0:00:19 > 0:00:21She's a lady of immense experience, you know?
0:00:21 > 0:00:23She's a lady of the world.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26OK, guys. Here we go. Let's stand by for rehearsal.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29Getting to 90 is an achievement in itself.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33Getting to 90 and working in this industry,
0:00:33 > 0:00:35erm, is something remarkable,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38and June is still there, right up at the top.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41You know, she's just an amazing...an amazing lady.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43- Shall we have a look at it on camera?- Yes, of course.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45- Is that all right, my darling? - Yes, darling.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47I've worked with some very famous people over the years,
0:00:47 > 0:00:51and very powerful people, very good actors...
0:00:51 > 0:00:53There's just something about her that, you know, she...
0:00:53 > 0:00:55You go, "Wow."
0:00:56 > 0:01:00Hello, Jim. It's me, Dorothy.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04'It's very difficult to talk about Dot without thinking of June.'
0:01:04 > 0:01:08Do you realise, Jim, we'd have been married six years soon?
0:01:08 > 0:01:09Who would believe it?
0:01:09 > 0:01:12You just can't imagine Dot Cotton as anybody else, really.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15I've got to face facts - with my nerves, I've got to smoke.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17You silly little man!
0:01:17 > 0:01:19- DOT CACKLES - Dorothy...
0:01:19 > 0:01:20She made that character.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22Everything you see is what June added herself.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25All those little bits like the cigarette, the...you know,
0:01:25 > 0:01:28and the way the curl came in her hair - that's what she wanted.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32Jim, it is important that we find out what the youth of today
0:01:32 > 0:01:35is doing with themselves. I don't want...
0:01:35 > 0:01:38Ooh, I say.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40Oh, and you'd better change the bedding as well.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43'She has turned Dot into an icon.'
0:01:43 > 0:01:46She created Dot out of nothing, and she has kept Dot going,
0:01:46 > 0:01:50with all her, you know, little bits and bobs that she has,
0:01:50 > 0:01:54for 30-odd years, and that is... that's incredible.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59People ask me if I'm like Dot.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01SHE LAUGHS
0:02:01 > 0:02:05There's not an awful lot of me in Dot, I don't think.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07I don't take her home with me.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09I'm not one of those who lives the part.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12That's an amateur... That's a very, very amateur approach.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16I'm trying to think how I'm different...
0:02:17 > 0:02:21She's got quite a high opinion of herself, actually, Dot,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24and I don't think I have.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Now, you want to tell your children what I used to tell my Nick.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31"Nick," I used to say, "just be a little discriminating.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34"Remember at all times that you come from a good home
0:02:34 > 0:02:37"and don't let yourself be tempted by low types."
0:02:37 > 0:02:39She's very pleased with herself.
0:02:39 > 0:02:40Oh, I say.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43And I suppose I have been happy often in my life...
0:02:43 > 0:02:45Ah, not like Dot.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47What have I done?
0:02:47 > 0:02:49I'm not a gossip.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53I talk about people, people's situation and things,
0:02:53 > 0:02:55but only because I care about them and I'm concerned about them.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58I would have gone round theirs but I didn't want to interfere,
0:02:58 > 0:03:00cos you know me, Carol, I ain't one to pry.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02It's Jim what's curious.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05In my life, and Dot certainly wasn't like this,
0:03:05 > 0:03:08I did have a lot of love affairs.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10Why is it, Ethel, that men,
0:03:10 > 0:03:12even religious men who collect Bibles,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15can only think of the one thing?
0:03:15 > 0:03:22'The only way I am like Dot is in my feelings about spirituality,
0:03:22 > 0:03:27'only they are rather advanced for Dot -
0:03:27 > 0:03:28'but, apart from that,'
0:03:28 > 0:03:33I'm not...really like Dot at all, I don't think.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41I wanted to go into the medical profession in some way or other.
0:03:41 > 0:03:43Acting wasn't important enough to think about,
0:03:43 > 0:03:45and that was a hobby -
0:03:45 > 0:03:48that was nothing to do with what you did in life.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53It was all chance. Most of life is chance, or some people's.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55Mine certainly was.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58The bar, I was going into the bar...
