Shirley’s impression of Dot Cotton in last night’s ‘EastEnders’ was absolutely hilarious

Dot Cotton is a Walford legend.

As played by the fabulous June Brown, Dot has certain fusspot mannerisms and speech patterns that are all too easy for others to imitate and mock. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQktG6COqnM We're accustomed to seeing real life comedians take the piss out of Dot... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYrvqi2EOm4 ...but it's another thing entirely when a character on the same show joins in on the Dot impressions fun, which is exactly what happened on last night's episode. Shirley Carter and Kathy Beale were in the Queen Vic talking about the impending closure of Albert Square's iconic launderette, at which Dot has worked for decades.

Shirley puts on her best Dot voice to talk about "delegating work to the soap dispenser", all while Kathy and Mick Carter crack up laughing.

The clip finishes with Kathy saying, "You can't have a laundrette without Dot," to which Shirley says, "No! It'd be like the Tower of London without the ravens."

https://twitter.com/bbceastenders/status/780843535448756224 Soap fans loved it, and have called for a repeat performance. https://twitter.com/Mark_Dodyk/status/780843642701357057 https://twitter.com/just_JoshyG/status/780860202086203393 https://twitter.com/DarrenHardie/status/780843525709725697 https://twitter.com/ThatAgnes/status/780843697646731265 https://twitter.com/TopazYuleball/status/780844605961043968

It's a brief fun spot in an otherwise sad storyline: Dot's heartbreak over potentially losing her job due to her boss Mr Papadopolous Jr's plans to turn the laundrette into a dry cleaners.

"[It's down to] market forces, new consortium, moving with the times - all that old balderdash," Dot explained to Shirley.

Even worse, poor old Dot will have to re-interview for the job she has been doing forever.

https://twitter.com/EdenGracexXx/status/780843598086565889 https://twitter.com/Heathyheath_/status/780880493055184896 Though other fans are not so surprised about the impending changes to the laundrette. https://twitter.com/notgavin/status/780840148976168961 https://twitter.com/mayiahk/status/780871093599006724