourliness and nosiness. The 'gossip' personifies this unease and though her task of passing on information and ferreting out problems is crucial to the community, she
..is frequently the butt of mockery and criticism
..The avidity with which Dot Cotton seeks out news is the subject of some embarrassment to her more restrained neighbours but the exchange of information she provides is essential if the community is to provide support to its members
..the very process of exchanging information makes her an essential yet mistrusted figure."
Indeed, it has been noted that, throughout the soap's early years, Dot was portrayed as a "lovable
bigot
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, rel ...
", prejudiced against her neighbours and only happy when others were not.
During the 1980s, Dot was shown to exhibit both racism and
homophobia to members of the Walford community. In 1987, Dot was shown to respond negatively to
Colin Russell (
Michael Cashman
Michael Maurice Cashman, Baron Cashman (born 17 December 1950), is a British actor, politician, and LGBT rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands from 1999 to 2014. ...
) upon learning he was gay, reacting in "horror and ignorant self-righteousness" and spreading rumours that Colin had AIDS.
According to Gary Loach from GaydarNation, Dot was being used by the programme makers to expose the bigotry of the "moral majority" in the real world following a public and media backlash over ''EastEnders screening of its first homosexual kiss.
However, while Dot has portrayed bigotry, author Anthony Slide has noted that the character can typically be "relied upon to drop her prejudices – she learned to accept both blacks and homosexuals in Albert Square."
Despite Dot's remaining penchant for gossip, it has been noted by Cole Moreton of ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' in 2008 that the character has "evolved from a nasty gossip into a strong character for whom viewers feel warmth". Author Dorothy Hobson has discussed this in her book ''Soap Opera'', suggesting that Dot, while providing a narrative function as a gossip, has in turn been the subject of other people's gossip, with her own problems, troubles and vulnerability.
Notable relationships
Nick
Dot's relationship with her wayward son Nick
(John Altman), has been a feature of the character's narrative since her inception. Unlike Dot, Nick is scripted as a semi-regular character, one who comes and goes sporadically and, as authors Jill Marshall and Angela Werndly have observed, "we know heartache is in store for Dot Cotton every time her son, 'Nasty Nick', turns up
..The recurrence of generic elements means we derive pleasure from expectation and prediction."
Executive producer
Diederick Santer
Diederick Santer (born 3 July 1969) is a British television producer and is best known for his work on the popular BBC television soap opera ''EastEnders'', a post which he assumed on 23 October 2006 and left on 1 March 2010. He was Chief Exec ...
has discussed the "wonderfully dysfunctional mother-son relationship" Nick shares with Dot and her perpetual willingness to give Nick another chance regardless of his history of wrongdoing.
Santer explained: "There's that thing where you sort of dare to hope that someone's changed, which is really tragic. They've let you down a hundred times, and yet you still hope that the hundred and first time they'll have changed."
Actor
Leslie Grantham has stated that Dot is the "one friend in
ick'slife", while series story producer
Dominic Treadwell-Collins
Dominic Treadwell-Collins (born 26 August 1977) is a British television producer, known for his work on the soap operas ''Family Affairs'' and ''EastEnders'', creating the ''EastEnders'' spin-off series '' Kat & Alfie: Redwater'' and Executive P ...
has affirmed: "Dot's always going to forgive him. And that's the beauty of Nick and Dot."
Concurring with this sentiment, John Altman (Nick) agreed: "No matter what he does, she'll forgive him. So did a lot of gangsters' mothers throughout history. Probably
Al Capone's mother thought he was a sweet lad, you know."
One of Nick's most notable returns to the series occurred in 1990.
Nick returned to his mother's life with the claim that he was a born-again Christian, which happened to coincide with her £10,000 win on the bingo. ''EastEnders'' writer
Sarah Phelps
Sarah Phelps is a British television screenwriter, radio writer, playwright and television producer. She is best known for her work on ''EastEnders'', a number of BBC serial adaptations including Agatha Christie's ''The Witness For the Prosecut ...
explained: "For Dot, the idea that Jesus had finally spoken to Nick, that was all her Christmases coming at once! Nick knew that. It was sort of obvious that Nick could be saying 'Jesus walks with me' and then just go out and kick somebody or nick their wallet."
With the help of a fake priest, Nick managed to convince his mother of his new-found faith and then began a slow campaign to control her eating habits and poison her in order to claim her money. Discussing the storyline, scriptwriter Colin Brake has indicated that at first it was not clear to the audience whether Nick had reformed or not, but as the weeks passed it became obvious that he did intend to kill his mother, as he was shown practising a fake suicide note in Dot's handwriting – a foil to cover the intended murder; according to Brake, Dot remained blithely and perhaps purposefully ignorant to his wrongdoing.
The episode which culminated the storyline, written by P.J. Hammond, was set solely in Dot's house and featured an unusually small cast consisting of Nick, Dot, Nick's estranged father
Charlie, Dot's close friend
Ethel Skinner
Ethel Skinner is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Gretchen Franklin. Ethel also features in a 1988 ''EastEnders'' special episode, entitled "CivvyStreet", set on Albert Square during World War II, in which ...
and Alistair the fake priest. At the last moment, in what Altman has called the "one time we saw a glimmer of Nick's good side",
Nick backed out of his plan and stopped Dot from eating the poisoned meal he had intended to kill her with. Once again Dot was left alone, broken-hearted at what her own son had been prepared to do to her.
Other storylines have concentrated on Dot's various attempts to reform Nick, such as in 1991, when Nick returned with a heroin addiction. As the plot unfolded, Dot tried to curtail Nick's addiction by locking him in his room and forcing him to go
cold turkey
"Cold turkey" refers to the abrupt cessation of a substance dependence and the resulting unpleasant experience, as opposed to gradually easing the process through reduction over time or by using replacement medication.
Sudden withdrawal from dru ...
. His resulting paranoia and cravings led him to escape and murder the first person he encountered,
The Queen Victoria
The Queen Victoria (more often referred to as The Queen Vic or The Vic) is the Victorian public house in the BBC soap opera, ''EastEnders''. It has the fictional address of 46 Albert Square, Walford, London E20.
Appearance and developmen ...
landlord
Eddie Royle
The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'' in 1990, by order of first appearance.
Harry Osborne
In January 1990, a mysterious old man ( John Boswall) is seen lingering around Albert Square ...