0:03:58 > 0:04:00I wonder why. SHE CHUCKLES
0:04:00 > 0:04:03'My sister happened to look at the Times,'
0:04:03 > 0:04:07and there it was advertised, the Old Vic Theatre School.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11I wrote, I suppose, and I got an audition.
0:04:11 > 0:04:12They said, "Well, yes, you are in,"
0:04:12 > 0:04:14so I burst into tears,
0:04:14 > 0:04:17because in those days I cried when I was happy
0:04:17 > 0:04:20and I cried when I was sad.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23'The Noel Coward Theatre is very special to me
0:04:23 > 0:04:25'because it's where I began,'
0:04:25 > 0:04:28and it was one of the happiest times of my life.
0:04:33 > 0:04:39I wish it were September 1948,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42and I wish I were 21 again.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47I landed up living in New Bond Street,
0:04:47 > 0:04:53and the flat cost £4.20 to you, four guineas, erm...
0:04:53 > 0:04:58a week, and we shared it and we paid £1.35 each rent.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02We used to go to concerts and we went to the Proms,
0:05:02 > 0:05:05and, yeah, we went to theatres.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09I love the stage.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11You see, it's alive, this theatre.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14It's had live words spoken in, live reactions -
0:05:14 > 0:05:16everything's been live.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19I just want to act, you see.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21I really do.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26SHE CHUCKLES
0:05:26 > 0:05:28I've been thinking lately and just wondering.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30You do - as you get older, you...
0:05:30 > 0:05:34you look back at what you've done and how you've behaved,
0:05:34 > 0:05:35and it-it-it...
0:05:35 > 0:05:39You do take an inventory of yourself in a funny way.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Oh, The Taming Of The Shrew.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44Well, I'd had five children by this time,
0:05:44 > 0:05:48and I got this offer to go to Sweden to do a tour.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50There we all are. SHE LAUGHS
0:05:50 > 0:05:52I think that's me.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54I don't know what all these things are.
0:05:54 > 0:05:55What's that one?
0:05:55 > 0:05:59Oh, that was at the Royal Court.
0:05:59 > 0:06:00That's Coronation Street.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02That is whoever I was...
0:06:02 > 0:06:04Oh, Mrs Parsons!
0:06:04 > 0:06:06There's Nannie Slagg.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08I enjoyed Gormenghast.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13That was very difficult, that hat, because it was so vast.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15I'm a doctor, you know. SHE LAUGHS
0:06:15 > 0:06:17I don't know what I'm a doctor of.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20I must ask them one day.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23Now, that's another lovely part I played, Hedda -
0:06:23 > 0:06:24Hedda Gabler.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26I really loved that.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30I was very fortunate in my looks, shall we say? Yeah.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32That's the National. It was a lovely play.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37It was with... Judi Dench played in it and I played Judi's sidekick.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39Doris I think my name was.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41I always had the most interesting names -
0:06:41 > 0:06:46Doris, and I had several Dorothys and Ednas and...
0:06:46 > 0:06:47Oh, dear.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51That's me doing... Now, I directed that and also played her.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54It was all about sex toys.
0:06:54 > 0:06:56Ooh, yes, it's quite lewd, isn't it?
0:06:56 > 0:06:58But it was very funny.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02The only one I was REALLY naked in was Calendar Girls.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06I was the only one who actually took all my clothes off
0:07:06 > 0:07:08in the naked scene for the photographs.
0:07:08 > 0:07:09SHE LAUGHS
0:07:09 > 0:07:11That's my favourite one of Dot,
0:07:11 > 0:07:14but it's the baby's face that I like!
0:07:14 > 0:07:17"Will it be me?", he's saying. SHE LAUGHS
0:07:17 > 0:07:20MUSIC: EastEnders Theme by Simon May and Leslie Osborne
0:07:23 > 0:07:27By the time it got to EastEnders, I'd had a dreadful year.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31I'd had about three jobs in that year, that's all - nothing -
0:07:31 > 0:07:34and suddenly this audition for EastEnders came up.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42I think I got the job because I was punctual.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45I was doing A Christmas Carol, some piddling part -
0:07:45 > 0:07:46I shouldn't use that word -
0:07:46 > 0:07:49in A Christmas Carol at the BBC down the road,
0:07:49 > 0:07:53and I said, "Well, I can't stop long because I mustn't be late."
