Archers star June Spencer who performed Peggy Woolley on the Radio 4 cleaning soap for greater than 70 years has died aged 105

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.

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.’

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