Ian Pepperell, who has died aged 53 from complications of oesophageal cancer, acted in the world’s longest-running radio serial, The Archers, for 28 years. As the genial hotelier Roy Tucker, he played his part in taking the storylines of the Radio 4 soap from rural to raunchy.
The actor said that fans of the programme, which began in 1951 billed as “an everyday story of country folk” in the fictional village of Ambridge, often failed to conceal their surprise on meeting him, having expected to find a tall, dark, strapping lad. “The reality is, I’m 5ft nothing with blond hair,” he said a few years after joining the cast in 1995. “Even other actors are surprised when I tell them what character I play.” (He was, in fact, 5ft 6in.)
But one thing the star did have in common with his fictional alter ego was a career in hospitality. Pepperell ran the Star Inn pub in Ringwood, Hampshire, for almost 20 years until his death.
He joined the cast of The Archers, made by BBC Birmingham, after beginning a long-running association with the city’s rep company on stage. “I didn’t realise it was such a national institution,” he said. “Norma Major [wife of the then prime minister] even came along to one broadcast and did the sound effects. She was pouring the tea and clinking the china, and turned out to be a big fan.”
As Roy, Pepperell went through a gamut of emotions. The character was born to Betty and Mike Tucker, and his father – who had to leave farming behind after going bankrupt – remarried following the death of Roy’s mother. Roy’s own love life was colourful. In 1998, as a teenager, he fathered a daughter, Phoebe – born in a tepee at the Glastonbury festival – with Kate Aldridge and he brought the child up himself when Kate went travelling.
In 2001, Roy married Hayley Jordan, then had a daughter, Abbie, but the marriage broke up after Roy’s short affair with Elizabeth Pargetter, his boss when he left Grey Gables hotel in 2011 to become general manager at Lower Loxley Hall conference centre.
The character returned to Grey Gables and fell for a migrant fruit picker, Lexi Viktorova, but she eventually went home to Bulgaria and his search for a partner continued through online dating.
Pepperell’s early storylines in The Archers – when one journalist dubbed his character the “Ambridge brat-packer” – included Roy being involved in a racist gang, but he trod the straight and narrow by gaining a degree in business studies from Felpersham University.
He was taken on as a trainee assistant manager at Grey Gables and rose to deputy manager. After his return there, Grey Gables suffered economically during the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in a majority buyout by a mysterious company in 2022 and the staff waiting to hear of their fate while a refurbishment went ahead.
Ian was born in Oxford to Susan (nee Gemmell), a secretary, and James Pepperell, UK operations director of the engineering company Hansen. After the family moved to Ringwood, in the New Forest in Hampshire, he attended the town’s comprehensive school, then trained as an actor in London at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1991.
He made his screen debut in EastEnders as Michelle Fowler’s drug-smoking lodger Russell for a short run in 1993. He also had small one-off parts in the crime series The Bill and Pie in the Sky (both 1994), the missing persons agency drama Beck (as a funeral assistant, 1996) and the sitcom Get Real (as an usher, 1998).
But, alongside The Archers, most of Pepperell’s work was on stage. After touring with the Whirligig theatre company in productions for young audiences, he made an impression at Birmingham Rep when he starred as Danny, running away from a children’s home and becoming leader of a male vice ring, in Rod Dungate’s award-winning drama Playing By the Rules (1992-93).
Later, he was acclaimed for portraying title characters in two Shakespearean dramas. He was applauded by the Stage for his “passionate performance” as Hamlet on tour with the Oxford Stage Company in 1996.
Two years later, he starred as Richard III at the Haymarket theatre, Leicester, just as Robert Lindsay was taking the same role with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Paul Taylor observed in the Independent that the hunchback character had “come in all shapes and sizes” but added that both actors “have the requisite power to project ruthlessness and a sense of inner damage” and “can flamboyantly command a stage”.
Although Pepperell’s stage career foundered, he continued with his role in The Archers, which records a block of episodes one week in every four, fitting conveniently around his job as a publican.
His 2006 marriage to Nicola Loader ended in divorce in 2019, although they remained friends and joint leaseholders of the pub. Pepperell is survived by his brother, Derek, who played cricket for Dorset.
• Ian Robert Pepperell, actor, born 18 August 1970; died 22 December 2023
