'I've had a lot more love affairs than Dot Cotton' reveals EastEnders legend June Brown as she turns 90
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With a rebellious glint in her eye, and dressed in an elegant outfit adorned with a string of pearls, she looks almost regal. It’s a far cry from washer woman Dot Cotton.
For 32 years, June Brown has played gossiping, chain smoking busybody Dot, one of soap’s best loved roles.
But in a rare interview, given to the BBC in celebration of her 90th birthday tomorrow, June is at pains to point out she is not like her EastEnders’ character.
Funny, eccentric, straight-talking, bossy and a little bit naughty, June’s sparkling personality and wit shines through as she reminisces about her life and career.
(Photo: Rex Features)
From her classical training at the Old Vic theatre school and living it up in London in the 1940s and 50s, to clinching the role of Dot (“because I was punctual”), and uttering her first words in the soap: “Give us a tea, Lofty. And a glass of water so I can take a paracetamol.”
June also reveals that fate may have been pointing her towards Walford.
June on... acting
I never wanted to be an actress. I wanted to go into the medical professional. Acting was not important enough. That was a hobby – nothing to do with what you did in life.
(Photo: WireImage)
In the end it was all chance, most of life is chance. My sister happened to look at The Times, and there was advertised the Old Vic theatre school. I wrote, I suppose, and got an audition. They said I was in, so I burst into tears, because in those days I cried when I was happy and I cried when I was sad.
Life before Walford
The Old Vic is special to me because that’s where I began. I lived in New Bond Street in London in a flat that cost £4.20 a week.
I split the rent with friends. We used to go to concerts, theatres, we went to the Proms. I wish it were September 1948 and I wish I were 21 again.
(Photo: Rex Features)
I’ve been thinking lately and just wondering – you do when you get older. You look back at what you’ve done and how you’ve behaved. I remember playing Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, I really loved that role. I was very fortunate in my looks.
I was also Judi Dench’s sidekick Doris in a play at the National Theatre. I love the stage – it’s alive.
EastEnders
By the time it got to EastEnders I’d had a dreadful year. I’d had about three jobs, that’s all. And suddenly this audition came up. I think I got the job because I was punctual and liked a cigarette. I was doing A Christmas Carol down the road at the BBC, some piddling part, and I said: “Well, I can’t stop long because I mustn’t be late.” And she said: “I wish all actors were like you.”
(Photo: Rex Features)
The truth is I’m not really a punctual person. One of my drivers Dave used to say: “Will it be real time or June time?” I’d say: “Most likely June time”, which is 10 minutes afterwards.
I’d also had my horoscope done, and the gentleman said that on a certain date I would have a spectacular success. And that was May 31, 1985, and that turned out to be the first day I was in EastEnders.
Dot
When I first saw the script, I thought: “I can’t play that, it’s a list of illnesses.” So to develop the character I had to think about why she was a hypochondriac.
I thought it was because she has no one who really loves her...
(Photo: WireImage)
In the early days, I’d get a scene and think “I don’t think Dot would behave like that”. But I’d try it, and that was interesting as she’d do something unexpected. I loved it when Dot got hysterical. But I was never very good at instant crying... I think my tear ducts are blocked now.
But I say: “It’s not my job to cry, it’s my job to make the audience cry.” I don’t know what’s going to happen to Dot now. She’s lost her job, so she’s lost her raison d’etre. It’s very hard to argue if the writers decide to make a change, but I’m a fighter, a terrier.
I try to twist them round a little. I am very bossy. I think I can do things better than other people, which is dreadful.
The question everyone asks
People ask if I’m like Dot. But there’s not an awful lot of me in Dot. Dot’s got quite a high opinion of herself, I don’t think I have. Also, I’m not a gossip.
(Photo: BBC)
In my life – and Dot certainly wasn’t like this – I did have a lot of love affairs.
The only way I am like Dot is in my feelings about spirituality.
Fame
When I started in EastEnders it was already huge. We used to go out together, the cast, and go to nightclubs and we could go anywhere. It was lovely.
EastEnders gave me a huge amount of confidence to do other things. I got the opportunity to be in Calendar Girls in the West End.
I was the only one who took all my clothes off for the photoshoot.
Ethel (played by Gretchen Franklin)
Gretchen was a very witty person, and very naughty... in many ways. I heard that how she looked upon me, as a new person arriving in episode 40, was as a rival.
Wendy Richard said to her: “When you and June are together on the screen, you’re like two bulls.” And Gretchen thought: “Oh, I can work with her.” From that moment on, she did.
We always concentrated on each other, that was the secret. But she would never admit that we worked well together. In the scene where [Ethel is] dying and I had to give her the pills, there’s a line: “You’re my best friend, Dot.”
And Gretchen said: “I’m not going to say that.” But when it came to it she did. She couldn’t admit she did actually love me quite a lot.
Nasty Nick (John Altman)
I loved working with the lovely Johnny. When he went off touring with the production of Chicago, he would find launderettes and pose outside. He used to send me cards from all over the place from “Nick”.
Dot used to say Nick was a tower of strength, even when he had a knife to her. I used to get letters from children who wanted me to be their mother because they wanted this mother who would protect them from all their misdoings. A mother who would never let her son down.
June's life and times
June was born in Suffolk on February 16, 1927, one of five children, although two died in childhood.
During the Second World War she was evacuated, later serving in the Women’s Royal Naval Service.
She married actor John Garley in 1950. He committed suicide in 1957.
(Photo: BBC)
In 1958 she married actor Robert Arnold, and together they had six children – although their second daughter died after 16 days. After 45 years of marriage, Arnold died in 2003. June now lives alone in Surrey.
Before EastEnders, she had small roles in shows including Coronation Street, The Sweeney and The Bill.
In 2008, the year she was awarded an MBE, June pulled off a first in a British soap when her character, Dot, was the only one to appear in an entire episode.