(
Michael Melia
Michael Melia (born 1945) is a British actor best known for his work on television. He appeared as Queen Vic landlord Eddie Royle in BBC One soap opera EastEnders between 1990 and 1991.
Early life
Melia was born in Berkshire and attended St Mary ...
). The episode where Eddie was murdered was the big autumn launch episode for 1991.
Nick stood trial in January 1993; however, "he got away with murder" for a second time in the serial.
Other scams have included Nick's attempt to con Dot by claiming he had AIDS in 1998 after escaping from prison, which ultimately led to Dot having him re-imprisoned. Then followed a plot that saw him largely responsible for the death of his son
Ashley Ashley is a place name derived from the Old English words '' æsc'' (“ash”) and '' lēah'' (“meadow”). It may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Ashley (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name ...
(
Frankie Fitzgerald
Frankie Fitzgerald (born 28 April 1985, in South London) is an English actor, best known for his role as Nick Cotton's son Ashley in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.
Career
Fitzgerald trained at The Webber Douglas Academy of Performing Arts, ...
) in June 2001, ultimately leading Dot to disown Nick and prompting to leave the Square again. He is not seen for more than seven years after this, although he was mentioned in 2006 when recovering from cancer off-screen.
Following pleas from Brown to resurrect Nick, John Altman returned to the serial again in December 2008, in a storyline that saw Nick attempt to con Dot again, this time aided by a previously unheard of daughter,
Dotty (
Molly Conlin
Molly Conlin (born 23 February 2001) is a former English actress, known for her role as Dotty Cotton on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''.
Personal life
Conlin was born in Canning Town, London where she lives with her mother and her brother, ...
), who was born in 2002 after Nick's previous exit.
Altman explained: "Nick needed something, because I think if he didn't have little Dotty, for him to walk through that door, she would just have treated him as a complete outcast."
As the storyline progressed, it was revealed that Nick and Dotty had intentions to kill Dot for her inheritance; they concocted a plan to make her think she had developed
dementia
Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...
then overdose her with sleeping pills, which fails when Dotty has a change of heart and Nick flees once again after causing an explosion and being disowned by Dot.
In March 2014, Dot is told by the police that Nick has died of respiratory failure from a heroin overdose the previous week. One of the police officers who breaks the news to Dot is Nick's son Charlie Cotton, although it is later revealed that he is impersonating a police officer. Charlie explains that he was conceived from a brief marriage Nick had with his mother Yvonne. During the funeral, Charlie and undertaker Les Coker prevent Dot from looking in the coffin. Dot is suspicious and invites Yvonne to tell the truth and she assures Dot that Charlie is her grandson. A few weeks later, Carol Jackson asks Charlie for advice, when he leaves his phone at her house, she answers a call and discovers that Nick is still alive.
Nick reappears in Albert Square seven months after his faked death. Ronnie takes an instant dislike to him and tries to bribe him to leave but Nick returns for Charlie and Ronnie's wedding. Nick decides to get revenge on Ronnie and cuts the brakes of her car. After the wedding, Roxy, Charlie and Ronnie are involved in an accident which hits and later kills Emma Summerhayes, while Ronnie ends up in a coma but survives. Yvonne discovers that Nick cut the brakes of the car. Yvonne tells Charlie but he does not believe her until he catches Nick with some of the money Ronnie used to bribe him. Then Nick implicates Yvonne in Ronnie's accident, so Charlie asks them both to leave. Dot hides Nick next door and obtains heroin for Nick. Later she finds him unconscious, Nick regains consciousness briefly but later dies in Dot's arms, in the same location that Reg Cox was discovered 30 years earlier.
Charlie
Like Nick, Dot's first screen husband,
Charlie Cotton (
Christopher Hancock
Christopher Anthony Arthur Hancock (5 June 1928 – 29 September 2004) was a British television and theatre actor. He was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England. His brother was actor Stephen Hancock. He and his brother trained a ...
), was also a semi-regular character who came and went throughout his duration in the show. Depicted as bigamous and a conman, Charlie typically would reappear in the show whenever he needed money or temporary accommodation and, because of Dot's Christian ideals regarding forgiveness, Charlie would always be permitted to return. According to Christopher Hancock, Charlie was "a truly revolting character, a loser."
Producers decided to kill Charlie off in 1991; Charlie died off-screen when crashing his lorry on a motorway.
The decision to kill Charlie was taken in order to reintroduce Charlie's son, Nick. Nick had been involved in a storyline that saw him attempt to poison Dot in 1990, and producers felt that in order for Dot to allow Nick back into her life again, something major had to occur in her narrative, that being the death of her husband.
Storyline editor, Andrew Holden, has discussed this in the ''EastEnders Handbook'' publication in 1991: "We wanted to bring Nick Cotton back and we also wanted to push Dot forward and change her life. But the problem was how? The last time we saw Nick he was attempting to kill his mother. Dot isn't a fool so we knew getting them back together was like a three card trick. How do we get out of this? So we made
ick
Ick or ICK may refer to:
* William Ick, (1800–1844), botanist
*Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, a single-celled parasite. Also known as Ich
*Inhibitor cystine knot
*Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest
*Trains in the Netherlands, Intercit ...
a heroin addict. That made him vulnerable, in a mess and needing his mother to get money for him. We then had to kill Charlie because I figured that only in a state of shock and uncertainty about her belief in God would Dot contemplate forgiving Nick and attempting to reform him. She decides to believe that she can make a decent human being of Nick. She feels it's her last chance. As a widow Dot enters new territory. Dot's snobbery is based on ludicrous misconceptions, one of which is that she is better than
er friendEthel because she has a husband. She is going to have a lot of scope
..Dot's life is going to change."
Brown was opposed to the killing of Charlie and she attempted to get the programme-makers to change their minds. She comments, "I was very unhappy to learn that Charlie would be killed off. I would have preferred if they'd left the door open for him to possibly return one day. I went to see the writers and put this forward. I suggested that there could be some uncertainty about the body. Charlie may have picked up a
hitch-hiker
Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free.
Nomads hav ...
and he was the one who died. John Altman, who plays Nick, was also sorry about Charlie. We weren't thinking just about Christopher Hancock, who played Charlie so well, it was that we liked the character and it seemed a waste. But I was too late, I couldn't change their minds. In the past, I have talked things through and I was listened to".
Charlie's funeral episode, written by Linda Dearsley, was aired on 11 July 1991, and was dominated by Dot's reaction to Charlie's death and her trip to identify his body. It is selected by writer Colin Brake as one of 1991's episodes of the year.
