The residents of Walford remembered Dot Branning as "kind, caring and dignified" in a special tribute episode of the BBC One soap EastEnders. Monday’s programme also featured a number of familiar faces returning to say goodbye to the popular character, known for her devout Christian faith and hypochondria, as well as her cigarette addiction.
Dot first set foot in Albert Square as Dot Cotton in 1985 before departing in 2020 to live with her grandson Charlie in Ireland. June Brown, the veteran actress who played the beloved laundrette worker, died in April at the age of 95.
The special episode opened with Sonia Fowler, played by Natalie Cassidy, struggling to pen a eulogy to her grandmother Dot. She asks her ex-husband Martin Fowler (James Bye) to meet her in the laundrette where Dot spent many of her days and becomes emotional, saying: "I can’t imagine a world without Dot in it somewhere."
