Can you remember your first (or at least a very early) Archers Episode

[daisychain01]

I'm really made-up to find this board so I can chat to everyone about the Archers. Not exactly a closet fan, but only me and DM listen so nice to have a proper MN style chat bitch about Hell-in etc

The first few episodes I heard were in around Spring 1999 while I was decorating and wanted something good to listen to while I was stripping wallpaper (mind you, DP says its like watching paint dry but what does he know!!)

I remember The Grundy's were going to be evicted from their farm and they ended up in Meadow Rise.

Some of the early SLs I enjoyed were things like Hell-in and Greg, Roof getting Pg with Ben, Daniel being formally adopted by Allistair, the steamy love scene between Jolene and Sid, and quite a bit later the Siobhan and Brian scandal. Oh and the other scandal was the lady Vicar having a non -affair, and getting transferred away from St Stephens to a different parish, shock, horror!

So what were your earliest memories of TA and can you remember where you were, what you were doing?

Sounds a bit like Where were you when you heard Princess Diana had died!

I feel old! Would have been 1985, decorating our first house. I think Lynda was newly arrived. I remember Jennydarling getting pregnant with Kate, so felt even older when she started having children herself.

We can't say or hear the word condensation without adding "Betty!" - following Mike Tucker having some kind of cow-related injury and seeking compensation. Must have been a storyline from the early days of us listening. Have to admit I have been reduced to tears a few times -Peggy saying she was proud of Jenny for taking in Ruarhi left me sobbing in a car park for about 5 minutes. More recently, Tom's proposal set me off.

Hey party you reminded me of the SL about the foot and mouth crisis, which I think was also in 1998 approx.

I have to admit I cried a couple of times, over the years, yy to the Jenny Rhuarhi plot. There has been some good SW over the years, some periods of dross, but ATM its going thru a good patch with Rob-Hell.

I must say, the whole Will, Em, Ed triangle was a cliff hanger in its day!

I have a vague memory of Walter Gabriel falling in the village pond (mid 80s) and much clearer memories of Cameron Fraser dumping a pregnant Lizzie at the motor way service station.

Started listening on my own account in the late 90s at university.

Early 80s. One of the earliest scenes I remember involved Nigel when he was going out with Shula. He was staying over at Brookfield and in the middle of the night crept into what he thought was Shula's bed. Unfortunately it was Phil's.

Later (several years later) he went out with Elizabeth and there was a period when they both had ice cream vans. He was Mr Snowy and she was Mrs Snowy.

It was all very happy and uncomplicated in those days. I think it was back then that Neil Kinnock said that The Archers should be re-named The Grundys and Their Oppressors. The Grundys had not featured until the 80s and in a masterstroke when introduced it was stated as fact that they and the Archers had been rivals in Ambridge for centuries. (That rivalry seems to have vanished now as quickly as it appeared.)

Then William Smethurst left the Editor job and it all got a lot darker, which was not always a good thing.

I started listening around the time Lizzie got pregnant and was dumped by Cameron Fraser.

Been listening ever since

it was in the background when i was small but i don't remember anything then

i think earliest actual storyline i remember was shula having an affair with the doctor

An old gimmer here! I remember, vaguely but not in great detail, Polly Perks being killed in a road accident. In the 1970s, I suppose. She was Sid Perks first wife BTW.

I must be bloody ancient - I can remember the scandal when Jennifer had Adam out of wedlock - must have been the late 1960s. We used to listen to the omnibus edition, which was preceded by a monologue from Tom Forrest - nature notes, if I recall correctly - which I always thought was rather tedious.

Radio 4 was always on in the background on weekday afternoons/evenings, when I was growing up. I can remember The 'Hitch-hikers guide to the Galaxy' and 'Radioactive' being on as well as the Archers.

My first Archers memory though is Shula in a hot air balloon over Ambridge. Then, Eddie and Clarrie having a "shot-gun" wedding and William being named after Prince William, Shane's "quiche" in Nelson's wine-bar and David proposing to Sohpie after Andrew married Fergie.

Hello, Dirtybanana! I think it was Neil and Susan who had the shotgun wedding, hard though that is to believe now. Susan won a pig at the fete and Neil helped her look after it. Then they went off for a weekend in London and the result was Emma.

AllMimsy, I think you're right. I can that trip to London, now you mention it!

remember!

daisy If you want to talk about current Archers stuff you'll find us all here!

Apologies. Just realised you've been there already....

The Archers was on at supper time but I can't remember any specific storylines. I listened intermittently at uni but only became a dedicated listener when we moved abroad and I could no longer watch Eastenders but had to listen on longwave so missed chunks when the cricket was on at the weekend instead! I remember Brian and Siobhan's affair (what year was that?) and her getting cancer. My strongest memory was hearing Helen discovering Greg. I was back in the UK and listening to the omnibus while in the shower.

Hello Zero thanks so much for linking me over to the mega thread. Im just reeling at the latest Hellin / Robcreep development. Will nip over there for a chat

Cheminotte i think the Brian/Siobhan affair was somewhere around the 2003/4 mark

A TA nerd writes: it started in the autumn of 2001. Ruairi was born in November 2002. Siobhan died in 2007.

Thanks Mimsy that makes sense. I was still abroad at that point.

Hmm, I think I remember Neil and Sheila having a bit of a thing...but even though I was really very young, it was transparently obvious that they would never really be able to have a real relationship, oh no, not an Archer and the pigman!

Uncle Tom and his intro to the Sunday Omnibus - I resented that hugely because the 5 15-minute episodes were cut to fit into the hour-long omnibus, and were therefore cut even more to shoehorn him in. But I liked the different music. And when I hit my teens, I made a game out of guessing which scenes would be cut .

Wasn't quite so bad when they had Walter Gabriel doing it -(I think he did) as he sounded like a very twinkly reprobate of a Great Uncle.

We used to sit at the table in hushed silence on weeknights, eating our dinner, which was presided over by a leather-jacketed portable Grundig radio. Nobody was allowed to speak until dumdedumdedumdedum signalled the end of the day's events.

I remember being very confused by Archers with varying accents - think antipodean Aunt Laura, Peggy Archer and Phil's Mum, whose name escapes me...

The Archers has definitely been the soundtrack to my life.

Neil & Shula (Sheila - thanks Ipad!) was early seventies, I think.

i remember a 70s edition where Jenny was diagnosed with thyroid deficiency, one of those disappearing medical conditions they seem to have. And Brian having a passionate affair with Caroline.

Re- the Neil-Shula 'thing', I can recall a scene where Shula dropped in on Neil one morning - and Susan was there and it was very clear she had stayed the night. Shula was somewhat put out!! and Neil quite defensive, I thought.

When was this - early 70s? I was but a babe then. Well, about 10 YO.

I recall the Tom F monologues too. When did they stop?

Am I the only listener who imagines Steptoe and Son when thinking of Walter and Nelson?

If Susan was there, it would have been in the early 80s, I think. I'm always amazed that Susan is two years younger than me (she was 50 last year - Neil is going to be 57 soon). Shula is three years older than me, I see. Good grief.