YOU can take the boy out of the village, but the village never quite leaves the boy …
A new soap opera has been launched starring Hurst-born actor John Altman, and it’s right up his street.
Famous for his role as Nasty Nick Cotton in the BBC’s EastEnders, he is now playing Alan Godwin, the landlord of the village pub in Greenborne.
The radio drama launched last month and is thought to be the first new soap for the airwaves since Waggoner’s Walk ran from 1969 through 1980 on BBC Radio 2.
And the show, which also stars fellow EastEnder Louise Jameson alongside Emmerdale Farm’s Corrine Wicks and Raad Rawi, is being broadcast on community radio stations across the country,
including Newbury’s Kennet Radio.
And there’s another local connection – it’s made by B7 productions, which is based in
nearby Cookham.
Series producer Helen Quigley says: “It has been some years since a brand-new radio soap debuted on British radio and I’m particularly excited that Greenborne will have its inaugural broadcast on community radio stations across the UK.
“Greenborne is meant to be familiar to all of us to some degree; whether it’s the location, the people or their stories, but mostly we hope it entertains.”
There are 12 episodes to the first series, each 15-minutes long and set in the fictional village.
John plays a pivotal role: as well as pulling pints at The Fox and Dragon, the rough diamond is a former Detective Inspector who used to work in the City before early retirement.
He is described as a rough, streetwise but honest man with a copper’s nose for trouble.
The show touches on the pandemic for its backdrop and openes as Evie (Jameson) returns from a covid-19 imposed exile, with some feathers to ruffle.
The pub, meanwhile, needs to get back into business and the mechanic, Arjun, is a widower after losing his wife to the virus.
It has all the elements that make a successful soap, including a great cast.
Recording the show has been different for John as the cast couldn’t get together.
While some of his castmates were able to work from home, John didn’t have the favccilities and he went into the studios to play his part.
“It wasn’t the same,” he admits. But then how could it be? No matter though, the end result is great.
John is pleased to play his part in the show, praising B7’s ability to pull together a talented cast.
“They have access to a huge pool of actors,” he says. “B7 knows some very talented people.”
Hurst has a lot of affection for him. The Green Man is, he thinks, where his Dad proposed to his Mum.
“It’s all happening in The green Man,” he says. “But the pub in Greenborn was inspired by a pub in Cookham, the Jolly Farmer, which is owned by the community.
“They clumped together to buy it off the brewery. That’s where the idea came from.”
Andrew Mark Sewell, who helps produced the show, said: “It’s aired different times and different days to just over 50 community radio stations, spread around the UK.
“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for quite some while, and it was during the first lockdown when we went for it. The soaps really seemed to be missing the beat in terms of addressing the pandemic and we were getting frustrated with that.
“We also wanted to do something which had a sense of hope and fun about it. Some soaps can be a bit po-faced, we hope that we’re not.”
He adds: “The diversity (among the cast) feels relevant in both the stories we’re telling and the range and diversity of the characters.
“And we have a fantastic cast of both experienced actors and some up-and-coming shining lights as well, with a nice mix in terms of age range, which is really important.”
Andrew adds: “I’ve always loved radio. For the last 15 years or so, we’ve been doing radio dramas and a couple of years ago we launched an audiobook division, which is how we ended up doing John’s autobiography, which was a hoot.”
You can hear episodes at www.greenborne.co.uk
