My name is unknown, Archers star laments
Actress, 98, who plays Peggy Archer, complains that the radio soap’s cast are never credited on air
SHE is the BBC’S longest-serving actress, a mainstay of The Archers since its pilot episode in 1950, and still going strong aged 98.
Yet June Spencer, who plays Peggy Archer, is not a household name and has expressed sadness that she remains little known, blaming Radio 4 for not crediting the cast at each show’s end.
She is proud of her work, including an episode that had many regular listeners in tears, when she bade farewell to her beloved husband Jack, after his long decline with Alzheimer’s disease.
Asked if it was nice to have the anonymity that comes with a radio role, she replied: “It would be nice to be acknowledged, actually. Particularly when you have an emotional episode, such as Peggy’s goodbye to Jack. I worked a lot on the line where Peggy says, ‘Goodbye, my darling.’ And, at the end, they read out who it’s been written by and who the editor is, but there’s no mention of the actress,” Spencer told Radio Times.
When she recorded the pilot episode, it was “a tuppenny-ha’penny thing, and very badly paid. At the time, we were told that it wasn’t a drama programme, it was ‘real life overheard’. Which is why, of course, the cast list is never read on air. We are anonymous voices. So, although Peggy is well known, generations of listeners have never heard of June Spencer.”
The BBC said there was a more prosaic reason for the omission: up to two dozen actors can appear in each episode, and there simply is not time to read out the names. A spokesman said: “We have limited airtime between programmes and adding daily credits for all of the actors would mean reducing the length of each Archers episode, which we’re sure our avid listeners wouldn’t want.
“A full cast list for all the Ambridge families can be found on the BBC website.”
June Spencer is the longest-serving soap actress in the world, and the last remaining member of the original cast. When the programme began in 1951, she was one of only seven actors who played every part between them. In addition to Peggy Archer (later Woolley), she also played Irishwoman Rita Flynn.
The Alzheimer’s storyline was particularly emotional because Spencer’s own husband, Roger Brocksom, died in 2001 after suffering from dementia. They had been married for 59 years.
She said younger cast members do not put in the same preparation. “I don’t think many of them have had speech training – and, in radio, it’s all about the voice. If you can’t be heard by people with impaired hearing, like me, or those with inferior radios, then what’s the point?”