The Archers star Ian Pepperell dies aged 53

Ian Pepperell, best known for playing Roy Tucker in The Archers, has died aged 53, the BBC has announced.

The actor, who played the hotelier in the long-running BBC Radio 4 drama for 22 years, died on Friday following a long illness.

During his career, he also acted in numerous stage productions and appeared in BBC soap opera EastEnders for a short stint.

The Archers editor Jeremy Howe said: “Ian was the perfect Archers actor – he loved being part of an ensemble, relished the camaraderie and gossip of the Green Room, and had a seemingly effortlessly fine tuned vocal technique.

“Like all the very best radio actors he could think on his feet and change the way he played a scene in the blink of an eye.

“Thanks to Ian’s brilliance, he created in Roy a character who managed to face in two directions simultaneously in almost every scene he played.

“He captured Roy as both genial and anxious, funny and sad, easy-going and permanently stressed – a man who could hold down with ease a top job, yet who always carried with him Hamlet’s sense of failure.

“It all made perfect sense because of Ian’s uncanny and laser-guided ability to find humour in the emotional scenes and find pathos in the comedy that he always played so unerringly well.

“Ian had a lot more gas in the tank and was desperate to return to Ambridge once his health permitted.

“It is tragic that he died in his prime, we will miss him dearly and our hearts go out to his family and friends and everyone who knew him.

“Ambridge loved Roy – The Archers and our millions of listeners loved Ian’s Roy Tucker.”

BBC director of speech, Mohit Bakaya, added: “Ian was a hugely talented actor who contributed greatly to The Archers and brought much pleasure to listeners on Radio 4 for over two decades.

“He will be missed greatly and we send our deepest condolences to all who knew and loved him.”

Within the show, he featured in a number of dramatic storylines including a New Year’s Eve episode in which his character Roy Tucker ask Hayley Jordan, portrayed by Lucy Davis, to marry him.

The pair later married but it came to and end after he had an affair with his boss Elizabeth Pargetter, played by Alison Dowling, at Lower Loxley Hall.

He later met Lexi Viktorova, voiced by Ania Sowinski, but after she became a surrogate for Adam Macy and Ian Craig, she decided to return to her home in Bulgaria and their relationship ended.

His character Tucker also had a daughter, Phoebe Aldridge, played by Lucy Morris, from his previous relationship to Kate Madikane, portrayed by Perdita Avery.

In the world of theatre, he played Hamlet for the Oxford Stage Company and Richard III at the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester.

He also featured in a number of episodes of EastEnders in 1993 and appeared in police drama The Bill.

Pepperell also ran a pub named The Star Inn in Ringwood, Hampshire.

A statement posted on the pub’s Facebook page said: “It is with the heaviest of hearts that I must tell you all, that Ian – left this world today – in peace, his way. As I, and all of the closest to him knew he would.

“‘To die, To sleep, To sleep, perchance to dream, ay, there’s the rub”.”