Archers matriarch June Spencer, 98, scolds show’s lazy youngsters
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tuesday february 6 2018
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Archers matriarch June Spencer, 98, scolds show’s lazy youngsters
She first played Peggy Woolley in the 1950 pilot episode of The Archers so June Spencer knows a thing or two about radio drama.
And it appears that the 98-year-old actress is not entirely impressed with the quality of her young cast-mates, implying that they need to spend more time working on their scripts and enunciation.
She first played Peggy Woolley in the 1950 pilot episode of The Archers so June Spencer knows a thing or two about radio drama.
And it appears that the 98-year-old actress is not entirely impressed with the quality of her young cast-mates, implying that they need to spend more time working on their scripts and enunciation.
Spencer, the only remaining member of the original cast, revealed that older hands on the Radio 4 soap had resorted to helping their junior colleagues to master voice techniques
She first played Peggy Woolley in the 1950 pilot episode of The Archers so June Spencer knows a thing or two about radio drama.
And it appears that the 98-year-old actress is not entirely impressed with the quality of her young cast-mates, implying that they need to spend more time working on their scripts and enunciation.
Spencer, the only remaining member of the original cast, revealed that older hands on the Radio 4 soap had resorted to helping their junior colleagues to master voice techniques they never learnt at drama school.
“I find we can teach the younger members of the cast a bit. I don’t think many of them have had speech training — and in radio it’s all about the voice,” she said in an interview with Radio Times.
“If you can’t be heard by people with impaired hearing, like me, or those with inferior radios, then what’s the point?”
Spencer, who said that she wants to remain with the show until she is 100, won plaudits for her performances in an Alzheimer’s plotline that culminated with the dementia-related death of her fictional second husband, Jack.
However, the Ambridge matriarch suggested that her intense preparation for demanding scenes was not always matched by younger cast members.
“I work on the scripts and rehearse them as soon as I get them. And if I’ve got difficult stuff, then I do a lot of work on them,” she said.
“But I see some of the younger ones marking up their scripts just before the read-through and I think, ‘You haven’t worked on it!’ ”
Spencer’s words of advice will cheer listeners and viewers who complain that modern dramas are being ruined by mumbling. Last year Dame Judi Dench criticised the apathy and laziness of up-and-coming actors who did not work on their vocal techniques.
Spencer also lamented that the long-standing Archers policy of not reading a cast list at the end of each episode meant she never enjoyed the public recognition that a 60-year soap stalwart might expect. While the stars of television dramas are identified in show credits, the names behind much-loved Archers voices are not revealed to listeners. Only key off-air staff such as the writer, director and agricultural story editor are singled out by name as the theme tune fades.
“It would be nice to be acknowledged, actually,” Spencer said. “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.” This disconnect between listener and actor was exacerbated by the show’s fan mail policy, Spencer said.
The veteran actress said it was a pity that letters were dealt with by the programme’s office, rather than the stars. “If people write to a character, they want a reply from the character,” she said.
Peggy ran The Bull pub with her first husband, Jack Archer, before he succumbed to alcoholism. Arnold Peters, the actor who played her second husband, Jack Woolley, died in 2013 after suffering from Alzheimer’s, the condition that also claimed the life of his character.
Spencer played Peggy in the first ever Archers episode but took time away in the 1950s, returning to play another character, Rita Flynn, before taking back her original role.
Edited to de-muddle - on my phone so a bit tricky! Hope it makes sense
