Phil Archer 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 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
In the Red (radio series) In the Red (radio series) In the Red is the first in a sequence of four black comedy-crime drama series created for BBC Radio 4 by Mark Tavener featuring Michael Williams as BBC Reporter George Cragge and Barry Foster as Police Superintendent Frank Jefferson. The first seven-part series (BBC Radio 4, 1995), was adapted by Tavener and comedy-writer Peter Baynham from Tavener's novel of the same name (Hutchinson, 1989), which had been inspired by the writer's early experiences working for the BBC and the Liberal Party. The subsequent series, "In the Balance" (BBC Radio 4, 1997), "In the Chair" (BBC