Cast and crew of The Archers have paid tribute to the late Patricia Greene following her death, aged 95.
The star, affectionately known as Paddy, was the longest-running soap actress in the world – having made her debut as the loving but stern matriarch Jill Archer in the BBC Radio soap in 1957.
Greene continued to play a prominent role on the soap for nearly 70 years up until her passing. The news was announced on Friday (10 July) at the end of the Today programme.
The announcement said: “Jill Archer was famed for her baking. While her lemon drizzle was her signature it was her flapjack that made the headlines when she was arrested at a protest over food waste.”
BBC Radio 4 controller Mohit Bakaya also praised Greene‘s “outstanding” contribution to the soap in a statement which read: “It has been a pleasure to hear her ever-evolving portrayal of Jill over the decades.
“She leaves a wonderful legacy. Ambridge will not be the same without her, and all of us here at BBC Radio 4 send our love and condolences to her family at this difficult time.”
Actor Tim Bentinck starred alongside Greene for over four decades, as Jill’s son David. Speaking to Radio Times, he paid a moving tribute to the woman he described as a “surrogate mother”.
“Paddy played my mum for all of the 44 years I’ve been in the programme,” he began.
“She was like a surrogate mother to me, as my own mum died when I was young. She was probably the best actress I’ve ever worked with – funny, kind, welcoming to all the new people who joined the programme with love, encouragement, modesty and flirting. She was very, very naughty!
“If June Spencer [who voiced Peggy Woolley] was hailed as the Queen of Ambridge, then Paddy was quite definitely our eternal, funny and very naughty Princess!
“We will miss her terribly.”
The Archers editor Jeremy Howe also paid his respects, telling RT: “Paddy was a true Archer from her boot straps to her bonnet, so much so that she and her son together enjoyed listening to Wednesday evening’s episode the night before she died.
“When I arrived at The Archers I quickly spotted there were two queens of Ambridge, two queens but poles apart – June, who reminded me of the late Queen Elizabeth II, and Paddy who reminded me of absolutely no one I had ever met.
“She was utterly singular, a fabulous and raucously funny raconteur, and like the best actors, when on mic you were never quite sure how she would play a scene, but you knew she would play it brilliantly.”
He continued: “In her formidable and beloved Jill Archer she became the longest continuously serving member of the cast. In my view she really came into her own once Phil died: no longer the wife, not really a widow, she was a forthright matriarch who never minced her words, was supremely judgemental, but wonderfully warm and loving.
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“Her late flowering romance with Leonard was beautiful and enormous fun, and the relationship she had with her grandson Ben was infinitely touching. And there was always humour there: Paddy could find a laugh in a simple ‘But…'”
Greene trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London before going on to pursue a career in acting.
Other acting credits included the 1961 British film The Kitchen, the TV series It’s a Woman’s World and the ITV soap Crossroads, in which she had several roles between 1965 and 1969.
Greene, who was awarded an MBE in 1997, also appeared in BBC soaps Doctors and Casualty in 2000, and voiced Jill Archer in an episode of sitcom One Foot in the Grave.
In August 2023, she moved into a care home, where she continued to record The Archers.
You can listen to The Archers on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
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