Archers thread #115: Johnny's in the gym, Josh is in a jam, Rex is riled, Kate's with child - discuss The Archers here

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to share a camomile tea with Kate, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3439443-keep-it-to-yourself-the-archers-spoilers-thread-4, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to @LillianGish for the excellent Bert Fry tribute title!

I don't think this thread will get us to Easter, but we should be well into Lent before we need a new title. I wonder if St Stephen's will have a new oh-so-interesting Lent initiative this year. When did we last hear from Alan?

I think someone called "Aunt Laura" (an Archer, I presume?) owned Ambridge Hall prior to the Snells sniffily moving from Sunningdale. The name Colonel Freddie Danby also seems to me to relate to Ambridge Hall, but I think this was probably going on at a time when I wasn't listening regularly. Also, I associate Colonel Danby more with The Dog Woman, aka Marjorie Antrobus.

I don’t play golf or eat fish

Stay strong, UnholyStramash

I love your username almost as much as I unloved tonight's utter bilge.

That car was not Josh's to sell. I can just about imagine some of the scriptwriters having better things to do than listen (I must find some of those and soon, or an apoplexy beckons) but the Editor ought to, oughtn't he?

What a bizarre episode, not leat because Lynda could have ridden out the "disgrace" of faking her sleep out as it could be finessed as rarer clever, and the padlocking of her would have lowered the B@Ambridge types' reputation. Win win.

Is Ambridge Hall a listed building?

It sounds as though it should be.

Jaichangecentfoisdenom
I think someone called "Aunt Laura" (an Archer, I presume?) owned Ambridge Hall prior to the Snells sniffily moving from Sunningdale. The name Colonel Freddie Danby also seems to me to relate to Ambridge Hall, but I think this was probably going on at a time when I wasn't listening regularly.

Aunt Laura (Dan Archer's very rich sister-in-law, Frank Archer's Australian wife) came to Ambridge after Frank died and lent her nephew Jack the money to buy The Bull, and then a few years later gave him £30,000 with the proviso that some of it was to be used to build the dining-room extension with a flat above it for her to live in. Then she got bored with living there and bought Barratt's Farm, renamed it Onemonoma, and allowed Lilian to open a riding stables on the land that came with it. After that she got bored again, sold the house to Ralph Bellamy and moved into the doctor's house, which she renamed Ambridge Hall. When she had been there for a bit her money mysteriously vanished and she had to take in a lodger, Colonel Freddie Danby. She had intended to leave him the house in her will, but she forgot to sign it, and so after she died in February 1986 the house went to her Australian niece, who sold it to the Snells. Freddie Danby (played by Ballard Berkeley by then) moved briefly into a bungalow in Manorfield Close before driving away to take refuge stay with an old army friend and never coming back. If Marjorie Antrobus did join the pack of widows in the village who were hunting him, she must have been fairly quick off the mark: she only came to Ambridge in 1985 and he was gone by the end of 1987. Of course her pursuing him might have been why he did a bunk -- or it might have been because Ballard Berkeley died shortly after Freddie drove off.

Ambridge Hall is a six-bedroomed house with additional rooms in the attics which were servants' bedrooms. It was built by Squire Lawson-Hope in the 1860s for the village doctor to live in. It is made of yellow brick and lacks charm, though growing creepers up it has improved it slightly.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00w47v9/p00vxs9c

I thought Aunt Laura was from New Zealand.

I think she had moved to New Zealand from Australia -- NZ was where Frank met her. I have a distinct impression that she was like Kenton's wife Mel and moved to fit the actor who was available.

Your knowledge is amazing AskingQuestionsAlltheTime

Colonel Danby was one of the characters I remember from childhood. He was also played by Norman Shelley who was rumoured to have impersonated Churchill during the war when Churchill was unable to do broadcasts. He (Shelley) had a gloriously fruity voice - at least two glasses of Madeira and a slice of fruitcake. I can’t remember any of his conversations with Marjorie Antrobus but I do remember her as rather imperious but kind.

[I'm sorry, excuse me, I was looking for the discussion about TA .., I'll just creep out again as I seem to be in the wrong room]

Marjorie Antrobus hadn't yet moved into the village when Norman Shelley died, in 1980, so he wouldn't have had any conversations with Mrs A.

She was one of the very kindly characters, particularly when dealing with what she would have called "the young people" who lodged in her house, like Ruth, and Hayley. Sometimes she was a little overwhelmingly kind!

I liked Marjorie Antrobus, I'm surprised she was in it for only two years, it seemed longer. I'd like to be a posh dog lady in a lovely old house.

Oh, no, sorry, I was unclear: I meant that she and Freddie Danby only coincided for two years. She arrived in the village in 1985, two years passed, he left in 1987. She then carried on being in the programme until she retired to the Laurels in (pauses, checks) August 2003.

She died there in 2008, not having spoken since a one-episode appearance in September 2004.

He wouldn't have had any conversations with Mrs A.

I'd love to pretend this proves my memory is unerringly accurate .

Clearly it is!

I do love this thread.
It's hard to keep up sometimes. When someone mentioned John's Fergie accident I had a brief few seconds whilst my brain grappled with how.on earth the Duchess Of York was involved.

What a ridiculous episode. And Lillian is a poisonous piece of work.

I do hope someone even more determined than Lynda takes over as leader of the ReBulls.

Or alternatively that it dawns on Jolene and Lillian that, even without a leader, the punters are staying away because they still think the pub's name is utterly stupid.

Sunningdale is popular with celebrities. Helena Bonham Carter and Gary Lineker used to live there. I've seen people off the telly in Waitrose.

Margery and Nigel had something genuinely kind about them.

They did, didn't they. Who in the programme at the moment is kind? On her good days Lynda used to be, but that side of her has been suppressed recently.

Neil's the only person like that I can think of.

I am not his biggest fan but I think Jazzer tries to be kind.

Most people in Ambridge can only be kind in response to their own self-interest, or when they’re emotionally invested in the person needing kindness.

Brookfield: nope. (Ben potentially.)
Home Farm: all too grand to notice or care.
Bridge Farm: spectacularly smug.
Stables: ‘Can I boast about this to the Bishop?
Lower Loxley: ‘Why would you come to me? You must see I’ve got my hands full already.’
The Lodge: ‘You should have married a rich man who’d leave you well provided for.”
Dower House: ‘These people don’t understand about business ...’
New Estate: ‘Gotta pay the mortgage ...’
Ambridge Hall: Possibly. With added sniffing.

No one ever asks anyone at Grange Farm for help ...