Jim Branning
Encyclopedia
James Archibald "Jim" Branning is a fictional character
from the BBC
soap opera
EastEnders
, played by John Bardon
, first appearing on 29 April 1996 and becoming a regular character in 1999 and has remained in the series right up to 2011.
Jim was written out of the show in August 2007 due to Bardon suffering a stroke
. A storyline was created that Jim also suffered a stroke. It was reported on 10 March 2008 that Bardon would be returning to the role of Jim in summer 2008. Bardon returned to film four episodes in the latter half of 2008. He returned permanently from the episode broadcast on 20 August 2009. On 1 April 2011 it was reported by the Daily Mirror that Bardon had filmed his final scenes and had left. He departed on 26 May 2011.
(Jake Wood
) was blamed for stealing and losing a medal that Jim's mother was given during World War II
in honour of his late father for bravery, Jim severed all ties with his son and even once locked him in a coffin for associating with a black person and left him in an undertaker's establishment overnight as punishment.
He used to be an amateur boxer using the nickname 'Basher' Branning, but according to Kate Lock's book Who's Who, he had been a "semi-invalid" for much of his working life following a drunken fall from a bedroom window, though he managed to maintain a job collecting supermarket trolleys until he was forced to retire.
(Debbie Arnold
) is supposed to marry her fiancé Nikos. When Nikos jilts April at the altar, Jim's second daughter Carol
(Lindsey Coulson
) marries her boyfriend Alan Jackson
(Howard Antony
) instead. Jim is racist and therefore is against Carol marrying a black man. He storms out, refusing to give her away. Three years later, Carol visits him in Southend, and later that year Jim moves to Walford following Reenie's death and it does not take him long to chase after an eligible widow on Albert Square, Dot Cotton
(June Brown
). She becomes his second wife, marrying him in 2002 after a proposal in the London eye. After a mishap with viagra, Dot decides that the marriage should remain purely platonic. Jim also has to fight off attention from several spinsters, including Maureen Carter (Diana Coupland
) and Doris Moisey (Marcia Ashton
), the latter who nearly causes the Brannings' separation.
Despite being overtly racist initially, these hostile feelings mellow, as shown through his close friendship with the Trinidad
ian shopkeeper, Patrick Trueman
(Rudolph Walker
). Jim works as a potman, collecting glasses in The Queen Victoria
public house, and likes to drink and gamble, to Dot's dismay. He is initially opposed to his granddaughter Sonia
's (Natalie Cassidy
) lesbian relationship with Naomi Julien
(Petra Letang
) but later gives his blessing. He clashes with Dot after she takes in an illegal immigrant, Anya (Olga Fedori
), whose baby, Tomas, they find at a church. He reports Anya to immigration and she is taken into custody, but Dot keeps Anya's baby and makes Jim promise to look after him with her. In their old age, the Brannings struggle to look after the child, and Dot eventually listens to Jim's pleas and hands the baby over to social services.
Jim goes to stay with Carol after she is taken ill, but he suffers a stroke
while he is there. Unable to take care of him, Dot has Jim admitted to a nursing home
. He visits his family and friends in Walford several times, the first being on his birthday in August 2008 when his daughter Suzy Branning
(Maggie O'Neill
) has come to stay, and later at Christmas, but he continues to reject his son Max and animosity resurfaces. Following rehabilitation, Jim is permitted to return to live at home in 2009, now in better health. Jim can speak no more than a few words, but he communicates through gestures and facial expressions, and uses a walking stick and a wheelchair to get around. In February 2010, Dot's granddaughter Dotty
attempts to get Jim sent back to the care home by pouring water on his lap to make it look like he has wet himself. However, Dotty is immediately caught out. As Dot and Jim celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary in The Queen Victoria, the police arrest Dot, ruining the party and distressing Jim. Jim draws a picture of him and Dot as an anniversary present for her. Jim and Max bond over the death of Max's son Bradley
(Charlie Clements
). When son Jack
(Scott Maslen
) is in a coma, Jim is present when he is woken up. Jim then cries when he finds out Jack is paralysed, knowing the pain of living with a disability. Jim and Dot are later befriended by teenager Fatboy
(Ricky Norwood
). A few weeks later, when his grandson Billie Jackson (Devon Anderson
) dies, Carol goes to visit Jim, and Jim starts crying and Carol breaks down in his arms.
