Elizabeth Miranda Leger, BBC producer and lecturer, was born on August 21, 1917. She died on December 27, 2007, aged 90

Elizabeth Miranda became one of the earliest female producers at the BBC when during the war, aged 23, she was given her own programme on the North American service. Later she worked for the BBC press office, founded a theatre group in Devon and became a lecturer in liberal studies.

Miranda was born in Eastbourne, but never knew her father, who was killed near Ypres before her birth. Her mother, Doris, married Leslie Beddow in 1918 and the family moved to China, living in Hangkow and Peking. There Doris Beddow became a correspondent for the Daily News, covering the disintegration of China in the 1920s and 1930s as country was carved up by warlords such as the legendary Chang Hsueh-liang, whom she intervied in 1929, finding him reduced to “a drug fiend who has lost all grip on himself with constant addiction to morphine and opium”. Miranda left China in 1930 for boarding school in Malvern. To her undying chagrin, university was not considered suitable for her, so when she left school at 18 she went reluctantly to secretarial college.

Her outstanding secretarial skills took her to the BBC. She started work in the typing pool but her intelligence and drive were soon recognised and she rose quickly to become at 23 one of the first and and youngest female producers, with her own programme, Calling Newfoundland, on the North American service. She later modestly described this as “consisting mainly (and boringly) of messages home from the troops”.

In 1946 she married Artie Leger, a Canadian Army Captain (a first marriage had ended during the war). After a two-year period of maternity leave she returned to the BBC to become deputy director of the press office, but in 1950 moved to Topsham in Devon to bring up her family.

In 1952 she started Young Stagehands, a youth drama club which met on Sunday evenings for 25 years. The influence of Stagehands on the lives of so many teenagers can hardly be over-stated. The group put on improvisations, an annual Nativity play on Christmas Eve and annual spring performances, which have included Under Milk Wood and Antigone, but outings, square dances and even summer holidays. Miranda regarded Stagehands as her finest and achievement and many of those who passed through it would agree with her.

After her husband died, Miranda developed a late career teaching liberal studies at the Exeter College of Art, gaining promotion to senior lecturer. She also realised a lifelong dream by reading for a BA degree through the Open University, followed by an MA on Victorian poetry in 1992.

At the College of Art she met Gerald Harding, who became a friend and supportive companion for the rest of her life.