Information AboutThe Archers |
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''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 city of Birmingham , the second largest city in the United Kingdom . OUTLINE The Archers 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, the village Pub , The Old Bull, was the model for the pub The Bull in Ambridge. Other locations often referred to include, Lakey Hill, the 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 ). 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 a Sunday morning omnibus. Unlike television soaps, 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 numerous 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 national run. (In the pilot series the Archers' farm was not called 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 was used 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 "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. As a script writer, his 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. On the 50th anniversary of ITV's launch, Ysanne Churchman, the actress who played Grace, sent a congratulatory card to ITV, signed "Grace Archer". 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, now deals with a wide range of contemporary issues including illicit Affair s, Drug Abuse , competitive Marmalade -making, Homosexuality and recently Rape , inviting criticism that it has become a vehicle for liberal and left-wing values and agendas, with characters behaving in out-of-character manners to achieve those goals. 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 A list of all Archers' characters, and the actors who played them, can be found here , although the list ends in 1997. The credits which follow are not necessarily complete; actors who played the characters as children have not always been included. The Archer family: senior citizens Phil Archer ( Norman Painting ) 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, 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 sister, Christine, recently widowed, and a deceased brother, Jack, an alcoholic who ran the Bull public house. Phil and Jill live in Glebe Cottage, which was previously home to their daughter Shula, and Phil's parents Dan and Doris. Jill Archer ( Patricia Greene ) is the second wife of Phil Archer and matriarch of the family. Together they have four children - the twins Shula and Kenton, and David and Elizabeth. 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. ''(See also Peggy Woolley and Former principal characters.)'' The Archer family: middle aged Archers Shula Hebden Lloyd, née '''Archer''', for a while '''Hebden''' ( Judy Bennett ) is the eldest daughter of Phil and Jill and twin sister of Kenton. Her first husband, Mark Hebden, a solicitor, was killed in a road accident in 1994 that also involved her best friend Caroline Bone (now Pemberton). Shula and Mark's son Daniel was born after the death of his father as a result of 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 living 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 Shula's devout Christianity and membership of the local Parish Council, though consistency has never been her strong point. She 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 dour, self-centred and even, at times, sanctimonious. 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 in her partner Oliver Sterling and fostering children. Kenton Archer ( Richard Attlee , formerly played by Graeme Kirk ) 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, originally to gain a visa, though they subsequently fell in love, 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 ( Timothy Bentinck , formerly played by Nigel Carrivick ) is the second son of Phil and Jill and has assumed responsibility for Brookfield Farm. 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 to allow him to keep the barn he had erected without planning permission. 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 caused a massive family rift. Ruth Archer, née Pritchard ( which struck in 2000, undergoing a mastectomy operation. Ruth's common utterance "Oh noooooo", spoken in her broad Northumberland accent, is frequently parodied on the BBC Radio Four comedy programme Dead Ringers . Lilian Bellamy, née Archer ( Sunny Ormonde , formerly played by Elizabeth Marlowe ) is the twice-widowed, gin-soaked, chain-smoking second daughter of Jack and Peggy Archer. She spent time as a tax exile in the Channel Islands after the death of second husband Ralph Bellamy, and plays the merry widow rather well. On her return to Ambridge in 2003, she took up with Matt Crawford (then a married man); her exploits cause much gnashing of teeth from her sister Jennifer Aldridge. Lilian was elected to the parish council in January 2006. Tony Archer ( Colin Skipp ) is the youngest child and only son of Jack and 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 sports car he is generally considered to be a rather dull man. 