What’s the point in giving up red wine, Guinness and smoking ... I’ll be dead soon, says EastEnder June, 92
She’S played the chain-smoking, Bible- quoting Dot cotton for more than three decades.
And eastenders star June Brown says she has no plans to quit cigarettes – or alcohol – even as she approaches her 93rd birthday... because she says there is no point giving up at her age.
‘I’m going to die of something fairly soon so why not enjoy myself,’ said the actress, who first stepped on to Albert Square 34 years ago.
‘I love red wine and also dark chocolate, even though I’m allergic to it and it makes me sneeze. And the Guinness helps me keep a bit of weight on. So I don’t need to be careful about what I eat or drink.’
Miss Brown said that she had tried to move on to an electronic cigarette, but had found it too heavy.
‘What’s the point of counting how many cigarettes I smoke a day? I’ve been on them for over 70 years,’ she told Radio Times. ‘I did try one of those new electronic cigarettes but it was so heavy it kept falling out of my mouth, so that went in the bin.’
Miss Brown is due to star in ITV’s hard to Please OAPs, in which she and six other celebrity pensioners test state-of-the-art gadgets.
‘All the machines were pretty useless,’ she said. ‘You can have the best gadget in the world, but if you can’t read the instructions, what’s the point?
‘I’ve got an iPhone but it’s too much like a computer. All this technology is supposed to bring people together, but because so many elderly people can’t get to grips with it, they feel even more isolated.
‘They’ve no one to talk to and nothing to bring them to life.’
Miss Brown added that she felt ‘lucky’ to have her work as that is ‘what keeps me alive’.
The classically-trained actress has lived alone at her house in Surrey since her second husband, Robert Arnold, died in 2003.
Last month Miss Brown revealed that she was losing her eyesight because of macular degeneration.