Jim
Dot's second significant romance was built upon by scriptwriters in 2000 on the behest of producer
John Yorke. Dot was paired romantically with pensioner
Jim Branning
Jim Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by John Bardon, first appearing on 29 April 1996 and became a regular character in 1999. He remained in the series until 2011.
Jim was temporarily written out ...
, played by
John Bardon
John Bardon (born John Michael Jones, 25 August 1939 – 12 September 2014) was an English stage and screen actor. He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 1988 (1987 season) for '' Kiss Me, Kate'', sharing the aw ...
and a slow courtship was featured, with Dot often shown to be outraged by Jim's advances, resulting in numerous rejections.
Dot finally succumbed and accepted his marriage proposal in an episode that aired in December 2001; the scenes were filmed inside one of the carriages of the
London Eye on the
South Bank of the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
.
Their wedding aired on 14 February 2002,
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, thr ...
. ''The Guardian'' critic,
Nancy Banks-Smith
Nancy Banks-Smith (born 1929) is a British television and radio critic, who spent most of her career writing for ''The Guardian''.
Life and career
Born in Manchester and raised in a pub, she was educated at Roedean School.
Banks-Smith began her ...
, described the wedding as "uniquely uneventful
..For Dot and Jim 'In sickness and health... till death do us part' seemed to carry more resonance than for most."
Bardon has revealed that both he and Brown were sceptical about their characters marrying. In an interview with American fan-based newspaper, ''Walford Gazette'', he commented, "No way did the pair of us want to get married because we thought if we got married, we'd sit indoors and watch the telly every night. As it happened, we've had some nice things to do. And we are married, and it's worked out all right."
Brown has reiterated that she feared Dot would become boring if she married Jim, but that producers persuaded her that the marriage might be a good thing. On-screen, Dot had just suffered the death of her grandson Ashley (in which Nick had played a part), and Brown felt that a traumatic event like that would have changed her character. In her opinion, the only way Dot would have got over Ashley's death "would be to have someone else to care for and when it happened there was nobody
utwith marrying Jim she gets a family – that's what persuaded me. That house will become a house again – it will have a central point, they will be able to use the house as a central point, as Dot will be there."
Critic
Grace Dent
Grace Dent (born 3 October 1973) is an English columnist, broadcaster and author. She is a restaurant critic for ''The Guardian'' and from 2011 to 2017 wrote a restaurant column for the ''Evening Standard''. She is a regular critic on the BBC' ...
has likened Dot and Jim to ''Coronation Streets
Hilda
Hilda is one of several female given names derived from the name ''Hild'', formed from Old Norse , meaning 'battle'. Hild, a Nordic-German Bellona, was a Valkyrie who conveyed fallen warriors to Valhalla. Warfare was often called Hild's Game. Th ...
and
Stan Ogden
Stanley Josiah Ogden is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'', played by Bernard Youens. He debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 29 June 1964 and remained for twenty years until his death on 21 ...
, comparing a scene in ''EastEnders'' where Dot nags Jim and he prays for a quiet life to a similar one from ''Coronation Street'', that aired decades before. Brown discussed Dot's relationship with Jim in 2004: "Initially, Jim wasn't the sort of person that Dot approved of. He drank, he gambled, he lied – he wasn't reliable at all. But Jim decided that he quite fancied Dot – heaven knows why! I think that you always have to work out for yourself how you can make the character work in a new situation. I could see that Jim was kind to Dot
..His kindness drew her towards him.
..Dot's definitely in control of Jim. She quite enjoys bossing him around."
Brown stated that she enjoys her screen partnership with John Bardon, saying "We work very well together – he's got great timing and he can be very tender too."
The on-screen relationship between Dot and Jim was halted in 2007 when Jim was hastily written out of the soap due to John Bardon suffering a major stroke. In the script Jim suffered a stroke and was placed in the care of off-screen relatives. Dot and Jim remained together, with Jim making sporadic appearances between 2008 and 2009 to visit Dot. A more permanent return for the character was announced in 2009. However, it was reported in April 2011 that Bardon had filmed his exit from the series, and that the show's staff believed it marked the end of the character. A source told the ''
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...
'': "Dot's been struggling for a while and realises that she can no longer give Jim the care and attention he deserves and is forced to make the heartbreaking decision that he should move into a home.
..It was very emotional on the set for the scenes where Dot discusses her decision and talks to Jim about him going into care for good. There were a lot of tears.
..The feeling is that this is the end of Jim as a character because he won't leave the home and won't ever be a regular in Albert Square again."
It was reported that Jim could still appear in the care home if Bardon's health permitted it, although ultimately this did not happen, as Bardon never recovered enough to make any further appearances.
Jim left the show on 26 May 2011. Brown opined that Dot would feel lonely without Jim, saying, "I think she'll be very lonely and feel she doesn't have much purpose in life. It was really important to tell this story because there are so many people in a similar situation to Dot. It was moving to act out, too — not just because of Dot and Jim's relationship, but because I'm really good friends with John Bardon in real life." Jim died off-screen four years later, shortly after the death of actor John Bardon.
Rose
In May 2011, it was reported that Dot's estranged half-sister
Rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
would join the series, played by
Polly Perkins
Polly Perkins (born Gillian Nessie Arnold, 31 May 1943) is a British actress, singer and writer. Perkins rose to fame in the 1960s as a popstar, going on to regularly appear in theatre and cabaret throughout the UK. She is known for playing Ros ...
. Reports stated that The sisters fell out when Rose had an affair with Dot's husband Charlie, but after suffering a bout of hypochondria, Dot would decide to track Rose down,
feeling it is time to put things right, but Rose will not be pleased to see Dot again after so many years.
Friendships
An enduring friendship featured in ''EastEnders'' was the one shared between the characters Dot Cotton and
Ethel Skinner
Ethel Skinner is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Gretchen Franklin. Ethel also features in a 1988 ''EastEnders'' special episode, entitled "CivvyStreet", set on Albert Square during World War II, in which ...
(played by
Gretchen Franklin
Gretchen Franklin (7 July 1911 – 11 July 2005) was an English actress and dancer with a career in show business spanning over 70 years. She was born in Covent Garden, Central London. She played Ethel Skinner in the long-running BBC 1 soap ope ...
), first shown on-screen in 1985 and ending with Ethel's death in 2000, though the characters shared a backstory set prior to 1985 and were scripted as neighbours who grew old together in East London, along with
Lou Beale
Lou Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Anna Wing. Her first appearance is in the first episode, which was broadcast on 19 February 1985, and her last is in episode 362, first shown on 26 July 1988, ...