0:07:53 > 0:07:55And she said, "I wish all actors were like you,"
0:07:55 > 0:07:58when I'm not really a very punctual person.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02There's time, and, as one of my drivers, Dave, used to say,
0:08:02 > 0:08:05"Is it real time, June, or June time?"
0:08:05 > 0:08:08And I should say, "Most likely June time,"
0:08:08 > 0:08:10which is ten minutes afterwards.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13So, erm... And I think that's why I got the job, really.
0:08:13 > 0:08:18The character actually existed before June even came along
0:08:18 > 0:08:21to play her, because she was mentioned by Pauline.
0:08:21 > 0:08:22Pauline was moaning about Dot,
0:08:22 > 0:08:26and was moaning about Dot through the first...15, 20 weeks.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30I've got to get these Servis washers sorted before Dot gets here.
0:08:30 > 0:08:35And it wasn't until about episode 40 that we actually saw...Dot,
0:08:35 > 0:08:38but, because she'd been mentioned, we were already familiar with her.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41We already knew she was a hypochondriac.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43We already knew that she was always going to Dr Legg's.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45We knew about her son Nick.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47So, we felt we knew her before she'd even turned up,
0:08:47 > 0:08:52and when she did turn up, June just created this incredible
0:08:52 > 0:08:56character that she has stayed true to...ever since.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59Give us a tea, love, will you?
0:08:59 > 0:09:02And a glass of water so I can take a paracetamol.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04Can you hang on a second, Dot?
0:09:04 > 0:09:06Only, we're heavily involved in things mechanical over here.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09But my head feels as though a circular saw's going through it.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14I got a script, you see, and it was a series of illnesses,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17and I thought, "I can't play a list of illnesses."
0:09:17 > 0:09:19You know, "I've got this here pain, it goes up here,
0:09:19 > 0:09:21"it comes down there and goes down me back.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23"And then there's...this," and I thought...
0:09:23 > 0:09:25And then I thought, "Well, why? What can I do?"
0:09:25 > 0:09:31And I thought, "Well, she is a hypochondriac,
0:09:31 > 0:09:34"and she's always worried about her illness. Why?
0:09:34 > 0:09:37"Because nobody loves her.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40"Her husband comes and goes, steals her money, her jewellery.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42"Her son, the same -
0:09:42 > 0:09:44"he threatens her with a knife and all sorts of things -
0:09:44 > 0:09:47"and she has no-one who really loves her."
0:09:47 > 0:09:49DRAWER CLATTERS
0:09:49 > 0:09:52If it's money you're after, you're looking in the wrong place.
0:09:52 > 0:09:53Ma.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56Nah, nah, nah. I was just looking for something.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58- Oh, yeah? - Yeah, something I left behind.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00- And what might that be? - It was an address.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02- It must have fallen out of my pocket or something.- What? Into the drawer?
0:10:02 > 0:10:06- Probably fallen down the back of the chair.- Oh, Nick, stop it.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09"My Nick was a tower of strength," she'd say.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12And they'd seen him, you'd seen him threaten her with a knife,
0:10:12 > 0:10:14you know, but she covered up for him all the time.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17In fact, I used to get letters from children who really wanted me
0:10:17 > 0:10:20to be their mother, because they wanted this mother who would
0:10:20 > 0:10:24protect them from all their misdoings, you know.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28And this mother who'd never let her son down,
0:10:28 > 0:10:31never, never question whether...
0:10:31 > 0:10:35Never said anything about him to anybody else. Protected him.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39I won't trouble you again, I promise.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44Well, that should be enough.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46Well, it'll have to be cos it's all I've got.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48Oh...
0:10:48 > 0:10:52Well, it's what you came for, ain't it? Now you've got it, you can go.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54My lovely John Altman, my Nick,
0:10:54 > 0:10:58he used to go round on his tour, Chicago and things,
0:10:58 > 0:11:00frightfully good he was in Chicago,
0:11:00 > 0:11:04and he'd find these launderettes and he'd pose outside them,
0:11:04 > 0:11:10and he used to send me lovely cards as Nick, all misspelt, you know.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12"And has me dole cheque come?"
