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
Simon Gipps-Kent the Seventh", again portraying young Prince Edward ("Bertie"), this time for ITV. For a time he also played Kenton Archer in the BBC radio serial "The Archers". Gipps-Kent starred in "A Traveller in Time" (1978), a BBC series based on the children's book by Alison Uttley about the Babington Plot, and in "V for Victory", an episode of the TV series "Enemy at the Door". Also in 1978, he was featured in episodes of "The Devil's Crown" as Arthur I, Duke of Brittany and played the part of "Willie" in Peter McDougall's supernatural drama "Tarry-Dan Tarry-Dan Scarey Old Spooky Man",