Mary Wimbush

Mary Wimbush (19 March 1924-31 October 2005) played Sarah Jane's Aunt Lavinia in A Girl's Best Friend and was a central character in Russell T Davies' Doctor Who precursor, Century Falls.

She was an accomplished television and radio performer, undoubtedly best known to modern radio audiences as "Julia Pargetter" in the BBC Radio 4 drama, The Archers. "Pargetter" was the third character she had created for the show, by which she had been intermittently employed from 1965-2005. She died in the BBC Birmingham studios minutes after completing an episode.

An accomplished character actor, she worked on a variety of television programs from All Creatures Great and Small to Z-Cars to Casualty. However, the closest she came to a regular role on a television series was as another aunt — "Aunt Agatha" in Jeeves and Wooster.

Ironically, the role for which she won greatest critical acclaim was in a medium mostly foreign to her career. She was nominated for a BAFTA for her role in the Richard Attenborough film ''Oh! What a Lovely War'' (1969).