EastEnders star June Brown has said that her seminal, critically acclaimed performance in the monologue episode starring her character Dot was "the easiest thing" she has ever done.
Brown was shortlisted for a 2009 BAFTA for her performance in the 2008 episode, Pretty Baby, which saw Dot recording a message for on-screen husband Jim (John Bardon) as he recovered from a stroke in hospital.
It was the first time a female soap star had been nominated for a BAFTA Best Actress award since Coronation Street's Jean Alexander (Hilda Ogden) two decades previously.
In an interview with Ryan Tubridy on Friday night's Late Late Show, Brown said of her performance in the episode: "I didn't do [say] it at the time because I thought it sounded conceited... it was the easiest thing I ever had to do in all my life!"
Brown continued: "I'll tell you why: A) I knew the character backwards; I knew exactly how she'd behave and what she'd feel and I'd known her history. So you're not struggling to find all those things – you've got it there.
"And the other thing is – I won't swear, I won't say anything rude – nobody mucked you up!"
She then explained: "You see, there was nobody [co-star] to give you the wrong note or to take too long a pause or not come in [respond] fast enough so that you couldn't take off from what they said.
"You did it yourself. So, and actually, it's a dreadful thing to say, but I found it very, very, very easy. I enjoyed it enormously, we did it very fast."
Asked about missing out on the BAFTA, Brown replied: "You never do [win] if you're in a soap... It's true! Jean Alexander, you know, who played Hilda Ogden, she was nominated. [It was a] Lovely performance, wonderful performance her Hilda Ogden – she didn't get it."
When asked by Tubridy whether she felt she deserved to win, Brown replied: "I would've liked it, yes. I would've felt it had crowned my acting in a way, made it sound worthwhile, I think. So I didn't care that I didn't get nominated for any other awards that time!
"It all depends where it [performance] comes [in a year]: if you have a good performance at a certain time, it's too far back and people have forgotten. So the ones that come nearer [the awards], they'd get more chance. But no, I would've liked to have got it, that is true."
Watch June Brown's Late Late Show interview at: www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/10223286.
Brown's autobiography, Before the Year Dot, is out now.
