this post is closed
Life in Ambridge
Life in Ambridge
Life outside Ambridge
Popular posts from this blog
Life in Ambridge
THIS POST IS CLOSED "longer off topic comments' - Episode 8 Life Outside Ambridge Beach Chairs
End of previous blog - Lanjan - "Alf has come into ,money and will pay for Joe’s funeral".
ReplyDeleteAs I've asked before, why can't Ed or Emma pay for it? They still have thousands of pounds from the failed purchase of their dream/nightmare house.
Maybe Emma only spends her money on various bits of tat in pursuit of a non-existent idyll, & Ed simply doesn't have the maturity to think of it...?
Good afternoon Gary, and thank you yet again for administering us so effectively.
ReplyDeleteAnd which cottage is this may I ask, with the grander building in the background ?
Looks like Arkwright Hall.
"The Lodge is only small, but Peggy found it strangely large without her beloved husband"
Deleteis what the accompanying blurb says Mrs P.
Gary. I think Emma controlled the money for the 🏠 house because she was spending on various bits of tat like the up cycled coffee table and beds for the kids. Plus other stuff that was then sold in a garage sale. Also didn’t Ed sell Peppa Pig for a few thousand pounds. Between Ed, Emma and Will there must be loads of money sloshing around the Grundys.🤑££££
ReplyDeleteExactly stasia! Unless this is going to be yet another example of memory loss amongst the scriptwriters, there is absolutely no reason for the Grundys to be worrying in any way about the cost of Joe's funeral. In fact, it should be the grandest funeral held in Ambridge for many years!
DeleteIt would be fitting for Ed to help out with the funeral expenses since he was the recipient of Joe’s funeral money.
DeleteGreat point maryellen, but more importantly I feel is the point that Ed is his bloody family! It's not a case of "helping out" - it's doing your job!
DeleteI imagine Joe would have expected Alan and the undertakers to do what he always guilt-tripped Alistair into doing when he treated Bartleby - waive the fee.
DeleteVery true OWIAS.
DeleteI think Ed gave the money for Peppa the pig to Emma for her and the children.
DeleteFirstly - I looked very carefully, but I can’t see Hilda lurking anywhere in the picture above, not even a splodge on the road outside The Lodge!
ReplyDeleteSecond - Ed only got £1000 for Peppa, less than he had hoped. And he gave the whole lot to Emma to help with the kids. I don’t think Ed has any savings of his own, everything he earned was handed over to Emma.
I really can’t see Emma being willing to spend any money on Joes funeral because she’ll think she needs it all for said kids (apologies for using that word but it’s shorter than typing children every time).
She wanted people to help out when she wanted dosh for the deposit but I don’t think she’d be willing to make a contribution to anything else - apart from baking some cakes for the wake!
💷💷✔️ 🤧
DeleteApologies Archerfile I added in my comment above before I reached yours.
DeleteTrying to remember who contributed to the Ed & Emma house fund in order for them to (not) buy! Have they been offered their cash back? Not likely methinks.....
ReplyDeleteI get a little fed up with everyone saying how poor the Grundies are. All adults are working and Joe would have had his pension. No doubt Eddie didn't declare all his income to the tax man from his patio laying. Wealthy they are not, but poor no.
ReplyDeleteHave we got Alf for at least the next three weeks now?
ReplyDeleteI think the whole storyline has gone overboard.
Joe had to die because the actor sadly died.
The same thing happened with Phil and Carolyn but I don’t remember it going on and on and on..
I have had enough of the Grundy family.
I would like a break from them.
I have had had enough of all their problems which have been aired recently.
I don’t know why they haven’t rechristened their programme “The Grundys’ an everyday story of ? Folk”
I really do hope that Joe has left Eddie & Clarrie a secret fortune, and that the first thing they do with it is to take the whole family on a round the world cruise that lasts for at least 3 months...
DeleteDoubt it Gary and if he had I think it would be a pity - much as I like the idea of being Grundyless for a bit.
DeleteHad Joe had a secret hoard somewhere, think of the pleasure he would have had being able to treat others less fortunate than himself!!
He would have been seen as an all round good egg rather than a rather curmudgeonly old man who got away with a lot because of his advanced age.
