Brown's acting attracted praise, with both Nancy Banks-Smith of The Guardian and Mark Wright of The Stage doubting that any other actress would have been capable of carrying Dot's monologue.

She talks about her Christian faith and remembers her childhood, her first marriage to Charlie Cotton (Christopher Hancock) and her friendship with Ethel Skinner (Gretchen Franklin).

She says she was happy moving away to live with her guardians, a Welsh couple named Gwen and Will, as they made her feel special, and recalls the happiest day of her life.

[5] Clive Arnold was asked to direct the episode, and was allowed to input more into the script than would be normal, which he said was due to his good working relationship with Jordan.

[9] Arnold admitted to "[wiping] away the tears" many times and noted that several other crew cried, and that one of the toughest things about it was that it mirrored real-life events.

[5] Brown found the episode easy to film due to the fact there were no other cast members to make mistakes,[8] and because she "knew the character backwards" and "exactly how she'd behave and what she'd feel and [...] her history.

[14] Brown's performance in the episode was praised by Robert Hanks of The Independent who wrote: "I don't ever remember hearing anybody on a soap talk like this before.

[4] Jim Shelley from the Daily Mirror praised Jordan's writing and Brown's acting, saying "tonight's episode of EastEnders is as powerful and poignant a piece of drama as you will see on TV all year".

[12] Shelley opined that "June [...] proves what the soaps can achieve when they use actors of genuine class and let them show what they are capable of"[12] and stated "The fact that co-star John Bardon [...] is recovering from a stroke in real life adds an extra terrible pathos to the episode.

"[12] Cole Moreton of The Independent wrote "The preview disc had revealed it to be a mesmerising piece of television, a kind of cor blimey Samuel Beckett, in which Brown conveyed her character's conflicting emotions beautifully.

"[15] Mark Wright of The Stage praised Brown's acting as "amazing", observing that she made the episode look "effortless" and commenting: "I don't think there's another soap actress out there who could carry this.

Tim Teeman posed the question in The Times: "I know she's a national institution and June Brown plays her like a dream, but was last night's Dot [Branning] extravaganza really that great?

As with Banks-Smith's review, Teeman felt that the episode was incompatible with Dot's former characterisation, suggesting that her Christian faith ought to have tempered her decision not to care for Jim.

[18] The Guardian's Gareth McLean described the episode as a "bold move" on the part of the EastEnders producers in deviating from the serial's usual format, and found it to be "compelling and brave", but "not as convincing as it should be".

[19] The Daily Telegraph's Gerard O'Donovan felt that Brown gave a "mesmerising" performance, but was critical of the episode as a whole, concluding: "Overall [...] the feeling couldn't be avoided that in the greater scheme of things this was a fuss over nothing.

"[6] Brown lost out to Anna Maxwell Martin,[23] but the show's executive producer, Diederick Santer, described the nomination as his proudest moment of 2009, saying: "I'm not one to complain to the referee, but it's beyond me why she didn't win.