The Archers - newbie

[BloodyEnderDragons]

I know there are many Archers threads so apologies.

I catch it now and again and like to listen, mostly in the car. I don't have a clue about characters or storylines though.

How can I get up to speed?

Hello. Come and join us on the main threads. We don't bite and love to show off our knowledge can help help fill the gaps.
The BBC website is quite useful. Link here.

Oh I love it. Just listen... It'll begin to make sense and back stories are often explained, or you get a hunch that there's a back story. Such easy listening!

I don't know if I can keep up with characters! I don't understand much on those huge archers threads. Thanks, I'll have a look at that BBC link.

I hear you, OP! I've only been living in the UK for 18 months or so, and The Archers is possibly my favourite thing about your fine country. I get all excited when I hear the music come on, OH thinks I'm fucking ridiculous hilarious.
Haven't a clue what's going on, though - except that that Rob's a wrong 'un...

I don't know if I can keep up with characters!

The clue is in the name: get your Archer family sorted and then the rest will slot into place.
It started with Dan & Doris. They had three children: Jack, Christine and Phil born in the 1920s who begat the next (baby-boomer) generation.
Jack & Peggy spawned Jennifer (Home Farm) Lillian and Tony (Bridge Farm).
Christine is boring.
Phil & Jill spawned Kenton (The Bull) Shula (his twin, The Stables) David (BROOKFIELD) and Lizzie (Lower Loxley).

See also wiki.

Be grateful for technology. I started listening pre-internet and it took me about 20 years to fully get up to speed!

Hello Dragons

I'm new too (in Archer-fan terms!) - been listening for 18 months or so and I love it.

When first listening I was lost, I used the Wiki page, as R4 suggests, to try to get to grips with relationships, but what helped me most was reading the daily Lowfields Plot Summaries - mostly I listened on BBC iplayer a day after the radio airing, with the plot summary on screen in front of me. That really speeded up the process of matching voice to name!

As you listen in the car mostly, that may not be an option for you but the summaries will still help after the event.

And of course the wonderful MN thread is a pleasure in itself.

I second the BBC site and Lowfield.

Wow this is insightful, thank you everybody for the tips. I've got my bedtime reading sorted!

I didn't realise aunty Chris was Peggy's SIL

Yes, and from a marriage that ended something like 40 years ago! Jack Archer was a drunk who made life very difficult for Peggy and his three children. That's cast a long shadow.

Just to confuse matters, Peggy then (eventually - long, long courtship) married another Jack - Jack Woolley (who's dead now). He owned Grey Gables, the country house hotel. His daughter, Hazel, is one of the many pantomime villains who stalks Ambridge. She lives in the US but has inherited some of Jack's property in Ambridge and has just evicted the Grundy family from one. She nearly sold the village shop! She doesn't appear very often and now that that's all been resolved we may very well never hear her again. She is a piece of work, though. One of the many guaranteed to get my blood pressure up when she appears.

I can bore for Britain on the subject of The Archers, so flee for the hills don't hesitate to ask if you want to know anything else.

It took me ages to realise why Shula called her "Aunty Peggy", especially when none of the other siblings seemed to do it. I thought that it was one of those honorary-aunty things where you call any female friends of your parents "aunty".
I must have been listening for at least a decade before anyone spoke of the first Jack. Even now JD, Lil and Moany never mention him.

I remember listening for few weeks a while ago (2-3 years tops) and there was a young son of one of the family who wanted to join the Army (or RAF?).

Can anyone remember who that was?

It was Dan, son of Shula. I can't remember where we have got to with his story because he is so dreary. He's a fully paid up officer of some sort but I can't remember if he is on deployment yet or still kicking around the UK somewhere.

Thanks R4!

Another newbie with a question here. Rob is awful to Helen but from what I have heard he was married before. Was he abusive to her too? Do we know?

He was married to Jess when he first met Helen - Rob and Helen started as an affair.

At one point, Jess did warn Helen that she'd find out what he's like, but Helen dismissed it.

When Rob arrived to work in the village he was married to Jess; she was supposed to follow on. It took such a long time that we started to wonder if she was fictional! She did eventually appear and had a speaking part but the marriage crumbled as EBear described. The pivotal point was the party that Jess threw in Dec 2013 (as a getting-to-know-you) that Rob ruined (alienating wife from other villagers? surely not!).
The EA involved dressed salmon. Rob has a thing about fish.

Hi OP. I also listen intermittently. Doesn't help when the actors keep changing! (Carrie, Tom and Pip!).