Peggy Batchelor

Peggy Batchelor (26 November 1916 – 18 July 2020) was a British actress, drama teacher and adjudicator.

Career Born to parents who were entertainers, Batchelor's first major public performance was at the age of eight as "Baby Peggy", dancing the troops across the stadium each night for the ten weeks of the Wembley Tattoo at the British Empire Exhibition in 1925. She shared her memories of this in a radio broadcast on the BBC Home Service in 1946, Scrapbook for 1925. During World War II, she joined the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA).

In 1946, Batchelor became a founding member of The West of England Theatre Company. Her roles included Alice Foster in J. B. Priestley's They Came to a City, Fan in Emlyn Williams' The Light of Heart, Ruth in Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, Sarah the old nurse in Priestley's Eden End, Sally Pratt in Priestley's I Have Been Here Before, and Donna Lucia d'Alvadorez in Charley's Aunt. one reviewer wrote, "For her characterisation of a Northcountry maid in the West of England Theatre Company's presentation of J. B. Priestley's "Eden End," Peggy Batchelor received well-deserved recognition from an even larger than usual audience at the New Hall, Tiverton, on Tuesday. Miss Batchelor had obviously spared no pains to get well under the skin of her part of forthright but kind-hearted family servant the pre-1914-18 war era, and her attention to detail in the matter of accent was just one of the things which gave her performance that audience appeal which comes from really good acting."

Appearances on television and radio followed including Gilbert and Sullivan, The Adventures of P.C. 49 Batchelor voiced the Kingmaker in the 2001–2002 Doctor Who audio drama Death Comes to Time. She remains the longest-lived female person associated with Doctor Who and the second longest lived overall (behind Arnold Yarrow).

Teaching Batchelor obtained a teacher's degree at the Guildhall. Batchelor continued to direct the Ridley Studios until shortly before moving to Buckinghamshire and marrying in 1984. The chairman of one county drama association considered her "a lady of national repute which makes her views of the work offered a valuable contribution to raising the standards." In 1973, she was made a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music; Film

Television

Audio