Actor Edward Kelsey - who starred in The Archers and animated kids show DangerMouse - has died at the age of 88.
The radio star, known as Ted, played Joe Grundy on the BBC Radio 4 soap from 1985 and spent 34 years on the show.
As well as The Archers, he will also be remembered for his role in animated 1980s TV show DangerMouse, in which he voiced the characters of Colonel K and Baron Silas Greenback.
He's been remembered for his "insatiably curious mind" and love of "lively conversation, good company and a great storyline".
His family said: "Ted counted himself immensely lucky that he was able to enjoy a long and varied career doing the thing that he loved, entertaining an audience, and fortunate indeed to have met and worked with so many talented, generous, creative people along the way.
"He embodied the principle that the show must always go on - his chief concern through increasing ill health the need to convince medical staff he was fit enough to record with his 'extended family' in Birmingham.
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"He had an insatiably curious mind and never lost his appetite for lively conversation, good company and, of course, a great storyline."
Jeremy Howe, editor of The Archers, added: "Ted's time in Ambridge gave us one of the great performances in the history of British radio - idiosyncratic, warm, cantankerous yet generous, dripping with the Grundy magic and wonderfully funny.
"Ted's Joe Grundy was a brilliant creation because Ted was a brilliant actor - and a truly lovely man and great company member.
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"A cherished part of our team, I am sure all of us will agree that working with Ted was a rare privilege and he will be very much missed."
Kelsey took over the part of Grundy from Haydn Jones.
As well as a the radio soap and DangerMouse, he was a regular on TV over the years with parts in shows such as Doctor Who, Casualty, The Vicar of Dibley and EastEnders.
He also voiced the character of Mr Growbacg in 2005 film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
