Jennifer Aldridge

Jennifer Aldridge (also Archer) is a fictional character from the BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers. The character first appeared in 1951. The role was played by a variety of actresses, until Angela Piper joined the cast in June 1963. Piper was on the show for almost 60 years and was the second-longest-running cast member, until Jennifer died during the episode broadcast on 22 January 2023. The Telegraph had called Piper's voice "somehow sharp and yielding at the same time, like a scone topped with homemade jam."

Jennifer was the daughter of Jack Archer (Denis Falwell) and Peggy Woolley (June Spencer) and the mother of Adam Macy (Andrew Wincott), Debbie Aldridge (Tamsin Greig), Kate Aldridge (Perdita Avery) and Alice Carter (Hollie Chapman). Jennifer featured in some of the show's most high-profile and controversial storylines, mainly involving her family or her relationship with husband Brian Aldridge (Charles Collingwood).

Throughout her almost six decades on the programme, Jennifer experienced what some consider the usual ups-and-downs of soap opera characters. During her teenage years in Ambridge, she had a dalliance with the local cowman and later the birth of their son out of wedlock, a divorce, her marriage to wealthy landowner Brian Aldridge, coping with his numerous affairs, the loss of her Home Farm farmstead and many financial woes.

Newspaper, The Derbyshire Life, called Piper one of the "most recognisable and distinctive voices in Britain", while Piper herself called Jennifer "capable, caring, family-oriented, well-groomed and more intelligent than many are prepared to admit". The Archers official website described the character as someone who enjoyed "bragging about her children's successes" and disliked "anything that endangered her social status".

The character's widespread popularity also led Piper to write Jennifer Aldridge's Cookbook, selling more than 40,000 copies.