EastEnders legend June Brown, who played Dot Cotton for over 30 years, asked former co-star Lord Michael Cashman to help her secure an assisted death before she died in 2022, the peer has revealed.
During a House of Lords debate on assisted dying on Friday, Lord Cashman disclosed that Ms Brown had made the heartfelt appeal to him. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill ultimately failed after peers ran out of time.
Lord Cashman appeared alongside Ms Brown in the late 1980s on the BBC soap. Dot Cotton was central to one of television's most significant euthanasia storylines in 2000, when her character helped terminally ill Ethel Skinner end her life.
Addressing the chamber, Lord Cashman said: 'I also remember my dear friend June Brown, who implored me to get her to a country where she could die with dignity and the death that she wanted.' He added that he was prepared to break the law by contacting clinics in the Netherlands and Switzerland, but it came to nothing.
Lord Cashman, who made history as part of British television's first on-screen gay kiss in 1989, also spoke of watching his husband die a 'slow and agonising death' over a decade ago. He expressed deep regret that the bill had not passed, saying it would have fulfilled the humane wishes of those seeking the right to choose how they die.
