Granny of 13 dies in Mecca coach fireball
Actress, 91, signs 1-year contract to stay in Eastenders
Blackburn company A GRANDMOTHER of 13 was among the victims of a coach fireball on a Saudi Arabian pilgrimage.
Raj Begum Hussain, 70, died with three others when their bus burst into flames after hitting a petrol tanker.
Survivors jumped out of the windows of the blazing coach. Six are in hospital.
Mrs Hussain, a mother of six from Blackburn, Lancs, was on a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
A family spokesman said yesterday: “She will be sorely missed.”
The other victims were an elderly woman and her adult son, and an elderly man from Preston, Lancs.
Gulfaraz Zaman, of Blackburn-based Hashim Travel, said: “It was horrendous – all that is left of the bus is the metal frame.” Dot married Jim Branning in 2002 EASTENDERS legend June Brown has signed a new oneyear contract which will keep her in the show until she is 92.
The actress, 91 in February, told BBC bosses she wanted to continue playing Dot Branning when her current deal expired last month.
A source said: “June is still an exceptional actress and true pro who can still make or break a scene.
“The BBC bosses want her in Eastenders as long as she feels able to deliver – and there’s no question she can still deliver the goods.”
The chain-smoking actress was 58, two years off her state pension age, when she made her first appearance in Albert Square on July 4, 1985, five months after the first episode.
Brought in when her screen son, Nick Cotton, played by Nick Altman, was accused of murder, Dot became one of the most popular characters.
June had a break from 1993 to 1997, and in 2012 took six months off to write her autobiography.
The twice-married star revealed in a Radio 4 interview that she had to keep on working because she was scared of “being poor when I’m old”.
She said: “I’ve not squirrelled away lots of money.”
In January 2008, she did an entire episode single-handed, with a monologue for her husband Jim Branning after he had a stroke. John Bardon, who played Jim, was himself recovering from a stroke at the time.
June is not the oldest woman in soap. That honour goes to 98-yearold June Spencer, who plays Peggy in The Archers on Radio 4.