When Carol sees Dot and Jim have no photos of Billie, she accuses them of racism. Dot says she asked Billie for photos but was not given any, and tells Carol to leave, which she does after she sees Jim nod in agreement to Dot. When Carol later arranges a family meal, she invites Jim and Dot to attend. Dot initially refuses, but later forgives her and states that Jim is still upset from what she called him and so she only attends without Jim. However, Carol shouts at Dot that she meant what she said to Jim after a family argument. Carol then spends Jack's wedding day with Jim after they have reconciled. Jim spends time in respite care after Dot fractures her wrist. She hires a carer, Marta Demboski (Magdalena Kurek), and asks her to help look after Jim when he returns, but sacks her when she think she has stolen money. Dot subsequently struggles to cope with Jim and is stressed out by the constant noise of his buzzer. She tells Jim that she cannot cope and later asks Carol why she had to meet Jim "so near the end". Carol and Max help Dot to make the decision to put Jim into permanent care, and he is taken away in an ambulance.
; a slow courtship was featured, with Dot often shown to be outraged by Jim's advances, resulting in numerous rejections. Dot finally succumbed and accepted his marriage proposal in an episode that aired in November 2001; the scenes were filmed inside one of the carriages of the London Eye
on the South Bank
of the River Thames
. Their wedding aired on 14 February 2002, Valentine's Day
. The Guardian critic, Nancy Banks-Smith
, described the wedding as "uniquely uneventful [...] For Dot and Jim 'In sickness and health... till death do us part' seemed to carry more resonance than for most."
Bardon has revealed that both he and Brown were sceptical about their characters marrying. In an interview with American fan-based newspaper, Walford Gazette, he commented, "No way did the pair of us want to get married because we thought if we got married, we'd sit indoors and watch the telly every night. As it happened, we've had some nice things to do. And we are married, and it's worked out all right." Brown has reiterated that she feared Dot would become boring if she married Jim, but that producers persuaded her that the marriage might be a good thing. On-screen, Dot had suffered the death of her grandson Ashley, and Brown felt that a traumatic event like that would have changed her character. In her opinion, the only way Dot would have got over Ashley's death "would be to have someone else to care for and when it happened there was nobody [but] with marrying Jim she gets a family - that's what persuaded me. That house will become a house again - it will have a central point, they will be able to use the house as a central point, as Dot will be there."
Critic Grace Dent
has likened Dot and Jim to Coronation Streets Hilda
and Stan Ogden
, comparing a scene in EastEnders where Dot nags Jim and he prays for a quiet life to a similar one from Coronation Street, that aired decades before. June Brown discussed Dot's relationship with Jim in 2004: "Initially, Jim wasn't the sort of person that Dot approved of. He drank, he gambled, he lied - he wasn't reliable at all. But Jim decided that he quite fancied Dot - heaven knows why! I think that you always have to work out for yourself how you can make the character work in a new situation. I could see that Jim was kind to Dot [...] His kindness drew her towards him. [...] Dot's definitely in control of Jim. She quite enjoys bossing him around." Brown stated that she enjoys her screen partnership with John Bardon, saying "We work very well together - he's got great timing and he can be very tender too."
The on-screen relationship between Dot and Jim was halted in 2007 when Jim was written out of the soap due to Bardon's health problems. In the script Jim suffered a stroke and was placed in the care of off-screen relatives. Dot and Jim remained together, with Jim making sporadic appearances between 2008 and 2009 to visit Dot. A more permanent return for the character was hinted at in 2009. However, it was reported in April 2011 that Bardon had filmed his exit from the series, and that the show's staff believed it marked the end of the character. A source told the Daily Mirror: "Dot's been struggling for a while and realises that she can no longer give Jim the care and attention he deserves and is forced to make the heartbreaking decision that he should move into a home. [...] It was very emotional on the set for the scenes where Dot discusses her decision and talks to Jim about him going into care for good. There were a lot of tears. [...] The feeling is that this is the end of Jim as a character because he won't leave the home and won't ever be a regular in Albert Square again." However, it was reported that Jim could still appear in the care home if Bardon's health permitted it. Jim left the show on 26 May 2011.
in 2005 and Bardon was nominated for Funniest Star for his portrayal of Jim. In November 2010, EastEnders won the Sainsbury's Award for Mainstreaming Disability at the 2010 Cultural Diversity Network Awards, where the judges praised the character.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, played by John Bardon
John Bardon
John Bardon, is an English stage and screen actor. He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award in 1988 as 'Best Actor in a Musical' for Kiss Me, Kate, sharing the award with co-star Emil Wolk.-Acting career:Bardon is best known for playing Jim Branning in the popular British soap opera EastEnders...
