Choice voices

SPEND any time with Graham Roberts and you start hearing voices. The flat, stubborn tones of George Barford, the retired gamekeeper from The Archers, grind out on occasions. Then there is the Brummie twang of the landlord of the pub where Graham stays when recording the radio soap.

Scottish tones break out at one point, as Graham impersonates the outraged viewers who spotted him on the street or in the supermarket when he used to work on-screen for Grampian Television. Jack May, the actor who for years played Nelson Gabriel, the smooth-toned, vaguely villainous antique dealer, is caught to the life as well.

But mostly, you hear Graham's own voice, which isn't at all like that of George Barford, the man once described, as Graham ruefully points out, in one newspaper as "the Yorkshire yawn".

The Copmanthorpe actor has a deep, steady voice, without much trace of an accent, and certainly without any hint of Yorkshire. But that's hardly surprising, as one of the nation's most familiar fictional Yorkshiremen was born in Chester and educated in Manchester and Bristol.

In a long career, Graham has appeared on West End stage, screen and television, but his voice has more or less been his fortune. He first became a BBC voice early in his career. "I passed an audition at Broadcasting House in 1958, I think it was."

Because Graham "likes doing silly voices", he did various vocal turns, which were then stored on tape at Broadcasting House, so that producers could hear the different characters he could do.

The voice of Copmanthorpe has been heard on the Radio Four soap, which this year celebrated its 50th anniversary, since 1973. He was also a familiar presence, mostly vocal rather than visual, on Yorkshire Television, where for 22 years he fitted his acting round being a continuity announcer, ending in 1993. He moved to Yorkshire to do that job after spending seven years as an announcer in Scotland, where he was occasionally seen on screen - hence the heckling he recalls, in perfect Scottish tones.

Graham specialises in dialects and can remember how he gave expression to George Barford, the grumpy Yorkshire gamekeeper. "We placed him in Todmorden, West Yorkshire," he said. At this point, Graham slowed down his voice a little and dropped a tone or two, as if touching truculence. "He's more like that, you know," he said, becoming George Barford for a moment.

Barford, a former policeman, was for 25 years the gamekeeper at Grey Gables in The Archers, though he is now retired, devoting his life to being a tree warden. He is married to Christine, who is giving up the stables, thanks to that bad back of hers.

After so many years, what does Graham think of his rural alter-ego?

"I'm not quite sure. I'm a bit ambivalent. He's very trustworthy, he's honest and he's much braver than I am, as a gamekeeper he has to be.

"Since he retired, I have tried to give him a sense of humour. I put little jokes in. But when something has to be cut, usually the jokes are cut out."

So Archers listeners are mostly left with the familiar, fun-free George Barford, a solid presence in the soap, a bit like a Yorkshire oak tree, only with legs. Barford was introduced as a replacement for Tom Forest, Uncle Tom, known for his recitations.

Graham has played George for so long that he naturally feels concerned about the old Yorkshireman, who has faced a number of crises down the years. In 1993, he got himself into bother after poisoning the vet's dog. This was a hard plot for Graham, a dog lover himself, as our picture illustrates - but he was concerned that the pressures on gamekeepers would be fully explored, helping to explain George's action.

In one of Barford's strongest stories, he was hit over the head by poachers, a misdeed that was eventually traced to those rural baddies the Horobins, in that case young Clive.

The Archers has been on air for half a century, which gives it ten years even on Coronation Street. With episodes now running six times a week, the soap exists in what George thinks of as "real time". Events happen day to day, as the episodes are broadcast, and unwind slowly with the years, so that characters grow and age in real time. The actors used to be on contract for three months, but now they are booked by the episode.

"We generally get our scripts about a week before. They are sent to me here," Graham said, gesticulating in the air, to indicate his detached house. He reads the scripts at home, making suggested amendments, then heads off for rehearsals, where the script begins to come to life and batches of 24 episodes are recorded over ten days. "It's fairly intense. We have two hours to rehearse and record a 15 minute episode."

He doesn't know far in advance if George Barford is featuring in upcoming stories. Casting is on a Friday and he awaits the weekly call, to see if he is needed.

As a long-time cast member, he would probably be told if something major was planned for George, but he wouldn't know far in advance - and even if he does know anything, he isn't allowed to talk about future episodes.

At the moment, George and Christine Barford are looking for somewhere to live. They had fancied Glebe Cottage, but Phil and Jill Archer got there first. Now they have their eyes on the old police house.

At one point, there was mention of Guernsey. This is a location to send a shiver down the spine of an Archers actor. For Guernsey is the back of nowhere, from whence few characters ever return. As an old producer once said to Graham: "Remember, boy, Guernsey is the Siberia of Ambridge."

Graham's voice has a tobacco timbre and, towards the end of a long interview, a lighter appears in his hand, as if by magic. He plays with this cylinder for a while, then conjures a cigarette from somewhere. Shortly afterwards, Graham's wife, the international soprano Yvonne Robert, comes in and tuts at me: "Have you been letting him smoke?"

Graham's smoke-touched voice has been heard advertising Yorkshire Tea and Hovis, and has narrated around 100 novels and autobiographies for unabridged audiotapes. He has read the Heartbeat novels and the Patrick O'Brien novels featuring Jack Aubrey.

Graham's very vocal talent has sustained him all these years and keeps him employed today, when he is how old? "I'm not telling you that," Graham says. "Just say that I am a pensioner."

Later at home, listening to The Archers' omnibus on Sunday, it's funny to hear Barford's familiar grumble and to imagine Graham Roberts' face. The two don't quite fit.

But that's radio for you.

Updated: 11:47 Friday, April 06, 2001