The Return of Dot Cotton

By Jacqueline Swartz

Dot Cotton’s back! Cigarette in hand, rollers in hair, gossipy as ever, Dot is now bunking with Nigel. Her return to EastEnders not only gives us one of the most colourful, and exasperating characters, on the show; it connects us with Albert Square’s past and reminds us, of how much has happened over the years.

With each person Dot encounters, Kathy, Ian, Pauline, the Mitchell brothers, another piece of Albert Square history is revisited. After all, Dot, the consumate busybody, must be au courant, must get all the details. It’s a great device, this Rip Van Winkle situation, to remind the audience of the last few years.

With more knowledge than the often-shocked Dot, long-time viewers are reminded of some of the major catastrophes of the past. The results are as bitter-sweet as the show itself. Seeing Kathy wheeling a baby carriage, Dot thinks her 40-something friend is babysitting, until she learns that the baby in the carriage is Ben, Kathy’s own son. And Phil Mitchell, the father! Dot learns that Ian’s wife, Cindy, has run off with two of their three children.

How to process all of it? Dot’s reactions are sometimes movingly empathic, like her warm response to hearing of the death of Nigel’s wife, Debby. Other times, she can’t deal with the news (Arthur’s death, for instance), and she shows that excruciating lack of tact that’s so much a part of her character.

For every event Dot learns of, the faithful viewer is treated to multiple memories. When Dot hears the unbearable news about Arthur’s death, we remember the tears at his funeral, the poem that his son Mark read, and the sight of Pauline, the numbed widow. But not only do we remember the past, we start thinking...what about that lawsuit against the prison? And what about Cindy, will she ever resurface? Where is David, the object of her obsessive passion.

Dot also has some surprises of her own. Her revelation that Pauline’s mother, Lou, had a child before she was married and gave it away for adoption.

Now that Dot’s back, it makes us wonder how we could have done without her.

Dot has lived so much of the history of Albert Square, she’s linked to so many of it’s characters, some long gone, who make up the rich history of the show. Who can forget her kindness to Nigel, or the grotesquely drawn-out attempts of her son Nick to slowly poison her. Dot is part of the generation of Lou and Ethel, now in hospital and who I hope we’ll see more of. She knew Den and Angie, when they ran the Queen Vic Pub. Dot was the Square’s main gossip well before Mrs. Mitchell came to run the Vic.

I hope Dot stays for a long time. But even if she doesn’t, her return shows what’s possible. Why can’t an actor leave for a long period of time and then return? Why, like Arthur, do the best have to be 'killed off'. In a show as rich as EastEnders, with so many characters and storylines, people could come and go and still remain part of the drama.