A former winner of Bromyard Folk Festival's Future of Young Folk Award, Molly Pipe has now secured a role in Radio 4's popular and long-running serial drama, The Archers.

"I auditioned with the Norman Beaton Fellowship ('a flagship initiative run by Radio Drama as a key part of the department's actor talent events') where I met producer Kim Greengrass," Molly explains.

"I'm an Archers listener myself, and some time after that audition I was listening to the programme and heard a character mentioned who didn't have a voice and seemed to be about my age, so I decided to send in some voice reels," she says, revealing that the part she was then offered wasn't the one she'd written to ask about. "I am playing Mia Grundy (Will Grundy's stepdaughter and daughter of Will's late wife, Nic), and it's really enjoyable. It's a little bit awesome and bizarre.

"The first time I walked into the green room and there were all these actors whose voices I'd been listening to for years, but they looked entirely different to how I thought they would look! It was a really strange moment, where reality met art."

At 21, Molly is one of The Archers younger fans. "It's my guilty pleasure," she says, adding that it was Helen and Rob's story that got her hooked initially. "That made me realise that it was more than just something a bit quaint."

Having completed her first recording in January, Molly was first heard on February 10 - "It was really exciting."