EASTENDERS Nick Cotton star John Altman has ... Elsewhere, he confessed how famed chain-smoker June once encouraged him to carry on smoking even after he had managed to kick the bad habit.

There was chain-smoking Bible-botherer Dot Cotton ... and Ethel’s pug Willy, EastEnders’ answer to Mrs Slocombe’s Pussy. Later came Wellard, a Belgian Shepherd with 10 times the charisma ...

When EastEnders launched on BBC One in 1985 ... that became more familiar than their own neighbours. There was chain-smoking Bible-botherer Dot Cotton, and her delinquent son, Nick; Den, the ...