Will I understand if I start listening now ?

[Farmerswife36]

Never ever listened to the archers but it was on at work other day and it sounds like it's right up my street . It was the omnibus where pup tells her parents she is pregnant and a foreign lady agrees to be a surrogate for a gay couple . Will I be able to get into it or am I wasting my time ??

@Farmerswife36, a few weeks I think? It was still entertaining even when I had no idea who was related to who.

Hello you two.
OP, don't listen to it. You will get hooked.
Lynda is spelt with a y. She mispronounces words sometimes in an affected manner.

Definitely worth the effort. Supper in my house is usually served around 7.16pm and my kids all knew the Dumteedumteedumteedum tune meant food!

Please join the chat thread, we need another expert witness on there - we already have a dairy farmer but it would be great if you could share the load!

You can get books on The Archers. There's a Who's Who, which IIRC had a mistake in the family tree.

The original Archers were Doris and Dan and their children Phil, Jack and Christine. Phil was married to Grace nee Fairbrother and after she died tragically he married Jill.
Jack was married to Peggy now Peggy Woolley and they had three children: Jennifer, Lillian and Tony. Jack was an alcoholic.
Jennifer had an illegitimate child, Adam (now Macy), then married Roger Travers-Macy and they had a daughter, Debbie (now Aldridge). They divorced and Jennifer married Brian Aldridge. They had two children, Kate and Alice. Brian had an affair that resulted in a child Ruairi Donovan. Ruari's mother died and Ruairi now lives with Brian and Jenny.
Lillian married someone rich and he died. She married someone else and they had a son, James Bellamy.
Tony married Pat and became a farmer. They had 3 children, John, Helen, and Tommy (now Tom).
John was killed in an accident and it was later found out that John had fathered a child, also called John, John Richards. John Jr was known as Ritchie but after contact was established with his paternal grandparents, he became Johnny and moved to Ambridge from Leeds.

Helen was a sickly child, born with clicky hips and a chip on her shoulder. She settled down with Greg, the gamekeeper, who later shot himself. Helen became anorexic. After that she became obsessed with being stepmum to one of Greg's children, Annette. Annette got pregnant but didn't have the baby and Helen decided to have a baby on her own. This baby is Henry, who is played by a robot. Helen later met the married farm manager Rob Titchener. Rob left his wife Jess and Helen moved in. Helen and Rob got married in secret. Helen had Rob's baby but they were no longer together and the baby is called Jack Archer.
Tom was engaged to Brenda Tucker but she called it a day and left. Tom and Kirsty had a one night stand after Helen was released from prison. As happens in soaps, this resulted in pregnancy and poor Kirsty had a miscarriage.

Phil and Jill Archer had four children, Twins Shula and Kenton, David and Elizabeth.
Shula had lots of boyfriends including the wonderful Nigel Pargetter, but she married Mark Hebden, a solicitor. Mark was killed in a car accident, and Shula who had been undergoing IVF, had a son, Daniel.
Shula had a fling with Dr Richard Locke who looks like Professor Leo from Silent Witness. Shula used to work at an estate agent, Rodway's but took over the stables from her aunt, Christine Barford.
Shula later married Alistair Lloyd, and Alistair adopted Daniel.
Daniel was offered a place at uni to study law but went to Sandhurst instead. Dan has a girlfriend Dorothy.

Alistair's father, Jim, lives in Ambridge but is a retired professor who previously lived in Edinburgh. Alistair has a sister who IIRC is called ?Fiona.

Dan's paternal grandparents Reg and Bunty were fairly local. I think one of them has died. I think Mark had a sister,

Christine nee Archer married local gamekeeper George Barford. She adopted a child Paul with her first husband. She ran the Stables before she retired, then she swapped houses with Shula. She didn't like living on her own so rented her house to local PC Harrison Burns and his DP Fallon Rogers, who is the daughter of Kenton Archer's wife Jolene.
Christine is also known as Aunty Chris, and she lives with her SIL Peggy Woolley.

