Margot Boyd (born Beryl Billings, 24 September 1913 – 20 May 2008) was an English stage, television and radio actress. She grew up in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

and trained as an actor at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...

(RADA). Here Boyd acted in a production supervised by

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

Biography

After graduating from RADA, she gained work at the Leeds Theatre Royal Repertory Company, never seeming to play a leading role less than 55 years of age, she later commented."The Archers" Actors' Who's Who
Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 26 August 2011. She later worked with Michael Redgrave at Stratford Memorial Theatre in 1953. In 1956 she appeared in ''One Bright Day'' at the Apollo Theatre in London. Redgrave cast her in the lead role of

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

's '' Waiting in the Wings'' in 1960, with Coward himself becoming a friend when the production reached

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. On television, Boyd starred in the lead of ''Our Miss Pemberton'' (1957) and had many guest appearances in series such as ''

Dixon of Dock Green ''Dixon of Dock Green'' is a BBC police procedural television series about daily life at a fictional London police station, with the emphasis on petty crime, successfully controlled through common sense and human understanding. It ran from 1955 ...

'' and '' Upstairs, Downstairs''. She appeared regularly in numerous radio dramas over four decades, including '' Dr Finlay's Casebook'' and '' The Slide''. In later years, she was best known for playing Marjorie Antrobus in ''

The Archers ''The Archers'' is a British radio soap opera currently broadcast on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word Radio broadcasting, channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now pr ...

'' radio serial on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

and Hilda Rumpole in '' The Splendours and Miseries of an Old Bailey Hack'' on the same station. As a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company in 1984, she was originally intended to make a one-off appearance in ''The Archers'', but became a regular member of the cast. Her character was effectively written out in 2004, when Mrs. Antrobus moved to the local home for the elderly and became a silent character. Boyd died at the home for retired actors, Denville Hall, in Northwood, London.

References

External links

*
Obituary: ''Daily Telegraph''

Obituary: ''Guardian''

Obituary: ''Times''

Margot Boyd: Actress best known for role in The Archers radio series

Margot Boyd
(BBC Press Office)
Margot Boyd at 90
1913 births 2008 deaths English radio actresses English stage actresses Actresses from Bath, Somerset {{england-actor-stub