Actor John Altman has many reasons to feel grateful to June Brown, the soap legend who played his chain-smoking, launderette assistant mum Dot Cotton in EastEnders.
There were the hours she spent rehearsing with him at her home for the iconic scenes they created as Dot and her wayward son “Nasty” Nick Cotton.
Then there was all the personal and professional advice, which she doled out over coffee in her dressing room, and the touchingly close 37-year friendship, which gave them such a bond that John was invited to be one of June’s last visitors, other than family, before her death this week at the age of 95.
