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Norman Painting | |
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| Born | Norman George Painting (1924-04-23)23 April 1924 Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England |
| Died | 29 October 2009(2009-10-29) (aged 85) Warmington, Warwickshire, England |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, broadcaster, writer |
Norman George PaintingOBE (23 April 1924 – 29 October 2009) was an English actor, broadcaster and writer. He playedPhil Archer in theBBC Radio 4 soap operaThe Archers from the pilot episodes aired on the BBC Midlands Home Service in summer 1950, after the series went national on theLight Programme on 1 January 1951, until his death in 2009, when he was the longest-serving member of the cast. His last episode, recorded two days before he died, was broadcast on 22 November 2009. The character lived on until Phil was "found dead" in his armchair in February 2010. According toGuinness World Records, Painting held theworld record for an actor playing a continuous role, a total of 59 years, which has now been surpassed by co-actorLesley Saweard and co-starPatricia Greene.
Painting was born inLeamington Spa, the son of arailway signalman. He was educated atLeamington College andKing Edward VI School, Nuneaton, but left school aged 15 to work in a library. He was found to be medically unfit for military service in the Second World War, and studied English at theUniversity of Birmingham instead, graduating with a first-class degree. He did post-graduate research atChrist Church, Oxford, and then became a tutor in Anglo-Saxon atExeter College, Oxford.[1]
He began to appear onBBC radio while at the University of Birmingham, and continued while also performing as an actor withOxford University Dramatic Society. He left Oxford University in 1949 to work for the BBC in Birmingham.
Painting had worked as a performer, interviewer, writer and producer for the BBC before he first appeared as Philip inThe Archers in 1950. He became a script writer for the series in 1966, following in the footsteps ofEdward J. Mason,Geoffrey Webb,David Turner and John Keir Cross. He wrote in his memoir of the programme,Forever Ambridge (named afterAmbridge, the fictional West Midlands village in which the programme is set), that he believed that Geoffrey Webb, who had died some time before, was guiding his hand as he wrote. He wrote about 1,200 episodes under the pseudonymBruno Milna. Artistic disagreements with a then editor, plus a general disillusionment with the BBC management, led him to retire from writing scripts in 1982 and to stick to just performing them.
The character of Phil Archer developed from the lusty young romantic lead of the early episodes, working on the neighbouring Fairbrother estate, into a father and grandfather, replacingDan Archer as the patriarch of Brookfield Farm and a senior figure in the series. Perhaps his most famous moment occurred on 22 September 1955, when his wife,Grace Archer (née Fairbrother), was killed while trying to rescue a horse, Midnight, from a burning barn – the episode being transmitted on first day ofITV broadcasts. The character survived Painting by four months, dying peacefully in February 2010.
He was appointedOBE in 1976, for services to broadcasting. He published two books on the Archers entitledForever Ambridge (1975 and 1980, for the programme's 25th and 30th anniversaries), and a personal memoir,Reluctant Archer (1982). He was the subject of a programme in the TV seriesThis Is Your Life in 1991. On 12 September 2008, along withThe Archers, Painting was inducted into theBirmingham Walk of Stars, becoming the sixth person to do so.
Painting suffered from poor health in later life, with several heart attacks in 1982 and laterpancreatitis, aretinal detachment, andprostate surgery. In 2000, he stated he was suffering frombladder cancer.[2]
He remained a bachelor, and lived alone atWarmington in Warwickshire. His body was found in his home in October 2009, shortly after he had died from heart failure.[3] His ashes were scattered at Painting's Plantation in Leamington Spa, with a memorial service atSt Martin-in-the-Fields in May 2010.
He left his recordings, scripts, books, papers and letters to theUniversity of Birmingham, and they are currently held at the Cadbury Research Library.[4][5]
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