The late June Brown, Actress
The late June Brown shared her views and memories about London with Robert Elms.
June Muriel Brown was one of the country鈥檚 best-known and most-loved soap actresses with a career spanning more than 75 years.
She was born in 1927 in Suffolk to parents with both British and Sephardic Jewish heritage. In 1947 she moved London to be classically trained as an actress at the Old Vic Theatre School in Lambeth.
By the 1970s it had become clear that soaps were to be the defining feature of her career.
Appearances in Coronation Street and The Bill came first. Then, in 1985, at the age of 58, she became Dot Cotton - the chain-smoking, bible-reading, laundrette worker in EastEnders. It was a role she would play for 35 years, well into her 90s.
In 2008, aged 80, Brown became the first and, to date, only soap actor to carry an entire episode single-handed. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire the same year for services to drama and to charity, and promoted to an OBE a few years later.
She died in 2022 at the age of 95.
June Brown revealed her favourite haunts, memories, pet hates and everything in between with Robert Elms. This interview was originally broadcast in November 2013.
