While you were away...

Halstead Antiques Centre [click any pic to embiggen]

We had a splendid time staying with "our nieces" Baby Steve and Houseboy Alex in Braintree over the past few days - they did us proud!

We travelled up to Essex with them the day after our faboo Film Club/"New Year's Eve" party - at which we all got the heebie-jeebies for Cruella...

...and managed to "fill our boots" with a haul from the garden centres in the locality - a new blue Phlox, and another twelve new Fuchsia varieties (plus a couple of duplicates of ones we already had) to add to our collection (from our favourite specialist growers B & HM Baker at Bourne Brook Nursery) - and spent a day browsing through various antiques/junk shop emporia [I came away with an original film programme from the premiere of the film Cabaret in London in 1972, complete with ticket stub - for the grand sum of £2!].

But what did we miss while we were away?

Of course, the biggest (and saddest) news was the death of the lovely "national treasure" June Brown, a classical actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company who played Hedda Gabler and Lady Macbeth on stage, was an unforgettable "Nanny Slagg" in Gormenghast, and even played a nipple-tassel-twirling strippper in a sketch on the Lily Savage Show, but will forever be remembered as the fantabulosa "Dot Cotton" in Eastenders:

During our time away, the world also bade a sad farewell to Punk icon "Jordan", and to the 50s "Teen Idol" Bobby Rydell. Aside from the centenary of the saintly Miss Doris Day, other significant birthdays while we were away included the centenary of film composer Elmer Bernstein, what would have been the 90th of the lovely Anthony Perkins, the 80th(s) of film director Peter Greenaway, The Hollies founder and lead singer Allan Clarke and "Goodbye Girl" Marsha Mason (and also the birthdays of our Patron Saints Bette Davis, Abba icon Agnetha Fältskog and camp Disco legend Patrick Hernandez).

The news headlines were still aghast at the horrifying scenes from Ukraine, and other news included endless speculation about "Dishy" Rishi Sunak (our Chancellor)'s wife and her business deals in Russia; a mass walk-out of LGBT groups from a government conference on equality over the ongoing row about banning conversion therapy (the new Bill will criminalise it on the basis of sexuality, but not gender dysphoria); bedlam at airports as EasyJet blamed COVID-related staff shortages for flight cancellations and Manchester Airport's CEO resigned; the teeny-tiny republic of San Marino elected the world's first out-gay head of state; and, meanwhile in Montana, an owl poked its beak into a live traffic monitoring camera...

Unsurprisingly, our musical accompaniment during our stay was mainly a diet of Kylie, Steps, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, 80s synth-pop and 90s dance choons - such as this one!

Jinny - Keep Warm

Highly appropriate, given the mixed bag of sunshine, hail, high winds and torrential rain we've had in turn, over just a few days...

Arise...

...Dame Vanessa Redgrave, Dame Jenny Harries (chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency), Dame June Raine (head of the vaccines regulator MHRA) - and, of course, Dame Patsy Stone Joanna Lumley - coronavirus "heroes" Sir Chris Whitty and Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, broadcaster and former politician Sir Trevor Phillips, filmmaker Sir John Boorman, and [erm] Sir Tony Blair (Order of the Garter); as well as Gold-medal-winning Olympian couple Dame Laura and Sir Jason Kenny. Daniel Craig was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, and veteran poitician Frank Field becomes a Companion of Honour.

Joining them in getting gongs are Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) Bernie Taupin, cookery writer Claudia Roden, newsreader and presenter Moira Stuart, "money saving expert" Martin Lewis, and filmmakers Barbara Broccoli, Michael G Wilson, Anthony Horowitz and Paul Greengrass (as well as someone I was close to way back in the 1990s when I was secretary of the Gwent AIDS Support Group, Neil Wooding); Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) June Brown (aka "Dot Cotton"), Bill Roache ("Ken Barlow"), sex god Tom Daley and fellow trunks-wearer Adam Peaty, gardening guru Dan Pearson and Pauline Black of The Selecter; Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) Melanie Brown ("Scary Spice"), journalist and presenter Kate Garraway, Tom Daley's synchronised dive partner Matty Lee, dancer Ashley Banjo, Classic FM presenter Margherita Taylor, best-selling author Adele Parks and tennis champion Emma Raducanu.

Congratulations, all!

My Damehood is obviously still in the post. Again.

HM The Queen's New Year Honours List 2022

Is it worth it, to look good in your coffin?

"I'm too old for surgery. Is it worth it, to look good in your coffin?"

"As long as I am capable of ­working, and can learn lines and move around, I will carry on. I’d be utterly bored if I stopped."

One of Britain's most beloved character actresses, June Brown - best known as "Dot Cotton" in Eastenders - celebrates her 90th birthday today.

And she's not afraid of getting nude...

June Brown On Getting Nude In Calendar Girls - (Loose Women, ITV)

Many happy returns, June Muriel Brown, MBE (born 16th February 1927)

June Brown at 90 - a Walford Legend is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Oh my gawd..

Many happy returns to the lovely June Brown (aka Dot Cotton), who celebrates her 85th birthday today!



A phenomenal actress, with a long and varied career before Eastenders - read my previous blog about her BAFTA nomination - we adored her on Who Do You Think You Are, her many guest appearances on chat shows, and best of all, her turn as a "burlesque stripper" on The Lily Savage Show!

Unfortunately there is no footage available of that one online, so we'll have to make do with this classic scene from a very early episode of 'stenders (when it still had a sense of humour)...

Dot Cotton vs the stripper - EastEnders - BBC

Gawd bless, ya, ma'am!

June Brown on IMDB

Ooh, I say...

Wonderful news today that the lovely June Brown has received a BAFTA nomination for her part as Dot Cotton in EastEnders.

In real life June is not an East-ender at all. She was born in Suffolk 82 years ago. In her long acting career, she has played on stage Mrs Danvers in a production of Rebecca as well as such classics as An Inspector Calls, The Lion in Winter and A View from the Bridge. On TV, she had minor parts in Dixon Of Dock Green, Angels, Coronation Street, Dr Who, The Bill and The Duchess of Duke Street, among many others. She was also brilliantly cast as Nannie Slagg in Gormenghast!

Inevitably and understandably a bit of a gay icon (she even has a gay club in Cambridge named in honour of Dot, at which she has made several personal appearances), June's portrayal of the uncompromising chain-smoking Dot Cotton has spawned numerous drag impersonations. Yet she made history by being the first and so far only actress to carry an entire episode single handed in the history of British soap, for which she was previously nominated for a BAFTA.

I hope she gets it this time! Here are a few clips from June's screen history as evidence of her skills...

First up that award-nominated Dot Cotton monologue:

Dot Cotton monologue - EastEnders - BBC

Some more of June's best performances:

Dot Cotton vs Mr Papadopulous - EastEnders - BBC

Polly Perkins & June Brown in Rules of Justice

And of course, here is Alistair McGowan's classic version...

Alistair McGowan - Dot Cotton and Kat Slater spoof

She deserves the accolade of "national treasure, if anyone does!