, first appearing on 29 April 1996 and becoming a regular character in 1999 and has remained in the series right up to 2011.
Jim was written out of the show in August 2007 due to Bardon suffering a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
. A storyline was created that Jim also suffered a stroke. It was reported on 10 March 2008 that Bardon would be returning to the role of Jim in summer 2008. Bardon returned to film four episodes in the latter half of 2008. He returned permanently from the episode broadcast on 20 August 2009. On 1 April 2011 it was reported by the Daily Mirror that Bardon had filmed his final scenes and had left. He departed on 26 May 2011.
Backstory
Jim dated first wife Reenie (Joy Graham) in the 1960s, with her giving birth to their oldest child Derek out of wedlock. When Reenie became pregnant again with eldest daughter April, Jim settled in a loveless marriage to Reenie, having four more children. A heavy drinker, Jim treated his children unfairly, favouring some, neglecting others. When his son MaxMax Branning
Max Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Jake Wood. He made his first appearance on 27 June 2006.-Backstory:Max is the fifth child and second son of Jim and Reenie Branning...
(Jake Wood
Jake Wood
Jake Dylan Wood is an English actor, best known in his homeland for playing Max Branning on "EastEnders" and in the United States as the current voice of the GEICO gecko.-Biography:...
) was blamed for stealing and losing a medal that Jim's mother was given during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in honour of his late father for bravery, Jim severed all ties with his son and even once locked him in a coffin for associating with a black person and left him in an undertaker's establishment overnight as punishment.
He used to be an amateur boxer using the nickname 'Basher' Branning, but according to Kate Lock's book Who's Who, he had been a "semi-invalid" for much of his working life following a drunken fall from a bedroom window, though he managed to maintain a job collecting supermarket trolleys until he was forced to retire.
1996–2011
Jim first appears when his daughter AprilApril Branning
April Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Debbie Arnold. April is the second eldest child of Jim and Reenie Branning, and sister of Carol Jackson, Derek, Suzy, Max and Jack Branning.- Storylines:...
(Debbie Arnold
Debbie Arnold
Jeanette Debbie Arnold is an English actress and voice artiste. She is best known for her work on British television, although she is also a veteran stage actress. She is one of the top voiceover artistes in England.-Career:Arnold was born into showbusiness...
) is supposed to marry her fiancé Nikos. When Nikos jilts April at the altar, Jim's second daughter Carol
Carol Jackson
Carol Ann Jackson is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Lindsey Coulson. The character was introduced in 1993 as part of a new problem family. Coulson decided to quit the role in 1997, but she returned temporarily in 1999 as part of a storyline that marked Carol's...
(Lindsey Coulson
Lindsey Coulson
Lindsey Coulson is an English actress, best known for her role as Carol Jackson in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.- Career :...
) marries her boyfriend Alan Jackson
Alan Jackson (EastEnders)
Alan Jackson is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Howard Antony. He originally appeared between 1993 and 1997, and returned on 12 October 2010 for three episodes....
(Howard Antony
Howard Antony
Howard Antony is a British actor, best known for playing the role of Alan Jackson, in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 1993 - 1997....
) instead. Jim is racist and therefore is against Carol marrying a black man. He storms out, refusing to give her away. Three years later, Carol visits him in Southend, and later that year Jim moves to Walford following Reenie's death and it does not take him long to chase after an eligible widow on Albert Square, Dot Cotton
Dot Branning
Dorothy "Dot" Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, played by June Brown since 1985. In a special episode entitled EastEnders: Dot's Story a young Dot was played by Tallulah Pitt-Brown in flashbacks. Dot first appeared in EastEnders in July 1985 as the mother of...
(June Brown
June Brown
June Muriel Brown, MBE is a British actress, best known for her role as the busy-body, chain-smoking gossip Dot Cotton in the long-running British soap opera EastEnders and for making other high profile television appearances on shows such as Doctor Who, Coronation Street, Minder, The Bill and...
