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 in popular culture sketch show, "The Real McCoy" (1991–1995). "EastEnders" and its characters were frequently spoofed in the impressionist sketch show "Big Impression", starring Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona. "Big Impression" once screened a one-off special, focusing on "EastEnders", called "Alistair McGowan's BigEnders". The cartoon sketch show "2DTV" has also spoofed "EastEnders" on many occasions. The character of Pauline Fowler was mentioned in the successful BBC drama "This Life" in 1997. In one episode of the show two key characters, Anna and Ferdy, watched an episode of "EastEnders" on television and mocked Pauline's hysterics and her well documented tendency to wear cardigans. A