(
Anna Wing
Anna Eva Lydia Catherine Wing (30 October 1914 – 7 July 2013) was an English actress who had a long career in television and theatre, known for portraying the role of Beale family matriarch Lou Beale in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''.
...
). ''
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
'' has described Dot and Ethel as an "incomparable double-act
..Occasionally spiky and often hilarious". Dot and Ethel shared few similarities in personality. During an episode that aired in 2008, just under 8 years after Ethel died in the serial, Dot discussed the differences between them: "Ethel was a free spirit, not like me. All bottled up. I remember sitting on the step of the Vic, waiting for me mother. I caught a glimpse of her through the door. Sitting on top of the piano, her legs spread, showing next week's washing and bawling out "
Roll Out the Barrel
"Beer Barrel Polka", also known as "The Barrel Polka", "Roll Out the Barrel", or "Rosamunde", is a 1927 polka composed by Czech musician Jaromír Vejvoda. Lyrics were added in 1934, subsequently gaining worldwide popularity during World War II a ...
". Just like a navvy. She didn't seem to have a care in the world. I had enough for both of us. I loved Ethel."
Critic for ''The Guardian'',
Nancy Banks-Smith
Nancy Banks-Smith (born 1929) is a British television and radio critic, who spent most of her career writing for ''The Guardian''.
Life and career
Born in Manchester and raised in a pub, she was educated at Roedean School.
Banks-Smith began her ...
, discussed the characters' relationship in 2008, comparing them to the girls written about by
Dylan Thomas: "There was always one pretty and pert
thel and always one in glasses
ot" Banks-Smith adds that theirs was "a symbiotic relationship in which the pretty one looks even prettier by contrast and the plain one is popular by proxy. Which is not to say it is not a real and enduring friendship."
Their bickering and personality differences were often used for comic effect; however, in episode 248 of the show, scriptwriter
Colin Brake
Colin Brake (born 1962) is an English television writer and script editor best known for his work for the BBC on programmes such as '' Bugs'' and '' EastEnders''. He has also written spin-offs from the BBC series '' Doctor Who''. He lives and w ...
notes that viewers were shown a different side to Ethel and Dot's friendship in the soaps
second two-hander episode.
The episode aired in July 1987 and featured just the two old ladies. Brake has described the episode as a "mini-play about nostalgia and growing old", adding that "some viewers found it too unusual, but many others were charmed by the change of pace".
According to Brake, the episode gave Franklin and Brown the opportunity to show the sadness behind the often comical characters of Ethel and Dot. The episode was written by Charlie Humphreys and directed by
Mike Gibbon
John Michael Gibbon (born 27 January 1942) is an English television producer and director.
He directed and produced the BBC televised soap opera, ''EastEnders''. He began directing the programme in 1985 and began producing the programme in 1988 ...
, a future producer of the show.
Author Christine Geraghty has used the episode as an example of the fact that "female conversation is the backbone to traditional soap".
Author Dorothy Hobson has discussed the use of older female characters in British soap opera as a means of providing comedy. She compares Ethel and Dot's function in ''EastEnders'' to the trio of
Ena Sharples
Ena Sharples (née Schofield) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'', played by Violet Carson. She appeared in the first-ever episode, broadcast on 9 December 1960, and stayed with the show until 2 April ...
,
Minnie Caldwell
''Coronation Street'' is a British television soap opera/serial, initially produced by Granada Television. Created by screenwriter Tony Warren, ''Coronation Street'' first broadcast on ITV on 9 December 1960. The following is a list of chara ...
and
Martha Longhurst
Martha Longhurst (also Hartley) is a fictional character from the British soap opera '' Coronation Street''. She was played by Lynne Carol from the show's inception in 1960, from the second episode until the character's death in 1964.
Creation
...
from ''
Coronation Street'' with regard to providing humour. She has noted that following Ethel's retirement from the serial, the production team at ''EastEnders'' attempted to replicate Dot and Ethel's friendship by introducing a number of "'friends' to fulfill the same function of a female friend for Dot and the series."
An example of this was the character
Lilly Mattock (
Barbara Keogh
Barbara Keogh (21 April 1929 – 25 October 2005) was a British actress. Keogh is most noted for her work on television, particularly her role as Lilly Mattock on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''.
Early life and career
Keogh was born on 21 ...
) who appeared between 1998 and 1999.
The author goes on to note that Ethel's role in Dot's narrative was difficult to replace because "far from being complete stereotypes, their relationships depend on them being long-standing friends with the ability to share stories and reminisce. For the characters to 'work', there is a need for unspoken intimacy and a shared knowledge for each other's lives. They carry the internal knowledge of the narratives and share that knowledge with the audience."
Brown has spoken about the "wonderful rapport" she had with Gretchen Franklin who played Ethel. She added, "I do miss Ethel, it was great with Dot and Ethel. They did try and stop us working together at one time, but the producer changed and it all went back to where it started."
Throughout her time in ''EastEnders'', many of Dot's scenes have been set in Walford's launderette, where the character has worked as an assistant for almost the entire duration of her time in ''EastEnders''. Here, Dot was frequently featured with another long-running protagonist, fellow launderette colleague,
Pauline Fowler
Pauline Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC One soap opera ''EastEnders''. She was played by actress Wendy Richard between the first episode on 19 February 1985 and 25 December 2006. Pauline was created by scriptwriter Tony Holland a ...
, played by
Wendy Richard
Wendy Richard (born Wendy Emerton; 20 July 1943 – 26 February 2009) was an English actress, known for her television roles as Miss Shirley Brahms on the BBC sitcom ''Are You Being Served?'' from 1972 to 1985, and Pauline Fowler on the soa ...
from 1985 to 2006. Author Christine Geraghty has discussed the working environment the women inhabited, indicating that because the owner of the launderette is barely present, the "working relationship hinges on the friendships (or otherwise) of the women who work in it".
As with Ethel, Dot and Pauline's friendship was often used for comedic purposes; emphasis was placed on their differences, leading to numerous petty squabbles and in 2004 saw them "buried alive" underneath a collapsed fairground ride, in the midst of a cake-selling war. However, Pauline and Dot were most frequently shown
gossip
Gossip is idle talk or rumour, especially about the personal or private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling.
