June Spencer stepped down as the voice of The Archers star Peggy Woolley to begin her well-deserved retirement at the age of 103, before tragically dying last year at 105 - and she's far from the only member of the BBC Radio 4 soap to enjoy a decades-long career on the show. You might have thought the likes of Coronation Street's Ken Barlow (played by Bill Roache) had set the bar for a long-standing soap presence, but several members of The Archers are among the record-breakers for longest TV and radio careers in the world.

With more than a dozen loyal characters playing their roles for more than three decades, Patricia Green (Jill Archer) is only slightly behind 103-year-old June after joining the cast way back in 1957. Now in her 90s, the sheer length of her career has been awe-inspiring for many. Following hot on her footsteps is equally hard-working Angela Piper (Jennifer Aldridge), who played Brian Aldridge's wife. Heartbreakingly for fans, Jennifer died in 2023 after suffering from an underlying heart condition that almost no one knew about - but actress Angela managed to portray her for many years after first joining the cast way back in 1963 and then retiring by 2023.

Back in those days, "illegitimate" pregnancies were considered shocking by some, so her affair briefly led to her fleeing Ambridge with her baby son in tow.

Viewers remained open-mouthed when she returned and started a romance with her little sister's ex-boyfriend, whom she ended up marrying - and that was just the beginning of the colourful love life she'd portrayed over the years.

Affairs were also in store for Judy Bennett (Shula Hebden Lloyd), who first appeared in 1971 and wasted little time in getting together with the village doctor when the opportunity arose.

Two years afterwards, Brian Hewlett made his radio debut as Neil Carter following a brief different role a few years earlier.

Producer Tony Shyrane suggested writing him in for "a few more episodes"-and that was more than 52 years ago. At 86, he is still playing a pig manager.

Feminist fave Patricia Gallimore joined in 1974, and the dairy entrepreneur turned principled activist is still going strong on the show.

Meanwhile, Brian Aldridge was played by Canadian actor Charles Collingwood for almost 50 years. Story highlights include the catastrophic financial fallout following the toxic contamination of his farmland.

Then there's "lovable rogue" Eddie Grundy, played by Trevor Harrison, plus seven more characters who joined only slightly later in the 1980s: they're all huge favourites, still, and the BBC was reportedly desperate to retain June, their longest-standing actor of all.

She told the Telegraph: "I've been trying to retire for at least a year [but] they didn't want to lose her character. Every time I tried to stop, they gave me more episodes."