0:11:12 > 0:11:15You know... SHE LAUGHS
0:11:15 > 0:11:17"I think I'm getting better with me spilling."
0:11:17 > 0:11:23You know, and always spelling "your son", you know, "Y-O-R-E S-U-N".
0:11:23 > 0:11:25You know, "Yore sun, Nick."
0:11:27 > 0:11:28Hello, Ma.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35So...
0:11:35 > 0:11:38Now, I was just about to do some of these cards,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41but I'm very, very behind.
0:11:43 > 0:11:45There you are.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47June, I heard them call you on set.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49Oh, are they? SHE LAUGHS
0:11:49 > 0:11:53Well, if they're ready for me, I'm not ready for them.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58There was quite a simple thing that used to go on in EastEnders -
0:11:58 > 0:12:01normal sorts of conversation between two actors who'd talk
0:12:01 > 0:12:06quite loudly to each other, quite normally, and that was what it was.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09Cos people like you don't get all that many chances.
0:12:09 > 0:12:10Like me?
0:12:10 > 0:12:11Yes, old misery guts.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14'Gretchen was a very witty person.'
0:12:14 > 0:12:16She was a very naughty person as well in many ways,
0:12:16 > 0:12:18and she didn't really...
0:12:18 > 0:12:21Actually, I heard that how she looked upon me,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24a new character arriving, was as a rival.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26I was coming to see you.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29- What for? - About your carnival costume.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31We had a scene together in the pub,
0:12:31 > 0:12:34and Wendy said to her, Wendy Richard, she said,
0:12:34 > 0:12:40"When you and June are together on the screen, you are like two bulls."
0:12:40 > 0:12:46And Gretchen thought, "Oh. Oh! I can work with that."
0:12:46 > 0:12:48You know, I thought it'd be such a waste,
0:12:48 > 0:12:50you know, me being a genuine Walfordian,
0:12:50 > 0:12:54and I didn't want you getting up on that float and people pointing at you.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56Well, why should they do that?
0:12:56 > 0:12:59Well, I mean, you might get the period wrong,
0:12:59 > 0:13:01and I know all there is to know about Walford in 1936.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03- So do I.- Not as much as me.
0:13:03 > 0:13:04- I do.- You don't.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07- I do.- You don't.- I do!
0:13:07 > 0:13:10After that outburst, I suppose you don't need my help.
0:13:10 > 0:13:11No...
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Oh, very well, then - I shall offer my services elsewhere.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18From that moment on, she worked with me, and what we did,
0:13:18 > 0:13:21we always concentrated on each other.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23That is really the secret.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27Oh, dear God, forgive us and especially me!
0:13:27 > 0:13:29And, of course, dear Ethel,
0:13:29 > 0:13:31who is a simple soul. DOT SOBS
0:13:31 > 0:13:34- Did you get the fig rolls? - DOT SCREAMS
0:13:34 > 0:13:36"Oh, I thought you was dead," says Dot.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39Well, it was lovely. It was...
0:13:39 > 0:13:40Well, it was...
0:13:40 > 0:13:43That was what I miss, that sort of...
0:13:43 > 0:13:45That sort of drama -
0:13:45 > 0:13:48not the drama of rape and arson and murder,
0:13:48 > 0:13:54but the drama of a situation, you know, just between two people.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56DOT MOANS
0:13:57 > 0:13:59I thought you was...
0:13:59 > 0:14:00Thought I was what?
0:14:00 > 0:14:02I thought you was dead!
0:14:02 > 0:14:06I'm not ready to go yet. I've only just drawn me pension.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08I was frightened!
0:14:08 > 0:14:10She was very hysterical at times, Dot.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14I loved it when Dot went hysterical, you see.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16It is...
0:14:16 > 0:14:19It's nice to have a character with a few more than one facet,
0:14:19 > 0:14:22that's the point, and I think what happened in the early days,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24I'd get a scene and I'd think,
0:14:24 > 0:14:26"I don't think Dot behaves like that."
0:14:26 > 0:14:31And then I'd think, "Well, I'll try it. I'll see if I can work it in."
