For 30 years Graham Blockey, voice behind Lynda Snell’s husband in Radio 4 soap, doubled up as full-time doctor in Surrey

A country doctor has revealed that he has been moonlighting for the past 30 years as a character in the Archers.

In a story to match the often far-fetched plotlines of the radio soap’s fictional village of Ambridge, Dr Graham Blockey marked his retirement as a GP in Surrey by outing himself as the voice behind the character Robert Snell.

Blockey said he played the role of the put-upon husband to Lynda Snell during his time off at weekends and on Thursday afternoons. Some of his patients in Leith Hill village knew of their doctor’s thespian exploits, but he said he kept the role secret from most of them for fear of losing their respect.

“I wasn’t keen to publicise it. If I did blow my own trumpet they might lose faith and I might have lost a bit of that authority,” Blockey said. “There is a demographic that tends to listen to the Archers and a lot of my patients are in that demographic.”

In calming tones familiar to Archers listeners, Blockey said he auditioned for the part of a new doctor in the show in 1986. He was told his voice did not sound enough like a doctor and was offered the part of Robert Snell instead.

“Maybe the expectation of a country doctor was different then,” he said.

Blockey qualified as a doctor in 1979, and turned back to medicine after struggling to find regular work as an actor.

“I was a full-time actor in my 20s, but then I had kids and I was doing things like playing a tomato in pantomime and I started to think, ‘hang on a minute, perhaps medicine is more fulfilling’,” he said.

Blockey spoke of the difficulty of combining his part-time radio job with his full-time role as a partner at the surgery.



“I would do the Archers at weekends and my Thursday afternoons off when I could get up to Birmingham. And if they wanted a major storyline I would book a week’s leave, as long as my medical partners agreed.”

Blockey’s time constraints help to explain his more limited appearances on the Archers compared with the more prominent role of his fictional wife Lynda, who as hotel receptionist and amateur dramatics impresario is an Ambridge stalwart.

“He’s not a big part, but he’s important because he’s married to this major character Lynda, who is quite flighty and a village busybody. So he keeps her grounded, and is there from time to time. If he was a major character they would have recast, but to their great credit they stuck with me over the years.”

Asked what advice Lynda Snell would give a frustrated actor playing a tomato, Blockey said: “She would tell them to accept the professional necessity and project control and their stagecraft.”

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Scenes between the two have often involved Lynda talking to Robert without getting an answer. “They would write around my availability, it’s an old radio trick,” Blockey said.

But now that he has retired as a GP, Blockey, 61, plans to spend more time acting. Asked whether he would have a more prominent role in the Archers he said he hoped so, but had been given no hints from the producers.

Blockey said he was looking forward to retirement as a GP.

“I will miss the patients, but I won’t miss the scrutiny. The compliance with regulations is onerous and getting more so, and the feeling that you have to justify your decisions all the time takes time, and takes its toll. It’s a burden.”