Lesley J. Saweard (born 13 August 1934[2])[3] is a British retired actress.
She played Christine Barford in the long-running radio soap opera, The Archers, from 1953 until 2019.
[4] Saweard was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire to parents William and Hilda (née Kiddle).
[5] Saweard began her career as a teacher, and also appeared in the local amateur dramatic society ‘Playgoers’.
In 1953, she began playing the role of Christine Barford (the sister of established character Phil Archer) in BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers; she remained on the program until 2019, apart from a break during the 1960s, between 1962 and returning in 1968.