0:14:31 > 0:14:34So that Dot then began to do things that were unexpected
0:14:34 > 0:14:36of her character,
0:14:36 > 0:14:38and that is also interesting,
0:14:38 > 0:14:41if her character isn't always the same.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46Gretchen and I actually worked together extremely well
0:14:46 > 0:14:47and enjoyed it.
0:14:47 > 0:14:49She wouldn't ever admit that.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51She had her line where she was dying,
0:14:51 > 0:14:54when Dot had given her the medication, you know,
0:14:54 > 0:14:58the pills, where she had to say, "You're my best friend, Dot."
0:14:58 > 0:15:00And she said to me, "I'm not going to say that,"
0:15:00 > 0:15:02but when it came to it...
0:15:04 > 0:15:05You know who you are?
0:15:07 > 0:15:12You're the best friend I ever had.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14- DOT SIGHS - There.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17Oh...
0:15:18 > 0:15:21She couldn't admit that she actually did love me quite a lot,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24Gretchen, you know, but I knew that it was...
0:15:24 > 0:15:27It was her character - it's what she was.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Once in a wonderful blue moon,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39you get that part so completely right
0:15:39 > 0:15:42that you don't have to act it any more, it acts itself,
0:15:42 > 0:15:46and it happened to Natalie, who plays Sonia.
0:15:46 > 0:15:47I've done a terrible thing.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50She had a scene with me, it was years ago,
0:15:50 > 0:15:52and we had more or less a two-hander,
0:15:52 > 0:15:56because she'd stolen back her baby that had been adopted,
0:15:56 > 0:15:59until suddenly we were in a bedroom and she'd picked up Dot's Bible.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01Here it is!
0:16:01 > 0:16:03Why don't you find the bit that says this is the right thing to do?
0:16:03 > 0:16:06- It is!- Of course it is, because it said so!
0:16:06 > 0:16:09So we should all do as we're told and believe every word!
0:16:09 > 0:16:12It's nothing! It's a bunch of cliches!
0:16:12 > 0:16:14'She suddenly got so much tension.'
0:16:14 > 0:16:17She flung this Bible down, and at the end she said,
0:16:17 > 0:16:19"What happened, June?"
0:16:19 > 0:16:22And I said, "You had a second consciousness."
0:16:22 > 0:16:23It quite frightened me.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26I was taken aback by what she did, you know.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29How could you do that? This is me Bible.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32I was no longer an actress, you know, it was...
0:16:32 > 0:16:34Dot not knowing what had happened, but...
0:16:34 > 0:16:37So, it happened to Nat, she didn't know what it was,
0:16:37 > 0:16:39but I knew what it was.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41I think working with June Brown on set is
0:16:41 > 0:16:45a completely different experience from working with anybody here,
0:16:45 > 0:16:48down to the fact that, yeah, she is very old school,
0:16:48 > 0:16:52extremely professional, and knows how she wants to play the scene,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55and I think, with June, as long as it's truthful, and everything
0:16:55 > 0:16:58she does she believes in, you'll get the best performances.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00You can't tell me what's right or wrong or what to do with Chloe,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03- because you've never really lived. - And you have?!
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Television, to me, is like instant coffee, you know,
0:17:06 > 0:17:08as opposed to the real thing,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12and I'm not very good at instant things like that,
0:17:12 > 0:17:14you know, because you...
0:17:14 > 0:17:17Some people are very fortunate, they've only got to look at a light
0:17:17 > 0:17:19and they've got tears there in their eyes.
0:17:19 > 0:17:20Now, I can't do that.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23I have cried in EastEnders.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27I think my tear...ducts are blocked now, cos I hardly ever do,
0:17:27 > 0:17:31but I get over it, cos I say, "Well, it's not my job to cry -
0:17:31 > 0:17:34"it's my job to make the audience cry."
0:17:34 > 0:17:35Which is true.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39SPOON CLANKS
0:17:44 > 0:17:46SPOON CHIMES TWICE
0:17:47 > 0:17:49I had a whole episode to myself...
