ACTOR Ian Pepperell has tragically died after a long illness – aged just 53.
The star was best known for playing Roy Tucker in BBC’s The Archers, but also appeared on EastEnders.
The Beeb today confirmed “the perfect Archers actor” died yesterday.
Ian played Tucker in the show and was known as a “family man” with a steady career.
Jeremy Howe, editor of The Archers, 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.
Read more on showbiz
“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.”
The editor said Ian had “a lot more gas in the tank and was desperate to return”, but sadly he never did.
Most read in Showbiz
Jeremy continued: “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.”
The star was born in 1970 in Oxford, Oxfordshire.
He took on many roles over the years – appearing in EastEnders in 1985, Beck in 1996 and Get Real in 1998.
