Archers thread #159: Sad news as 2023 draws to a close - RIP Ian Pepperell (Roy Tucker). Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

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

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We start this thread with the very sad news that Ian Pepperell, who played Roy Tucker from 1995 without a break, has died at the age of 53. There's a lovely tribute to him in this article from Jeremy Howe, the current Editor. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/dec/23/the-archers-actor-ian-pepperell-dies-aged-53-roy-archer-eastenders

Graham Blockey, who played Robert Snell, died just over a year ago, also far too young (66). https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/much-loved-surrey-gp-archers-25524449 As yet, Robert survives in Ambridge.

I do hope they don't re-cast Robert, but it might work for Roy, I suppose, after a suitable interval. They've re-cast Tony, Tom, Kate, Pip, Clarrie and Emma, mostly successfully. I still wish Tom and Pip hadn't been re-cast. New Tom is a good actor but so was Old Tom.

Meanwhile, several very elderly members of the cast survive, and long may that continue, although not necessarily on air. I think most of us would say that the time has come for Jill to become a silent character, following the precedent of Peggy and Christine.

So! Christmas next week - will it be the best Christmas ever at either Brookfield or The Stables, or both? Then it's 2024. What does the New Year hold for The Archers? Over to you!

Oh, this brings back [bad] memories. The worst place I ever lived was a flat above a shop in central Oxford. Not a quaint medieval bit, the busy main shopping bit. Every Saturday, bands would set up busking right under my window (not double glazed) for most of the day. There was a rota for which band it was, but the pan pipe duo were quite often there. So was the guy with a very loud electric guitar and very limited repertoire.

If only that had been the worse thing about that flat. Sadly, it was a long way down the list.

It sounded more like Spiritual Home than a café

I used to know someone who decided to take up busking. He was terrible and a business he set up outside gave him money to never ever come back there.

I’ve not been taking the fake wisteria literally but more as an indication that the decor is in poor taste and not quite in keeping with the organic/farm brand. I agree that Gnasher probably wouldn’t pick fake flowers but she might easily go for the wrong colour walls or a statement lampshade that is bang on trend but strikes the wrong note.

I do agree than she wouldn’t be trialling dreadful lift musak. She is more likely to play some trendy Scandi pop that is topping the charts in Sweden but is out of place in Ambridge.

Brian is going to really fall for Hilda.

Poor Ed. Doomed by dint of being a Grundy. I wanted to tell him it was lucky he'd gone for sheep rather than a chainsawing business otherwise some terrible accident would already have befallen him. No proper home of his own, no secure income - his story is sadly too close to the reality of many rural families. Good to see this being explored. I'm not remotely interested in any of the cat nonsense. I don't care where Peggy's cat lives - it's vanishingly unlikely a care home would have accepted her in the first place. Surely Kate would have had first dibs on her since she was actually living with her and that would have been the price for Peggy putting a roof over head all these years. I fear Hilda is destined to enter the Guinness Book of Records for the longest living cat.

Kate is living with Brian now, though, so Brian's reluctance to have Hilda would have put the kybosh on that.

This week's scriptwriter is Naylah Ahmed. I agree, it's been a distinct improvement so far.

Commiserations to all who have endured pan pipes and abysmal buskers. The closest we have is various musical neighbours who practise at home, and a drummer who spends hours at a time playing in the local park in the summer. All perfectly tolerable.

Thread is indeed motoring along now, and it does feel time we had a new title, given 2023 is now a distant memory. Suggestions for title?

it's vanishingly unlikely a care home would have accepted her in the first place.

Friend's elderly relative had a cat in an old people's home. She wasn't the only one there.

LillianGish
No proper home of his own, no secure income

Last I heard, Ed had a full-time position at Home Farm; he seemed in fact to be the only worker there apart from Stella. I would think that is a secure income now he no longer has to contend with mistakes made by the drunken Alice and blamed on him. Has he for some obscure reason stopped working there and ceased to bring in any money?

The only puzzle might be why he is watching his own flocks by night rather than having to deal with Home Farm's lambing: did they give up the sheep while I wasn't looking in order to take in Brookfield's? (Does it ever strike anyone else that "taking in each others' washing" is a phrase made for Ambridge farmers, who seem to contract harvesting out to each other more or less as a matter of course and look after each others' livestock as a matter of practice?)

Didn't Ed lose his job at Home Farm because of the Timotei debacle and that is why they couldn't buy the house? Or did he get taken back on?

Lambing often happens at night nothing odd about that though.

