Philip Walter Archer is a fictional character from the British
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
soap opera ''
The Archers
''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural settin ...
'', played by
Norman Painting
Norman George Painting (23 April 1924 – 29 October 2009) was an English actor, broadcaster and writer. He played Phil Archer in the BBC Radio 4 soap opera ''The Archers'' from the pilot episodes aired on the BBC Midlands Home Service in s ...
. He made his first appearance on 29 May 1950, the show's pilot episode. The character later became the longest serving male character in the series. His longevity gave him something of the status of a '
patriarch
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...
' in
Ambridge.
Casting
Norman Painting joined the cast as Phil Archer, the "handsome" son of
Dan
Dan or DAN may refer to:
People
* Dan (name), including a list of people with the name
** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark
* Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa
**Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoi ...
(Harry Oakes) and
Doris Archer (Gwen Berryman), for the show's pilot episode broadcast on the BBC Midlands Home Service on 29 May 1950, he stayed on when the show began airing nationally on 1 January 1951.
During his time with ''The Archers'', Painting wrote a best-selling book entitled ''Forever Ambridge'' and wrote over a thousand scripts for the show between 1966 and 1982.
Painting was later inducted into the
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
for being the longest-serving actor, without a break, in a single soap opera.
In later years, Painting's appearances on the show became limited due to his ill health.
On 29 October 2009, two days after he had gone to the recording studio, Painting died.
BBC Radio 4 controller, Mark Damazer, said "Norman Painting was for almost 60 years a central figure in one of Radio 4's hallmark programmes. As Phil Archer, he became a wonderful patriarch yet he had started decades earlier as a young
romantic hero
The Romantic hero is a literary archetype referring to a character that rejects established norms and conventions, has been rejected by society, and has themselves at the center of their own existence. The Romantic hero is often the protagonist in ...
."
Following Painting's death, the producers and scriptwriters met to plan Phil's exit storyline.
They decided not to kill him off straight away and let him spend Christmas with his family.
Painting's final appearance featuring his voice was broadcast on 22 November 2009. Phil was referred to, but never heard since then.
On 12 February 2010, Phil's wife,
Jill (
Patricia Greene), discovered Phil had died at home.
Storylines
Phil Archer was born on 23 April 1928, the second of three children of Dan and Doris Archer (the oldest being Jack and the youngest being Christine Barford). He attended the Farm Institute to train, but he disappointed Dan by returning to work for local
squire
In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight.
Use of the term evolved over time. Initially, a squire served as a knight's apprentice. Later, a village leader or a lord of the manor might come to be known as a " ...
George Fairbrother. During this time he met and married the squire's daughter
Grace
Grace may refer to:
Places United States
* Grace, Idaho, a city
* Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois
* Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office
* Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninco ...
, but she died from injuries sustained in a fire in an episode broadcast on 22 September 1955. Two years later, he met Jill Patterson, to whom he was married for over 50 years. Phil and Jill had four children – the twins, Shula and Kenton, and David and Elizabeth.
After Dan retired, Phil took over Brookfield Farm, where he had a particular fondness for
pig
The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...
s. In 1991, he had a
hip replacement
Hip replacement is a surgical procedure in which the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant, that is, a hip prosthesis. Hip replacement surgery can be performed as a total replacement or a hemi (half) replacement. Such joint replacement o ...
operation, and in 2001 he handed the farm over to David and his wife; Phil and Jill moved to Glebe Cottage. Having retired from farming, Phil still helped out at Brookfield. He was also a
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
and enjoyed teaching his granddaughter Pip to play the piano; he also played the
organ at St Stephen's Church. In spite of nearly suffering eye damage, after a lead-acid battery had accidentally exploded in his face, he also took up astronomy in his retirement and enjoyed cooking, though this was often to the irritation of Jill.
Phil helps Jill and his grandchildren make Christmas cakes. A few days later, Jill returns home to find Phil has died in his armchair while listening to
Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
's ''
Dream of Gerontius
''The Dream of Gerontius'', Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment b ...
'', with a cup of tea at his side.
Reception
In October 2009, Ruth Deller of television website
Lowculture
lowculture.co.uk is a UK television website founded in January 2003 by Paul Lang, who currently works as the art director of ''Doctor Who Adventures''.
Purpose
The website sought to celebrate popular television shows, especially 'low brow televis ...
placed Phil at number one on her list of best soap opera characters of the month.
Of Phil and Painting she said "One of the characters at the very heart of the soap, Phil's death will hopefully be written in a very moving way, and it'll no doubt have a profound effect on the whole Ambridge community. The longest-serving actor in any soap, Painting had also written over a thousand scripts for the show. He and Phil will both be sorely missed."
Gillian Reynolds of ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' said Phil's death was "beautifully done, in seven scenes, three intersecting plot lines and all in 13 minutes. You knew it was coming. That very morning, in a preview, I'd even predicted it. Yet, when it did, I shed a tear. Any ''Archers'' fan will."
Notes
References
External links
Character profileat
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
Character profileat Archers Addicts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Archer, Phil
The Archers characters
Fictional British people
Fictional farmers
Male characters in radio
Radio characters introduced in 1950