The Archers' Angus Stobie on George's fate: 'Prison might make him worse'

Two years ago, Angus Stobie, a quiet, thoughtful 24-year-old from Edinburgh, took a modest radio part as young George Grundy in The Archers and found himself in a melodrama of heroism, panic, lies, betrayals and a court appearance with five million listeners glued to the radio and social media aflame with anxious tweets.

When he auditioned for the mud-stained jewel in Radio 4’s crown, he was fresh out of Manchester drama school – a year of that spent over Zoom during Covid, "doing animal impressions alone in my living room". The Archers editor needed to introduce two rarely heard figures into the Ambridge landscape.

"I had a commendation from the Carleton Hobbs radio bursary," remembers Stobie. "I suppose that’s how I got an audition. Lots of boys my age were there, and it was actually for the part of Brad Horrobin. I only read one short bit of George at the end but then Taylor [Uttley] got Brad, and I got George! I was surprised, but excited."

Not a lifelong listener, he was briefed: "The editor Jeremy Howe filled me in on all the different storylines George was involved in, and how they might have shaped him. You have a duty to get it right in a show with such a rich history. You have to be grounded and truthful because it’s belonged to a lot of people, for years.

After a sedate urban upbringing – "I’m a city boy" – how did he set about evoking earthy rural life? "You don’t have to know a great detail, but you do ask questions whenever you’re vocalising your actions. For instance, this particular sheep, how heavy is it? How fast will it move?" Was there ever any ferret-training for the traditional Grundy hobby? "No. Never handled one at all, they’re all imaginary." But, he adds wistfully, "I’d love to have some ferrets in the studio."

He worked carefully on the accent, far from his elegant Scottish tones. "I suppose it’s a sort of West Country/Midlands blend, not super-specific. But I listened a lot to Trevor [Harrison], who plays Eddie, he’s brilliant. And George is a teenager, so you have to modernise it slightly: he’s into social media, TikTok, American slang."

The other radio skill is finding a voice distinct from the other village lads, and he worked on this with Uttley’s Brad. "We naturally found places to position ourselves – he does this lovely, ever-so-slightly whingey, kind voice. I love their relationship. It started with George picking on him and getting him into trouble, but now he would admit a respect for Brad, going to his new life, university..." Indeed, before George’s trial there was a memorably sweet conversation between the two that will have moved anyone with teenage sons.

It was for that sort of scene that Stobie was hired. Jeremy Howe spotted his capacity for nuanced, emotional voice work, so the biggest Ambridge scenes for years have fallen to one of the newest and youngest cast members, and a non-Archer, too.

Since George has now brought uproar, distress, confusion and fallings-out to nearly everyone in the fictional village, I should briefly remind less attentive listeners where he fits in. He’s the natural son of Will Grundy, but raised in his uncle Ed’s home after Emma Carter left one brother for the other.

He's rich in cousins, grandparents and half-siblings, with just an aunt-by-marriage in the dominant Archer clan because Alice, daughter of Jennifer, broke the class barrier long ago by marrying the local farrier, George’s uncle Chris.

It was the divorced, intermittently recovering alcoholic Alice who set the ball rolling downhill. George found her drunk in her car and offered to drive her home (good chance to try such a fancy motor). On the way she drunkenly tried to climb out to be sick, distracting him into knocking a taxi-full of villagers into the river. He rescued three of them ("buckets of water, soaked bathmats to make squelching riverbank noises", says Stobie happily).

But in a panic, he then dragged the somnolent Alice into the driving seat. "A great day – looking through the script I saw that and I was shocked!" And disgusted? "No, as an actor you always ask, why? I mean, he’s done a half-decent thing to drive her, then put his life at risk amazingly. But then... well, I suppose being used to receiving blame and having fingers pointed at him, George’s visceral reaction is to remove blame for the crash from himself."

After weeks of being uneasily hailed as a hero, George confessed the truth to his mother – a big scene – and was arrested. But during his weeks of lies, the rescued Fallon lost her baby and Alice hit the bottle again out of supposed guilt, losing custody of three-year-old Martha. So everyone was furious with him, and there were more big scenes: with mother, father, uncle, grandparents, unforgiving Archers, Brad’s mum Tracy, Fallon’s vengeful policeman partner Harrison and Alice herself.

It must have been quite a challenge, playing a surly 19-year-old with an uneasy conscience followed by big confrontations? "I just tried to get into the head of a teenager experiencing all these things. He’s just a boy, it’s monumental, there’s weights and layers, he knew what he did was wrong, but he’s someone who lives from moment to moment."

Did he question why George didn’t, like some hard-hearted listeners, blame the spoilt and sozzled Alice for making him crash in the first place? "No, family means a lot to him. Not blood family, but she’s his aunt. He’s got a good conscience. I loved the scenes with her." She memorably confronted him with her victim-impact statement. "It’s powerful and devastating, as she calmly tells him the impact on her and Chris and especially the infant Martha. In that moment he realises what he caused; he’s got younger sisters himself. That’s the final piece of the puzzle for him."

It’s perceptive: even the most rough-cut teenage boys often have special tenderness for small children. Now we know the sentence. Unlike the aristocratic Freddie Pargeter, who got sent to a Young Offenders institution for drug dealing, George gets adult prison, and was last heard breaking off a phone call home. The current regime means he can’t be out till haymaking 2025. How does Stobie think George will fare inside? And will the scriptwriters manage to create some interesting prison scenes?

"Nobody has told me! I’m partially relieved, but sad it’s over for now, I’ve very much enjoyed it. Prison will have an interesting effect on George in one of two ways – either completely reformed, or bad influences worsening his issues and making him resentful. It could be interesting. Change is always exciting to play." Would he prefer to be a reformed character or a villain, like his occasionally heard Bad Uncle Clive? "You never know. It’s always fun to play parts when your character’s not at ease."

In the long term, might George find love? Stobie smiles: there is a girl George fancies, often mentioned but not yet heard. "That’s the question – will Tilly Button ever show up on the radio? Guess we’ll see."

Bring it on, scriptwriters! Somewhere there’s a gifted female drama graduate needing work and able to do a Borsetshire twang. Let her visit George in prison then crowdfund in the Bull for an appeal against his sentence. Just to upset the whole village again. Well, we all have our private Archers fantasies, don’t we?

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The Archers airs Sunday-Friday at 7pm on BBC Radio 4.

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