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 living in Ambridge. ''(See also Jennifer Aldridge and Elizabeth Pargetter.)'' The Archer family: the younger generation Helen Archer ( Louiza Patikas , formerly played by Frances Graham and Bonnie Engstrom ), Tony and Pat Archer's daughter, makes a cheese called "Borchester Blue" in the farm dairy and runs the organic farm shop, Ambridge Organics, in Borchester. After the suicide of her Gamekeeper partner Greg Turner in 2004, she suffered from an eating disorder, which the scriptwriters insist was not Anorexia Nervosa , but recovered after a time at a specialist clinic. Tom Archer ( Tom Graham ) took over his elder brother John's pig herd after John was killed in a tragic tractor accident, going on to produce Organic Sausages . Tom enjoyed an on-off relationship with his sister's shop colleague Kirsty, who now knows one end of a Gloucester Old Spot pig from the other. In 1999, the pair faced criminal charges for the destruction of a field of Genetically Modified crops on Brian Aldridge's land; neither was convicted. Tom is obsessed with his business, but his contract with a supermarket chain, and a disastrous affair with their buyer, Tamsin, nearly bankrupted him. He was forced to throw in his lot with Brian Aldridge, who is married to his father's sister. In the process, the sausage business lost its organic status and created further tension between the families. In February 2006 he started dating Brenda Tucker, having provided support to her when her mother died suddenly two months earlier. The Grundy family Joe Grundy ( Edward Kelsey , formerly played by Reg Johnstone and Haydn Jones ) is the oldest of the well-established local family, who often provides comic relief. Joe 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 a sink estate in Borchester. Joe took this especially hard and in one of most harrowing episodes ever broadcast bludgeoned his beloved ferrets to death with a hammer. The family moved back to Ambridge shortly thereafter. Eddie Grundy ( Trevor Harrison ) is Joe's son. He involves himself in numerous half-baked money-making schemes, some of which are more legal than others. Clarrie Grundy ( Rosalind Adams , formerly played by Heather Bell and Fiona Mathieson ) is Eddie Grundy's long-suffering, saintly wife. She spends much of her time sorting out the problems of her husband, sons and father-in-law. She works at Bridge Farm and at the Bull. Will Grundy ( Philip Molloy ) is the elder son of Eddie and Clarrie. He works for Brian Aldridge as gamekeeper at Home Farm. In August 2004 he married Emma Carter, but she harboured a dark secret. Emma Grundy, née Carter ( Felicity Jones ) is the daughter of Susan and Neil Carter, who were understandably horrified when their daughter announced she was marrying into the Grundy family. A café manager by profession, Emma enjoyed two one-night stands with her future brother-in-law Ed, including one on her hen night. When Will discovered this news, she moved in with Ed and her baby son George in a caravan outside her parents' home. A DNA Test showed that despite Emma's certainty to the contrary, George was Will's son. Ed Grundy ( Barry Farrimond ) is the younger son of Eddie and Clarrie. A farm labourer, Ed secured a job in France and planned to move there with Emma and George, but they were thwarted in November 2005 by Will. The Woolley family Jack Woolley ( Arnold Peters , formerly played by Philip Garston-Jones ) is a self-made man originally from Stirchley in Birmingham , who owns a local country-house hotel (managed by Caroline Pemberton) and the village shop. Until recently he also owned the cafe (managed by Kenton) and the Borchester Echo (the local newspaper). 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 . At the same time, Jack Woolley's adopted daughter Hazel ( Annette Badland ) came over from the United States , after some years of absence and using the cover of an Internet business and an imaginary stepfamily failed in an attempt to con Jack and Peggy and gain control of the Grey Gables hotel and leisure complex. Peggy Woolley, née Perkins, formerly Archer ( June Spencer , briefly played by Thelma Rogers ) is the widow of Jack Archer. They managed (and later owned) the Bull. After many years of close friendship, Peggy later married Jack Woolley. 