Actors
Unlike television soaps, The Archers actors are not held on retainers, and work on the series for, at most, a few days a month. Most of the cast do acting work on other projects and can disappear for a period if they are working on long-term commitments such as films or television series. For example, Tamsin Greig, who plays Debbie Aldridge, has appeared on television comedy shows such as Green Wing, Love Soup and Black Books. As a result, Debbie manages a farm in Hungary in which her family has an interest while Greig is filming these shows, and then returns to Ambridge when Greig's commitments allow. Because of this, and by the nature of the storylines focusing on particular groups of characters, in any week the series comprises between 20 and 30 speaking characters out of a regular cast of about 60. Greig's situation was similar to that of Felicity Jones who played Emma Carter in the series; Jones, after a period studying at Wadham College, Oxford has moved into large TV parts, such as a starring role in Northanger Abbey. Emma Carter is now played by Emerald O'Hanrahan.
Some of the actors, when not playing their characters, earn their money through different jobs altogether: Charlotte Connor, when not playing Susan Carter (credited as Charlotte Martin), works full-time as a senior research psychologist at the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation; her office is a short walk from BBC Birmingham and thus is able to fit it around recordings. Other examples include Felicity Finch (Ruth Archer), who also works as a BBC journalist; having travelled on a number of occasions to Afghanistan, and Ian Pepperell (Roy Tucker), who manages a pub in the New Forest.
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Famous quotes containing the word actors:
“I was thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we can just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we got something here.”
—Michael Tolkin, U.S. screenwriter, and Robert Altman. Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins)
“The motives to actions and the inward turns of mind seem in our opinion more necessary to be known than the actions themselves; and much rather would we choose that our reader should clearly understand what our principal actors think than what they do.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greeks, play in the open air; the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner.”
—Eleonora Duse (1859–1924)