Returning to The Archers after years away and have various questions!

[FourSeasonsTotalLandscaping]

I used to be a regular listener but I haven’t listened for YEARS. The ongoing threads are brilliant but I can’t possibly catch up with everything. Would anyone mind answering my random questions? Here are few for starters:

• I know the actor who played Roy Tucker sadly passed away a few years ago - what happened to the character?
• Where has Harrison Burns been? “Up North” I believe, but why? Did he have some kind of breakdown after the infamous accident involving Fallon and George?
• Who is Miranda? Is she in a relationship with Brian? Are they moving back in to the farmhouse that Jenny Darling and Brine had to sell when he had all those environmental fines to pay?
• Who the hell is Joy? Is she the new Lynda Snell? Wither Lynda?
• Who is Vince - is he now Mr Elizabeth?

I am sure I will have many more questions and moments of bafflement but these are the few that have come to mind whilst listening to the last few episodes.

@onceagainforrose , When Chelsea was pregnant and not saying who the father was, Russ was wrongly accused, and Lily's lack of trust in him meant the relationship broke down.

@CaptainMyCaptain , thanks. The pp has since clarified.

@ErrolTheDragon , she's meant to be his fiancee.

@BringBackCatsEyes , I seem to be actively avoiding more and more Radio 4 these days.

Amber is a complicated character; not least because the actress who left an ITV soap in order to play the self-obsessed influencer upped sticks and left the cast after just a few weeks. 'New Amber' sounds very different and has ditched some of the more annoying traits.

Amber used to go to the same school as George, Brad and Chelsea and we are led to believe that she was the ugly duckling, turned into a swan.

For reasons nobody can really fathom, she decided to strike up correspondence with George when he was in prison. She had been following his instagram/Tik Toks of Bartleby (the implausibly old Grundy pony). This led to them meeting up and falling in love across the prison-visit desks. They planned to marry.

Amber did not get on with her wealthy parents who, unsurprisingly, did not think that marrying a teenage wastrel was an optimal life plan for their daughter. She somehow persuaded Emma and Eddie to let her move into their caravan (then she moved into Grange Farm, I think) to await George's release.

George left prison much fitter and more muscular, but still obnoxious. It took Amber a few weeks to realise this, before professing to Brad that she preferred a more cerebral type.

When she fled to Ireland to give herself time to think, George went off the rails....

You can find background info at BBC Radio 4 - The Archers and The Archers - Wikipedia.
Some sites about TA aren't reliable and the ones linked might not be up-to-date.

Someone (AskingQuestionsAllTheTime, I think) posted a map:

Me too. I honestly couldn’t work out who was who the last couple of times I’ve tried listening to. I think it must be at least 5 years since I listened regularly!

Only in Ambridge! It's one of the more idiotic set ups in a village with a fair number of them.

Lapsed listeners might be wondering about Chelsea and Brad. They are the children of Tracy Horrobin, younger sister of Susan Carter (and the nefarious Clive Horrobin). Tracy works at The Bull and lives in the council house her parents moved into many decades ago. Her Dad Bert is still there (silently). Tracy took up with Jazzer some years ago and they are now married, so he lives there too. Chelsea is a trainee hairdresser but inexplicably works at Lower Loxley in the tearoom there and also at Bridge Farm's tearoom rather than making more money by concentrating on her hair and beauty work. She's supposed to be very good at the latter, which makes it even odder. Brad is, implausibly but wonderfully, the cleverest person in Ambridge. He is doing a Maths degree at the University of Felpersham. He used to go out with Mia, Will's step-daughter, but they broke that off amicably when Mia went off to university elsewhere (Newcastle?). Brad is George's best friend as well as some sort of cousin. He works part-time as a porter at Grey Gables. I want him to become enormously successful and ideally very well off too to prove once and for all that working class kids from Ambridge can do well. The scriptwriters have an abysmal record on this thus far.

@Zippedydodah , there are many new characters (Joy, Mick, Vince, Paul, the Maliks, Esme, Amber) and some like Denise, George, Brad, Chelsea and Ben who aren't new but were previously silent.

Many of the cast are now at an advanced age. Patricia Greene (Jill) is in her 90s, Carole Boyd (Lynda) is about 85 etc.

George is Brad and Chelsea's cousin once removed. Emma, George's mother, is their first cousin.

Is Kate still being an annoying sponger? And has Josh had any business success?

Is Kate still being an annoying sponger?
Pretty much. Although we're led to believe she runs a successful spa/wellness business. However I've never heard of any mention of her employing anyone else and she always seems to be free when she wants to be so I can't see how it would be viable if she had to pay any rent or buy the land for instance.

Josh
Not really. Still does the eggs. Not sure about the machinery. We don't hear much about it. They don't give the impression business is booming for him. He lives in a house share with Lily and Paul.

Although he (Josh) was looking to invest in Nina's band, which suggests he isn't living entirely hand-to-mouth.

True but like Kate, very low outgoings for him as well as he uses the family land so more profit to himself.