Gossip is a topic of research in evolutionary psychology, which has found gossip to be an important means ...
ing, reminiscing about the past, or sharing their woes in the launderette. The duo has been described by television personality
Paul O'Grady
Paul James O'Grady MBE DL (born 14 June 1955) is an English comedian, broadcaster, actor, writer and former drag queen. He achieved notability in the London gay scene during the 1980s with his drag queen persona Lily Savage, very popular in ...
as a "fabulous double-act": "Dot's probably Pauline's one and only confidant. Pauline eventually will break down and tell Dot things that she'd never tell anybody else."
On the episode marking the screen death of Pauline on 25 December 2006, Dot remarks to Pauline, "You're the only real friend I've got", in a scene that Tim Teeman of ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' has described as "one of the most moving scenes in a soap
n 2006.
1993 exit and 1997 return
In 1993, Brown decided to quit ''EastEnders'' after becoming "discontented" with the way Dot was portrayed.
The character departed on-screen in August 1993, when Dot moved away from the soap's setting to live with her son Nick and his family in Gravesend.
Of her departure, Brown told Donna Hay from ''What's on TV'' that "I love her, she appealed to me because she was so funny. If she'd been straight, she would have been boring to play. Instead she took her problems too seriously and dramatised everything." In 1997 she revealed to the ''Daily Mirror'': "I always felt Dot was one of those characters who should stay the same. She's a simple creature. There are some people who the same things happen to them again and again. They never learn
..When I left, there was all that rubbish about it getting too much for me
utI stopped because I wasn't being used very much. I thought, 'It's a part-time job'. It wasn't being written properly. Instead of finding the gossip and passing it on,
ot was hearing the gossip from others otwas living on a reputation.
iewerssaid to me, 'I loved it when
othad
..varicose veins
Varicose veins, also known as varicoses, are a medical condition in which superficial veins become enlarged and twisted. These veins typically develop in the legs, just under the skin. Varicose veins usually cause few symptoms. However, some indiv ...
.' I thought: 'What?! That was in 1985, it's 1993!'. I was getting so tetchy, so I thought I'd go. I'd had enough. They were a bit shocked, because apparently there were some good stories coming up."
Expanding on this in 2008, Brown stated that she "didn't like what they were doing with Dot – she was meant to spread the gossip. Originally she was a fountain of knowledge then next thing I know, people are telling Dot what had been happening and I thought, 'No, this just won't do'. I was very annoyed, I felt like they had completely changed my character."
In October 1996, newspapers reported that BBC bosses had approached Brown about reprising her role as Dot Cotton and, according to the ''Daily Mirror'', Brown had been in negotiations with ''EastEnders'' for several months prior.
Brown is quoted by the paper as saying, "I have always been reluctant to go back because I thought Dot's character was not being portrayed properly. I thought it had faded. I always said if Dot comes back it must be as Dot."
Brown secured a deal to return and began filming on-location in Gravesend in February 1997.
The episode saw Dot's former lodger,
Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley), visiting Dot to discover that Nick was once again in prison, leaving Dot alone.
Her return episode aired in April 1997. Brown has since revealed that she opted to return to ''EastEnders'' to raise her profile again.
She had originally only intended to return for a 3-month stint, but was persuaded to stay when a project she had been working on was cancelled.
In July 1997, she commented, "I've decided to stay in EastEnders. They asked me, and in the end I thought: 'Oh well, I might as well.' Everyone, including
Barbara Windsor
Dame Barbara Windsor (born Barbara Ann Deeks; 6 August 193710 December 2020) was an English actress, known for her roles in the Carry On (franchise), ''Carry On'' films and for playing Peggy Mitchell in the BBC One soap opera, ''EastEnders''. ,
Wendy Richard
Wendy Richard (born Wendy Emerton; 20 July 1943 – 26 February 2009) was an English actress, known for her television roles as Miss Shirley Brahms on the BBC sitcom ''Are You Being Served?'' from 1972 to 1985, and Pauline Fowler on the soa ...
and
Adam Woodyatt
Adam Brinley Woodyatt (born 28 June 1968) is an English actor. He is known for his role as Ian Beale in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', which he played between 1985 and 2022.
Early life and education
Woodyatt was born on 28 June 1968 in W ...
, was saying: 'Don't leave'. And people were coming up in the street saying: 'It's lovely to have you back.' Anyway, I find playing the old dear quite fun."
After a 5-month break, following Dot being held hostage in her flat by the escaped convict friend of her son, Brown returned to filming in October 1997 on a permanent contract.
Issues
Euthanasia
In 2000, Dot was featured in a storyline about
euthanasia, when her oldest friend Ethel, who had terminal cancer, asked her to help her die. The storyline allowed the production team to present all sides of the debate about euthanasia, from the perspective of the sufferer and from the person who is asked to assist in the mercy killing, religious and moral opposition.
According to author Dorothy Hobson, "Dot suffered torment as she struggled with her conscience and she tried to resist the request
..to assist
thelin the ultimate sin".
In the storyline, Ethel enjoyed the last days of her life and chose her final evening. Assisted by Dot, she took an overdose of her medication and died.
[''EastEnders'' airdate 7 September 2000] Written by Simon Ashton and directed by Francesca Joseph the episode ended with a scene in which Ethel tells a weeping Dot "you're the best friend I ever had".
Alternative credit music replaced the typical drum beats and theme tune at the end of the episode.
The 1931 song used instead of the usual theme was "
Guilty
Guilty or The Guilty may refer to:
* Guilt (emotion), an experience that occurs when a person believes they have violated a moral standard
Law
*Culpability, the degree to which an agent can be held responsible for action or inaction
*Guilt (law) ...
" by
Al Bowlly
Albert Allick Bowlly (7 January 1898 – 17 April 1941) was a Mozambican-born South African– British vocalist and jazz guitarist, who was popular during the 1930s in Britain. He recorded more than 1,000 songs.
His most popular songs includ ...
.
Ben Summerskill from ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' has suggested that Dot's part in the euthanasia storyline was "one of the most moving dramatic sequences shown in recent years on British TV". The episode was voted the most emotional soap death in a ''
Radio Times'' poll of 4,000 readers in 2006.
The repercussions of the euthanasia for Dot's character have been described as "extremely serious" as she suffered from "untold guilt and felt that she needed to be punished for the action."