👏👏👏😄
DeleteMy response of clapping hands was to Gary’s post at 12.53, by the way.
DeleteI don’t think Joe has a secret stash and Alf will soon hi tail it when he finds out!!
ReplyDeleteMust say I'm not half as fed up the current Grundy SLs, as was when Shula was dithering on incoherently during her separation, then divorce from Alistair, or when Elizabeth was being foul to all the wrong people before she started treatment.
ReplyDeleteWeird - Alf Grundy has in the past been played by actor David Hargreaves (now 79yrs). However checking the cast list on BBC Sounds for last Friday evening and next Friday the character is not listed, so is a current member of the cast doubling up 🤔
ReplyDeleteIn June Spencer’s autobiography she writes of when she played 3 (!) very different parts.
I don't mind listening to The Grundys. They are also an Ambridge family, but admitily, they are poles apart from The Archers.
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying hearing about them, at this moment in time.
Alf, might go either way, being either a Hero or a Villan.
I am giving him "a chance".
That's why the funeral is on the 8th, so they can make the most of Alf for the next three weeks.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Miriam and Carolyn- I don't mind the Grundy clan either. And unlike practically everyone else, I do rather like Clarries voice.
ReplyDeleteMe too..clarry on Clarrie
DeleteSeveral actresses have played Clarrie and interesting that they have all sounded so alike we haven’t even noticed! This is unlike old Pip and new Pip and old and new Tom!! By the way is he still in Cuba?!!
DeleteI don’t plan on listening against the Grundy Show that we heard this evening but one thing struck me as it no doubt struck others.
ReplyDeleteJoe had a collection of stuff -did someone say in the barn?
Wasn’t that where his old 78s were?
I do hope that nothing valuable is going to be found or a stash of money.
It would be too easy.
I think I am going to be wrong about Alf having come into some money though.
Why is Joe's passing, appearing to be happening in the Tea Room?
ReplyDeleteI don't understand this, except that it will be free, thanks to Fallon.
It certainly would not be Joe's "Cup of Tea".
PS Can Fallon provide the piano, for Jim's tribute to Joe?
Jim has a keyboard, but Jazzer may persuade him to withdraw his offer as he hasn't set foot in the Tea Room since his memorable birthday, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteGoodness, do we really have to listen to Alf for the next three weeks? He is going to drive me as far up the wall as Will and Ed this evening and make me want to switch off!
ReplyDeleteA lovable country rogue he is not! Just an annoying, grasping, lying, loud ne’er do well that I could well do without!
I don't mind the Grundys at all or Alf, at least for the time being. The characters I find irritating are Jennifer with her over the top dahlings etc. also Peggy sounding pathetic looking for Hilda.
ReplyDeleteAnneveggie: 11.51 last night.
ReplyDeleteYour post made me wonder about which characters are irritating me too - and which ones I enjoy listening to. So here is my little list:
Annoying/irritating:- Joy, Peggy (in pathetic lost cat mode), Adam & Ian, Jennifer, Lilian (who wont take a hint), Pip (always!)
Enjoyable:- Will & Ed (since Joe’s death), Kirsty, Jim & Jazzer, Ruairi ( gone up in my estimation)
The trouble with the storyline about the Grundys is that we have been anticipating this for the past six months. Similar to the surrogacy which went on for nearly two years, and so of course we are fed up with it. Add to that the character change of a parasitic, lazy, grasping failed farmer, (failed becasue of his own inactions but always blaming others) had annoyed me no end.
ReplyDeleteClarrie's voice has improved recently as she comforts her family but at times her quavering whining over the past few months has so reminded me of Pam Ayres, I kept waiting for the verses!
The choice of the tea room has obviously been included to add melodrama. I think everyone would have expected the (misnamed) Wake, Baked Meats, Funeral Tea, (whatever people like to call the refreshments after a funeral service) in The Bull Upstairs and that would have been the fitting place to reminisce.
We do now have the idea where did the £400(?) go? Perhaps that storyline will be cleared up but as George only bought Emma an expensive present and an electronic game of some sort, (I think) what has he done with the rest?
Alf will not be welcomed in Ambridge at all, as everyone knows that he has spent most of his adult life in prison for all sorts of thefts. I do remember the last time he was mentioned a few months ago that Eddie said he was back inside.