0:17:49 > 0:17:52DOT EXHALES
0:17:52 > 0:17:56..but the only reason that it happened was because
0:17:56 > 0:17:58John Bardon had had a stroke -
0:17:58 > 0:18:02the actor who played my husband, Dot's husband, Jim.
0:18:04 > 0:18:05Hello, Jim.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09It's me, Dorothy.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12I'm sitting here in the kitchen and I'm talking to you.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16You won't be able to see me, just hear me,
0:18:16 > 0:18:18so I suppose I could be anywhere, really,
0:18:18 > 0:18:19but I'm not.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23I'm in the kitchen at the table.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25'I couldn't wait to do it. I was like,'
0:18:25 > 0:18:27you know, a greyhound in the slips.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31I was holding on to a fire or whatever I've got, a radio or...
0:18:31 > 0:18:34Oh, the recorder, with props there, you know, saying...
0:18:34 > 0:18:38waiting to give it to me, saying, "Come on, come on, come on."
0:18:38 > 0:18:40You know? Oh, no...
0:18:40 > 0:18:42They didn't hear me - that was just to myself.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46"Come on, come on, come on. Get a move on. You know, come on."
0:18:46 > 0:18:48You know, I loved doing it. I loved doing it.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51I mean, it's... To an actor, it's a pleasure to have a lot to say.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53I can't be like Ethel.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55I'm frightened of showing me emotions.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59I'm frightened of letting anyone in, cos every time I do...
0:18:59 > 0:19:01I lose 'em!
0:19:02 > 0:19:05And how do I explain that?
0:19:05 > 0:19:06'I really enjoyed it,'
0:19:06 > 0:19:07but it was... You see, this is...
0:19:07 > 0:19:10People used to say, "It must have been very difficult."
0:19:10 > 0:19:11And I thought, "No, it was really easy."
0:19:11 > 0:19:15Cos you could answer yourself, and you can time it for yourself,
0:19:15 > 0:19:17and you could leave a pause as long as you wanted,
0:19:17 > 0:19:19and you could come right in on yourself.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23You could... In other words, you could direct yourself. SHE LAUGHS
0:19:25 > 0:19:31For that single-hander, I was actually nominated for a Bafta.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34The nominees for actress include a poignant monologue that
0:19:34 > 0:19:38showed us the hidden layers of a much-loved EastEnders character.
0:19:38 > 0:19:45The Bafta at the time was the height of approval,
0:19:45 > 0:19:46as it were.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49If you won a Bafta, it meant something.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51It meant you were a proper actress.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54- APPLAUSE - And the Bafta goes to...
0:19:55 > 0:19:57..Anna Maxwell Martin for Poppy Shakespeare.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59CHEERING
0:19:59 > 0:20:01'I was a bit disappointed.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04'I would have liked to have got it, quite honestly.'
0:20:04 > 0:20:05I don't think so much of it now,
0:20:05 > 0:20:10because suddenly they're giving awards for public choice and...
0:20:10 > 0:20:13and reality TV and...
0:20:13 > 0:20:15and that's not acting.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18They don't do that for films, do they?
0:20:22 > 0:20:24I've got a Nafta instead.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26A silver face made of tinfoil,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29and my daughters had made it for me -
0:20:29 > 0:20:32Lou, Soph, and maybe Naomi.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34My granddaughter had it put on her face,
0:20:34 > 0:20:38and we poked one eye out, which is there, and...
0:20:38 > 0:20:41and stuck it on a cigarette as its stand,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45and in one of those things for moths with a hole in - that was the base.
0:20:45 > 0:20:50And that is in the case with the Baftas at EastEnders
0:20:50 > 0:20:51to this very day.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58When I came in, EastEnders was already incredibly famous.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01I'd never seen anything like it.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04We used to go out together and we'd go to nightclubs,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07and we could get in anywhere because we were EastEnders.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11It was lovely, but you didn't think about being a star.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14Please welcome the unique June Brown!
0:21:14 > 0:21:15CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:21:15 > 0:21:17June Brown is here, alias Dot Cotton.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19So this is June Brown.
0:21:19 > 0:21:20Please welcome June Brown.
0:21:20 > 0:21:21June Brown!
0:21:21 > 0:21:23APPLAUSE
0:21:24 > 0:21:29I got, actually, quite happy about doing interviews...
