One of the longest-serving soap actors in the world lives in a farmhouse in the Waveney valley
Escaped pigs, planted drugs, a wife in prison, a son born with a cleft palate, two brothers claiming fatherhood of his daughter’s baby...
It’s been an eventful 50 years.
In Norfolk’s peaceful Waveney valley Brian Hewlett looks back on half a century of drama. And it really has been dramatic as he has been part of the world’s longest-running radio drama, BBC Radio 4's The Archers.
Brian began playing Neil Carter in the Archers in February 1973, on a temporary basis. This month he celebrates 50 years in the role, making him the fifth longest-serving actor in the entire world.
Two of those ahead of him are in The Archers too (playing Jill Archer and Jennifer Aldridge) joined by Ken Barlow and Rita Tanner of Coronation Street (William Roache and Barabara Knox.)
“Nobody knew how long he might last when I first recorded his words,” said Brian. “Our director 50 years ago thanked me for my contribution and said, ‘We might write him in for a few more episodes.’ 'That's nice', I thought, 'A bit more work!'”
Fifty years on the young lad who arrived in the fictional village of Ambridge as a farm labourer is now manager of a big pig unit and a grandfather, parish councillor, bell-ringer, churchwarden and wise village worthy.
“If I’d known I might have been a bit reluctant about taking a job that was going to take such a lot of my life but as it turned out I was able to do a lot of theatre work as well as radio work, so it was nice to be able to be an actor in other spheres,” said Brian.
Neil was just 16 when he arrived in Ambridge; Brian was already in his early 30s, but with a young-sounding voice.
Brian, who lives in an old farmhouse near Harleston, plays Neil with the gentle Oxfordshire accent he heard all around him, growing up in Oxfordshire. “My own delivery of our wonderful language is usually given in what is now called received pronunciation but I had an upbringing where I spoke like my mother and father and everybody living around me in south Oxfordshire, and if you listen very carefully to Neil you will hear much of my native tongue,” he said.
“Although he has been in the programme for 50 years, he is a character that is ever-evolving. When I first gave voice to Neil's lines I doubt whether any of our writers knew how he was going to develop. He certainly had no background, and to this day I am still waiting to hear anything about his life before being a 16-year-old!”
When clueless Neil arrived in Ambridge he managed to plough up a field of wheat, thinking it was grass, left a gate open so the animals escaped, and was quite the ladies’ man with several girlfriends – until young Susan Horrobin won a pig and asked him how to look after it. The rest is Archers history with Neil and Susan now proud grandparents.
“The character has evolved as the writers and editors have seen fit, from a youth with very little experience, through some unfulfilled romances, then a sudden marriage, through joys and tribulations of family life, periods of insecurity, and the security of love, the recognition of dependability, and a deep-seated passion for his family's happiness,” said Brian. “All of this I have enjoyed performing, as I have enjoyed performing all well-written characters in other forms of my business.”
He particularly enjoyed working on stories which allowed Neil to express his inner emotions, including when Neil’s daughter was in a terrible road crash and the trial and imprisonment of Susan for harbouring her criminal brother.
Even after 50 years in Ambridge, Neil is subject to the whims of the scriptwriters, and Brian never knows whether he might soon be leading a major storyline, become side-lined and silent in the posh modern house he built in Ambridge for weeks, or even written out altogether.
If Neil is not needed in Borsetshire for a while, Brian keeps up with village events via the radio and said: “It's great to hear your friends and co-workers performing magic. I know and understand what they are doing, but sometimes tears will flow because their artistry has created reality.”
Although he has played Neil for 50 years, Brian’s first brief Archers appearance was actually 53 years ago, as a character called Johnny Martin. Then Neil arrived in February 1973.
Brian won’t be doing anything special to celebrate the anniversary – but is delighted to have been an Ambridge stalwart for so long.
But after living with Neil for so long, how similar are the two men?
