EastEnders will pay tribute to the much-loved actor John Bardon, in a special tribute episode in which they hold a funeral for his character Jim Branning.
John, who played Dot Cotton‘s devoted husband Jim Branning, featured as an actor on the show since 1996 and sadly died last September at the age of 75. Next month the soap-opera team will celebrate his life in the form of a traditional East End funeral.
Until now, the character of Jim Branning has been kept alive by the writers, with wife Dot visiting him regularly at a nursing home off-screen. It is reported that Dot will attend the funeral in handcuffs, as she currently awaits the trial of the murder of her son, Nick Cotton.
Dominic Treadwell-Collins, executive producer of EastEnders, has spoken about the episode, he said:
We are planning to celebrate John. You’ve got to be really careful with these things, but it’s only right to do it. I went to John’s funeral and I spoke to his wife Enda then about doing something on the show. We’ve chatted to Enda because I wanted to get her blessing in order to do it properly.
We want to pay tribute to John because he was amazing.
The tribute episode will air next month on BBC.
