The Archers Ysanne Churchman, who played Grace, sent them a congratulatory card signed "Grace Archer". In 1996, William Smethurst recounted a conversation with Baseley in which he reveals his real motivation for killing off Grace Archer: Churchman was encouraging the other actors to join a trade union. The actor Norman Painting played Phil Archer continuously from the first trial series in 1950 until his death on 29 October 2009. His last "Archers" performance was recorded just two days before his death, and was broadcast on 22 November. He is cited in "Guinness World Records" as the longest-serving actor in a single soap
The Archers change anything." Vanessa Whitburn was succeeded as editor by Sean O'Connor in September 2013. In September 2016, Huw Kennair-Jones took over as editor though O'Connor continued to oversee the Helen and Rob storyline until its conclusion.. Kennair-Jones announced in October 2017 that he was to leave the BBC to work as commissioning editor for ITV.. The short presence of two successive Archers editors in the job led to concerns that there might be a trend of radio drama editing being seen as “training ground” for higher-paid positions in TV. Alison Hindell, the BBC’s head of Audio Drama until October 2018,