The Archers

From Freepedia

The Archers was also a film production company responsible for many classic British films in the 1940s and '50s.

The Archers is a British radio soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main national spoken-word radio channel, Radio 4. It is the world's longest running radio soap and was traditionally billed as an "everyday story of countryfolk". Despite its rural flavour it is in fact recorded in the heart of the major city of Birmingham.

Contents

Outline

There are now six episodes a week running from Sunday to Friday. All except the Friday evening episode are re-broadcast the following day, and all episodes are repeated in an omnibus edition on Sunday morning. The programme is set in the fictional Midlands village of Ambridge close to Borchester, the county town of Borsetshire, an imaginary shire situated between the (actually contiguous) real counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire, south of Birmingham in the West Midlands. Ambridge itself is sometimes said to be based upon the village of Inkberrow in Worcestershire, but the basis for this is only that the village pub - The Old Bull - was the model for the fictional pub The Bull in Ambridge. Other locations often referred to in the stories include local landmark Lakey Hill, the neighbouring village of Penny Hassett and the cathedral city of Felpersham. Anywhere further away from Ambridge is referred to as 'but that's on the other side of Felpersham!' (although a number of characters attended the Countryside Alliance march in London, and a couple of scenes have taken place abroad and in Lemington Spa).

Unlike television soaps - and partly as a consequence of the lower fees for radio work - Archers actors are not held on retainers, so most do other acting work and can disappear for periods if they are working on long term projects such as films or television series. Because of this, and by the nature of the storylines focussing on particular groups of characters, in any given week the series comprises 20-30 speaking characters out of a regular cast of about 60. In addition, there are dozens of silent characters who have never spoken, but are referred to by others.

History

Over Easter 1950, a pilot series was broadcast to the English Midlands; it was decided to commission the series for a longer run on the national network. (The pilot series differed from the networked version in that the Archers' farm was not Brookfield but 'Wimberton Farm'.)

Since 1 January 1951, a fifteen-minute episode (in recent years, twelve minutes) has been transmitted across the UK each weekday, at first on the BBC Light Programme and subsequently on the BBC Home Service (now Radio 4). Originally produced with collaborative input from the Ministry of Agriculture, it was conceived as a means of disseminating information to farmers and smallholders to help increase productivity in the post-war years of rationing and food shortages. The programme was hugely successful; at the height of its popularity it was estimated that 60% of adult Britons were regular listeners. It also served a purpose at the time as a propaganda mechanism to reinforce notions of Englishness, and to foster and inculcate notions of rebuilding in post-war Britain. Some long-term listeners still refer to storylines involving the details of farming as 'the Min. of Ag. bit" although the programme's educational remit, and the involvement of the government, stopped in 1972.

The actor Norman Painting has played the character of Phil Archer continuously ever since the first trial series in 1950. He was also a member of the scriptwriting team at one time - his very first episode was the one in which Phil's first wife, Grace, was fatally injured in a fire on the launch day of ITV. Painting had reviewed the initial script of the episode, and substantially rewrote it, gaining his first writing credit as "Bruno Milna" - he wrote around 1,200 episodes, culminating in the 10,000th episode.

Killing off Grace Archer was widely seen as a "spoiling" operation by the BBC; the cast had realised something was going on when the decision was made to record the episodes in London rather than Birmingham, and the episode was broadcast on the night of ITV's debut. The emotional response of listeners to news of Grace's death overshadowed the debut of the new competitive television network, and also inspired an episode of the television comedy programme Hancock (1961) that featured a fictional soap, The Bowmans, parodying the series.

Vanessa Whitburn has been the programme's editor since 1992.

Themes

A recurring theme over the years has been the resentment of the working-class Grundy family towards the middle-class Archers. Neil Kinnock in the 1980s jokingly renamed the Archers as "The Grundys and their Oppressors". The series, however, has moved inexorably with the times and now deals with a wide range of contemporary issues including illicit affairs, drug abuse, competitive marmalade-making, homosexuality and recently rape. However one of the show's enduring charms is its ability to make absorbing stories out of everyday, small scale concerns, such as the possible closure of the village shop, the loss and subsequent rediscovery of a pair of spectacles, or utter nonsense such as a 'spiletroshing' competition, rather than the large scale and rather improbable events that form the plots of many soap operas.

