Veteran EastEnders actress June Brown, who is much loved by viewers for playing Dot Cotton, says that acting on the show keeps her alive.
The soap stalwart, who turns 90 later this month, has played Dot Cotton - now Dot Branning - for over thirty years since the show's inception in 1985.
The British actress credits working on the soap with keeping her energy levels up.
During an appearance on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Brown said: "I haven't really got very much now but I find when I get on set, my energy comes.
"It's like people can go on stage and break an ankle and they don't notice till they come off. But as soon as I get on the stage it's as if I have energy.
"I can be feeling like death warmed up when I come in, and then I'm alive. It keeps me alive."
Brown went on to say that work is very important for older people as it gives them a reason to get up in the morning, explaining: "I think that's why a lot of people are very lonely and get ill when they're older, because I think loneliness and having no motivation, nothing to work towards ... I think it kills you."
The actress added that her independence is "extremely important" to her and that she hates to "feel I am losing it".
She said: "If people put out hands to help me out of a car I say 'no thank you' - I won't accept it.
"And I get up and I don't push myself up from the arm of a chair. I use my thighs because you have to do that. You can act yourself into age, you can act yourself into anything you want."
Brown added that she is quite upset" about Dot losing her sight in EastEnders as she worries she her character might lose her very essence.
"I feel that Dot - she's very quick and quick moving and quick speaking - and I do not want to become a dependant old woman, or otherwise my character's gone, and I might as well not be there," she said.
"I can run as Dot, I find myself running across the road, and I don't want to lose my character.
"It's like being in a wheelchair or something, and not ever getting out of it."