We all start somewhere in the saga
I stared listening as a young child (70's!!) and then missed the odd year here and there but you will quickly catch up esp if use suggestions above to gat backgrounds to characters
I gave it a miss for a few years when the panto really irritated me
Thinking about it, they are all a bit like irritating family members so I don't know why I listen
Don't look at pictures on websites of them tho - it spoils my mental image of them
It's rhythmic and calming in regularity

Kenton Archer didn't want to be a farmer and joined the merchant navy. He has a daughter Meriel (Merry) from a short marriage. He runs The Bull with his wife Jolene. Jolene was Sid Perks' widow and was the OW. Sid's ex-Wife Kathy and son Jamie live in Ambridge. Jolene used to be a country and western singer and had a child, Fallon, with Wayne Tucson. Wayne works at the Bull.

David Archer ran Brookfield with his father. He is married to Ruth nee Pritchard, who came to Brookfield when she was a tiny student at Harper Adams. David studied at Cirencester.
Ruth is the daughter of Solly and Heather, both now deceased, who lived in Prudhoe. Solly had a bog roll factory.

Elizabeth was born with a heart defect. She had several boyfriends including Cameron Fraser, who dumped her when she was pregnant. She had a termination, which upset Shula who was desperate for a baby. She later married Nigel Pargetter, upsetting Nigel's mother Julia (really Joan). Nigel and Lizzie had twins, Frilly. Nigel was murdered by Vanessa Whitburn who had him fall off the roof at Lower Loxley, the Pargetter stately home. Elizabeth now runs Lower Loxley and had a brief fling with Roy Tucker. Roy's wife Hayley left him and went to live in Birmingham with daughter Abbie.

David and Ruth had a baby, Philippa Rose (known as Pip), and she now works at Brookfield. She lives in Rickyard Cottage which is at Brookfield. Pip was unpopular at school and when she went to 6th form college she had an older boyfriend Jude, who delighted listeners by dumping her with a "Bye-ee"
She has two brothers, Joshua Matthew and Ben.

Before Ben, Ruth Archer had breast cancer. She also had an unplanned pregnancy and had a miscarriage.

There is a bungalow at Brookfield too. Bert Fry lives there as do Rex and Toby Fairbrother. Bert used to work at Brookfield and his wife Freda died in the flood.

Jill and Phil Archer retired and went to live in Shula's old house, Glebe Cottage. (which means Aunty Chris didn't move into it so I've gone wrong somewhere).
Phil died a few years ago.

That's enough for now.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archers#Characters

Don't look at the BBC site as there are photos of the cast.

There are annual events in Ambridge - the panto is the big one and is usually organised and produced by Lynda Snell. The Flower & Produce show is another, as is the Fete.

Sometimes celebrities come to Ambridge. Only one has met my approval - Princess Margaret.

Come and join us on the Archers thread Farmerswife!

We have our own icon thingy and everything [Archers]

Gah!

Back to Ambridge.

The Grundys are fairly new to Ambridge.
There's Joe, a widower. I think his wife was called Susan. They had two sons, Alf and Eddie. Alf is a ne'er-do-well and lives in Worcestershire or somewhere.. Eddie is a cash-in-hand handyman and he has a job at the market where animals are auctioned.
Eddie is married to Clarrieluv. She's hardworking and works at Bridge Farm, where she accidentally poisoned the ice cream with e. choli.
Clarrie has a sister called Rosie who lives in Great Yarmouth.
Clarrie used to be jolly but had a bit of a personality change when her voice suddenly acquired a Pam Ayres quality.
Eddie and Clarrie have two sons, William (named after Prince Wm) and Edward. Caroline Stirling (previously Pemberton and nee Bone) was godmother to William, chosen because her uncle was Lord Netherbourne.
Will and Emma Carter were courting but Emma had a ONS with Edward on her hen night.
Will and Emma were married and honeymooned in Acapulco. They named their cottage on the Home Farm Estate Casa Nueva.
Emma and Will split up. Emma and Ed got together. Emma thought Ed was the father of her child George (named after George Barford). Will was the father.
Edward or Ed Grundy works as an agricultural contractor and has a few animals. Emma also had a personality transplant at one point and became miserable. Ed and Emma are married now.
Ed and Emma have a daughter together, Keira Susan Grundy.