“I like to think that I am different to Neil,” said Brian. “I leave Neil behind in the recording studio where his life is put on hold until his voice is broadcast and his own personality enters into the mind of each listener. If you want to find out what Neil's character is, ask a long-term listener.”
Brian grew up near London ‘with a compulsive desire to become a professional actor,’ and lived in the capital in the early years of his career which has included roles on stage in plays and musicals, and then on radio and television.
He originally met his partner, Malcolm, at drama school. They were friends for years, and after following their individual stage careers moved into a London flat-share together.
“Having been brought up close to rural life in the Thames valley, I knew that at some time I would want to live in the country again,” said Brian. In 1983 they found an old farmhouse overlooking the Waveney valley – and work at the Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich.
At last Brian, like Neil, was living in the countryside – where villagers have even suggested that Archers storylines have been inspired by events in Norfolk.
“I get unfair blame from the residents of my village that whatever happens here somehow turns up in Ambridge!” said Brian. “We started a cider club here before Eddie Grundy’s cider club was mentioned. Everyone in the village thought I’d arranged that.”
Unlike Neil, Brian’s animal husbandry is limited to pet cats - one from a rescue centre and two feral cats which simply turned up several years ago. “The male feral one will still not let me touch him. He avoids all human contact, but recognises that he gets his food from me, so I am tolerated!” said Brian.
Brian also began rewilding long before it became a plot theme on The Archers.
His farmhouse originally came with a small orchard. It was devastated by the 1987 storms but Brian said: “Re-wilding over the years has provided me with a wild-life home. Conservation and wildlife have featured very strongly in the life I shared with my civil partner, Malcolm, so my life in Norfolk has contributed to much happiness.”
Malcolm died three years ago after a long illness. “We both had plenty of time to know that the future held a moment in which a parting would take place,” said Brian. “But the dreadful moment of complete loss, when it happened, could only be, and was, experienced by me.
“Then a wonderful thing happened. The love of all our friends was given to me by their support and understanding. I cannot praise friendship too highly; I am a very lucky person to have gained so many friends in my life.”
The Archers is on BBC Radio 4 at 7pm, Sunday to Friday, repeated at 2pm Monday to Friday, with an omnibus edition at 10am on Sunday.
Six more Norfolk links to The Archers
1. David Archer, father-figure of radio’s most famous fictional farming family is played by Tim Bentinck – actor, inventor, computer programmer and the Earl of Portland. He’s also been an HGV driver and the ‘Mind the gap’ voice on the Tube.
Tim’s family connections to Norfolk go back to the 17th century when his ancestors helped drain the fens and are still remembered in place names around King’s Lynn. Tim’s father, who inherited his title from a sixth cousin twice removed, grew up in Heacham. The passionate environmentalist coined the phrase “Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes.” Tim has a home near Burnham Market and began acting while studying at the University of East Anglia.
“I’m not the kind of earl that you expect,” he said in an interview with Norfolk magazine. “I’m a jobbing actor and wake up in the middle of the night, worrying where the next job is coming from.
He landed the part of David Archer in his 20s and alongside more than 40 years in Ambridge was the voice of the helicopter pilot who wiped out most of Emmerdale
2. Former Ambridge milkman Mike Tucker was played by Terry Molloy of Bawburgh, near Norwich.
3. Terry Molloy’s son, Philip, has been playing Will Grundy since he was just eight years old.
4. Delaval Astley is another Norfolk aristocrat with Ambridge links. The 23rd Baron Hastings and the 13th Baronet Astley is a farmer and runs the Back to the Garden farm shop, delicatessen and restaurant at Letheringsett, near Holt. His family has lived and farmed in Norfolk for eight centuries. Delaval spent two years as Borsetshire baddie Cameron Fraser whose crimes included dumping pregnant Elizabeth Archer and swindling Marjorie Antrobus.
5. Michael Bartlett, who also lives near Harleston, was an Archers scriptwriter in the 1980s, working on storylines which are still playing out today.