0:21:29 > 0:21:31I think I've got a turn coming on. LAUGHTER
0:21:31 > 0:21:34..and I'd always try to think of something different, you know.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36I still want to play Cleopatra.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:21:39 > 0:21:42I wouldn't have been able to have done any of this
0:21:42 > 0:21:45if I hadn't done EastEnders,
0:21:45 > 0:21:46if I hadn't acted Dot.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50That gave me an enormous amount of confidence,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54therefore I was already liked as a character wherever I went,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57to do a PA or a chat show.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00I was... I already had the audience with me.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03- There you go.- You look so amazing. - I'm just going to show my legs.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05LADY GAGA SQUEALS, AUDIENCE CHEERS
0:22:05 > 0:22:09And so you... You were able to say whatever you liked
0:22:09 > 0:22:12and...and...and be funny and amusing
0:22:12 > 0:22:16or, erm, say slightly outrageous things,
0:22:16 > 0:22:17because of that confidence.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19Shall I come and sit on your knee?
0:22:19 > 0:22:21- LAUGHTER AND CHEERING - You probably want to...
0:22:21 > 0:22:23'Gretchen said to me one day,'
0:22:23 > 0:22:26"We're not stars, June - we're household names."
0:22:26 > 0:22:29And then she named two soap powders. "Like," she said...
0:22:29 > 0:22:31I can't name them, but that's what she said.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34- I'm annoying you? - Leave her alone - she's a star!
0:22:34 > 0:22:36I talk about being well-known.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39I never talk about anything more than that.
0:22:44 > 0:22:46I don't know what's going to happen to her now.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49DOOR SLAMS She lost her job,
0:22:49 > 0:22:53so she's lost her raison d'etre, as it were,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56and you would find that very difficult.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58You have to have a house. You have to have a position.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00You have to have a place, a job.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04You should really have a job in EastEnders - that was the point.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08But it is very difficult to go against the writing.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11If they decide to change you or the writers change,
0:23:11 > 0:23:15not deliberately, or just that's what happens, and...
0:23:15 > 0:23:17But I am a great fighter.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20I'm very much a terrier.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22I try to twist 'em round a little.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26There is a way of twisting. It's just the way you say it.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29It ain't what you say, it's the way what you say it, you know, it's...
0:23:29 > 0:23:32It's that, so I must admit to that.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35I'm very bossy, really.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39I think I can do things better than other people, which is dreadful,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43but they know I'm like that, so it's no surprise to them,
0:23:43 > 0:23:45the bosses.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51My first day in EastEnders wasn't on set, it was...
0:23:51 > 0:23:53- MAN:- I'm sorry to interrupt.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55I've got a flower delivery here for...
0:23:55 > 0:24:01a June Cotton Dorothy Brown, or is it Dorothy Branning?
0:24:01 > 0:24:04I've... I've gone and mixed the name up, rather.
0:24:04 > 0:24:05Erm, sorry to interrupt.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08- Who is it? - It's Johnny.- Not Johnny!
0:24:08 > 0:24:10- Oh, it isn't!- Mwah!
0:24:10 > 0:24:12- You didn't tell me.- No, I forgot.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16- There we are.- Well, it's a lovely bouquet.- It's not bad, is it?
0:24:16 > 0:24:18YORKSHIRE ACCENT: I must say, it's a great bouquet.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21- No, it's beautiful, darling. - You're looking lovely.
0:24:21 > 0:24:23- Oh, mate, come on. Concentrate. - Another one there, sweetheart.
0:24:23 > 0:24:25Well, I can't operate in a mess, June.
0:24:25 > 0:24:26I mean, I'm bad enough talking all the time.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29- If it's all untidy, huh?- Get a... - You see these cufflinks?
0:24:29 > 0:24:31They were my farewell present from EastEnders.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34- Were they?- Yeah, in 2015. - I never saw them give you anything.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36Oh, you must have missed it.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39Well, you were dead at the time!
0:24:39 > 0:24:42Yes, but the summer of '85, June, wasn't it, when we met?
0:24:42 > 0:24:43Oh, it was lovely.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46Yeah, the year Dot, as I call it, when you arrived.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49- Yeah, was it, actually? It was '85? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.- May.
