Family of Ysanne Churchman pay tribute to ‘warm and friendly’ Archers star

The family of radio star Ysanne Churchman have paid tribute to the “warm and friendly” actor after she died aged 99.

Churchman was best known for voicing Grace Archer in the 1950s in the BBC Radio 4 drama, The Archers.

Her most famous moment on the air came when her character died in a house fire in 1955, on the same day that ITV launched, which led to suggestions the corporation had killed her off to overshadow ITV’s opening night.

A statement from the BBC on behalf of her family said she died peacefully at home in Edgbaston, Birmingham, on Thursday, July 4.

Churchman’s second cousin Anne Kilby described her as “always elegant” and added that she loved to speak about her career.

She said: “Ysanne was a warm and friendly person, charming to meet and always elegant.

“During her last years she was looked after by a dedicated team of carers and for her last four years she had 24-hour care.

“She was still able to enjoy visits from friends and always enjoyed reminiscing about her career, often in quite a humorous way.

“As children, my sisters and I thought of her as our glamorous grown-up cousin. Now we remember her with pride and affection.”

Churchman married Tony Pilgrim, who worked at the BBC, in 1951. According to her family, Pilgrim had first seen her picture “outside a theatre in the West End”.

They said he took a copy which he “carried in his wallet hoping he would one day meet her”.

Churchman was born in Sutton Coldfield, and began her career as an actor in 1937, before making her last appearance on BBC radio in 2015.

On September 22 1955, 20 million listeners tuned in when the character of Grace tragically died in her husband’s arms after she tried to rescue a horse from a barn fire.

The Archers’ current editor Jeremy Howe said: “We are saddened by the death of Ysanne Churchman, whose role as the inimitable Grace Archer captured the nation.

“Ysanne was a wonderful actress and off air she campaigned tirelessly for equal pay for women in the industry.

“She will be much missed by all at The Archers and our hearts are with her friends and family.”

The 2015 radio play Dead Girls Tell No Tales, released to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Grace’s death, explored the storyline that had long been considered a “watershed moment”.

Sean O’Connor, who edited the long-running radio drama between 2013 and 2016, dismissed the suggestion that Grace’s death was a tactic against ITV.

He told the Radio Times: “That is the folklore I inherited, and is what most of the people on the show believe, apart from the senior executives who knew the truth.

“But there were slightly different versions of that truth, some of them more melodramatic than others.”

Writing in The Times following Churchman’s death, O’Connor recounted a meeting with the actress, where she had imparted “the whole truth and nothing but the truth” as she saw it.

O’Connor wrote: “Grace’s death was nothing to do with the launch of ITV or the dwindling number of radio licences.

“She explained that the editor and creator of the programme, Godfrey Baseley, had a personal vendetta against her. Her departure from the programme was a result of what we would now regard as workplace bullying.”

Following the exit of Grace from The Archers, Churchman continued to work for the BBC in radio and TV.

She reappeared in The Archers in various roles until the 1980s but not as Grace, and also voiced the character of Alpha Centauri in Doctor Who in the early 1970s.