Main characters

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

Phil Archer is the current patriarch of the Archer family and a leading member of the village. His first wife Grace died as a result of injuries sustained in a stable fire and, five decades later, he has never entirely recovered from the trauma. His second wife Jill was trapped in a burning house in 2004 and this brought back many feelings. Phil handed responsibility for the family farm (Brookfield) to his second son David three years ago, but still remains involved in the farm's affairs. Phil has had a number of health scares in recent years but is still a keen pianist and plays the organ for church services and the music for the annual village Christmas play. He has a living sibling, Christine, recently widowed, and a deceased brother, Jack, an alcoholic who ran the Bull public house.

Jill Archer is the second wife of Phil Archer and matriarch of the family. Some ten years younger than her husband, she is more active in village life and makes herself available to support her children with caring for their families. Jill is an active member of the Women's Institute, opened up a holiday cottage business, and is teaching her grand-daughter Pip how to raise bees. Unlike Phil, a former Justice of the Peace, Jill has a less traditional outlook on life, reflected in her opposition to hunting and private education.

Shula Archer is the eldest daughter of Phil and Jill and twin sister of Kenton. Her first husband was killed in a road accident in 1994 that also involved her best friend Caroline Bone (now Pemberton). The cause of the accident was a mystery driver who startled the horses being ridden by Caroline and Debbie Aldridge, causing Mark to leave the road and hit a tree to avoid striking Debbie and the fallen Caroline. Shula and Mark's son Daniel was born after the death of his father as a result of Shula receiving IVF treatment after a long struggle with infertility. Some years after Mark's death, Shula had an affair with the village doctor (who was himself going out with Shula's good friend Usha Gupta), thus two-timing her boyfriend Alistair (the local vet) whom she subsequently married. This was in the context of the character being a devout Christian and a member of the local Parish Council, though consistency has never been Shula's strong point. Shula has now been married for five years and owns and runs the riding stables, which formerly belonged to Christine Barford, her aunt. She tries very hard to be caring and compassionate, but since her marriage to Alistair she has lost her lightheartedness and become rather earnest, self-centred and even, at times, preachy. Coping with the childhood arthritis of her son, Daniel, has not helped. She used to have great fun with her best friend, Caroline, but recently Caroline has become engrossed with her partner Oliver Sterling and fostering children.

Kenton Archer is portrayed as the 'waster' of the Archer family. Having turned his back on the farm, Kenton tried his hand at a number of ventures, including selling antiques and running a wine bar. Kenton disappeared to Australia and New Zealand for several years and was married, had a daughter (Meriel), and divorced before returning home. More recently, Kenton has been working as the manager of Jaxx cafe in Borchester, but his staff do more than their share of his job. He has an on-off relationship with Kathy Perks, ex-wife of Sid Perks, the landlord of "The Bull".

David Archer is the second son of Phil and Jill and has assumed responsibility for Brookfield. David is married to Ruth, who survived breast cancer, and they have three children. Over recent years he has become increasingly caring, for example driving up to Northumberland to bring his mother-in-law to stay since Ruth was worried about her, and renting a piece of land to Joe Grundy for a peppercorn rent to allow him to keep the barn he had erected without planning permission on his own field and to continue farming in a small way. Brookfield farm has suffered in recent years from bovine TB, but David is enthusiastic about his herd of Herefords. His cowman's heavy-handed advice (which he and Ruth reluctantly accepted) that they should dispense with the services of Shula's husband as vet for their dairy herd in favour of a specialist has caused a massive family rift. David is played by Tim Bentinck.

Elizabeth Pargetter nee Archer is Phil and Jill's youngest daughter and, along with Kenton, at first rejected village life, attempting a career in publicity in London. She returned to Ambridge but endured a disastrous relationship with a local business man before snaring Nigel Pargetter, the owner of a local manor house, Lower Loxley. Elizabeth and Nigel have developed the stately home as a conference venue. Elizabeth was born with a heart defect, which has always made her parents wary of upsetting her. She became pregnant and had twins, Lily and Freddie, but the strain of the pregnancy on her heart meant that she soon afterwards had to undergo a heart valve replacement operation. Elizabeth is highly critical of the way David manages the Brookfield estate, and Elizabeth's mother-in-law Julia, who lives in the family pile, is highly critical of Elizabeth. Julia has recently re-married at the age of 80. It remains to be seen whether her new husband, Lewis, an architect, will mellow her, or whether her fresh attempts to interfere with the running of Lower Loxley will lead to disaster.