). She becomes his second wife, marrying him in 2002 after a proposal in the London eye. After a mishap with viagra, Dot decides that the marriage should remain purely platonic. Jim also has to fight off attention from several spinsters, including Maureen Carter (Diana Coupland
Diana Coupland
Betty Diana Coupland was an English actress best remembered for her role as Jean Abbott on Bless This House, which she played from 1971 to 1976.-Early life:...
) and Doris Moisey (Marcia Ashton
Marcia Ashton
Marcia Ashton is an actress best known for her soap opera roles as Lily in Compact and as Jean Crosby in Brookside....
), the latter who nearly causes the Brannings' separation.
Despite being overtly racist initially, these hostile feelings mellow, as shown through his close friendship with the Trinidad
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
ian shopkeeper, Patrick Trueman
Patrick Trueman
Patrick Neville Loftus Alfonso Trueman is a fictional character from the popular British BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Rudolph Walker. He made his first appearance on 13 September 2001.-Backstory:...
(Rudolph Walker
Rudolph Walker
Rudolph Walker, OBE is a British character actor. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Walker came to the United Kingdom in 1960....
). Jim works as a potman, collecting glasses in The Queen Victoria
The Queen Victoria
The Queen Victoria is a fictional Victorian public house in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. It has the fictional address of 46 Albert Square, Walford, London E20.-Appearance and development:...
public house, and likes to drink and gamble, to Dot's dismay. He is initially opposed to his granddaughter Sonia
Sonia Fowler
Sonia Ann Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Natalie Cassidy. Her first appearance was on 21 December 1993 and she made her final appearance on 2 February 2007...
's (Natalie Cassidy
Natalie Cassidy
Natalie Ann Cassidy is a British actress, most commonly known for appearing in the television soap EastEnders where she played Sonia Jackson for many years. She has also appeared in the BBC Two sitcom Psychoville and was a contestant on the seventh series of Strictly Come Dancing.-Career:As a...
) lesbian relationship with Naomi Julien
Naomi Julien
Naomi Julien is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Petra Letang. She first appeared in the show in the episode broadcast on 15 August 2005. The character was axed in January 2007 and her final scenes were broadcast on 24 May 2007...
(Petra Letang
Petra Letang
Petra Letang is a British-Dominican actress, probably best known for her role as Naomi Julien in the BBC soap opera EastEnders....
) but later gives his blessing. He clashes with Dot after she takes in an illegal immigrant, Anya (Olga Fedori
Olga Fedori
Olga Fedori is a Ukrainian-born actress, who works in English language films and programmes. She is best known for playing Frieda Petrenko in the BBC medical drama Holby City.-Early life:...
), whose baby, Tomas, they find at a church. He reports Anya to immigration and she is taken into custody, but Dot keeps Anya's baby and makes Jim promise to look after him with her. In their old age, the Brannings struggle to look after the child, and Dot eventually listens to Jim's pleas and hands the baby over to social services.
Jim goes to stay with Carol after she is taken ill, but he suffers a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
while he is there. Unable to take care of him, Dot has Jim admitted to a nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
. He visits his family and friends in Walford several times, the first being on his birthday in August 2008 when his daughter Suzy Branning
Suzy Branning
Suzy Branning is a fictional character from the BBC One soap opera EastEnders, played by Maggie O'Neill, but was played by Julie Christian-Young for a brief appearance in 1996. O'Neill began filming in May 2008, and she made her first on-screen appearance on 8 July 2008....
(Maggie O'Neill
Maggie O'Neill
-Biography:The youngest of six Catholic brothers and sisters, born to head teacher parents, O'Neill grew up in the Midlands, where she was educated at a convent school, and after being inspired by a sixth-form drama teacher, "fell" into acting....
) has come to stay, and later at Christmas, but he continues to reject his son Max and animosity resurfaces. Following rehabilitation, Jim is permitted to return to live at home in 2009, now in better health. Jim can speak no more than a few words, but he communicates through gestures and facial expressions, and uses a walking stick and a wheelchair to get around. In February 2010, Dot's granddaughter Dotty
Dotty Cotton
Kirsty "Dotty" Cotton is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Molly Conlin. Dotty is the daughter of Nick Cotton and Sandy , and the granddaughter of Dot Cotton . She first appeared on 26 December 2008. Dotty's storylines mainly centred on her and her father's...
attempts to get Jim sent back to the care home by pouring water on his lap to make it look like he has wet himself. However, Dotty is immediately caught out. As Dot and Jim celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary in The Queen Victoria, the police arrest Dot, ruining the party and distressing Jim. Jim draws a picture of him and Dot as an anniversary present for her. Jim and Max bond over the death of Max's son Bradley
Bradley Branning
Bradley Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Charlie Clements. He made his first appearance on screen on 24 January 2006 and last appeared on 22 February 2010. Clements has won multiple awards for his portrayal....
