Angela Piper

{{Short description|English actress}} {{Use British English|date=September 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}} '''Angela Piper''' is an English actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Jennifer Aldridge in the BBC radio drama ''The Archers'', a role she played from 1963<ref>{{cite web |last=Davies |first=Keri |title=Angela Piper – 50 years as Jennifer |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/webarchive/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fblogs%2Fthearchers%2Fentries%2Faed25473-86d8-30d8-a881-1902c3c3e0c1 |website=bbc.co.uk |date=26 June 2013 |access-date=16 May 2022}}</ref> to 2022.

==Early life== Piper grew up in Melbourne, Derbyshire and moved to Castle Donington in her teens. Her father Arthur was an engineering teacher, while her mother, Hilda Pipes, was a member of Derby Poetry Society and ran a local drama group..<ref>''Saffron Walden Weekly News'' Thursday 10 May 1973, page 2</ref>

Piper attended Parkfield Cedars School in Derby and then Ashby de la Zouch Girls' Grammar School, where she was encouraged to pursue a career in acting. She gained six O-levels in 1956, and lived at 41 Eastway, in Castle Donington.<ref>''Derby Evening Telegraph'' Monday 10 May 1965, page 4</ref>

She won a place at the Royal Academy of Music.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/derbyshire/22633060.angela-pipers-derbyshire-childhood/|title=Angela Piper's Derbyshire Childhood|work=Derbyshire Life|first=Pat|last=Ashworth|date=20 July 2012|accessdate=14 October 2024}}</ref>

==Career== Piper presented ''Play School'' from May 1965, and appeared in the ITV series ''Life Begins at Forty'' and ''Third Time Lucky'' in the 1980s. From 1963 she voiced Jennifer in ''The Archers'', and she was as of 2022 the third-longest serving current soap star worldwide. Piper had not appeared in the programme for some months before the character died on 22 January 2023, as Piper had decided to retire from the role.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Daly |first=Helen |date=23 January 2023 |title=What happened to Jennifer on The Archers? Fans in uproar over twist |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/soaps/jennifer-aldridge-the-archers-what-happened-newsupdate/ |access-date=2024-09-07 |website=Radio Times |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Personal life== Piper was married to Peter Bolgar, a former announcer at the BBC. The couple lived on the Suffolk border and had three children.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McGhie |first=Caroline |date=30 October 2011 |title=Life in a country kitchen |url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=8Q353205292&site=eds-live&scope=site |url-access=registration |access-date=7 September 2024 |work=Sunday Telegraph |pages=4–5 |via=EBSCO}}</ref> Bolgar died aged 89 on January 31, 2025.

She married on Saturday May 12 1962 at St Edward's church Castle Donington, and moved to Roydon Hamlet in Essex.<ref>''Long Eaton Advertiser'' Friday 18 May 1962, page 5</ref><ref>''Hertford Reformer'' Friday 28 August 1964, page 4</ref> Her son Benjamin was born late August 1967, and another son in late November 1970. She had moved to Little Hadham by late 1970s. Her parents had lived in Thaxted from the late 1960s.<ref>''Saffron Walden Weekly News'' Thursday 5 April 1979, page 12</ref><ref>''Saffron Walden Weekly News'' Thursday 22 October 1981, page 7</ref>

She later lived in Chrishall in north-east Essex, by the early 1980s. She contracted Hepatitis at a BBC party at Broadcasting House in May 1987.<ref>''Cambridge Daily News'' Thursday 9 July 1987, page 11</ref> A chef was later found to have Hepatitis A.<ref>''Cambridge Daily News'' Thursday 2 February 1989, page 4</ref> By the late 1990s she lived in Felsted in Essex. On September 11 1999 her 28 year old son married Rebecca Evans in Pembrokeshire.<ref>''Shropshire Star'' Friday 10 September 1999, page 31</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piper, Angela}} Category:20th-century births Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:20th-century English actresses Category:Actresses from Derbyshire Category:Actresses from Leicestershire Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Category:English radio actresses Category:English soap opera actresses Category:People from Castle Donington Category:People from Felsted Category:People from Uttlesford (district) Category:People from Melbourne, Derbyshire Category:Actors from North West Leicestershire District