The Cheese Queen needs to tread Caerphilly. Camembert the tension? Join The Archers thread and hope it gets Feta from here on.

[PseudoBadger]

Sorry but I couldn't resist an opportunity for puns galore

I managed to ask SOC a fairly coherent question at the Radio Times Festival yesterday

Tell!!!

Can't believe Rob had been infecting poor Johnny with his own nasty sporting ways!

Well that was a lot of people witnessing the nasty side to Rob, except that they didn't seem to see it.

Spill, Davros!

She's pregnant. He's scum.

Film-deleting scum.

Depressing.

Its a bit long winded if I give the FULL details (boring to anyone but TA fans). The session was hosted by Eddie Mair and there was SOC, Helen (Louisa ?), Rob (can't remember his real name), Lynda Snell (Carol Boyd) and Brine (Charles Collingwood). I think I'll have to call them by their character names. Helen is lovely and looks quite like you'd expect the character to look, Rob is good looking but like a young Simon Williams whereas I'd always imagined him as a much better looking Rob Brydon! Lynda was wonderful and talked about Scruff and Brine was hilarious. There were some good questions but I will just describe mine, paraphrased of course as it does cause some nerves!!
"All the listeners I know, which includes half of Mumsnet, really appreciate the Rob and Helen SL and think it is very well written and acted BUT we do not need non-stop drama and disaster (light applause ) and we need day-to-day trivia such as the Ginger Biscuit story (which I enjoyed btw). Can I ask if we could return to another serious story and get the same sort of research and good writing as Rob and Helen, which is Bethany? I am speaking as the parent of a disabled child".
Eddie Mair summarised the end of the question and SOC said "she's moved to Birmingham......... for now"!!!!
I am going to have to duck now, I was quite impressed with SOC and so was my DSis.

Other questions I remember are:
"does Lynda think Scruff has gone for good?" the answer was something like "she hasn't given up hope and has a soft side that is often hidden and the loss of Scruff must hurt her particularly due to being childless"
"Are storylines influenced by on-line groups such as Archers Addicts?" Can't remember the answer
"how to they manage putting in current topics?", something like "they try to feature the things everyone is talking about such as the refugee crisis and they drop a section that has already been recorded and get two characters in specially to record a sequence BUT they have to be very careful about this"
"why was Tom's actor sacked and what about a number of current characters sounding very similar?", answer something like "Over the years many characters have been recast and its not a big deal. Voices sounding the same is one of those things and can happen in real life too". Brine then said that, many years ago when Oliver first joined, they were having a read through and the producer was very intense and had his head stuck in the script. They signalled each other and swapped roles and the producer didn't notice!!!
Erm, I'll post more as I remember. There was free Prosecco in the VIP tent!
I also got to ask Danny Dyer a question in the Eastenders session!!!!
They should give me a job, I'm cheap

Yep definitely pregnant and most definitely scum.

Good work Davros. The Archers and Danny Dyer, now there's a bit of compare and contrast

Davros, you star

"Over the years many characters have been recast and it's not a big deal"

neither of those "facts" is true! I'd bet a few thousand that nobody involved in TA longterm, could name more than 2 or 3 characters who've been recast, & certainly there have never been so many recast in such a short time, & in the case of Tony, & particularly Tom nepotism it is a big deal!

Apart from Clarrie & Joe, which other characters have been recast historically?

meant to say "which other major characters"

There was a lot of hissing and booing "Rob"!!
Someone asked if Nigel could be brought back, or his long lost twin brother, as no-one was happy that he had been killed off (much applause) and SOC agreed that it was a mistake, before his time of course, but nothing they could do about it now

Oooh - I wonder who Mr Dyer might play in Ambridge ...

Brilliant work Davros - great question. I'm guessing his answer means they might bring her back in mid/late teens.

We all know that SOC likes his literary allusions. I think he, and Carol, are what are known in the trade as 'unreliable narrators'.

Why does Rob keep cooking for Helen lately when he previously enjoyed being waited on hand and foot? Is he slipping her something maybe?

Good work, Davros! [#432 in a list of 'Sentences you never thought you'd type]

Major characters re-cast before SOC took over:
Dan Archer, ie father of Jack, Phil and Christine (at least three times)
Peggy very early on while June Spencer took a career break, but she came back after a few years
Nigel Pargetter (for a while - Graham Seed came back eventually)
Clarrie three times - I think we're now back with actress #1 or 2
Emma Grundy once
Kate Madikane at least once (probably once more when she moved from child character to adult)
Lilian - when she returned after umpteen years in the Channel Isles they looked for a new actress rather than get the original one back

Not a lot, really, in 60+ years.

Please, I suspect it's his way of demonstrating that he is pulling his weight in spite of having walked out of his job and thus ceased to be the main wage earner.

cuttedup pointed me this way from the other thread. Settling down to watch with interest. Rob causing tension tonight!

There was a question about children's voices and Helen said she has never met Henry. Brine also said he has never met Ruaridh and that he is the only child who attends boarding school 52 weeks a year! He said they can't get an actor posh enough to play him

Hah!

Good grief the man even cheats at cricket! So Adam will go home and tell Ian. If Ian bumps in to Helen atm she might open up to him. She must know she's pregnant and she clearly is not happy about that or she would have told the git already. I think she's going to try and make the best of it though. If she miscarried it might give her a way out but otherwise I think Henry's ecstatic acceptance of Rob and the new baby will be pressure on her to stick with it.

Oh thanks, Gasp0de - had forgotten about Emma & Kate! But in both those cases the originals left, because they were just too busy to carry on? & old Tony left because he was too tired. & Lilian hadn't been on for years.

Whereas old Tom (who I discovered recently is the brother of a former flatmate of one of my DDs, small world ) was just cruelly dumped. I know the character was absent at the time, but it was hardly years. & how did the actor find out?

(also of course some actors have switched roles within TA - Hedli Niklaus has had three roles apparently? & wasn't Janet Fisher David's ex Sophie originally?)

Long-time lurker/TA fan here... Please can someone tell me what SOTMC stands for?

Shuffle off this mortal coil (Shakespeare?)

SOTMC = shuffle off this mortal coil