Patricia Honor Greene MBE^[1] (born 1931)^[2] is an English actress who is known for voicing matriarch Jill Archer in the radio serial The Archers. She has played the role continuously since 1957, making her the world's longest serving actor in a soap opera in any medium (radio, television or internet). Greene also briefly acted in television and film.

Life and career

Greene was born in Allenton, Derby, England. Her father was a piano salesman and her mother was a housewife. Greene has recalled experiences of her mother having an extramarital affair, in which her mother would bring the man to their family home and order Greene to not tell her father. She remarked that it was not the best way to bring up a child.^[3] Her family moved to Campion Street in the New Zealand part of the city, where she attended Ashgate Infants School on Ashbourne Road. Later she moved to Kirk Street, Chester Green, attending St Paul's Junior School and the Parkfields Cedars Grammar School.^[4]

Greene began working as a ward orderly at the Derbyshire Children's Hospital and in the sheet metal factory of Hawk Industries, but noticed her father crying at a theatre performance. She credited that moment with her wanting to become an actress as she wanted to make people emote.^[3] She then went to the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London in 1951.^[5] During a microphone technique class, a teacher told her that she would never be on television due to sounding like a "fairy in hockey boots".^[3]

In 1957, she auditioned for the role of Jill Archer in the BBC Radio 4 soap The Archers. She was preceded by six experienced radio actresses in the audition process and felt that she would not get it.^[3] However, she was cast in the role and has remained since.^[6] She found the first six weeks of appearing on The Archers tough due to her inexperience. She recalled that on her second day, she took stage directions too far and threw a glass of water over Norman Painting, who portrayed Phil Archer, and nearly electrocuted him. This impressed series creator Godfrey Baseley and he kept her on the series.^[3]

Greene married English actor George Selway in 1959. They later divorced and she married Cyril Austen Richardson in 1972, with whom she had a son, born in 1972. She was widowed in 1986.^[7] Greene was tempted to leave The Archers when her son was a toddler but felt a loyalty to the programme and stayed.^[3] In March 2000, she appeared in the first episode of the BBC medical soap opera Doctors as Margaret Richmond. She reprised the role a month later, as well as appearing in an episode of the BBC medical drama Casualty later in 2000.^[8]

Honours

Greene was awarded the MBE in 1997^[9] and was conferred an honorary Master of Arts degree by the University of Derby in 2017.^[10]

Filmography