Helen Longworth - hard-hitting Hannah
11 December 2008

Tom's new employee Hannah has made quite an impact, already getting Jazzer to sharpen up his ideas. We spoke to Helen Longworth, who plays the punchy pig person..

Helen Longworth (Hannah)

Helen is a very well established radio actor. After training at RADA, she won the Carleton Hobbs award, and so started on the BBC's Radio Drama Repertory Company (the so-called "Radio Rep") immediately after graduating. She joins a number of former winners of the award on The Archers cast, including Edward Kelsey (Joe), Patricia Gallimore (Pat), Carole Boyd (Lynda) and Tim Bentinck (David).

"I've wanted to be in The Archers for ages", said Helen. "I've been on the Rep three times [actors from the Rep sometimes play small parts in The Archers] but it just didn't come up.

"My friends absolutely loved it when I got the part, although I was a bit worried when it happened, in a way that I wouldn't have been if it was a part in a radio play. My Mum and Dad both listen and they were really chuffed.

"I listen sporadically but I'm not a regular listener, which has helped me a bit. Hannah is quite cheeky to some of the main characters - it's like going to Corrie and being cheeky to Ken Barlow. So because I don't feel intimidated I can just go in and do the job."

Ryan Kelly

This is Helen's first experience of working with a blind actor - Ryan Kelly (Jazzer). "I've really enjoyed it. At first I kept forgetting to tap him on the shoulder when the green light goes on [to record], because when you're working together he's just a good actor.

"He's so aware. When we went back into the green room, he said 'where's everybody gone?' He'd realised the room was empty before I did. And another time I was just sitting there quietly and he asked me what I was reading."

Helen is playing a character some ten years younger than her real age: "That's one of the things that so brilliant about radio. It wouldn't happen in any other medium." At the other extreme she's played a haggard witch aged about 160.

As well as a wide range of ages, Helen has also had to master many accents. "I seemed to get a lot of Polish parts. I like to get the CDs and work hard on the accent." However, CDs weren't much use when she had to play a sea monster with a cold (the monster had the cold, not her).

Hannah, like Helen, comes from Preston, so rather than the accent, she's been working on the youthful energy and enthusiasm of the character: "I like the way that Hannah's been written. She's really cheeky."

Helen has been juggling Archers recording sessions in Birmingham with rehearsals for her latest project: a Christmas show of music and readings called Deck the Halls, which she has compiled and directed for Lancaster Castle (18 - 21 December). "That's all in the old crown court, with the judges' benches, so it's been very different to Ambridge!"

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