0:24:49 > 0:24:50Yeah, yeah.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52May the 31st.
0:24:52 > 0:24:58And I'd had my horoscope done by a rather good Indian gentleman,
0:24:58 > 0:25:00- who was a diplomat...- Mmm.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04..and he'd said that on a certain date, when this happened to that,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08when a certain planet, Saturn, reached my Midheaven,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11I would have a spectacular success,
0:25:11 > 0:25:13and that was May the 31st,
0:25:13 > 0:25:16- and that was the first day I was in EastEnders.- Hmm...
0:25:16 > 0:25:19- Extraordinary.- It's amazing.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21I've got a lovely Polaroid of us two, standing under
0:25:21 > 0:25:25a "no smoking" sign inside the BBC studio, having a cigarette.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28- What, me?- No, us. The two of us.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31- Don't let...- Two rebels. - Don't tell 'em all these things.
0:25:31 > 0:25:32Well, that was years ago now.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35We did enjoy working together, didn't we?
0:25:35 > 0:25:36- We certainly did.- Yeah.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38- And my real ma has gone.- Yeah.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40You're the only ma I've got left, ain't ya?
0:25:42 > 0:25:46I often wonder if you brushed past my father down in...
0:25:46 > 0:25:48in the West Country, there, when you were in the Wrens.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50Brushed past your father?
0:25:50 > 0:25:51Well, you might have passed one another by.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53He'd have probably gone for you, and there you go.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55- Was he an officer?- No!
0:25:58 > 0:26:00- No.- I more or less only went out with officers.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02Oh, I see.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05No, I shan't tell you about it. No, we won't talk about my history.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07Oh, OK.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09So, what are you doing there? What are you looking at?
0:26:09 > 0:26:15I'm looking for your lovely message that you sent me
0:26:15 > 0:26:18to the Heritage Society lunch,
0:26:18 > 0:26:21and it went like this -
0:26:21 > 0:26:23"Message for today from June.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27"Johnny, dear, I wish I could be there with you today to say how much
0:26:27 > 0:26:32"I've enjoyed working with you as my Nick, all these past years.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34"I was only brought into EastEnders to be Nick's ma,
0:26:34 > 0:26:40"and, 30 years later, I'm still Dot and my Nick is underground,
0:26:40 > 0:26:41"or was he cremated?
0:26:41 > 0:26:45"I wish my Nick was still there to come back and torment Dot.
0:26:45 > 0:26:51"Much love and enjoy the celebration of your 40 years as an actor.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53"I can beat you there, Johnny.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55- "I've done 68." - JUNE LAUGHS
0:26:55 > 0:26:57"June.
0:26:57 > 0:26:58"Dot."
0:26:58 > 0:26:59There.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03- That went down really well. - Well, I mean that, yeah.- Thank you.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07'It's a very ephemeral business, acting.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11'I mean, now it's captured on television and film,'
0:27:11 > 0:27:15but before that, I mean, theatre performances, they've gone.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18You see this one, and you go the next night
0:27:18 > 0:27:21and maybe the magic's not quite there,
0:27:21 > 0:27:24or maybe it is there that night, and...
0:27:24 > 0:27:26But it's gone.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29It's only in the memory of people who've seen it,
0:27:29 > 0:27:32and it's only there for as long as they remember.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35Gosh, life gets like that, doesn't it?
0:27:35 > 0:27:39Everything is so fast, and they've all got so much to do,
0:27:39 > 0:27:43and their heads are full of this, that and the other.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45I've never known so many rules and regulations.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47You can't do this and you can't do that.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50It's worse than the Ten Commandments,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53and Jesus only had two commandments and neither of them were negative.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55Handbag, gloves...
0:27:55 > 0:27:57'The world's going like a whirlpool, you know -
0:27:57 > 0:27:58'it's going to come to an end.'
0:27:58 > 0:28:01Whether it'll come to an end before I do, I don't know.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05I'm quite interested to see that, cos I like new things.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14Has anybody got a nice half-glass of red wine?
0:28:14 > 0:28:16No? Oh, well.
0:28:16 > 0:28:17Later, maybe.