Will has also remarried. His wife Nic (Nicola) has two children from a previous relationship. Her ex is Andrew, a silent. The children are Jake and Mia, and they are younger than George. Jake and Mia are now called Grundy. Will and Nic have one child together, Poppy.
They live in Greenwood Cottage, which used to be called Casa Nueva.
Will owns No 1 The Green, which he bought with an inheritance, and it is rented to Tom Archer and his nephew Johnny Richards.

George (Georgie) is a bit spoilt and has a mysterious stash of money. It is suspected that he takes after his great uncle Alf. George has a dog called Holly which is a crossbreed.

Keira is played by a robot, probably the one who plays Henry.

The Grundys live at Grange Farm. Grange Farm is owned by Oliver Stirling. Ages ago the Grundys were tenant farmers at Grange Farm but they ended up in the Meadow Rise estate in Borchester. Joe went downhill rapidly and killed his ferrets.
The Grundys rented a cottage, acquired an ancient pony, Bartleby, were evicted by the flood, and then by Hazel Woolley, and ended up back at Grange Farm.

Joe Grundy is about 97 and has been suffering from farmer's lung since the 1980s.

Hazel Woolley is the adopted daughter of Jack Woolley.

That leaves the Horrobins.

Susan Horrobin won a pig as a prize in the village fete and Brookfield pigman Neil Carter showed her how to look after it. They married and daughter Emma arrived a few months later.
They also had a son Christopher, born with a cleft palate I think.
Susan works at Bridge Farm and is the postmistress at the Village Shop. She sometimes cooks Neeyull a chilli. Lucky Neil eh.
Susan never gossips.

Susan's brother Clive harmed Christine Barford's horses, bugled and ended up doing time. He fathered Sharon Richards's daughter Kylie, Kylie is Johnny Richards's half-sister.
Susan has a sister Tracy Horrobin, who fancied her chances with Roy Tucker. Susan's father Bert Horrobin lives in Ambridge.

Susan hoped that Emma would make something of her life, but Christopher is the one who has made her proud. He married Alice Aldridge and is a self-employed farrier.

Neil Carter and Susan used to live at No 1The Green having bought it from the council. They have now moved to Ambridge View, a self-build near Willow Farm. Neil now works with his own pigs and I think at Bridge Farm.

The Tuckers.

Roy Tuckers lives at Willow Farm. Willow Farm used to be one house but it was adapted into two houses by adding an extension. Willow Farm is the larger of the two houses, with Willow Cottage being two bedrooms.
Until recently, Roy's father, Mike, and Mike's much younger wife Vicky and their daughter Bethany lived in Willow Cottage.
Mike, Vicky and Bethany moved to Birmingham. Bethany has Down's Syndrome.
Roy was married to Hayley, a nanny, and they have a daughter, Abigail. Hayley and Abbie moved to Birmingham after Roy's affair with Elizabeth Pargetter.
Mike now has a lodger, Kirsty. Kirsty is a bit of an ecowarrior and she was dumped at the altar by Tom Archer.
Roy has a sister, Brenda, who dumped her fiancé Tom Archer and her job working for Matt Crawford and Lillian Bellamy and headed for the bright lights of London. She now is settled in London with a rich fiancé.

The Snells
Lynda Snell is about 70 but works, sniff, at local hotel Grey Gables.
She is married to Robert, a retired IT expert. They moved up to Ambridge from Sunningdale. Lynda organised the annual Village panto.
Robert has two daughters from a previous marriage (to a woman called Bobo). Coriander is married and has a young son, Oscar. Leonie is in a relationship with James Bellamy, resulting in rivalry between Lillian and Lynda. Leonie and James have a small son called Mungo, who narrowly escaped being named Mowgli.