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. She has persuaded Jack to sell Grey Gables which has caused panic among the employees and conflict between Caroline and Jolene. The Aldridge family Brian Aldridge ( Charles Collingwood ) is considered the resident 'baddie' of the piece. Married to Jack and Peggy Archer's daughter Jennifer, he owns a string of businesses and often acts as a partner in other villagers' business dealings including Tom Archer's sausage business. Brian has had numerous extra-marital affairs during his relationship with Jennifer, including one with the Irish-born translator Siobhan Hathaway, which produced a child, Ruairí. He has displayed homophobic tendencies in his relationship with Adam, Jennifer's gay son, which has been the source of another area of friction with his wife. Jennifer Aldridge, née Archer (, 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 endured Brian's series of affairs over the years. At the end of 2005, Jennifer's main source of worry is the behaviour of her gin-soaked, chain-smoking sister Lillian who has recently moved into the village. Adam Macy ( Andrew Wincott ) is the first son of Jennifer Aldridge, his presumed father was former Brookfield farmhand Paddy Redmond. Adam was adopted by Roger Travers-Macy, Jennifer's first husband, and does not consider "Brian" to be his step-father. Adam is a gay man who has formed an enduring relationship with Ian Craig, the chef at Grey Gables. Ian and Adam's liasion has elicited little moral outrage or criticism, with the exception of Sid Perks, who briefly barred Adam from the Bull public house and Adam's grandmother Peggy Woolley, who was distinctly uncomfortable with the relationship. Debbie Aldridge ( Tamsin Greig ) is the daughter of Jennifer and Roger Travers-Macy, but chooses to use the surname of her stepfather Brian. After a spell at Exeter University she returned home to get away from a relationship with a lecturer, Simon Gerrard, a Canadian. Simon followed her to Ambridge and, in due cousre, they were married. However, Debbie subsequently discovered that Simon was being regularly unfaithful, and they divorced. Over the last few years Brian has come to rely on Debbie to help run Home Farm. When Adam returned from Africa a bout of sibling ravalry erupted which is still ongoing. Debbie was very upset when she learned of Brian's affair with Siobhan and the birth of Ruairi, and left the village to work for a firm in France. Following her return relations between her and Adam didn't improve, and she left the country again, this time to Hungary, where she ran the estate owned by a consortium including Brian. The Pargetter family Nigel Pargetter ( Graham Seed , formerly by Nigel Caliburn ) is the aristocratic owner of Lower Loxley Hall, a mansion on the outskirts of Ambridge. Married to Elizabeth and father of twins Lily and Freddie, he was convicted of drink-driving in 2003. His beloved mother Julia died suddenly in December 2005. Elizabeth Pargetter, née Archer ( Alison Dowling ) 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 local businessman Cameron Fraser (which resulted in Elizabeth undergoing a secret abortion) 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. 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 lived in the family pile until her recent demise, was highly critical of Elizabeth. The Tucker family Mike Tucker ( Terry Molloy ), Mike is best known for being miserable, and one eyed. He lost an eye in a farming accident. We do not know where he lost his sense of humour. Failed as a farmer, having gone bankrupt in the 1980s, he runs a milk round in Ambridge and undertakes forestry work. He was devastated when the love of his life, his wife Betty, died suddenly of a heart attack, shortly before Christmas 2005. Roy Tucker ( Ian Pepperell ), As a teenager Roy was part of a gang who carried out a series of racist attacks on Usha Gupta. Realising the error of his ways, he went on to gain a degree in business studies and now works at Grey Gables. He had an on/off relationship with Kate Aldridge, which resulted in their daughter Phoebe, born in 1998, but he is now married to Hayley. He, Hayley and Phoebe live with Mike and Brenda in Willow Farm. Hayley Tucker, née Jordan ( Lorraine Coady , formerly by Lucy Davis ), Hayley is a city girl who appeared as John Archer's girlfriend. They split up shortly before John died in a tractor accident in 1998. In 2001 she married Roy , and became stepmother to Phoebe; she usually finds it uncomfortable when Phoebe's mother Kate makes infrequent visits to Ambridge from South Africa. She works at Lower Loxley as nanny to Freddie and Lily Pargetter. She is unhappy to still be living with her father-in-law and would prefer to have a home of their own; however, she