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Actress June Spencer, who played Peggy Woolley on BBC Radio 4’s The Archers for more than 70 years, has died aged 105, the corporation has said.
The actress played the character from 1950 to 1953 and again from 1962 to 2022.
Ms Spencer made her first appearance on the Radio 4 soap in May 1950 and was the only remaining member of the original cast before finally stepping down two years ago.
Her character Peggy served as the show’s core family’s – and by extension, the village’s – matriarch, who was regularly forced to manage to highs and lows of life in Ambridge
Her voice was heard in millions of kitchens and sitting rooms for generations and colleagues had previously paid tribute to her professionalism and ability to never fluffed a line.
Miss Spencer’s last episodes were broadcast on July 31. Pictured on the left in 1950 recording a pilot for The Archers and on the right in her current handout picture from 2010
Original star: June Spencer (pictured), the voice of Peggy Woolley in The Archers, was the only member of the original cast
Here she is pictured in character, when Perry Archer as she then was married Jack Woolley – played by Arnold Peters, who died in May 2013
Queen Camilla called Peggy Woolley a ‘national treasure’. Here they cut an Archers=themed cake together in 2021, to mark the long-running show’s 70th anniversary
However she stepped down in 2022, despite pleas from BBC bosses.
‘I’ve been trying to retire for at least a year,’ she told The Telegraph that year.
‘They didn’t want to lose her character. Every time I tried to stop, they gave me more episodes.
‘The idea was that the country characters having to explain things to Peggy educated the listeners.’
June’s character Peggy served as the show’s core family’s – and by extension, the village’s – matriarch
Ms Spencer made her first appearance on the Radio 4 soap in May 1950 and was the only remaining member of the original cast before finally stepping down two years ago.
Peggy Archer (June Spencer) marries Jack Woolley (Arnold Peters) in The Archers
June (second left) celebrating the 30th Anniversary with the rest of the cast of The Archers
June Rosalind Spencer was born on 14 June 1919, just six months after the end of World War One.
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