Sitting in the green room at the BBC’s Birmingham studios with Carole Boyd (who plays Lynda Snell) and Charlotte Martin (Susan Carter), for a first read-through of the script, I was not nervous. Although it is a long time since I last acted, I was more in awe than scared. And very excited.
I was stunned to find I was going to be in an episode. I have been listening to The Archers for a long time. I did take some time out for my university years, but I started as a kid, listening beside my mother.
After 62 years on the air, the show is a British institution, and the regular actors understand that, but this made it extraordinary for me. I have done various things on Radio 4 and it had always been my ambition to be interviewed by Jenni Murray on Woman’s Hour. When that happened a while ago, I certainly thought I had peaked. But I didn’t know what was to come.
The cast had been told that a real critic was coming in to play the part of Borchester Echo reviewer Tristram “Hatchet” Hawkshaw. Normally actors are not too keen on meeting critics, but I didn’t talk about my job. I was more interested in watching the cast. They are used by now to outside guests appearing in odd episodes. In the past they have had Dame Judi Dench (who just said “Hello” when she played Tom Forrest’s wife in 1989) and on Boxing Day Julian Rhind-Tutt appeared as Charles Condomine in the Ambridge staging of Blithe Spirit. He was actually playing Douglas, a leading member of the Felpersham Light Opera Society. Earlier this year the show welcomed both Sir Bradley Wiggins and the Pet Shop Boys.
The show has come in for some stick since the new editor, Sean O’Connor, joined a year ago and the actors realise they are in a period of change, partly because of the dynamic plot lines and partly because of all the media interest. Former cabinet minister David Blunkett complained when a new actor was brought in to play Tom Archer, and lots of fans are writing into the show to ask how the scriptwriters can contemplate moving central characters David and Ruth Archer out of Ambridge for ever.
Morale was good the day I visited as a small celebration had been planned so that O’Connor could thank his cast for the extra million internet listeners they have pulled in. I was to act in two scenes, and we stuck closely to the script, which saw Blithe Spirit receive an unexpected rave response from my character.
Listeners will remember that Susan Carter was in a genuine panic at the time, so her comic portrayal of the panicky Edith, the maid in Coward’s play, worked well. The sharp-eyed Tristram noticed how true her performance rang. However, whether David Benedict the critic would be quite so excited about the prospect of Susan tackling more challenging parts in the future, I doubt.
There’s a fair amount of kudos to being a regular in The Archers but because they’re invisible, unlike television soap stars, cast members can go about their normal lives without being recognised. And since there are just six recording days each month, even for the busiest cast members it’s quite a small commitment. Several members of the cast do other work.
Buffy Davis, for example, who plays Jolene, has been working in film and at the Young Vic, so has not been heard recently. This means The Archers hangs on to its core cast longer than most television soaps, despite all the fuss about cast changes.
When O’Connor took over, I think he saw the strengths of some of the older actors in particular, so he has given characters such as Peggy and Jill more to do, as well as bringing in Eleanor Bron, which was inspired.
I would argue it is a very strong era for acting on The Archers, but that obviously has nothing to do with my performance. I hope I was good enough, but I am sure most listeners had no idea who was playing Tristram, and couldn’t have cared less. What I was worried about was whether seeing what the inside of The Bull actually looks like would destroy it all for me. It didn’t at all. It may just be an upturned wooden crate in a studio, but I had a strong visual impression of the show and that is still there, which is a big relief.
As told by David Benedict to Vanessa Thorpe