realises now is not the time to move out, following the recent death of Betty. Brenda Tucker ( Amy Schindler ), Brenda has had some controversial short-term relationships, with Debbie's husband, with Lilian's then toy-boy and with Lilian's son. For several years she worked at Radio Borsetshire, until in 2005 she left home to do a media studies degree at university. She returned home when her mother died suddenly in December 2005. Feeling unable to return to university, leaving her father so soon after Betty's death, she decided to transfer to Felpersham University, planning to return to her studies in September 2006. She started dating Tom Archer following a Valentine kiss after they grew closer in the weeks after her mother's death. The Carter family Neil Carter ( Brian Hewlett ), is another business failure. Susan wanted him to be a white collar worker but he decided that he is a pigman. He used to be Tom's partner in piggery. The family lived in a caravan until he finished building a house on his own land. He dislikes all Grundys but especially Ed, who is in the caravan with Emma and George. Susan Carter, née Horrobin ( Charlotte Martin ) briefly became the most famous Archers character ever when her imprisonment at Christmas 1993 for assisting her armed-robber brother Clive Horrobin led to the launch of the "Free the Ambridge One" campaign which saw questions asked in the House Of Commons of then Home Secretary Michael Howard . Her aspirational tendencies took a hammering when daughter Emma married into the Grundy family in 2004, but in 2006 she was approved by the Royal Mail for the position of sub-postmistress despite her criminal record. She had previously worked for several years at the village shop and post office. Other Ambridge residents Rev Alan Franks ( John Telfer ) was appointed Vicar of Ambridge and neighbouring parishes in 2003, moving from Nottingham where he had previously worked as an accountant and a non-stipendiary minister. He was widowed before moving to Ambridge and is father to Amy, currently studying at the local college. In late 2005, his blossoming relationship with Usha Gupta, a Hindu , prompted Shula Hebden Lloyd to unsettle her fellow villagers about its appropriateness. Usha Gupta ( Souad Faress , formerly played by Sudha Bhuchar ) works as a solicitor in Felpersham and is one of very few minority ethnic characters in the series. On moving into the village, Usha was the subject of a harassment campaign by a racist gang which included Roy Tucker. To offer support and protect her Doctor Richard Locke, then her lover, moved into her house Blossom Hill Cottage shortly afterwards. When she discovered that he had had an affair with Shula Hebden she ended the relationship and threw him out. More recently, Shula Hebden Lloyd incited complaints to the bishop when Usha began a relationship with Alan, the vicar. Shula felt that a vicar could not date a Hindu . Usha is also regularly on the receiving end of helpful advice about her unmarried status by her Aunty Satya, an occasional visitor to Ambridge from Usha's home town of Wolverhampton , who has attempted to match-make for her on numerous occasions. Caroline Pemberton neé Bone ( Sara Coward ) moved to the village in the 1977, aged 22, when she was hired by Sid as barmaid in the Bull. Her career took off when in 1979 Jack Woolley offered her a job at Grey Gables and she progressed up to become manager. On her arrival she soon attracted the attention of many of the male villagers - she has had an affair with Brian Aldridge and was romantically linked with former village Doctor Matthew Thoroughgood, businessman and one time owner of the estate Cameron Fraser (who disappeared with £60,000 of her savings) and was engaged to non-stipendiary minister and vet Robin Stokes. In 1995 she married the new owner of the estate Guy Pemberton but after only seven months of marriage he suffered a heart attack and died leaving her the Dower House and a majority share of the Bull. When Oliver Sterling moved to the village she began an affair with him eventually moving into Grange Farm to live with him. Sid Perks ( Alan Devereux ) is landlord of the village pub, The Bull, although he first came to Ambridge from Birmingham where he had been sent to Borstal for breaking and entering. He has previously been widowed and divorced but his third marriage to country singer Jolene is happier. He displayed vitriolic Homophobia towards Sean Myerson when the latter captained the village cricket team. In early 2006, Sid and Jolene worried that Caroline Pemberton's decision to sell her controlling interest in The Bull, in order to fund her purchase of Grey Gables from Jack Woolley, would threaten the pub's future. Lynda Snell ( Carole Boyd ) is the inhabitant of Ambridge Hall, wife of computer expert Robert Snell. She moved to Ambridge from Sunningdale in 1986 and is resented as an outsider. 