EastEnders fans are calling for a statue to be put up in honour of the iconic soap star June Brown, after she died aged 95. The veteran actress played the role of chain-smoking busy-body Dot Cotton on the BBC soap for 35 years.
June passed away on Sunday, April 3 at her home in Surrey surrounded by her family and tributes have been pouring in all week with many fans and EastEnders co-stars sharing their memories of meeting and working with the actress, the Mirror reports. She first started working on the soap in 1985 and her most recent appearance was in 2020, when she left Walford for good to stay in Ireland with her grandson Charlie.
Fans have since been sharing ideas as to how best to honour the actress - who starred in a whopping 2,884 episodes of the soap - with many taking to Twitter to share their plans for a fitting tribute. Some have called for a statue in memory of her time on the programme either at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire or on Albert Square itself.
"R.I.P to Dott Cotton an EastEnders legend!! June deserves a statue. She lived through millions of cigs and Christmas deaths. What an EastEnders hero." Gleamin tweeted and Noel Hillier posted: "She was a very powerful figure in EastEnders. It would be nice Elstree Studios that they might one day erect a statue of June Brown in character as Dot, that would be another lasting memorial to her."
"I think everyone should take up smoking in protest until we get a June Brown statue outside Parliament," @Janine_B_Energy tweeted whilst Dan added: "Needs to be a statue of Dot with a fag in hand in the square so she's always there by Arthur's bench".
An artist named Gnasher paid tribute to the actress this week by painting a large mural in Romford, East London. His artwork of June as the iconic Dot Cotton has received almost 2,000 likes on Instagram and over on Twitter has sparked messages from fans saying it's amazing.
