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
EastEnders the conclusion of the "Who Killed Archie?" storyline, when Stacey Branning revealed she was the murderer. Viewing figures peaked at 16.6 million, which was the highest viewed episode in seven years. Other events to mark the anniversary were a spin-off DVD, "EastEnders: Last Tango in Walford", and an Internet spin-off, "". Santer officially left "EastEnders" in March 2010, and was replaced by Bryan Kirkwood. Kirkwood's first signing was the reintroduction of characters Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) and Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace), and his first new character was Vanessa Gold, played by Zöe Lucker. In April and May 2010, Kirkwood axed