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Wimbush's father was a Schoolmaster and her mother had trained at RADA , but did not pursue a stage career. Wimbush was educated at the Berkhamsted School for Girls and at St Agnes and St Michael's, (an Anglican Convent in East Grinstead ). She trained at the Central School Of Speech And Drama , before joining Amersham Rep . She first acted on radio for the BBC in 1945, preferring the medium as it gave her more time to look after her young family, and it continued to be the medium in which she was the most active throughout her career. She played roles in hundreds of series, serials and plays, including various Shakespeare productions; '' Mrs Dale's Diary '', '' The Governor's Consort '' (a part written especially for her by Peter Tinniswood ), '' The Mystery Of Edwin Drood '' and '' The Horse's Mouth ''. For the latter two productions she won Best Actress at the 1991 Sony Awards , the radio equivalent of the Oscars . She first appeared in ''The Archers'' in 1965 as schoolteacher Elsie Catcher, and was a regular on the programme for two years until the character retired. In 1969 she returned as Lady Isabel Lander, before she finally came back for a third run in 1992 as Julia Pargetter. In 1959 she had acted in a radio play opposite Richard Attenborough , and when he was making his first film as a director, 1969's '' Oh! What A Lovely War '', he remembered her performance and cast her as the mother of the Smith family. Her first film role, the production won her a nomination as Best Supporting Actress at the British Academy Film Awards . She later appeared in two other films, '' Fragment Of Fear '' (1970) and '' Vampire Circus '' (1972). On television, she appeared in a variety of high-profile series in supporting roles. She played Prudie Paynter in the BBC's adaptations of the '' Poldark '' novels in the 1970s, and Zasulich in 1974's '' Fall Of Eagles ''. In the 1980s she appeared in the '' Doctor Who '' spin-off '' K-9 And Company '' and D.H. Lawrence adaptation '' Sons And Lovers '' (both 1981), and in the early 1990s found fame as Aunt Agatha in three series of '' Jeeves And Wooster '', with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie . In 1993 she co-starred in the dark children's fantasy serial '' Century Falls '', an early work by acclaimed scriptwriter Russell T. Davies . She also had guest appearances in episodes of a variety of programmes during her career, from '' Z-Cars '' and '' All Creatures Great And Small '' in the 1970s to '' Midsomer Murders '', '' Heartbeat '' and '' Doctors '' in the 2000s. Her final screen appearance was in a two-part episode of the popular BBC One medical drama '' Casualty '' in September 2004. As with television and film, she was not particularly active in the theatre until later in her career. Prominent roles included Mrs Mackay in '' The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie '' at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester (1971) and Rebecca Nurse in Arthur Miller 's '' The Crucible ''. Her final stage appearance came at the age of seventy-eight, in '' Song Of The Western Men '' at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester . Wimbush had one son (from her 1946 marriage to the Actor Howard Marion-Crawford ), and later two grandchildren through him. From 1958 , she was the lover of the poet and playwright Louis MacNeice , until his death in 1963. She died on the evening of October 31 2005, at The Mailbox studios of BBC Birmingham , shortly after completing work on a recording session for ''The Archers''. REFERENCES
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