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. In 2004-05 Lynda ran a campaign to renovate the former Cat and Fiddle pub. Despite recruiting the help of Griff Rhys Jones , the scheme failed and the building will instead become flats. January 2006 saw Lynda elected to the parish council alongside Lilian Bellamy. 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 ( Harry Oakes , Monte Crick , Edgar Harrison and Frank Middlemass ) was the first owner of Brookfield and the patriarch of the Archer family. The character survived the deaths of the first three actors before finally being killed off in 1986 . Elizabeth witnessed his fatal attempt to rescue a sheep in difficulty, despite her pleading not to. Doris Archer ( Gwen Berryman , Dan's wife and mother of Phil Archer and his siblings. Her death was discovered by Shula in 1980. Grace Archer ( Monica Gray and Ysanne Churchman ) 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 (George Hart and Bob Arnold ) 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 ( Robert Mawdesley and Chriss Gittins , originally a smallholder, was a friend of the Archers' and provided comic relief in the years before the Grundy family were introduced. Walter continually 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 among 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 ( Gwenda Wilson and Betty McDowall ), 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 ( George Hart ), Stereotypical yokel. His tenure came to end in 1987 when helping David fell a tree using a chainsaw. So two Larkin family members, Jethro and Bob, have met their end at the hands of members of the Archer family. Father of Clarrie. Julia Pargetter-Carmichael, mother of Nigel Pargetter, died from a Stroke in 2005 , shortly after the actress who played her, Mary Wimbush , died , also from a stroke, aged 81. Betty Tucker ( Pamela Craig ) wife of Mike, mother of Roy and Brenda. Betty was a popular villager who supported the family even when Mike was violent and depressed. Betty managed the village shop and kept hens and gossiped. She died suddenly before Christmas 2005 . She was written out of the series when the actress who played her retired and emigrated to New Zealand. Captain Jack Woolley's dog was a frequent nuisance to guests and staff at Grey Gables, who was regularly indulged by his owner. The dog was thought to have been poisoned probably by a gamekeeper's bait. Silent Characters The Archers is famous for its silent characters, who often play important roles in the narrative despite not being played by actors. They are very numerous, and most only "appear" once or twice. Some of the better known are: Freda Fry - Wife of Bert, she works as a cook in The Bull. Titcombe - Gardener at Lower Loxley. Mrs Pugsley - Housekeeper at Lower Loxley. Baggy, and '''Fat Paul''' - disreputable friends of Eddie Grundy. '''Snatch Foster''' was formerly also a friend of Eddie Grundy, but ended up in prison for selling comdemned meat to him. Higgs - Jack Woolley's chauffeur amd handyman at Grey Gables. Jessica - buxom falconer at Lower Loxley. Has been known to attract Nigel's eye. Trudy Porter - silent for 34 years, until 4th April 2006, when listener Christine Hunt played her in a charity special, after her husband paid £17,000 to Children In Need . Bellringer Neville Booth and his nephew '''Nathan'''. Derek Fletcher - 'incomer' (only been in Ambridge since 1979) who lives on the Glebelands housing development. He is currently chair of the parish council. Known for his 'NIMBY' views and collection of garden gnomes. 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 Teetotal ler who has suddenly taken to drink'. In 2004 both '' jokes) that Brian Eno had crafted an electronic remix of the theme tune to replace the old theme. FAN CLUBS Two organisations dedicated to the programme were established in the 1990s. Archers' Addicts is the official body, run by members of the cast. Archers' Anarchists was formed around the same time, objecting to the "castist" assumptions propogagted by the BBC, and claiming that the characters are real. 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''. {Link without Title} In Rwanda , the BBC World Service's Kinyarwanda-Kirundi service has been broadcasting the Archers-inspired soap opera '' Urunana '' since 1999 . {Link without Title} The Archers was also the model for the Russian radio soap opera '' Dom 7, Podyezd 4 ''. {Link without Title} TRIVIA
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