June Brown- Dot Cotton East Enders legend dies

 June Brown- Dot Cotton, - East Enders legend dies

Dot Cotton walked into the laundry that would become a British TV soap institution. It would become her permanent place of employment from February 1985 until her sad death yesterday. For this generation East Enders represented much more than a multi cultural, racially diverse and heterogenous society. It spoke to us, identified with our hopes, ambitions, fears, dreams, our petty arguments and then amicable agreements after one stonking bust up in the Queen Vic. 

Yesterday the much admired actress June Brown, the lovable matriarchal figure who always seemed to be available for a saucy remark or a gossipy comment about the community, died and a nation grieved. In retrospect we may come to regard Dot Cotton, Brown's character in the long running soap, as an interfering busybody, chatting away almost incessantly, dealing admirably with her nasty, miscreant son Nick and then stubbing out her eighteenth cigarette of the day onto the pavement. But Dot Cotton was our heroine, our spokeswoman of the day, always caring, always mediating, always pacifying and just plain argumentative when the mood suited her. 

After a distinguished career as a budding TV actress, she trod the provincial boards at regional theatres up and down the country. When the call came though to appear as a dear, downtrodden, proudly working class laundry worker in a TV soap opera there would be no need for any persuasion. With anguished face and exhausted by the demands made on her by a rebellious son, Dot Cotton brought an enormous smile to our faces. 

Then Dot Cotton would become an iconic figure, perhaps the East End equivalent of Hilda Ogden(aka) Jean Alexander in Coronation Street. Dot would rush in and out of the laundry, constantly at loggerheads with the world but rejoicing in the people around her who would warm to her almost immediately. She would agonise and worry, scurrying up and down the market outside the East Enders pub the Queen Vic, bustling and groaning, moaning and then celebrating their achievements when the occasion merited it. She was their sounding board, their punch bag when life had become too hectic for words. 

In one of the more emotional episodes of East Enders our June or Dot would sit by the bedside of her closest friend and companion Ethel as she lay dying. Handbag in hand, cigarette clenched tightly in her fingers, Dot Cotton comforted her best friend with old reminiscences, happier days and sadder days when the world was much younger and everything seemed so irredeemably hopeless. She held Ethel's hands and the nation sighed with compassion. 

The death of Dot Cotton was perhaps an accurate reminder of the role  TV soap opera characters have come to play in our lives. When Martha Longhurst collapsed in the Snug in the Coronation Street Rovers Return pub and Hilda Ogden tenderly clutched the glasses of her late husband Stan, Britain mourned plaintively. It was a microcosm of a world where tears are shed when our loved ones pass and the barometer of our every day lives when things get slightly awkward before turning out happily ever after.  

But Dot Cotton or June Brown, the very polished actress, was essentially a national treasure who entered our consciousness when things seemed half finished or were somehow beyond resolution. There were always lights at the end of Dot's tunnel, a redemptive word of comfort or consolation, an endearing reference to the Bible and words of meaningful pungency. 

Yesterday Britain lost not only one of its most relatable of agony aunts but a woman who spoke the language of truth. Sadly most, if not all, of the original East Enders cast are no longer with us. There was Pauline( the Wendy Richard character) mother and wife of always doting children Michelle and Mark but hampered by the emotional burdens that came with looking after her family. There was Pauline's mum played so stoically by Anna Wing who would sit in her armchair with a critical eye on everybody. 

When all was said and done Dot Cotton was always the personal friend who would always knock on your front door, put the kettle on for a cup of tea and commiserate with whomsoever. June Brown was a gentle, sympathetic woman, a giant among soap opera figures. They broke the mould with our Dot, never at a loss for the memorable intervention when things got too heated and never fazed by a seemingly daunting challenge. Thankyou June Brown. You were our East Ender, a lady with a heart of gold and never to be forgotten.