(Charlie Clements
Charlie Clements
Charlie Clements is an English actor, best known for the role of Bradley Branning in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from January 2006 to February 2010. He has won several soap and magazine awards for his performance.-Biography:...
). When son Jack
Jack Branning
Jack Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Scott Maslen. He made his first appearance on 29 October 2007. He is the youngest child of Jim and Reenie Branning and the brother of April Branning, Carol Jackson, Derek Branning, Suzy Branning and Max Branning...
(Scott Maslen
Scott Maslen
Scott Alexander Maslen is an English actor and model, best known for his portrayal as DS Phil Hunter in ITV's The Bill and now Jack Branning on the BBC's flagship soap EastEnders.-Early and personal life:...
) is in a coma, Jim is present when he is woken up. Jim then cries when he finds out Jack is paralysed, knowing the pain of living with a disability. Jim and Dot are later befriended by teenager Fatboy
Fatboy (EastEnders)
Arthur "Fatboy" Chubb is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders and its Internet spin-off EastEnders: E20, played by Ricky Norwood. He made his first appearance in EastEnders on 5 January 2010 before appearing in the spin-off...
(Ricky Norwood
Ricky Norwood
Richard Colin "Ricky" Norwood is a British actor who plays Fatboy in the soap opera EastEnders and its online spin-off EastEnders: E20. He was born in Tower Hamlets, London, and lives in Forest Gate. From the age of 12 he attended the Theatre Royal Stratford East's Youth Theatre, and he also...
). A few weeks later, when his grandson Billie Jackson (Devon Anderson
Devon Anderson
Devon Carlo Anderson is an English actor who has been acting since an early age and became a CBBC presenter on BBC One and the CBBC Channel...
) dies, Carol goes to visit Jim, and Jim starts crying and Carol breaks down in his arms.
When Carol sees Dot and Jim have no photos of Billie, she accuses them of racism. Dot says she asked Billie for photos but was not given any, and tells Carol to leave, which she does after she sees Jim nod in agreement to Dot. When Carol later arranges a family meal, she invites Jim and Dot to attend. Dot initially refuses, but later forgives her and states that Jim is still upset from what she called him and so she only attends without Jim. However, Carol shouts at Dot that she meant what she said to Jim after a family argument. Carol then spends Jack's wedding day with Jim after they have reconciled. Jim spends time in respite care after Dot fractures her wrist. She hires a carer, Marta Demboski (Magdalena Kurek), and asks her to help look after Jim when he returns, but sacks her when she think she has stolen money. Dot subsequently struggles to cope with Jim and is stressed out by the constant noise of his buzzer. She tells Jim that she cannot cope and later asks Carol why she had to meet Jim "so near the end". Carol and Max help Dot to make the decision to put Jim into permanent care, and he is taken away in an ambulance.
Development
On the behest of producer John Yorke in 2000, Jim was paired romantically with pensioner Dot Cotton, played by June BrownJune Brown
June Muriel Brown, MBE is a British actress, best known for her role as the busy-body, chain-smoking gossip Dot Cotton in the long-running British soap opera EastEnders and for making other high profile television appearances on shows such as Doctor Who, Coronation Street, Minder, The Bill and...
; a slow courtship was featured, with Dot often shown to be outraged by Jim's advances, resulting in numerous rejections. Dot finally succumbed and accepted his marriage proposal in an episode that aired in November 2001; the scenes were filmed inside one of the carriages of the London Eye
London Eye
The London Eye is a tall giant Ferris wheel situated on the banks of the River Thames, in London, England.It is the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe, and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over 3.5 million people annually...
on the South Bank
South Bank
South Bank is an area of London, England located immediately adjacent to the south side of the River Thames. It forms a long and narrow section of riverside development that is within the London Borough of Lambeth to the border with the London Borough of Southwark and was formerly simply known as...
of the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
. Their wedding aired on 14 February 2002, Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
. The Guardian critic, Nancy Banks-Smith
Nancy Banks-Smith
Nancy Banks-Smith is a British television critic; she began writing for The Guardian in 1969. In 1970 she was recommended for the Order of the British Empire, which she declined.*1951- 1955: Northern Daily Telegraph, reporter...
