Elizabeth and Jill’s trip down memory lane inspired a search through The Archers audio archive for the early days of Phil and Jill’s relationship.
Phil first spotted Jill on 8 July 1957 at a garden fete. He’d taken his cine camera along to make a short film called “The Great Garden Fete at Ambridge”. While filming he saw a girl he didn’t recognise – she was blonde, with a kind of urchin haircut, and she was wearing a yellow dress. He pointed out the stranger to Carol and said he thought she was a peach!
(When Patricia Greene was first approached to join The Archers she was given the description "sexy blonde in the tea tent" for her character Jill.)
Over the following months Phil and Jill got to know one another and on 16 November they were married. Phil was just over two years widowed from his first wife Grace. Nevertheless, as Elizabeth has tried to impress on her mum, he was truly in love with Jill. They were married for over 50 years until Phil's death in 2010.
(Find out about the golden wedding anniversary gift for Phil and Jill that went wrong)
The earliest surviving audio of Phil and Jill together is from before Elizabeth was even a twinkle in their eyes, her older brother David had to come along first. The audio is from January 1959 when Charles Grenville was about to take over from George Fairbrother for whom Phil was general farm manager.
We hear Phil express his doubts to Jill about staying on in his job but Jill gives him some tough love. “You know more about Fairbrother Enterprises than anybody else connected with it. You built it up. Don’t you dare turn your back on it at this stage, the very idea!” she tells him.
Phil acknowledges she’s talking “a lot of good sense”. Then, their conversation turns to a new addition to the family… "Archer Offspring Number Three".
