Mike's new squeeze
11 June 2009

With Mike's whirlwind romance setting Ambridge tongues wagging, we talk to the actor who plays the ebullient Vicky - Rachel Atkins.

Rachel Atkins (Vicky Hodges)

As well as frequent appearances in theatre and on television - most recently in BBC One's Doctors - Rachel is a very experienced radio actor, having spent four stints on the Radio Drama Repertory Company. She's recently been recording for the second series of David Nobbs' museum comedy The Maltby Collection , which will be returning to BBC Radio 4 later this year.

This is Rachel's second role in The Archers. In 1999, she played a member of the jury which acquitted Tom for trashing genetically modified crops - unusually (possibly uniquely) in an episode which featured no regular Archers cast members.

When the call came from The Archers office earlier this year, Rachel assumed that the part would be a similar brief appearance. At first, she was going to turn it down, with regret, as it clashed with family holiday arrangements. But when she discovered it was more than a "spit and a cough" (as actors have it), she was delighted to accept - and the holiday plans were quickly rearranged.

"It's been fantastic fun, if a bit surreal", she said. "Going into a room where there are these people you've heard for years. You have a very strong picture of the characters and while some of the actors look just right, some don't look like your mental image at all."

Rachel had worked with Terry Molloy (Mike) in radio plays before. Just as well, as their characters became intimate very quickly: "By the third episode they were waking up in bed together and we hadn't even heard what Vicky's surname was!"

Lonely

Vicky has already ruffled feathers in Ambridge, and Rachel has a very keen idea of why: "Vicky's got a lot of life to her, but she's quite lonely. She lives in a flat and doesn't really know her neighbours, and she's been introduced to a community where everyone knows each other. So she's been a bit over-zealous in trying to fit in, and that's caused some friction with the other women in Mike's life. Susan, Clarrie and especially Brenda haven't really taken to her.

"And of course there's the appalled reaction of the younger characters that 'old people' are actually having sex, although while Mike's nearly 60, she's quite a lot younger - in her mid- 40s. She's basically a good woman but she's had bad luck with men in the past and she can't believe her luck in finding Mike. So there's some pathos there."

Like many actors, Rachel is based in London, but she was brought up in Birmingham, which is the source of the very accurate accent she is using for Vicky. In fact, Rachel's sister still lives in Birmingham, as do other family and friends. When Rachel visits now she's struck by how much the city centre has improved since the concrete jungle she remembers from her childhood.

Enjoying the character and the chance to visit her old home town for recording sessions at the Mailbox, Rachel hopes the part has a future: "As things go on, maybe Vicky will get more involved in things like the panto, or quizzes at The Bull - who knows, she might even organise some sort of dance event. Then if she starts to feel accepted she'll calm down a bit and not try so hard."

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