Quotes from June Brown

I can't afford to retire.

I was a procrastinator and a bookworm but I passed all my School Certificate exams, the equivalent of O-levels; I got three distinctions, three honours and three good passes.

I wish it were September 1948 and I wish I were 21 again.

I'm absolutely pedantic about language; it must go back to my schools.

I never had the money to start a pension - I didn't start to make any real money until I was 58 - and now it's not worth much.

I'm a perfectionist - but as someone once said, 'What else is there to be?'

I've got extra lenses inside my eyes to try to help me read better. They help with peripheral vision, but I've got no central vision.

I miss Bob, but I don't want another marriage.

I am very bossy.

I don't want to be a burden to anyone.

I'm not bragging but I used to be rather beautiful, with lovely legs, and people would always ask me to dance. But suddenly people didn't take any notice of me any more. I was at a party in my 50s and was forced to dance with a chair because nobody wanted to dance with me.

I usually have about 16 pills a day of various descriptions - I also have minerals from Salt Lake City and amino acids that get sent to me from Australia.

Sometimes I'll feel down and realise it's because of a depressing plot.

I was quite a clever child, I don't know what happened later on.

I didn't know much about the East End and I didn't go trudging round to research it - couldn't be bothered with all that - but my grandmother was a cockney so I used her voice for Dot. I don't think it sounded very real at the beginning.

I don't bother with computers, although I have an electronic reader.

I always felt Dot was one of those characters who should stay the same. She's a simple creature.

I am never going to be made a Dame doing Dot.

In 1930, when I was three and my sister was four, my father sent us to Miss Tracy's, a little 'dame's school' in Ipswich. I do remember playing with an abacus. He took us away after a term because he thought we weren't learning anything.

Just pray for your health and strength, hearing and eyesight, and an active mind.

I'm not a star, darling.

You've got to laugh in the face of disappointment.

My sister happened to look at The Times, and there was advertised the Old Vic theatre school. I wrote, I suppose, and got an audition. They said I was in, so I burst into tears, because in those days I cried when I was happy and I cried when I was sad.

I'm technology illiterate.