Peggy Woolley, born Peggy Perkins, is the widow of Jack Archer (the slightly disreputable brother of Phil Archer), with whom Peggy once managed (and later owned) "The Bull", the village pub. After many years of close friendship, Peggy later married the local grandee Jack Woolley, a self-made man originally from Stirchley in Birmingham, who owns a local country-house hotel (managed by Caroline Pemberton), the village shop, the cafe (managed by Kenton), and the area's newspaper. Peggy has two daughters, Jennifer and Lillian, and a son, Tony, by her first husband. She is indulgent of her grandchildren and has provided several of them with significant financial support. Jack has started to suffer from what is probably Alzheimer's disease and is receiving treatment for it, leading Peggy to take more responsibility for the day to day operations of his businesses. In 2005 Peggy tried to persuade her husband to agree to his affairs being governed by Power of Attorney. Later on in the year, Jack Woolley's adopted daughter Hazel came over from the U.S., after some years of absence and using the cover of an Internet business and a imaginary stepfamily failed in an attempt to con Jack and Peggy and gain control of Grey Gables.

Jennifer Aldridge nee Archer is the oldest daughter of Peggy Woolley. In early years her character was the hippy of the Archer family, her first child, Adam (now back in Ambridge after many years living in Africa and firmly out as gay) being the result of a fling with a cowman, Paddy Redmond. She married a travelling businessman, Roger Travers-Macy, in the late 1960s and had a daughter: Debbie. She then divorced and married Brian Aldridge, who has become a major character. With Brian she had two daughters, Kate and Alice. Kate inherited her mother's hippy tendency, giving birth to a daughter, Phoebe, at the Glastonbury Festival, by Roy Tucker, (with whom Phoebe lives in Ambridge), before disappearing to South Africa where she has married Lucas Madikane and has another daughter, Noluthando ("Nolly"). Alice took her GCSE exams in Summer 2005, with the intention of studying A levels at a local college. Jennifer has had to endure Brian having a series of affairs over the years, including the latest and most serious one with the incomer Siobhan Hathaway, which produced a child, Ruairí. However, Brian now appears (at 60) to be a reformed character - and Jennifer's main source of worry is the behaviour of her gin-soaked, chain-smoking sister Lillian who has recently moved into the village.

Tony Archer is the only son of Peggy Archer. In his younger days he romanced a string of girlfriends and led a laddish life before settling down to marry Pat with whom he now runs a fully organic establishment at Bridge Farm. Despite owning an MG he is generally considered to be rather dull. His brother-in-law Brian Aldridge enjoys winding him up over farming matters, and dinner parties involving the two couples usually end in tears. Pat and Tony had three children, John, Helen and Tom. John was tragically killed in a tractor accident, but Helen and Tom are still based in Ambridge. Helen makes a cheese called "Borchester Blue" in the farm dairy and runs the farm's organic shop "Ambridge Organics" in Borchester. After the suicide of her partner Greg, a gamekeeper, she suffered from anorexia nervosa, but recovered after a time at a specialist clinic. Tom took over John's pig herd after his death, and went on to produce organic sausages. He is obsessed with his business, but near bankruptcy led him to throw in his lot with Brian, losing his organic status and creating further ructions between the families.

The Grundy family are a well established local family who often provide comic relief. Joe Grundy maintained for many years that the Archer family had robbed them of their estate. After years attempting to maintain the family farm they were made bankrupt in 2000 and were forced to move to Borchester where they ended up living in the sink estate, Meadow Rise. Joe took this especially hard and in one of most harrowing episodes ever broadcast bludgeoned his beloved ferrets to death with a claw hammer. Realising that in order to preserve his father's sanity, they needed to move back to Ambridge, Joe's son Eddie (Trevor Harrison) arranged a caravan. They eventually found a cottage to rent in the village. Eddie involves himself in numerous half-baked money-making schemes (some more legal than others) while his long-suffering saintly wife Clarrie tries to keep the family on an even keel. Their two sons, William and Edward are contrasting characters. William (the elder) is a game-keeper, married to Emma Carter, the daughter of social-climbing Susan, and with a young baby. Emma though, had two one-night stands with William's younger brother, Edward (one of them being on her hen night) and George Edward is his child, according to Emma. Edward is the real love of her life, but William was a better bet for the long term, although, inevitably, she has not expressed her motivations to anyone. Edward is now preparing to work in Australia-only for a year-but the news has seriously destabilised Emma, who has begged Edward to take her and George with him, and revealed her son's apparent parentage to him.