The Executive Producer overseeing this storyline, John Yorke, has discussed the storyline in a speech given at the Bishops' Conference for clergy and other ministers in the Diocese of St Albans: "Dot, as a good Christian, refused to help, until her love for her friend overcame her own fear of damnation. Riddled with an intolerable burden of guilt, she felt there was only one person she could talk to
esus
Esus, Hesus, or Aisus was a Brittonic and Gaulish god known from two monumental statues and a line in Lucan's '' Bellum civile''.
Name
T. F. O'Rahilly derives the theonym ''Esus'', as well as ''Aoibheall'', ''Éibhleann'', ''Aoife'', and ...
The Dot and Ethel storyline played out in over four months with many similar scenes, to an average audience of 16 million viewers. Dot
..explored the full panoply of religious belief before coming back to terms with her maker. When
Alan Bookbinder
Alan Peter Bookbinder (born 16 March 1956) is a British journalist, charity executive, and academic administrator. Since October 2018, he has served as Master of Downing College, Cambridge. He previously worked for the BBC, and was Director of th ...
took over as head of religious broadcasting at the BBC he described ''EastEnders'' for the weeks the Dot and Ethel story ran as 'the best religious programme on television' and compared
tto
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
. While we felt a little uncomfortable in such exalted company, what it did show is that handled properly an audience is able to engage in, and relate to profound ethical debate."
Deborah Annetts, CEO of the
Voluntary Euthanasia Society (VES), has praised the storyline. In 2004 she commented, "It was a sympathetic portrayal. It demonstrated to a lot of people their own experiences. Lots of us have had conversations with someone, particularly our mothers and fathers, where they have said to us: 'If I get really ill, you will end it, won't you?' The Dot/Ethel storyline showed just what that conversation can entail and what happens to the other person after – the guilt and pain they have to live with."
Such was the controversy surrounding this storyline that the
University of Glamorgan
, image_name = University of Glamorgan arms.png
, image_size = 220px
, caption = University of Glamorgan coat of arms
, motto = Success Through Endeavour
, established =
, closed =
, administrative_staff =
, chancellor = John Morris ...
uses the plot as part of their new approach to the study of British criminal law. Part of the law foundation course involves studying the soap opera and giving students the chance to decide if Dot Cotton's character is guilty of murder. The storyline is also featured in
GCSE Religious Studies textbooks.
Kidney cancer
In a 2004 plot, Dot was diagnosed with
kidney cancer
Kidney cancer, also known as renal cancer, is a group of cancers that starts in the kidney. Symptoms may include blood in the urine, lump in the abdomen, or back pain. Fever, weight loss, and tiredness may also occur. Complications can include sp ...
.
The programme makers sought advice from health care professionals when devising the storyline, including specialist information nurses from CancerBACUP. Nurse Martin Ledwick said, "We drew on our experience of talking to the thousands of people who call our helpline, to help advise the ''EastEnders'' scriptwriters. Many people react to a cancer diagnosis as Dot does in the BBC serial – with confusion and fear. We also speak to family and friends affected by the illness and those living with continuing uncertainty. ''EastEnders'' explores all these issues, and hopefully will help improve people's understanding of what it's like to be affected by a cancer diagnosis."
According to
Macmillan Cancer Support, "Dot's experience
ncreasedpeople's understanding of the emotional impact of a cancer diagnosis; how the illness affects family and friends; and what it's like to live with uncertainty. It also
elpedto raise awareness of a comparatively rare cancer and the fact that cancer is a disease most often affecting older people."
Brown herself has confessed that she was unhappy with the storyline as she felt playing illness was not productive at her age.
Discussing Dot's reluctance to reveal her illness to anyone, Brown said "
t'sironic because I've played her as a hypochondriac, longing for attention, for 20 years. Now something's wrong, she doesn't want anyone to know."
Abandoned baby
In the Easter 2007 episode, Dot takes an abandoned baby she finds in a church. This was filmed in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
at
Stansted
London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London.
London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acro ...
,
St. Giles Church in
Wormshill
Wormshill ( ), historically Wormsell, is a small village and civil parish within the Borough of Maidstone, Kent, England. The parish is approximately south of the Swale and east of Maidstone. The village of Frinsted lies to the east and Bi ...
, The Ringlestone Inn near
Harrietsham
Harrietsham is a rural and industrial village and civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England noted in the Domesday Book. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001, it had a population of 1,504, increasing to 2,113 at the 2011 Cen ...
and Court Lodge Farm. After being contacted by the child's Ukrainian mother
Anya, Dot offers to care for both of them, however Jim turns Anya in to the authorities for being an illegal immigrant. Roz Laws of the ''
Sunday Mercury'' questioned the plausibility of the storyline, observing: "Babies aren't abandoned in the real world very often. But you can barely cross
lbertSquare
..without tripping over poor tots who their mothers don't want." Laws also felt that the speed at which the immigration department operated was "amazingly on-the-ball", when in reality many illegal immigrants "slip through the net".
Monologue
In January 2008, Dot became the first soap opera character to be featured in a
monologue episode, known as a "single-hander". Written by
Tony Jordan
Tony Jordan (born 21 July 1957) is a British television writer. He was listed as the number one television screenwriter in the United Kingdom by ''Broadcast'' magazine in 2008 and among British broadcasting's top twenty in ''The Stage'' in 20 ...
, the episode features Dot recording a message for Jim, who is in hospital recovering from a stroke. The episode is entitled "Pretty Baby....", named after the
song of the same name by
Tony Jackson, which replaced the drumbeats and ''EastEnders theme tune that typically accompanies the end credits of episodes.
Brown was nominated in the
Best Actress
Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...
category at the
2009 British Academy Television Awards for her performance in the episode, becoming the first soap actress nominated in the category since 1988, when
Jean Alexander
Jean Margaret Hodgkinson (11 October 1926 – 14 October 2016), known by the stage name Jean Alexander, was a British television actress. She was best known to television viewers for her long running role of Hilda Ogden in the soap opera ''Co ...
was shortlisted for her role as
Hilda Ogden
Hilda Ogden (also Crabtree) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera '' Coronation Street'', one of the best-known of all the regular characters in the serial, whose name became synonymous with a classic hard-working Northern ...
in ''Coronation Street''.
2020 departure and off-screen death
On 20 February 2020, it was reported that Dot's appearance on 21 January 2020 was her last and that Brown had announced that she would "never go back" when she told the Distinct Nostalgia podcast, "I don't want a retainer for ''EastEnders'', I've left. I've left for good. I've sent her off to Ireland where she'll stay. I've left ''EastEnders''." A BBC statement said: "We never discuss artists' contracts, however as far as ''EastEnders'' are concerned the door remains open for June, as it always has if the story arises and if June wishes to take part."
