Dot Cotton Dot Cotton Dorothy 'Dot' Branning (also Cotton) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, "EastEnders", played by June Brown since 1985. Dot first appeared in "EastEnders" in July 1985 as the mother of criminal Nick Cotton (John Altman). The character has worked as a launderette assistant for most of that time along with original character Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard). Dot moved away with her son and his family in 1993. In reality, Brown left the show in 1993, unhappy with the axing of her co star Peter Dean, who played Pete Beale from the shows first episode to
Letitia Dean was born and brought up in Hackney, east London. The lie paid off and she got the part, clinching the deal because of her laugh, which Holland and Smith described as "the dirtiest in the world!" Dean played Sharon Watts, the troubled and spoilt adopted daughter of landlords 'Dirty' Den (Leslie Grantham) and Angie Watts (Anita Dobson), from the show's inception in 1985 until 1995 — Sharon becoming one of the most popular and long-running characters in the serial. While appearing on "EastEnders", Dean forayed into singing with her fellow "EastEnders" castmate, Paul Medford (who played Kelvin Carpenter). A song