EastEnders star June Brown to be honoured with BBC special to mark her 90th birthday
June has played Dot Cotton on the BBC soap since 1985
EASTENDERS star June Brown will be honoured with a BBC special to mark her 90th birthday.
The actress, who has played Dot Cotton since 1985, will have her milestone birthday celebrated with a TV special.
The half-hour programme called June Brown at 90, will focus on June's life and career and her 30 years on EastEnders.
Soap fans will see how June kicked off her career and landed her first role; the start of her time in Albert Square plus spats with a fellow actor and how she created the chain-smoking matriarch that is Dot.
The special programme will also feature tributes from co-stars including Danny Dyer, Adam Woodyatt, Gillian Taylforth, Rudolph Walker, Lacey Turner and Natalie Cassidy.
During the interview, June also explains a horoscope predicted she would have "spectacular success" on May 32, 1985 which was her first day on the Eastenders set.
Meanwhile, June could be landing quite a windfall as BBC bosses are reportedly offering her £300,000 to keep her on the show for another year after her contract runs out in March.
A source told : "They realise June isn’t getting any younger but she has intimated that she wants to carry on in the role as long as she feels able, so that is great news.”
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Dot Branning (nee Cotton) has seen her fair share of trouble during her time in the Square - and has been a pinnacle of some of the shows most successful and heartbreaking storylines.
After initially joining the show as part of a plot involving her wayward son Nick Cotton, fans have watched as she has seen several of her family members die, remain blissfully in the dark about the fate of her close friend Fatboy, and give her best friend Ethel the pills she needed to die in a ground-breaking euthanasia storyline.
Funnier storylines include the time she was arrested for cannabis use after trying out some 'alternative therapies'.
They've also seen her marry Jim Branning, and take care of him after a stroke (which was written into the story when the actor who played him, John Bardon, suffered one in real life).
Earlier this year, fans reacted angrily when she was sacked from her much-loved job at the launderette after decades of employment, sparking Twitter hashtag #JUSTICEFORDOT.
However, there appears to me more heartache in store when she confided in close friend Patrick Trueman that she may be going blind.
June Brown At 90 - A Walford Legend will air on February 16 at 8 pm on BBC One.
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