It was also reported that Brown was due to attend a gathering of the cast and crew for the show's 35th anniversary in February 2020, that her dressing room was intact and that there were no plans, to the production team's knowledge, for Brown to leave the role permanently. Brown died in April 2022 without returning to the role of Dot.
In August 2022, it was announced that a storyline around Dot's death, including the character's funeral, would take place later in the year. The executive producer of ''EastEnders'', Chris Clenshaw, stated: "Everyone at ''EastEnders'' was truly heartbroken when June passed away earlier this year and, for quite a while, no-one could even think about saying goodbye to Dot – an iconic character who will go down in television history and be cherished forever. June was always adamant that she never wanted Dot's time to end while she was still with us, but she also knew that ''EastEnders'' would rightly say their farewells to Dot when the time was right. Sadly, that time has come and we are determined to give the audience, who treasured Dot for so many years, the fitting tribute that she so deeply deserves." "Dot" died in early Decembeer 2022, and her funeral, complete with a glass hearse drawn by black horses, was broadcast on 12 December, somewhat "later than advertised" after being delayed by the
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...
football
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
.
Reception
![June Brown](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/June_Brown.jpg)
According to author Pauline Frommer, Dot has been embraced by the viewing British population as a cultural
archetype
The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.
An archetype can be any of the following:
# a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ...
. Brown has suggested that Dot has universal appeal because everybody knows a person like Dot.
In 2009, a poll by magazine ''
Inside Soap'' named Dot as the UK's 'greatest gossip' in a soap opera.
Brown was nominated for the 'Best Actress'
BAFTA award for
Dot's single-hander ''EastEnders'' episode in 2009; she became the first soap actress nominated in the category since 1988, when
Jean Alexander
Jean Margaret Hodgkinson (11 October 1926 – 14 October 2016), known by the stage name Jean Alexander, was a British television actress. She was best known to television viewers for her long running role of Hilda Ogden in the soap opera ''Co ...
was shortlisted for her role as
Hilda Ogden
Hilda Ogden (also Crabtree) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera '' Coronation Street'', one of the best-known of all the regular characters in the serial, whose name became synonymous with a classic hard-working Northern ...
in ''
Coronation Street''.
The show's executive producer,
Diederick Santer
Diederick Santer (born 3 July 1969) is a British television producer and is best known for his work on the popular BBC television soap opera ''EastEnders'', a post which he assumed on 23 October 2006 and left on 1 March 2010. He was Chief Exec ...
, described Brown's BAFTA nomination as his proudest moment of 2009, saying: "I'm not one to complain to the referee, but it's beyond me why she didn't win. Week in, week out, she turns out amazing performances. The audience knew it and we knew it. With the greatest respect to the actress who won, you could hear the audience in the Royal Festival Hall that night sigh with disappointment. It was a missed opportunity by BAFTA – of which I'm a member – to connect with a big audience."
Brown has also won 'Best Actress' for her role as Dot at the
''Inside Soap'' Awards in 2001 and 2004,
as well as the 'Outstanding Achievement' award in 2003,
and 'Best Couple' in 2005 with
John Bardon
John Bardon (born John Michael Jones, 25 August 1939 – 12 September 2014) was an English stage and screen actor. He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 1988 (1987 season) for '' Kiss Me, Kate'', sharing the aw ...
, as Dot and Jim Branning.
She and Bardon also won 'Best On-Screen Partnership' at the
British Soap Awards
The British Soap Awards (BSAs) are an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom which honours the best moments in British soap operas. The ceremony is televised on ITV and has been presented by Phillip Schofield since 2006. The trophies gi ...
in both 2002 and 2005,
while in 2005, Brown won a 'Lifetime Achievement' award for her role, again at the British Soap Awards.
The role also resulted in several award nominations including a 'Most Popular Actress' nomination at the
National Television Awards
The National Television Awards (often shortened to NTAs) is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are vot ...
in 2005,
and a 'Best Actress' nomination at the 2007 ''
TV Quick
''TV Quick'' was a British weekly television listing magazine published by H Bauer Publishing, the UK subsidiary of family-run German company Bauer Media Group. It featured weekly television listings running from Saturday to Friday, and began pub ...
'' and ''TV Choice'' Awards among others.
Dot was also voted the 46th best television character in a television poll entitled ''The 100 Greatest Television Characters''.
At the time of the
2005 general election, Labour chiefs feared that an episode of ''EastEnders'' in which Dot learned to drive could distract viewers from voting. In the same year, Dot was criticised as revealing an anti-religious bias on the part of the BBC. Dr Indarjit Singh, editor of the ''Sikh Messenger'' and patron of the World Congress of Faiths suggested that Dot's endless quoting from the Bible served to ridicule religion.
The character has been cited as an example of anti-Christian bias in the media. The BBC were accused of portraying Christians as old-fashioned in 2008 after an episode aired in which Dot asked a gay, male couple to stop kissing. The BBC responded, "''EastEnders'' aims to reflect real life, and this means including and telling stories about characters from many different backgrounds, faiths, religions and sexualities." In a report to the BBC's Board of Governors in July 2004 regarding religion, Dot was used as an example of how religion can be portrayed as stereotypical "out-of-date and occasionally offensive" in drama and entertainment output, that Christian figures are highlighted because of their faith "rather than seen as normal people who also have a religious belief". It was suggested that some Christians think Dot "is made deliberately unappealing to audiences by her eccentric traits and hypocritical behaviour". However, it was also suggested that others think she is convincing.
Brown's single-hander episode of ''EastEnders'' received much critical acclaim. ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''
' Nancy Banks-Smith
Nancy Banks-Smith (born 1929) is a British television and radio critic, who spent most of her career writing for ''The Guardian''.
Life and career
Born in Manchester and raised in a pub, she was educated at Roedean School.
Banks-Smith began her ...
deemed Brown possibly the only member of the cast with the exception of
Barbara Windsor
Dame Barbara Windsor (born Barbara Ann Deeks; 6 August 193710 December 2020) was an English actress, known for her roles in the Carry On (franchise), ''Carry On'' films and for playing Peggy Mitchell in the BBC One soap opera, ''EastEnders''. (
Peggy Mitchell
Margaret Ann "Peggy" Mitchell (also Butcher) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. Peggy was initially played by Jo Warne when she first appeared in the episode broadcast on 30 April 1991, featuring in 10 episodes. ...
