Dorothy Burke

Dorothy Burke is a fictional character from the Australian television soap opera Neighbours, played by Maggie Dence. The actress accepted the role after being approached by a representative from the show's production company. She made her first appearance during the episode broadcast on 7 March 1990. Dorothy is portrayed as an eccentric. She is well travelled and speaks several languages. She often wears black clothing, which a writer for the official show website said gives her "a witch like appearance." During her time in the show, Dorothy was the principal of Erinsborough High School. Dence did not have much in common with Dorothy, and a reporter noted that she was barely recognisable out of character, especially without her iconic hairstyle. Dence filmed her final scenes for Neighbours in November 1992. She confirmed that Dorothy would not be killed off. Her final scenes aired on 3 February 1993, as Dorothy leaves Erinsborough with her love interest Tom Merrick (Robert Essex).

During an interview with a writer from The Soap Show, Dence revealed the role of Dorothy came along unexpectedly and she had not thought about going into a show like Neighbours again. The actress was appearing in a theatre production when she was approached by a representative from Grundy, the production company behind the show. Dence stated that she was glad she accepted the role and added "It took quite a long time to find my feet but again there were some terrific people to work with. The writers were good to me. "|sign=The official Neighbours website on Dorothy
Dence told writer Ian Morrison that she played Dorothy with a "school marmly authority", but she was nothing like her in real life. They also said that Dence was "a lot less formidable" than Dorothy. The walls and sideboards were adorned with tribal masks, kilims, terracotta pots, Buddha and Oriental statues. Dence commented on her exit from the serial in December, saying that she "rode off into the sunset". Dorothy expects Tom to be old and "stuffy" and he expects her to be a "dope smoking hippy", but they are both surprised by each other. A reporter for the Torbay Express and South Devon Echo called Dorothy "Ramsay Street's fearsome headmistress with a heart of gold". Dorothy was placed at number twenty five on the Huffpost's "35 greatest Neighbours characters of all time" feature. Journalist Adam Beresford described her well travelled and "quite the Renaissance woman" who was "forthright and no nonsense".