BBC Radio 4 To Slowly Fade out Phil Archer from Radio Soap after Death of Norman Painting
Popular BBC Radio 4 soap, The Archers, announced they will not be writing off Phil Archer until after the New Year. The announcement came shortly after the death of actor, Norman Painting, who played the popular radio soap character.
Scriptwriters and producers for the radio hit have said that they will talk next week about plans to exit Painting’s character from the show, although they have revealed that they would like to wait until after Christmas holidays to do so.
Painting, who passed away last Thursday at the age of 85, was the longest living actor to play a soap role and was on the programme since the beginning in the 1950. As well as starring on the soap since its pilot episode, the actor also wrote several of the series actively putting out more than 1,000 scripts.
The Archers’ website has been flooded with fan mail from listeners expressing their condolences since the actor’s death was announced last Friday. The final episode featuring Painting will air on November 22, and once it has aired the character will be mentioned in future broadcasts but never heard on air again.
The producers have said that popular character, Phil Archer, will spend his Christmas holidays on the show surrounded by family and friends before being written out of future episodes. The BBC announced that letting the character gently fade out of the broadcast was a suggestion from fans’ wishes.
Producers added that the idea is to have his character quietly and appropriately fade out of the show without a feeling or sense of rushing it unnaturally. The soap broadcast currently receives a weekly listening audience of about 4.8 million people.
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