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
History of The Bill 12 further episodes for transmission in 1984. "Woodentop" was directed by Peter Cregeen, who had played a part in "Z-Cars" and "Juliet Bravo". The cast included Peter Dean as Sergeant Wilding who went on to play Peter Beale in "EastEnders". The first episode of "The Bill" was broadcast at 21:00 hours, on 16 October 1984. From the pilot episode, the actors who portrayed Carver, Ackland, Litten and Morgan (renamed to Edwards) were retained. The character of Detective Inspector Roy Galloway was also retained from the pilot, but was recast to be played by John Salthouse. Several new characters were introduced,