BBC Light Programme. At the time, the programme had a long list of forbidden topics. Self-effacing and gently spoken, she pioneered the art of interviewing stars in their own homes, including the wartime 'forces sweetheart' singer Vera Lynn, the irascible television personality Gilbert Harding, the song and dance man Frankie Vaughan and the stiff-upper-lipped film actor Kenneth More. The Daily Mail made her broadcasting personality of the year in 1955, and she won a Variety Club of Great Britain radio personality award in 1963. From the late 1950s to mid-1960s, she narrated various fairy tales and children's stories on 7" and LP, and in 1964 was featured alongside Michael Aspel on the Voice Improvement Programme LP published by Polydor. Later life Metcalfe gave up broadcasting in 1967 to devote her time to her family and did not return full-time until 1971, when she presented If You Think You've Got Problems, a programme in which a broad range of human problems were discussed, many of which would not have been allowed to be aired when she began her association with Woman's Hour. The programme continued until 1979, although the BBC objected to one of her programmes, on lesbianism, as it would be going out on a Sunday. On TV, she made her début with Robert Beatty in Saturday Night Out and did guest spots for Juke Box Jury and BBC daytime magazines Wednesday Magazine and Family Affairs. She wrote and illustrated Sunnylea: A 1920s Childhood Remembered (1980) and wrote a joint autobiography with her husband, Two-Way Story (1986). Death In retirement, Metcalfe lived with her husband in the West Sussex village of South Harting. She died in 2000, and her body was buried in the graveyard of the church of Saint Mary & Saint Gabriel in South Harting. References Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Obituary, The Guardian, 29 January 2000 External links 1923 births 2000 deaths English radio presenters Woman's Hour People from South Harting People from Reigate BBC radio presenters