This is a list of characters from the long-running British radio soap The Archers.
The Archer family tree
The Archer family Jill Archer Patterson (born 3 October 1930) (Patricia Greene) is the widow of Phil Archer and matriarch of the family. She was his second wife, and with him had four children: twins Shula and Kenton, and David and Elizabeth. She is busily involved in village life and supports her children by taking on child-minding duties. Jill is an active member of the Women's Institute, opened up a holiday cottage business, and is teaching her grandson, Josh, how to keep bees. Jill has a less traditional outlook on life than her late husband, who had been a Justice of the Peace, reflected in her opposition to both foxhunting and private education. Following a burglary at Glebe Cottage she was asked by David and Ruth to return to Brookfield which subsequently became permanent. In 2019, she surprised her family by announcing that she had met a new man – Leonard Berry, a widower whom she met while visiting the Laurels. Since then, Jill and Leonard have enjoyed a cosy companionship, complicated slightly when Leonard thought Jill wanted them to get married – when she made it clear that she had no desire to have another husband, they happily resumed their relationship.
Christine Barford Archer, formerly Johnson (born 21 December 1931) (Lesley Saweard, formerly played by Pamela Mant and briefly Joyce Gibbs), is the younger sister of Phil. A skilled horsewoman, she ran the local riding stables for many years. In the early 1950s she was a close friend of Grace Fairbrother who later married her brother Phil. Christine married Paul Johnson; it was discovered she was infertile, and they adopted a son, Peter. In the mid-1970s Paul deserted the family and he was later killed in a motorway crash in Germany. In 1979 Christine married George Barford, a gamekeeper, which was seen as a class transgression, even though her uncle, Tom Forrest was also a gamekeeper, and colleague of her future husband. Her marriage to George lasted over 25 years and was happy, but latterly they experienced difficult times as their house burned down due to an arson attack by Clive Horrobin. George died peacefully whilst they were waiting for the house to be re-built. Christine lived with Peggy Woolley for some years but in 2018 suffered a fall and went into The Laurels initially for respite but is intending to take up a place in an assisted living flat. She lost her capital in a fraud perpetuated by associates of Matt Crawford. Since 2019, Christine has become a silent character.
Lilian Bellamy, Archer (born 8 July 1947) (Sunny Ormonde, formerly played by Elizabeth Marlowe) is the twice-widowed, gin-soaked, chain-smoking second daughter of Peggy Archer (and step-daughter of Jack Woolley). After acquiring her second husband Ralph Bellamy in 1971, she left Ambridge to live with him in tax exile in the Channel Islands; she has by him a grown-up son James, who lives in London with Robert Snell's daughter Leonie and their son Mungo. Bellamy senior died in 1980, but Lilian unaccountably returned to Ambridge in 2003 and took up with Matt Crawford (then a married man); her exploits caused much gnashing of teeth from her respectable sister Jennifer Aldridge. Lilian was elected to the parish council in January 2006. Lilian took dancing lessons from Mike Tucker after she discovered that Crawford's ex-wife was a much better dancer than she. In 2008 she and Crawford were briefly separated, and Lilian was an unwelcome guest at The Bull, but with the connivance of Sid and Jolene they were reunited. Crawford has since served a prison term for fraud. Their relationship was further tested when his long-lost brother Paul Morgan sought out, befriended, and ultimately fell in love with Lilian. After Matt's release the couple grew closer and ran property investment start-up Amside Holdings together – until Matt deserted her to live with another woman in Costa Rica. Since then she has formed a relationship with Justin Elliott, a wealthy businessman.
Tony Archer (b. Anthony William Daniel Archer, dob. 16 February 1951) (played by Colin Skipp & David Troughton) is the step-son of Jack Woolley being the youngest child and only son of Jack and Peggy Archer. In his younger days he romanced a string of girlfriends. In 1972 Jane Petrie, an attractive young art teacher from the fictional Borchester, was running the summer school at Arkwright Hall. The distraction would get Tony the sack from Ralph Bellamy's dairy enterprise.p297, Archers Encyclopaedia, Joanna Toye and Adrian FlynnThe Archers Archives, Chris Arnot & Simon Frith In 1974 he settled down to marry Pat, with whom he now runs a fully organic establishment at Bridge Farm. Despite owning an MG sports car, bought with a windfall from his mother, he is generally considered to be a rather dull man. His brother-in-law Brian Aldridge enjoys winding him up over farming matters, and dinner parties involving the two couples usually ended in tears. Pat and Tony had three children, John, Helen and Tom. John was killed in a tractor accident. Helen had a baby boy, Henry Ian Archer, through AI, a decision of which Tony initially disapproved. Tom runs a sausage business and makes pork ready meals under the Tom Archer brand. Tony suffered a heart attack in late February 2012, and a serious farmyard accident in autumn 2014. Having recovered from both, he now takes more of a back seat in the family business.