There are lots of things that you will only know by listening. Things like Susan's chilli being a promising sign for Neil.

Thank you MikeUniform. I started listening again in 2016 when the emotional abuse storyline started so your histoire is very helpful.
Fwiw I would recommend OP gets a huuuuuuuuge pike of ironing and goes back as far as she can on BBC iPlayer and listens to the omnibuses.

I think I covered a lot of the background or enough for someone to ask more. There are probably mistakes and holes.
I always thought that Jennifer was older than Lillian but now I'm not so sure.
I have been listening for decades but I don't always listen IYKWIM.

What was Jess's surname after she divorced Rob?
What is Debbie's middle name?

Oh and the personality changes. I am still upset after Tom Archer dumped Kirsty at the altar and came back different.

And I still miss Nigel. He was fun.

@MikeUniformMike Wow! Thanks for that!!

Right. The Aldridges.

Brian - rich, bit of a womaniser. Went to Sherborne school. Wears cravats and loafers.
Jennydarling - already done. Always cooking haunches of venison.
Adam - bit of a roving eye. Had a ONS with Pawel, one of the pickers. Had a sneaky snog with Charlie Thomas.
Studied agriculture at Newcastle uni after Sherborne, then worked in Africa for years.
Debbie - had a fling with Simon Pemberton (Caroline Stirling was married to his father) I think, and Dr Richard Locke. Went to Exeter uni, where she studied languages (French and German I think), left uni in 2nd yr after an affair with her tutor, the much older American Simon Gerrard. Simon G. tracked her down, got a job at Felpersham uni and their marriage came to an end after he had an affair. He had married Debbie when there were rumours about him.
Debbie, having left Exeter, took an interest in BL's) operations there.
Kate - ran away, became a bit of a hippy, went out with Roy Tucker in her teens and had Phoebe. Wasn't sure if Phoebe was Roy's or Luther (some random)'s. Went to South Africa and married Lucas Madikane. Had 2 children, Noluthando (Nolly) and Sipho (pron Seepo) (spellings?).
Marriage got into trouble and came back to Home Farm. Tries to be down with the kids. Slept with Toby Fairbrother after a pool party.
Alice. Born when Jennifer was in her early 40s, as a 'patch things up' baby after Jennifer had an affair with her ex-husband. Brian had hoped for a son. Alice has always been lovely, a bit posh and very intelligent. Studied Aeronautical Engineering at Southampton uni, then did her MEng at Felpersham uni. Married Chris Carter on holiday in Las Vegas. They got tattoos instead of wedding rings. Recently she has become an airhead and a pisshead.

Ruairi (Rory to all but Jenny who calls him Rooury) Donovan. Brian had an affair with Siobhan Hathaway, the local doctor's wife. Siobhan and Tim had longed for a child. Red haired temptress Siobhan was going Hungarian translations for Brian. Siobhan left Tim, who had the hots for vicar Janet. Siobhan had Ruairi. Siobhan reverted to her maiden name, went to Germany, shacked up with some bloke, and died tragically of brain cancer. Ruairi is now at public school. Sherborne, I think.

Phoebe. I think she calls herself Phoebe Tucker now. At Oriel College, Oxford studying PPE. Has always got along with her stepmum Hayley, calling her Mum. Doesn't get on all that well with Kate. Went out with Alex for ages, and was caught in bed with him by her mother who had a hissy fit. Feebs thought she might be pregnant after a ONS with Konstantin, a fruit picker who was a bit of a lad.

Thank you to all all who have commented . I have listened to the omnibus today and all ready I'm starting to recognise characters and pick up storylines. I just hope historically I'm able to pick up the stories

mike thank you so so much for taking the time to write all you have . Much appreciated xx