June Spencer dies aged 105

The actress was an original cast member of BBC radio serial The Archers…

June Spencer portrayed the matriarch Peggy Woolley/Archer on BBC Radio 4’s, enduring daily slice of midland country life, The Archers from 1951 until her retirement in 2022. The BBC announced today that June has passed away at the age of 105. The Beeb state that a family spokesperson said, ‘she passed away peacefully in her sleep early on Friday.’

“June’s portrayal of Peggy Woolley will forever remain the Queen of Ambridge. With her passing, The Archers has lost its connection to the inception of the show more than 70 years ago. It is a sobering moment for all of us.” – The Archers editor, Jeremy Howe

Spencer was among the original cast of the programme playing Peggy Woolley up until two years ago. The character was often viewed as ‘a traditionalist, conservative character in the saga charting the ups and downs of life in fictional village of Ambridge’ the Corporation note. Peggy was heard in the pilot edition in 1950 before starting her long association with the programme in the first ever episode of the rural drama, broadcast on 1 January 1951.

The character’s evolution from a barmaid to a grieving widow with three children has allowed Spencer to deliver some of the show’s most compelling plots. Her initial Ambridge husband, Jack Archer, fell into gambling and alcoholism, and her subsequent spouse, Jack Woolley, whom she hoped to spend a tranquil retirement with, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

June Spencer in a BBC Midlands PR Photo from the 1950s

In the mid-1950s, Spencer paused her portrayal of the then Peggy Archer, and Thelma Rogers assumed the role. Spencer resumed the role in the early 1960s after Rogers left. Spencer was honored with both an OBE and a CBE, and in June 2010, she was awarded the Freedom of the City of London. She decided to retire aged 103 from the audio drama having featured in 1000s of editions and seen several anniversaries including marking the show’s 70th in 2021 and landmark episodes including 1000, 5000, 10,000 and 15,000. The production reached its 20,000 edition in 2023.

Radio 4 controller Mohit Bakaya:

“June Spencer has been a longstanding presence and companion for Radio 4 listeners during her exceptional run on The Archers. Many have grown up with June as Peggy and listened as she journeyed through life’s many chapters, with all of its ups and downs. In her later years, her portrayal of a devoted wife caring for a husband with dementia, including their very moving final goodbye, was deeply poignant and powerful radio.

“We send all our love and condolences to June’s family and the many people whose lives she touched.”

In 2019 there were calls for Spencer to be made a Dame. Sunny Ormonde, the voice of Spencer’s on-air daughter, Lilian Bellamy, speaking as June headed towards her 100th birthday said she hoped a Damehood for Spencer would be forthcoming – especially as several royals enjoy the The Archers.

As well as working at the BBC Pebble Mill studios, and later the Mailbox, in Birmingham, June between 1992 and 2001 cared for her husband Roger who died after a long period of living with dementia. In 2005 her son, David, died from alcoholism, aged 55. June Spencer spent her final years in a nursing home in Surrey.