Mollie Harris (born Mollie Woodley, 23 June 1913 – 2 October 1995) was an English actress and author, known for her appearances as village shopkeeper Martha Woodford in the

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

The Archers ''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural settin ...

''.

Life

Mollie Woodley was born in

Ducklington Ducklington is a village and civil parish on the River Windrush south of Witney in West Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,581. History Ducklington is one of the earliest Saxon parishes to be recorded in Oxfor ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

and raised in that county. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she became a writer and broadcaster for

, on programmes such as ''In The Country'', with

Phil Drabble Philip Percy Cooper Drabble (13 May 1914 – 29 July 2007) was an English countryman, author and television presenter. Brought up in the Black Country, he later lived in – and wrote mostly about – the countryside of north Worcestershir ...

. She joined ''The Archers'' in 1970. and appeared as a castaway on the

programme ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usu ...

'' on 8 October 1983. Harris's books about her life in Oxfordshire, include her three-volume autobiography, ''A Kind of Magic'' (1969), ''Another Kind of Magic'' (1971) and ''The Green Years'' (1976). She wrote ''From Acre End'' (1982) about

Eynsham Eynsham is an English village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxfordshire, about north-west of Oxford and east of Witney. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 4,648. It was estimated at 5,0 ...

, the village where she lived. Mollie Harris wrote the book "The Archers Country Cookbook", which did appear under the name of "Martha Woodford", and was for a while a country cook resident on BBC television programme ''

Pebble Mill at One ''Pebble Mill at One'' is a British television magazine programme that was broadcast live on weekdays at one o'clock on BBC1, from 2 October 1972 to 23 May 1986, and again from 14 October 1991 to 29 March 1996. It was transmitted from the Pebb ...

''. She also wrote books about privies. She married Ginger Harris, a heating engineer, in 1937 and adopted his surname. He died in 1982. Harris died on 2 October 1995 in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. The painter Gary Woodley, who illustrated some of her books, was her cousin.

Bibliography

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References

1913 births 1995 deaths People from West Oxfordshire District Place of death missing BBC people 20th-century English actresses English non-fiction writers English radio actresses The Archers People from Eynsham Actresses from Oxfordshire {{UK-actor-stub