Brian Hewlett was starring in a stage performance in 1966 with Bob Arnold, who played Tom Forrest on The Archers. Bob made a casting suggestion years later to the show's producer, Tony Shryane, about enlisting Brian for the role. Shryane told Hewlett after his first recording that "we might write Neil in for a few episodes".^[1] "Neil came in as a teenager, an apprentice at Brookfield Farm," Hewlett says. "I was older but I was playing the role of teenagers in radio at the time. Tony said I could pick any Midlands accent I liked, so it really was open."^[2] Hewlett remembers the character being "nervous" about being around animals, and how Neil made some "ghastly errors" on his first day on the job.^[2]

Arrival in Ambridge edit

Hewlett recalls how the character first, under the guidance of Dan Archer, was shown the ropes on the field. In one broadcast, Neil "ploughed up a field of wheat thinking it was grass" and left the farm gate open.^[2] "He had his troubles," Hewlett recalls. "He had a fair number of girlfriends and even a drugs problem. It wasn’t that he was taking drugs – they were planted on him. So he went through a sticky period. He wasn’t ever a tearaway, though. He was always fairly well behaved, or tried to be."^[2] The storyline involved Neil's then-girlfriend, Sandy Miller, planting cannabis on him. Neil was sentenced to community service, and Phil Archer gave him another chance after Neil failed his farm proficiency test.^[3] In 1976, he dated Shula Archer briefly, but she dumped him for newspaper journalist Simon Parker.

Leptospirosis edit

Early on in his time in Ambridge, Neil suffered from Leptospirosis, a disease contracted through rats.^[2] Hewlett recalls Neil was in hospital and "very close to losing his life". "Like all good dramas, we carried it through to the point –is he going to live, is he going to die? I lived – thank you (laughs), so that was quite interesting to play."^[2]

Courting Susan Horrobin edit

A young Susan Horrobin won a pig as a prize and sought out Neil for advice on how to care for it. When the pig, named Pinky, escaped and Neil helped rescue him much to Susan's delight. Hewlett says this was the start of a "tentative relationship" between the pair.^[2] " I think she was quite keen on Neil, so she made a big play for him. Up until then, dear old Jethro was trying to get Neil interested in his daughter Clarrie," Hewlett says. The pair wed after a trip to London in 1985, and Susan later gave birth to a daughter, Emma.^[4]

Susan's imprisonment edit

In 1993, Susan was sentenced to six-months behind bars for perverting the course of justice when she harboured her criminal brother, Clive.^[5] During this time, Neil was a food rep and while Susan was in prison, he felt the temptation of a lonely farmer's wife. "There was a great temptation there, with Neil feeling down and lonely at the time. But he managed to keep his sanity," Hewlett recalls.^[2]