Last updated August 2007
Category: The Archers
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One of Felicity Finch's earliest childhood memories was holidaying on a farm in her native North East: she vividly recalls the smells – which she liked – and rising at dawn to see the cows being milked. Little could she have known that her role as Ruth Archer in BBC Radio 4's The Archers would see her in charge of an entire dairy herd.
When she became Ruth in 1987, Felicity had little insight into the world of dairying or agriculture, but she has subsequently developed a natural interest for the farming world.
Felicity began learning ballet from the age of three and recalls being inspired by seeing a performance of Coppelia. But by the age of 13, she realised she wasn't destined to be the next Margot Fonteyn and her thoughts soon turned to acting.
She took a course at a technical college which enabled her to keep up her academic subjects as she studied drama. She worked backstage as an assistant stage manager – gaining a then highly coveted Equity card – and was accepted for the Drama Centre in London.
Since then she has appeared in many theatre productions playing parts as varied as Violet Beauregarde in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Jessica in The Merchant Of Venice with The Old Vic Theatre Company, Laura in The Glass Menagerie and an abseiling wasp in Gulliver's Travels!
Some of her fondest memories are of travelling around the North East in a van with the Northumberland Theatre Company performing in John Godber's Happy Jack and Up And Under.
Television work includes BBC Two's Bleak House (the original production) and the portrayal of Lady Lucan in the documentary drama Murder In Belgravia.
It was through theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne that Felicity was recruited for The Archers, after one of the programme's producers contacted a theatre director, for whom Felicity had worked, requesting suggestions for the part of Ruth...
Felicity has great affection for the "spirited and determined" Ruth. The most challenging, recent events for Ruth include overcoming breast cancer in 2000 and, in 2006, rescuing – just – her marriage after David's dalliance with Sophie and her own, brief encounter with herdsman Sam. While the ripples remain, Ruth and David have rekindled their relationship.
Outside of Ambridge, Felicity works as a radio features reporter and presenter for Radio 4. She has made many features for Woman's Hour, You And Yours and Saturday Live.
Her recording has taken her to Rwanda, Peshawar, Albania and Cambodia to make documentaries about the way radio soap is being used in some countries to communicate sometimes vital information, like health issues.
In 2005, her documentary Will He Change His Socks was nominated for a Sony award; in 2006 she made a series about working nonagenarians, and Lost In Space about the growing phenomenon of self-storage; and in 2007 she recorded a programme about bats!
The pastime that began at the tender age of three remains Felicity's great passion, so to relax she can sometimes be found flinging herself (or being flung) around the dance floor – most likely doing salsa or lambada. In quieter moments she does Pilates, a form of exercise she has advocated for over 20 years.