I had completely forgotten Kate was living with Brian - Brian’s living arrangements have been a bit of a blur for me ever since he left Home Farm and this is just the latest example.
When did Ed last do any work at Home Farm? Something else that feels completely fuzzy (since the alcoholic Kate incident) - I think about him tending his flock and doing the odd bit of tractor work. The big picture of Ambridge seems to be slowly blurring like a fading photograph in favour of big drama.
A bit stumped for title ideas (though stumped could maybe be incorporated in view of Ed’s chainsaw plans), but could we possibly get @MerryChristmasToYou’s Ram a Lamb a Ding Dong in there?

I thought he'd lost his job there when Alice was drinking and she told him which bay to put one of the crops in (barley, if memory serves). But it ended up being mixed in with something that was already in there which rendered the crop virtually worthless and Ed got the blame, even though Alice was at fault. He was either fired or walked out, I think?

As for the wisteria, you just know the TeRum is becoming one of those places that's All About The Socials. In my experience, anywhere that's overly interested in looking good on Instagram isn't good at much else. One of the worst cups of coffee I've ever had was at a place with an overly decorated doorway. It's a warning sign!

He got taken back on. Then he was sacked because Alice made a drunken mistake and told him to put some grain into the wrong hopper or something, then reinstated again after she owned up to having been the one at fault.

On 25th June, 2023.
"Ed says they are fine, then boasts about the new drill, due to arrive on Wednesday and with a man coming to show him and Stella how it works."

So I think he still works there. And he is trusted with the really big and expensive kit, too.

I was so willing that second ram to survive. Did they do any swinging? That often works.

@TherapistInATabard , you've got it. There's no matriarch unless you count Peggy (now silent) or Jill.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime , people will help each other out when it comes to livestock. It's quite normal to use a contractor for jobs like harvesting that use expensive machinery.

@JayAlfredPrufrock 's swinging does not involve car keys or pampas grass.

Agreed that better this week - so far - maybe (apart from the obvious relief of no Helen/Henry) because there seem to be fewer two-handed scenes.

These seem to have been a hangover from Covid-recording mode.

They’re often set in a home rather than somewhere communal - this fragmentation further adding to @LillianGish ’s observation that The big picture of Ambridge seems to be slowly blurring

This fragmentation is exacerbated by the loss of characters occupying critical social positions - Jenny the matriarch, Roy the sole, single WC-made-good, everybody’s friend - and no obvious substitutes in the wings.

so it was good to have a bit more big picture, in the shape of lambing and rain - more please!

Clarries voice normally really irritates me but yesterday I could rise above because it was interesting. If we can just have the rest of the week without HelHen that would be grand

They’re often set in a home rather than somewhere communal
Is it that we're not familiar with the homes?
I can't imagine the interior of most of the homes, although I can clearly picture the old Home Farm and Brookfield and Blossom Hill Cottage kitchens but nothing seems to happen in the Brookfield kitchen any more.
I could picture the old Grange Farm.

There doesn't seem to be a natural successor to Peggy, JD, or Jill.
Maybe they're setting up Tracy and Emma to be the next ones, for when TA becomes The Horrobins. Tracy will be Freddie's MIL, much to Widderbeth's horror.

The lambing scene didn't quite ring true to me. That might be due to the words used, that they called a vet, and Clarrie being hysterical.
I've no experience of lambing texels though. For Ed to be upset about the loss of the ram lamb, the mother would have been a texcel. Ed always seems to sound a bit clueless.

I don’t think they called the vet. I think AliStare was just passing and called in. Like vets do. 🤔

The way AliStare says DeKnees really annoys me.

I’ve always pronounced it De Niece

Poor Clarrie - 70 this coming Spring and out in the freezing cold assisting with lambing? And not just for fun either.

Life is too bloody hard sometimes …

I've always said Duh-nees. I only know 2. Both of them lovely.
Phil Archer used to say Ala-stair.

Why wasn't Emma, Keira or George helping with the lambing? I used to because I had the smallest hands.

Life is too bloody hard sometimes …
It's always hard if you married a Grundy. Although for Emma it's also so unfair.

Based on the mention of social media, I’m picturing those fake floral door arches that seem to be on businesses at the moment, mostly for that purpose, I think.

ETA I can actually imagine Fallon having put one of those up, it’s sort of fits in with the vintage floral tea room vibe, versus the Scandi one.

Bad pun suggestions for next thread title - don’t worry, I know they’re bad, but now I’ve thought of them I have to write them down to get them out of my head. You’re welcome

‘Lillian chooses her Hilda die on and there’s mass wisteria at Bridge Farm’

Good one, Overarmour 😁

I thought of Helen and changed it to Bridge Farm 😆

‘Lillian chooses her Hilda die on and there’s mass wisteria at Bridge Farm’