The Archers star sacked from BBC radio show in pay row

It remains one of the most dramatic deaths in British broadcasting - and, six decades later, the actor behind it revealed the shocking truth. When millions of listeners tuned into The Archers on 22 September 1955, they were left stunned as Grace Archer perished in a stable fire. The glamorous young wife of Phil Archer had been at the heart of the show, and her death was shocking to audiences.

More than eight million listeners heard her cries as the flames closed in, while distraught fans jammed the BBC's switchboard and poured their grief into letters pages, reported the broadcasting network. The timing was no accident. Just 15 minutes later, Britain's first commercial television channel - ITV - launched with live pictures of a glittering banquet at London's Guildhall. The BBC had deliberately scheduled Grace's fiery demise to steal headlines from its new rival.

Publicly, the BBC insisted Grace's exit was creative necessity. With too many characters in the series, executives said, a leading role had to go. But behind the scenes, a very different story was playing out.

A leaked memo from senior controller H Rooney Pelletier laid out the strategy clearly: "The more I think about it, the more I believe that a death of a violent kind in The Archers, timed, if possible, to diminish interest in the opening of commercial television in London, is a good idea."

The BBC denied it, of course. But many suspected the plot was as much about internal politics as competitive scheduling.

The real reason only emerged decades later. Ysanne Churchman, the actor who played Grace, broke her silence in 2015 during a BBC Radio 4 docudrama about the events.

"It was victimisation because I'd been to Equity to get my fees put right," she revealed. Churchman had demanded equal pay with her male co-stars and insisted that performers on The Archers should be represented by the union. That did not sit well with creator Godfrey Baseley, and Churchman was shown the door in the most brutal way possible - by killing off her character live on air.

If it was intended as punishment, Churchman refused to see it that way. "Don't feel too sorry for me," she said. "In some ways Godfrey Baseley may even have done me a favour."

On the very night Grace was killed, ITV went on air - and the fledgling broadcaster needed experienced voices to narrate its commercials. Churchman stepped straight into the role, building a long and lucrative career in voice-over work.

Her attachment to Grace also never quite faded. For ITV's 50th anniversary in 2005, she cheekily sent a congratulatory card to the chairman, signed from Grace Archer. "I hope he appreciated the joke because I've sent another one this year too," she laughed a decade later.

Looking back, Churchman recognised that the character's dramatic end had achieved something extraordinary: immortality. "For me, for The Archers and for so many listeners even today, Grace - the character, the sensation of her death, the claims and counter-claims, the myth-making - mean that she's never really died," she said. "A good story never does."