EastEnders’ Natalie Cassidy and BBC Radio 2’s Scott Mills have been reflecting on the life the iconic June Brown lived, and how she used to do something that we absolutely do not condone!

June was best known for playing Dot Cotton in the BBC One soap. The chain-smoking local appeared in over 2000 episodes of the show.

 

 

June died in April 2022, with EastEnders then paying tribute to her and saying their own goodbye to June and Dot in December of the same year.

After the Walford residents got news that Dot had passed away, an emotional funeral was held which also saw the return of some iconic characters including Disa Brien (Jan Graveson) and Mary ‘The Punk’ Smith (Linda Davidson).

Today, Natalie popped by to see Scott Mills during his breakfast show on Radio 2. They discussed Natalie’s life growing up on EastEnders, and she had a brilliant anecdote to tell about June, and what she’d do to ensure her smoking habit could continue anywhere, even when rules were in place that meant she wasn’t allowed to.

Natalie said: ‘I’d be in hotel rooms with June and she’d put a shower cap with an elastic band around the fire alarm so she could have a fag’.

Scott laughed as they both noted how June got away with this because she was the June Brown.

The DJ added to Natalie’s story, revealing that Jake Wood invited him onto the EastEnders set when they were doing Strictly Come Dancing together, and shared a similar fact about June as well.

‘He was like do you want to come and look around EastEnders? And the first thing he said was see that up there, see that tape around that thing, that’s the smoke alarm, June just puts cellotape on it!’.

In 2024, former EastEnders star Shona McGarty also spoke about June’s smoking habit, and how the icon believed that’s what ‘kept her going’.

She said on the Tis Yourself podcast: ‘She smoked so many cigarettes. And she reckons that’s what kept her going. I suppose it’s always synonymous with watching her. I remember them coming in and she’d have a cigarette and they come in and they clip it.

‘They make it the same length in every take. But by this time, she’d have smoked about 80 fags. And she used to wear this iconic perfume. I think it was called Fifth Avenue. And you could smell her down the corridors.

‘You’d know she was in. And she was just so lovely. And I remember being 16 and new to the show. And she gave me a little snowglobe and it had Dorothy in it. I’ve still got that.’

EastEnders’ Natalie Cassidy and BBC Radio 2’s Scott Mills have been reflecting on the life the iconic June Brown lived, and how she used to do something that we absolutely do not condone!

June was best known for playing Dot Cotton in the BBC One soap. The chain-smoking local appeared in over 2000 episodes of the show.

June died in April 2022, with EastEnders then paying tribute to her and saying their own goodbye to June and Dot in December of the same year.

After the Walford residents got news that Dot had passed away, an emotional funeral was held which also saw the return of some iconic characters including Disa Brien (Jan Graveson) and Mary ‘The Punk’ Smith (Linda Davidson).

Today, Natalie popped by to see Scott Mills during his breakfast show on Radio 2. They discussed Natalie’s life growing up on EastEnders, and she had a brilliant anecdote to tell about June, and what she’d do to ensure her smoking habit could continue anywhere, even when rules were in place that meant she wasn’t allowed to.

Natalie said: ‘I’d be in hotel rooms with June and she’d put a shower cap with an elastic band around the fire alarm so she could have a fag’.

Scott laughed as they both noted how June got away with this because she was the June Brown.

The DJ added to Natalie’s story, revealing that Jake Wood invited him onto the EastEnders set when they were doing Strictly Come Dancing together, and shared a similar fact about June as well.

‘He was like do you want to come and look around EastEnders? And the first thing he said was see that up there, see that tape around that thing, that’s the smoke alarm, June just puts cellotape on it!’.

In 2024, former EastEnders star Shona McGarty also spoke about June’s smoking habit, and how the icon believed that’s what ‘kept her going’.

She said on the Tis Yourself podcast: ‘She smoked so many cigarettes. And she reckons that’s what kept her going. I suppose it’s always synonymous with watching her. I remember them coming in and she’d have a cigarette and they come in and they clip it.

‘They make it the same length in every take. But by this time, she’d have smoked about 80 fags. And she used to wear this iconic perfume. I think it was called Fifth Avenue. And you could smell her down the corridors.

‘You’d know she was in. And she was just so lovely. And I remember being 16 and new to the show. And she gave me a little snowglobe and it had Dorothy in it. I’ve still got that.’