Late Patricia Greene fumed over BBC pay gap after | UK News

Patricia Greene has tragically died at 94. The actress was best identified for her function as the matriarch of the Archer Family in the BBC‘s hit radio cleaning soap opera, The Archers. After being forged as Jill Archer in 1957, Patricia turned Britain’s longest-running cleaning soap star, holding the function until her death. Her death was confirmed at the end of the BBC’s Today programme, which announced the unhappy news, stating: “Patricia Greene, who played Jill Archer in The Archers since 1956, has died.”

Despite her record-breaking profession accomplishment, Patricia had beforehand revealed that it was not mirrored in her wages. During a shock interview with The Times, the actress revealed she earned only £16,000 for the function in 2017. However, she was matter-of-fact about the comparatively small sum, telling the publication: “That’s what we get. We don’t talk money much, we talk content.” She was bowled over upon studying the full salaries of some of the broadcaster’s highest-paid stars, sparking concern about a big gender pay gap.

In the 2025 interview, Patricia found that Chris Evans was paid over £2million yearly while working at the BBC and gasped: “It’s obscene. You don’t earn that kind of money sitting at a microphone, do you? You can’t, it’s just ridiculous.”

While she wasn’t involved about pocketing more money, the star admitted that it could be good to see some of that sum going in direction of The Archers’ price range.

She explained: “It always makes me laugh that we can only now have six characters per episode because of money, sometimes five, sometimes seven [according to the BBC, the quota is actually 39 voices per week].

“And [sometimes] we now have to do [sound effects] that we’d have gone and received off a gramophone file or tape but now we now have to do it ourselves, it’s ridiculous.”

When Patricia joined the cast of BBC Radio 4 in 1957, it was already well established and attracting up to nine million listeners; as a result, the Jill star was not convinced she would ever land a permanent role.

She recalled: “Because I only had one line, I had a drink at lunchtime. The line was, ‘Doesn’t she look beautiful?’ but it got here out ‘Dubbent debook bubbly?’ So they stored me there for an hour, repeating it. Since then, I’ve never had a drink and then labored.”

Patricia’s dedication to her craft earned her the loving nickname “the nation’s grandmother” from loyal listeners who continued to tune in to the 13-minute episodes.

At the time of her death, the BBC star was living in an assisted living facility, which she moved into in August 2023, but continued to record for the programme.

The Archers editor Jeremy Howe led tributes as he told Digital Spy: “Paddy was completely singular, a fabulous and raucously humorous raconteur. Like the best actors when on mic you had been never fairly sure how she would play a scene, but you knew she would play it brilliantly.”

He added: “Her portrayal of Jill was formidable, but also splendidly heat, loving and monumental enjoyable. It was an unimaginable privilege to work with her.”