, described the wedding as "uniquely uneventful [...] For Dot and Jim 'In sickness and health... till death do us part' seemed to carry more resonance than for most."
Bardon has revealed that both he and Brown were sceptical about their characters marrying. In an interview with American fan-based newspaper, Walford Gazette, he commented, "No way did the pair of us want to get married because we thought if we got married, we'd sit indoors and watch the telly every night. As it happened, we've had some nice things to do. And we are married, and it's worked out all right." Brown has reiterated that she feared Dot would become boring if she married Jim, but that producers persuaded her that the marriage might be a good thing. On-screen, Dot had suffered the death of her grandson Ashley, and Brown felt that a traumatic event like that would have changed her character. In her opinion, the only way Dot would have got over Ashley's death "would be to have someone else to care for and when it happened there was nobody [but] with marrying Jim she gets a family - that's what persuaded me. That house will become a house again - it will have a central point, they will be able to use the house as a central point, as Dot will be there."
Critic Grace Dent
Grace Dent
Grace Dent is an English journalist, author, and broadcaster. Dent writes mainly for The Guardian, where she has a weekly column on television, 'Grace Dent's TV-OD'. She also writes for magazines such as Tatler and Marie Claire. She writes a restaurant review column for the London Evening...
has likened Dot and Jim to Coronation Streets Hilda
Hilda Ogden
Hilda Alice Ogden is a fictional character from the television series Coronation Street, one of the best-known of all the regular characters in the soap opera, whose name became synonymous with a certain type of working-class woman...
and Stan Ogden
Stan Ogden
Stanley "Stan" Ogden is a long-standing fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, a long-running serial drama about working class life in the fictional town of Weatherfield. He is played by actor Bernard Youens. He debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 29 June...
, comparing a scene in EastEnders where Dot nags Jim and he prays for a quiet life to a similar one from Coronation Street, that aired decades before. June Brown discussed Dot's relationship with Jim in 2004: "Initially, Jim wasn't the sort of person that Dot approved of. He drank, he gambled, he lied - he wasn't reliable at all. But Jim decided that he quite fancied Dot - heaven knows why! I think that you always have to work out for yourself how you can make the character work in a new situation. I could see that Jim was kind to Dot [...] His kindness drew her towards him. [...] Dot's definitely in control of Jim. She quite enjoys bossing him around." Brown stated that she enjoys her screen partnership with John Bardon, saying "We work very well together - he's got great timing and he can be very tender too."
The on-screen relationship between Dot and Jim was halted in 2007 when Jim was written out of the soap due to Bardon's health problems. In the script Jim suffered a stroke and was placed in the care of off-screen relatives. Dot and Jim remained together, with Jim making sporadic appearances between 2008 and 2009 to visit Dot. A more permanent return for the character was hinted at in 2009. However, it was reported in April 2011 that Bardon had filmed his exit from the series, and that the show's staff believed it marked the end of the character. A source told the Daily Mirror: "Dot's been struggling for a while and realises that she can no longer give Jim the care and attention he deserves and is forced to make the heartbreaking decision that he should move into a home. [...] It was very emotional on the set for the scenes where Dot discusses her decision and talks to Jim about him going into care for good. There were a lot of tears. [...] The feeling is that this is the end of Jim as a character because he won't leave the home and won't ever be a regular in Albert Square again." However, it was reported that Jim could still appear in the care home if Bardon's health permitted it. Jim left the show on 26 May 2011.
Reception
In 2002, Bardon was nominated in the Best Comedy Performance category at The British Soap Awards, and along with Brown, won Best On-Screen Partnership in 2002 and again in 2005. They also won Best Couple at the Inside Soap AwardsInside Soap Awards
The Inside Soap Awards is a yearly award ceremony run by Inside Soap magazine since 1996. The awards celebrate the British and Australian soap operas and their actors. Until 2007, EastEnders had won the award for "Best Soap" on every occasion...
in 2005 and Bardon was nominated for Funniest Star for his portrayal of Jim. In November 2010, EastEnders won the Sainsbury's Award for Mainstreaming Disability at the 2010 Cultural Diversity Network Awards, where the judges praised the character.