June Brown as Dot Cotton
June Brown never used to like her 'EastEnders' character.
The 83-year-old actress has played her busy-body alter-ego Dot Cotton on the BBC One soap since 1985, but she admits she wasn't always fond of the characteristics she was forced to portray on screen because Dot used to be "quite selfish".
She said: "I didn't always like her in the early days because she was quite selfish, and always worried about her health, going off to see Doctor Legg. She's mellowed a lot as she's got older, she's become a bit like Mother Theresa."
The TV star admits 'EastEnders' has changed a lot over the years and the cast has extended to the point where she doesn't even know half the people she is working with, which she insists makes her job harder.
She added to OK! magazine: "The trouble is now, we don't rehearse. We don't get to know each other, or sit around and chat, like we did in the early days, when there were only like two episodes a week.
"We'd go to film premieres and clubs - now there are so many people you don't know or you don't have scenes with. It would be lovely for it to be a big family again but that's the way all the soaps are going, it can't be helped."
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