Ian Handford: The Archer's actor who called Torquay home

Born on Burley Road, Penn Fields, Wolverhampton, in December 1906, Gwendoline M Berryman (known as Gwen) enjoyed her rise to fame through her memorable role as the beloved and fictitious Doris Archer in the BBC radio series The Archers. Despite eventually semi-retiring to Torquay, Gwen would travel weekly to Birmingham studios for some time to continue her role.

Gwen’s father was a successful Edwardian-era shoemaker who started with a retail shop in Wolverhampton’s Market Place.

As his business grew, he eventually opened a number of shops in the city.

Gwen’s home life saw the family move frequently until she eventually chose to leave her home during the 1930s to study at the Royal Academy of Music in the hope of becoming a singer.

While working as an understudy at her first theatre, Gwen had the opportunity to act a small part in her first film before later touring as a member of the cast.

Sadly, it was not long before she was taken ill and was forced to temporarily give up working in any live theatre.

When she recovered, she opened a retail baby linen shop in her home city of Wolverhampton, but many years later, she actually admitted: “I knew absolutely nothing about it.”

She had become an entrepreneur in essence, though perhaps initially with an uncertain future.

Meanwhile, Gwen made what turned out to be another wise decision when she joined the local repertory company in Wolverhampton and worked with them for fourteen years.

When interviewed by a local journalist years later, she confided: “It is rather funny when I look back now; in those days I was doing comedy and longing to do a sweet mother for a change, while now I’m a sweet mother longing to do comedy.”

During this time, Gwen shared the limelight with a real star of theatre, Kenneth More, in a 26-week run of The Forsyte Saga on the BBC.

Though she still saw herself as becoming an opera singer, she would later confess: “I don’t think I would have actually made the grade.”

Yet her followers on radio would certainly appreciate her voice on "The Archers," as it was quite unique.

So unique, in fact, that the BBC was unable to ever understudy "Doris Archer" on the few occasions when Gwen was unable to attend a recording session.

It was in 1951 that Gwen learned the corporation wanted to produce a programme to assist budding farmers returning from the Second World War.

Many of these budding entrepreneurs had purchased land from existing farmers, in the belief they were capable of becoming true and effective "amateur farmers". 

BBC producers thought this could create a wonderful opportunity for a new light-hearted daily radio programme which could advise and help these new so-called agricultural "entrepreneurs". 

Gwen remarked: “the programme was written very strictly—it was checked with an expert—the idea being that Dan was the farmer who always did things right while others, and especially Walter Gabriel, did them the wrong way and then were told how to do it properly. It was a measure of how carefully this was heard by our listeners, as one day we made a small slip, and the next day we had no less than 4000 letters—pointing this out”.

Despite staying permanently with the ever-popular radio programme, Gwen was always quite surprised at her own popularity with audiences and indeed, the BBC. She once confided: “Fortunately they seemed to want me to stay, and my one hope is that when the time comes they won’t kill me off—I don’t think I want to hear about my own funeral”. 

To be continued next week in part two...