Actress Ysanne Churchman had little dialogue as she bowed out of The Archers
On this day 60 years ago, ITV took to the air for the very first time. But its thunder was stolen by the shock death of Grace Archer in BBC radio soap The Archers, which left the nation open-mouthed.
Of course there was no indication of what was going to happen in the listings - the billing for 22 September 1955 is minimal at best and carries only the show's tagline, "a story of country folk".
However, actress Ysanne Churchman, now aged 90, says the demise of her character was caused by her own efforts to secure a better pay deal for her work on the soap, although it was presumed the ploy was to scupper ITV's launch.
A new radio play about the night Grace Archer perished and the story behind this memorable event was recently broadcast on Radio 4.
