On 31 January 2008, June Brown (as Dot Branning) made history by being the first actress to carry an entire episode single handed in the history of British soap, with a monologue looking back over her past life, dictated to a cassette machine for her husband Jim to listen to in hospital following a stroke. The fact that co-star and close friend John Bardon (who plays Jim Branning) is recovering from a stroke in real life added extra pathos to the episode. In an interview on This Morning she claimed it was relatively easy as there were no co-actors forgetting their lines. In 2009, Brown was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. She is the first actress to be nominated in the category for a role in a soap opera since Jean Alexander's nomination for playing Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street in 1989. Brown's nomination came as a result of her "single-hander" episode of EastEnders, the director of which she praised.