) capable of carrying such a monologue.
Robert Hanks for ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' wrote that "I don't ever remember hearing anybody on a soap talk like this before. I mean, like a real person, with real feelings, such as self-pity and a desperate urge for self-preservation. Brown conveyed the seedy gloom of it all beautifully, as well." Conversely, Tim Teeman posed the question in ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'': "I know she's a national institution and June Brown plays her like a dream, but was last night's Dot Cotton extravaganza really that great? Or even necessary?"
Teeman opined that: "Quite rightly, the producers want to eke as much gold out of the character and actress as possible: both are fantastic. But this was much-loved character overkill."
He deemed Dot a "soap icon",
however he also assessed that:
:This was a tour de force for sure – but an indulgent one. It didn't unlock anything substantially new to Dot.
..Far from making us care more about Dot – we do anyway, it was preaching to the converted – it was a little, well, dull. Boring even.
.. e episode revealed a nagging weakness: ''Coronation Street'' has a fine repertory of older characters and actors which gives the show its wonderful link to the past. ''In EastEnders'', the same gatekeeping roles are played by Dot and
Ian Beale
Ian Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Adam Woodyatt. He is the drama's longest-serving main character and, following the departure of Pauline Fowler ( Wendy Richard) in 2006, became the only one ...
: she is a jewel but, as she said, an all-too lonely one. Cherish her, absolutely, but don't turn her into a drag act.
''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
''
's Gerard O'Donovan agreed that "June Brown, as Dot, was mesmerising",
but was similarly critical of the episode as a whole, concluding: "Overall
..the feeling couldn't be avoided that in the greater scheme of things this was a fuss over nothing. Had it been a swan song, it would have been a worthy one. But doubtless Dot will be out and about again tonight, fag in hand, quoting from the Good Book. Enjoyable as this Albert Square indulgence was, I suspect that most fans will be hoping this one-hander remains a one-off."
Leigh Holmwood for ''The Guardian'' suggested that viewers may have agreed with O'Donovan's assessment, highlighting the fact that the episode received only 8.7 million viewers, compared to 9.4 million watching ''EastEnders'' the previous week. A 2003 episode centred around Dot also resulted in a notable ratings slump. The New Year episode, which detailed her childhood evacuation to the countryside, received just 8.1 million viewers, compared with 12.2m the previous evening and 16m on Christmas Day. Prior to this, however, a 2002
two-hander
A two-hander is a term for a play, film, or television programme with only two main characters. The two characters in question often display differences in social standing or experiences, differences that are explored and possibly overcome as ...
episode featuring just Dot and
Sonia Jackson (
Natalie Cassidy
Natalie Ann Cassidy (born 13 May 1983) is an English actress. She has played Sonia Fowler in ''EastEnders'' since 1993, appeared in the BBC Two sitcom-horror '' Psychoville'' and was a contestant on the seventh series of ''Strictly Come Dan ...
) was watched by 11.5 million viewers, with an almost 60% share of viewers in the timeslot.
In popular culture
The character of Dot Cotton has been
spoof
Spoof, spoofs, spoofer, or spoofing may refer to:
* Forgery of goods or documents
* Semen, in Australian slang
* Spoof (game), a guessing game
* Spoofing (finance), a disruptive algorithmic-trading tactic designed to manipulate markets
__NOTOC__ ...
ed in the
cartoon sketch show
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and i ...
''
2DTV
''2DTV'' is a British satirical animated television series which was co-created and produced by Giles Pilbrow for ITV. It premiered on ITV1 on 14 October 2001 and was nominated for the Rose d'Or Award in both 2002 and 2003.
The programme was co ...
''. She was also impersonated by
Alistair McGowan in his television series ''
Big Impression
''The Big Impression'', known as ''Alistair McGowan's Big Impression'' for the first three series, is a British comedy sketch show. It features Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona impersonating personalities from entertainment and sport. Four serie ...
''. As part of the sketch, Dot and her son Nick were morphed into a version of the sitcom duo ''
Steptoe and Son
''Steptoe and Son'' is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business in 26a Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC in black and w ...
''. McGowan stated in 2001 that Dot was his favourite impression, because he "looks a bit like her".
Dot's old-fashioned style of dress has been likened to the clothing collection of
Prada's designer,
Miuccia Prada. Dot has been said to have inspired clothing and hairstyles and has been quoted by various fashion professionals as a style icon. She has also inspired
catwalk
A fashion show (French ''défilé de mode'') is an event put on by a fashion designer to showcase their upcoming line of clothing and/or accessories during a fashion week. Fashion shows debut every season, particularly the Spring/Summer and Fal ...
themes, such as that of aspiring designer Hollie Luxton in 2007, who stated, "I wanted to capture the nostalgia of the bygone days and play with the idea of clothing coming out of the wash misshapen and faded."
Dot's long-suffering, luckless life has also led to her being labelled as a gay icon by Tim Lusher of the ''
Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format.
In October 2009, after be ...
''. The monthly Dot Cotton Club, a gay club night in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
, is named in her honour.
Dot is a notable smoker on British television as she regularly appears on-screen smoking. The character is so synonymous with smoking that the term "Dot Cotton syndrome" is used within the health industry to: "describe the elderly population who continue to smoke heavily without registering the health problems they are or will soon suffer from, seeing it as their only pleasure left in life".
Impressionist
Francine Lewis performed an impression of Dot Cotton in the
seventh series of ''
Britain's Got Talent
''Britain's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated to ''BGT'') is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloqui ...
''. During 2003, a promotional advertisement for the BBC featuring a character, Fizz, from the children's television programme ''
The Tweenies
''Tweenies'' is a British live action Puppet children's television series created by Will Brenton and Iain Lauchlan. The programme is focused on four pre-school aged characters, known as the "Tweenies", playing, singing, dancing, and learning ...
'' pulling off a mask and morphing into Dot received complaints. Parents complained that their children were having nightmares and the BBC subsequently moved back the screening times.
In the BBC drama ''
Line of Duty'' one of the prominent detectives in series 1–3, Matthew Cottan, is nicknamed "Dot", on account of his surname.
See also
*
List of EastEnders characters (1985)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotton, Dot
EastEnders characters
Television characters introduced in 1985
Fictional managers
Fictional hypochondriacs
Fictional characters with cancer
Female characters in television
Crossover characters in television
Fictional prisoners and detainees
Manslaughter
Fictional cannabis users