Robbieeeee! It's meee, it's Jessieeee! I've come home. I'm so cold! Let me in-a-your window. The Archers pay homage to Wuthering Heights?

[PseudoBadger]

A new thread in time for the film this morning.

Tom coming back?

That's my assumption zero. Why would they bother to recast otherwise? Or is that not how it works?

But what will he do? He's gone off pigs and he's too grand to cut cabbages ...

Rodway and Wotsit's?

Or Brenda's old job in Lillian's attic?

Unless any mega-dairy manager could find him a little job as a family favour?

I never thought I would say this but......
Come back, Vanessa Whitburn. All is forgiven

I think I'm going to decide that the Brookfield move nonsense simply isn't happening. When they're doing those scenes i'll just think of tweeting birds or waves lapping the shore or something

I never thought I would say this but......
Come back, Vanessa Whitburn. All is forgiven

Are you actually trying to summon her in a seance style?

I've never done a double post before. Very puzzled as to why that happened unless my blood pressure is rising along with Tony's at the very thought of Tom returning,
Sorry, it wasn't deliberate. My predicted end date has passed!

It's a thought, Petula.

Re-reading the Moffat O'Connor interview I'm liking my back to the origins theory even more. Bet you anything he coaxed the BBC into agreeing to switch the focus to Jack Archer's descendants. There are enough of them to keep things going for decades.

Tha's why no ones really putting up a fight at Brookfield. And Shula's domestic establishment is being quietly dismantled. Elizabeth will probably have urgent business in Canada quite soon ...

Doom music.

Ah!

Tom's coming back with a pot-load of dollars to buy ... a farm.

Tom could buy the land & Justin could buy Brookfield farmhouse, but someone as successful as JE would want a £6m+ country estate without a major road anywhere near it in real life, not a farmhouse with 2 acres.

That's such a shame about Tom. His voice was very distinctive in its self obsessed whining and I don't want to have to get used to a new Tom. I haven't got over the new Clarrie/ old Clarrie thing yet.

New Josh on the other hand sounds fine, mainly because he didn't really have a voice in my head .

Zero I'm not very good on the history . Who will those descendants be? Lilian, Tony and JD's children?

It's very strange. He's been in the part forever, and is hardly untrained.

"“He trained at The Television Workshop in Nottingham, which also trained some of the most well-respected and successful young British actors working today, including Oscar nominee Samantha Morton, BAFTA winner Vicky McClure, Joe Dempsie, Jack O'Connell, Toby Kebbell and Felicity Jones to name but a few,” she said.

As well as acting in the Archers Mr Graham has had parts in TV shows Casualty and Grange Hill, and has completed a degree in psychology from Manchester University."

Resting Archers actors aren't paid at all. They have no contracts. They get booked for recordings, and that's it. This is what we were led to understand on the old Archers messageboard on the BBC.

Focus switching from Phil Archer's descendants to Jack's - hmmmm.

Phil's children: Shula, Kenton, David and Elizabeth.

Jack's children: Jennifer, Lilian and Tony.

Christine is the other child of Dan Archer but her son was bundled off to become an orchestra manager and endlessly tour the world.

The Brookfield Archers have been at the heart of the programme since the first broadcast on 1st January 1951. It would be a huge switch to have Brookfield cease to be the centre of The Archers.

What was that nonsense about the move being off unless everyone was genuinely happy? Surely they know that there is nothing on God's earth that is going to make Jill genuinely happy about moving?

Speaking as someone who completed an extremely traumatic move with teenagers, north to south, a couple of years ago, I amand at how easy it is all being cracked up to be...school places, catchment areas, endless tears and stress, plus it would be almost impossible for Josh to move in AS year due to 2 year assessments/syllabus for A Level...my kids are forever asking to move back...totally incredible. Plus they would be moving away from ALL their family to be nearer ONE gran.....l am a long term listener since 1990 and this is the most ludicrous and implausible plot I can think of...apart from that involving HWMNBN

Tom graham (Tom Archer) has just announced on Twitter that the part has been recast and he's leaving. He says that when Tom returns from his exile in Canada it'll be with a new voice!

Search on Twitter for @TomArcherNo1

New Tom will undoubtedly have had some sort if reawakening and be unrecognisable to the character who loved his pigs

Load of old shite

The Brookfield Archers have been at the heart of the programme since the first broadcast on 1st January 1951. It would be a huge switch to have Brookfield cease to be the centre of The Archers.

Did you notice some comment the other day about how Brookfield is only like it is now because Phil bought some land in the 1970s. Translation: Brookfield is not that ancient and set-in-stone; it has changed before and can change again.

I really hope that you are wrong about the switch in focus. I won't be listening to a programme that majors on such unpleasant characters as MoanyTony, PolPat, the SausageKing, Hellin and the Magickal Baby.

Is someone going to start a petition to Feedback for a MN v Sean O'Connor showdown.

I put the effort in to listen to the episodes and care about the characters

The least they can do is ensure they keep the storylines plausible and well researched.

I could just about have stomached the Brookfield storyline if they had made David more reluctant and had a showdown with at least one of the teens and it hasn't been linked to heatherpet and the road decision wasn't moving so fast.

I've started reading the episode tasters and if there is a mention of anything Brookfield related I won't be listening that night.

Sean o Connor couldn't care less

As far as he's concerned listenership is up (mainly because he doesn't understand the concept of double counting) and he's attracting yoof apparently.

I've just sent a missive to Feedback. Will keep you posted if I get any kind of response!

BitOutOfPractice, yes, we were discussing that late last night. Most odd. When characters have been re-cast before, it's almost always been because the original actor wanted to leave, was no longer available enough, was ill or had died - or of course the rare cases where a character like Lilian or Carol has been away so long that hardly anybody remembers the original voice, so they feel free to re-cast with whoever they want.

I think one of the Clarrie actors left after a disagreement but otherwise I can't think offhand of any case where the actor has simply been told 'Sorry, we want to use somebody else now'. What a kick in the teeth.