💥 Archers thread #118: Back in time for The Archers - catch up with the catch up until the scriptwriters catch up! 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 think Philip Moss is in line for Employer of the Year, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: OK, there aren't likely to be many for the foreseeable future, but when we do have some, 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/3853783--The-Archers-spoilers-thread-5-Cant-wait-for-7-02pm-Join-us-here, 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 title! This thread starts at a very odd time for The Archers, longest-running soap opera in the world. No new episodes expected till late May , and when we do get them they're not going to sound like normal, as the actors are recording separately at home and the BBC is attempting to cobble it all together. Tough times for the sound effects team!

The BBC is filling the gap by repeating key episodes from the last 20 years. Some of us here will have heard them before, but not all, by any means, so if you want background on what you hear this is the place to ask.

Over to you! I must try to catch up with the repeats at some point today.

Did Kenton actually marry Kathy?

If he did, it must have been a very short-lived arrangement!

I only started listening properly and regularly in 2014, so have always known him being married to Jolene.

She sounds like a West Country girl to my ears!

How was she originally introduced to Ambridge?

Wow! Just listened to Tom and Kirsty's non-wedding! Explosive or what?

Jolene's real name was Doreen and she comes from Waterley Cross, a few miles from Ambridge, so where that accent comes from is a mystery. She was introduced to Ambridge in the 80s as a country and western singer. At that time Eddie and Clarrie were recently married and Eddie spent a lot of time out and about singing in C&W clubs. He had either gone out with Jolene earlier or Clarrie was worried he fancied Jolene.

I don't think she had a voice back then, but she appeared in Ambridge in the early 2000s when she had an affair with Sid Perks, landlord of The Bull, at that time married to Kathy. That led to divorce. Sid bought out Kathy's share of The Bull and moved Jolene in. Jolene took to life as a landlady like a duck to water, whereas Kathy had come to loathe it. Then Sid and Jolene went off to NZ to visit Lucy, only child of Sid's first marriage to local girl Polly something (before my time) who died in a car crash. While out there, Sid had a heart attack and died.

In the aftermath, Jolene became very close to Kenton, who had recently split up with Kathy for being utterly feckless. (I don't think they ever did marry but Asking will know for sure!) Within the year Kenton had moved into The Bull and now you'd think he'd always been there. They are married.

We never hear of Lucy now. More surprisingly, we also never hear of Jamie Perks, son of Sid and Kathy, who part-owns The Bull and was last heard of many years ago training to be a tree surgeon.

Jolene is mother to Fallon who is married to Harrison. Fallon's dad is Wayne Rogers, who worked at The Bull as chef for a while - is he still there? Can't remember. Kenton struggled with that arrangement, understandably.

she had an affair with Sid Perks, landlord of The Bull
Arrghhhh. Don't mention The Shower Scene.

Polly Mead! She and Sid started going out when he was still Jack Woolley's chauffeur in 1964. (I was around but aside from dancing to Millie Small's (RIP) My Boy Lollipop with my father and Listening with Mother I doubt I was concentrating on radio storylines ...) They got engaged in '66. Broke it off but were reconciled after her dad was discovered to be the local arsonist. Jennifer and Lillian were their bridesmaids!

Have completely forgotten why I was moved to look this up ...

And no, Kenton and Kathy were never married. (Am certain ...) After the excitement died down they realised neither of them actually wanted to be married and thankfully let the whole engagement embarrassment drop.

Just listened to last nights, I knew what was coming as I was around the first time but my god Kirsty's howl hit me like a punch to the stomach all over again.

This is quite a useful resource for various bits of Ambridge history: this is The Bull

ambridgereporter.org.uk/Bull_History.html

Fallon's father is Wayne Tucson; Jolene seems to have kept her maiden name for herself and her daughter when she married Wayne, though not when she married Kenton. Or perhaps they both reverted to Jolene's maiden name when she divorced Wayne.

Were Wayne and Jolene married?

I think that the episodes from the past are ones relating to current and future story lines.

Helen’s friend in prison was Kaz. I think Rob was instrumental in Tom not marrying Kirsty.