Pat Archer Lewis (born Patricia Lewis, 10 January 1952) (Patricia Gallimore) Tony's wife since 1974 is of Welsh descent. Much taken with studying feminism in the mid-1980s, she came close to having an affair with her lecturer, Roger, just before Bridge Farm entered the process of becoming organic. Affected by severe depression at the time of John's death, she discovered at the end of 2011 that he had fathered a child. Filled with remorse, Pat had strongly disapproved of Sharon, John's girlfriend, and this discovery turned into an obsession which caused problems for her family. She also had problems with her daughter Helen's new boyfriend Rob in 2014, especially given the affair and the breakdown of a marriage within which they were brought together. Although she came to accept him after Helen made a drastic move and left her family home and moved in with Rob in February, she had questioned whether Rob had played a part in Helen quitting her long-running job at the Ambridge Organics store. Her deceased son John's teenage son Johnny took up residence at Bridge Farm when he came to the village but when Helen and her children returned both Tom and Johnny moved to Number 1, The Green owned by Will Grundy.
(See also Former principal characters.)
Alistair Lloyd (born 1962) (Michael Lumsden), Shula's ex-husband, is a vet. His father Professor Jim Lloyd (John Rowe) stayed with them at Christmas and New Year 2007–8 while his broken leg healed. A committed atheist he riled Shula and antagonised his son, but indulged Daniel and contrived to get along with everyone else, except for Phil who saw through him. Alistair mentored Ryan at Gamblers Anonymous.Gillian Reynolds "The Archers", Daily Telegraph, 20 September 2008 Jim later relocated, bought his own property in Ambridge and went into a business partnership with Kenton which was dissolved when Kenton moved to the Bull. Currently Alistair is living in Jim's house, where Jazzer McCreary was also co-resident until he moved in with Tracy. In 2019 Alistair's sister Fiona Lloyd (Adjoa Andoh) visited Ambridge to celebrate her father Jim's birthday.
Kenton Archer (born Kenton Edward Archer, 8 August 1958) (Richard Attlee, formerly played by Graeme Kirk) is portrayed as the wastrel of the Archer family. Having turned his back on the family farm to join the Merchant Navy, Kenton tried his hand at a number of ventures, including selling antiques and running a wine bar. He disappeared to Australia and New Zealand for several years and was married (originally to gain a visa, though they subsequently fell in love), had a daughter (Meriel), and divorced before returning home. Kenton's former partner, Kathy Perks, is the ex-wife of Sid Perks, the late landlord of The Bull. His current wife is Sid's widow, Jolene, whom he married in autumn 2013 at Lower Loxley. Together they run The Bull.
Jolene Archer, formerly Perks, previously Tuson, originally Rogers (Buffy Davis), widow of Sid Perks, whose third wife she was, and landlady of the Bull. When younger she was a stalwart of the Borsetshire Country and Western scene (under the name The Lily of Layton Cross), and object of Eddie Grundy's affections, much to Clarrie's distress. Following Sid's untimely death she formed a relationship with Kenton Archer, and they were married in 2013.
David Archer (born David Thomas Archer, 18 September 1959) (Timothy Bentinck, formerly played by Nigel Carrivick) is the second son of Phil and Jill and, as the only child of the four to show any interest in, or aptitude for, farming, has assumed responsibility for Brookfield Farm. As he has aged he has become increasingly caring, for example driving up to Northumberland to bring his widowed mother-in-law to stay, and renting a piece of land to Joe Grundy to allow him to keep the barn he had erected without planning permission. Brookfield has suffered from bovine TB, but David is enthusiastic about his herd of Herefords. His cowman's heavy-handed advice (which he and Ruth reluctantly accepted) that they should dispense with the services of Shula's husband as vet for their dairy herd in favour of a specialist caused a serious family rift, and was followed by his near-affair with Sophie Barlow. Recently, he bought an old tractor, dubbed "Rufus", which he has restored.
Ruth Archer, Pritchard (born 16 June 1968) (Felicity Finch) is the wife of David Archer. Unusually the character comes from a real rather than fictional place, Prudhoe in Northumberland. She came to Ambridge as a Harper Adams student looking for agricultural work experience in 1987, and promptly met David, who was keen to settle down: the couple married within two years. They have three children: Philippa (Pip), Josh and Ben. Ruth survived breast cancer which struck in 2000, undergoing a mastectomy operation. Ruth's utterance "Oh noooooo", spoken in her Northumberland accent, was frequently parodied on the BBC Radio 4 comedy programme Dead Ringers. In an unpopular and heavily criticised plotline Ruth teetered on the brink of an affair with farm employee Sam Batton in the autumn of 2006. Many listeners considered Ruth's behaviour during this storyline to be entirely out of character, and therefore unbelievable. Others thought her immature self-centred vacillation was entirely in character, and that it was the largely off-air rehabilitation of the marriage and the family's 'blind eye' that was unbelievable. She has since undergone breast reconstruction surgery, and coped rather better than David with the sudden transformation of priggish daughter Pip into a very stroppy seventeen-year-old with a much older boyfriend, Jude, who eventually dropped her. More recently, Ruth has suffered a miscarriage and championed a potential move from Brookfield to Prudhoe should "Route B" be constructed, breaking the farm in two. Although David went along with this at first, he had doubts and confessed he could never leave Ambridge.