Lynda Snell is the inhabitant of Ambridge Hall, wife of computer expert Robert Snell. She is a keen gardener, and is often involved in disputes with her neighbour Joe Grundy. In 2003 she acquired two llamas, Constanza and Wolfgang who have been known to roam around the village. She attempts to produce a play every year, and often succeeds in driving villagers to distraction in her attempts to fill parts. She is currently obsessed with a parakeet which she has spotted in the grounds of Grey Gables where she works as a receptionist. The owner Jack Woolley claimed to have seen it, his daughter Hazel however hoped that it was a symptom of his condition, but has now been proven wrong as other people have spotted it. Lynda has repeatedly tried to photograph it, first she was thwarted by a camera with no film, then a digital camera with a flat battery!

Former principal characters

Over the years some of the original cast members have died, left the show or retired and their characters have had to be replaced or killed off by the scriptwriters.

Dan Archer was the first owner of Brookfield and the patriarch of the Archer family. The character survived the deaths of four actors before finally being killed off in 1986.

Doris Archer, Dan's wife and mother of Phil Archer, was played by one actor, Gwen Berryman, for all of her time on the show.

Grace Archer was Phil Archer's first wife and the first major character to be killed off. The episode featuring her death was first broadcast on 22 September 1955. The previous night, which happened to be the night that ITV (now ITV1), the UK's first commercial television channel was launched, she received fatal injuries, trying to rescue her horse, Midnight, from a fire. This was seen as a ploy to keep loyal viewers and listeners away from the new station.

Tom Forrest was Doris Archer's brother and a gamekeeper. He was a major character for many years and used to introduce the omnibus edition on Sunday mornings. In 1957 he was charged with manslaughter after shooting poacher Bob Larkin. He was cleared after being on trial.

Walter Gabriel, originally a smallholder, was a friend of the Archers' and provided comic relief in the years before the Grundy family were introduced. Walter continuingly tried to romance Mrs Perkins, Peggy's mother, who he referred to as Mrs P. Walter Gabriel's phrase "My old pal, my old beauty" remains one of the most enduringly-remembered phrases associated with The Archers, even amongst non-listeners.

Nelson Gabriel (Jack May), Walter's son, was for many years the most disreputable character in the village. He had a mysterious criminal past, but latterly ran a bar in Borchester before suddenly disappearing. He died in strange circumstances in South America.

Aunt Laura, Antipodean in-law of the Archer clan who fulfilled a similar dramatic role to Lynda Snell who now lives in Aunt Laura's former home, Ambridge Hall. In 1985, Aunt Laura fell in a ditch and listeners were treated to her forlorn cries while owls hooted overhead. She was found alive and spent a week in hospital being treated for pneumonia, but died of heart failure soon after being discharged on St Valentine's Day.

Jethro Larkin, Stereotypical yokel who worked at Brookfield for many years, taking over from his father Ned. His tenure came to end in 1987 when helping David fell a tree using a chainsaw. The ensuing tragedy meant that two Larkin family members (he was Bob Larkin's nephew) had met their end at the hands of members of the Archer family. Father of Clarrie.

Overseas parallels

In 1994, the BBC World Service in Afghanistan began broadcasting Naway Kor, Naway Jwand ("New Home, New Life"), an everyday story of countryfolk with built-in bits of useful information. Although the useful information was more likely to concern unexploded landmines than the latest modern farming techniques, the inspiration and model of Naway Kor, Naway Jwand was essentially The Archers.[1]

In Rwanda, the BBC World Service's Kinyarwanda-Kirundi service has been broadcasting the Archers-inspired soap opera Urunana since 1999.[2]

The Archers was also the model for the Russian radio soap opera Dom 7, Podyezd 4.[3]

Theme tune

The Archers' widely recognised theme tune is called Barwick Green. It is a "maypole dance" from the suite My Native Heath, written in 1924 by the Yorkshire composer Arthur Wood. Interestingly the very first note is never played.

Comedian Billy Connolly has said that this tune should replace God Save the Queen as the national anthem of the United Kingdom while Robert Robinson once compared it to 'the genteel abandon of a lifelong teetotaller who has suddenly taken to drink'.

In 2004 both The Independent [4] and The Today Programme [5] claimed (as April Fool's Day jokes) that Brian Eno had crafted an electronic remix of the theme tune to replace the old theme.

External links

The Archers were also a contemporary Christian music group of the late 70's, the lead singer being Steve Archer, who later put out a couple of solo albums. Their hits include "Stand Up", "It Wouldn't Be Enough", and "Little Flowers".

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/The_Archers.html"


Views
Personal tools
In other languages
Similar Links