Actress also played the Queen on Alistair McGowan TV shows

Tributes have been paid to Sally Grace – who  voiced Margaret Thatcher on Radio 4’s Week Ending for 15 years – after she died cancer at the age of 74.

She also played the late Queen in several of Alistair McGowan’s programmes, including his Big Jubilee in 2002.

Her other voice work included the role of Elena in Radio 4's adaptions of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and  Mr Bean’s landlady​ Mrs Wicket in the animated series.

Grace was only due to fill in on Week Ending for two weeks, standing in for Tracey Ullman, but remained in the topical show from 1983 onwards until the series ended in 1998.

At that time she was the longest-serving cast member, and when the show was axed she was given a bottle of champagne – and bluntly told Radio 4 controller  James Boyle ‘I’ve never seen a P45 that shape before’

One reviewer of deemed Grace’s characterisation as ‘more frightening than the real things’ 

Among the tributes on social media was one fan who said: ‘I remember her voice very well and I remember the episode after Mrs Thatcher’s resignation! I hope the joy her work brought to so many of us is consolation to her grieving family.’

Another wrote: ‘Another piece of my youth has disappeared. I listened to Week Ending as a young teenager every Friday night after the 10:00pm news on Radio 4. Lying in bed with the transistor radio against my ear and the volume turned right down. Comedic heaven.’

Grace died on March 16, but her death has only just been reported via an ​obituary in the Daily Telegraph.

Published: 15 Jun 2026