The Book of The Archers says "In 1985 Jolene was six months pregnant when she and Wayne married." Then she left him to live with a bass player in Huddersfield, which was where she was when Eddie wanted to get hold of her to invite her to his fortieth birthday party six years later.

Thanks Asking.
Wonder what happened to Kaz, and Jess.

We don't hear much about Tomtasha.

The horror in Jennie Darling's voice :o

I am so very much enjoying these blasts from the past, and glad they didn't go down the Corona route.

I hope I'll feature in one of the flashback episodes! I am very misunderstood after all. I think the prejudice stems from regional racism over the lovely Brummie accent, which is much and unfairly maligned.

Brummies forever!

glad they didn't go down the Corona route.

I thought they were going to do that later? Or have I misunderstood?

I want to hear the episode where William (or possibly Ed?) shot (at) his parents by accident as I clearly remember it from when I was little but nobody else seems to remember it. Can anyone?

"...glad they didn't go down the Corona route.

I thought they were going to do that later? Or have I misunderstood?"

Ooh, I don't know. I'm a very haphazard listener.

Is Jenny Dahling less of a snob nowadays or does she just conceal it better since the ‘downsizing’?

I thought the really noticeable thing about the Chris and Alice getting married episode was the fact that at that time Chris sounded exactly like Tom does now (generally middle class RP accent, which should have been some comfort to JD, surely?), whereas he has since developed a distinct Northern accent, unlike that of either his mother and sister or his father, and not typical of anyone born and brought up in Borsetshire.

I've been trying to work out how this happened. Did I miss the episode when he came round after being kicked by that horse and nearly dying, and the trauma had caused him to speak entirely differently? It's a recognised effect of brain injury (I know this as a medical expert qualified by a quick look at Google). It's normally known as Foreign Accent Syndrome, but as we know the SWs aren't as expert as all that when it comes to medical conditions. Think how much more interesting it would have been, though, if they'd given him an actual Foreign Accent, and he now sounded distinctly German or Canadian or Japanese? Apart from being entertaining, it would mean that you didn't confuse him with Alan or Harrison or Doc Locke whenever he turned up.

Someone will now point out that Chris got kicked in the chest not the head, so wouldn't have had a brain injury. To which I would reply: don't tell me, tell the SWs.

I sort of had the impression that Doreen Jolene had adopted a faux Dolly Parton-like accent to match her new name and her style of music. And then the wind changed

My problem with Chris’s accent is that he appears quite infrequently so I don’t recognise him. The actor changed in 2017. I think there was a policy of getting more drama school actors for the younger characters, rather than actors recruited from community drama groups. A Sean O’Connor decision.

twitter.com/wilfscolding/status/844582086522683395?s=21

After the lovely clip of Susan’s recording studio, Kirsty posted this:

twitter.com/annabelledowler/status/1257942485218795522?s=21

Enjoyed that enormously. One of my favourite episodes.

Re Chris's accent - Yes, head injury is by far the most plausible explanation. Presumably OldTom was dropped on his head as a baby, as his accent was very different to everyone else's. Nottinghamshire?

I was furious when Chris was re-cast. The original actor gave me a very tenuous claim to fame because his grandmother wrote a picture book based on an episode in her grandsons' life when they lived in our part of London. The story involved our house (before we lived here). It therefore seems pretty likely that he set foot in our living room when he was a toddler. Imagine! They moved to Gloucestershire shortly afterwards.

I was furious when Chris was re-cast. The original actor gave me a very tenuous claim to fame because his grandmother wrote a picture book based on an episode in her grandsons' life when they lived in our part of London.
Is his grandmother Shirley Hughes because Alfie Gets in First immediately sprang into my head?

That was just as stupendous as the first time! I so rarely laugh out loud at TA.

A hundred BOOPS for Jenny and Susan. Such a beautifully fraught relationship has developed between them since then - each getting exactly what was needed to balance their mid-life characters. Susan vaulting away from the terrible shame and distress of Horrobin-created imprisonment; Jenny learning to accommodate a degree of humility. In fact, I'm sure the inner reserves of self-ness she had to reawaken when she became a Horrobin in-law probably helped her in accepting the loss of the Home Farm house with such grace and equanimity.