The actor who has played Alf is not in the cast list for the present storyline but that might be to keep secret the fact that he was coming home.
I cannot see why the funeral is so delayed if it is a straightforward burial in St Stephen's churchyard. The usual delays (in real life) are caused by the shortage of capacity in cremortoria at present.
But these are all things that happen in the town and countryside in real life, so we must put up with it during our twelve minutes a day; then hopefully we can move on with our familiar characters and get rid of some of these new, extra characters who are either unpleasant or boring who seemingly add nothing to life in Ambridge.
I agree with the majority of the last few comments made except for the criticism of Peggy.
ReplyDeletePeggy’s former companion ,Chris is now in The Laurels and Hilda has taken over the role.
Peggy was not being pathetic.
I would have been the same had Poppy cat ,whose world ends at our back garden fence ,suddenly vanished.
I would have been far ruder to Joy than she was
I thought your comment Spicycushion 8:20am was spot on.
ReplyDeleteSpicy, ✔️✔️
ReplyDeleteAs for characters that have irritated me over the years to the point that I wish they would go away, my list would be Helen at times, particularly when she first arrived from college, new Pip, Matt, Toby and Josh. I think the common denominator is their overconfidence in their own opinions, or at least their presentation of themselves as such.
EV, 9.37 yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI have certainly noticed when Clarrie has had a change of actress, this one I find worse than some of the others.
“Pass me they bowls Eddie” so that I can throw them at your brother to shut him up.🥣🍵
ReplyDeleteJoe has returned and morphed into his son Alf.
Another caricature, perhaps he should introduce himself to Joy. 🧙🏽♂️🧟♀️
Spicycushion 8.20am
ReplyDeleteWhere I come from a Wake is held the day/evening before the funeral when the body is laid out and people come to pay their respects to the dead person. The first wake I went to was my grandmothers when I was fourteen. She was laid out on the bed upstairs and four women sat by the bed praying whilst I had to say goodbye. Downstairs friends neighbours and Family were eating and drinking. Food was being prepared and whiskey being dispensed all through the night. The funeral was the next morning and the ⚰️ coffin carried to the cemetery.
Joe’s wake is not a wake in the traditional sense it is simply a post funeral party. But the word is now used to describe an event after the burial.
Exactly Stasia. I correct and explain the term 'Wake,' where the friends and family stayed awake with the deceased the night before burial, to any who misuse the the word. I am such a pedant I'm afraid! 😄
DeleteRe Clarrie.....
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling that the present “Clarrie” was a former one who returned.
There have been at least three actresses who have played her.
I wasn’t going to listen again to last night’s programme but whilst washing up zi did hear a bit of it.
ReplyDelete1) I thought that Alf had a decidedly Welsh accent
2) I am more than ever convinced that something will be found when the 78s records are unearthed from the junk in the barn .
3)There is room for Alf regardless what Clarrie said.
There is the room Joe had.
He certainly didn’t sound like an old Ambridgian. Although many of the locals have a variety of accents. For example, Ed doesn’t sound like Will, who doesn’t sound like Eddie, who definitely doesn’t sound like Clarrie. The same applies to Susan and her family and Chris absolutely comes from Mummersetshire. They are trying to sound like local yokels, unlike Helen, Tom, Pip and her siblings. Then we have the we have the posh Aldridge Sloan ranger types with Received Pronunciation.
DeleteThe only discernible regional accents are From Ian and Jazzer.
Don't forget the Geordies stasia!
DeleteAnd the Welsh personality vacuum that is Philip!
DeleteThe only character, who is irritating me at the moment, is Vince.
ReplyDeleteAll the others, I just accept, as they have been around for a while, so perhaps, I have just got used to their ways.
I feel for Peggy losing Hilda. I have experienced losing a cat and it does cause angst + upset.
Gary.3.49pm
ReplyDeleteOut of sight, out of mind. Send them back to whence they came.
What is wrong with the Welsh?
DeleteDetect a slight bias there - aimed at Philip + Jennifer, along with the long silent Natasha....
There is nothing wrong with the Welsh per say. It’s the characters. I didn’t know Jennifer came from the land of constant singing.
DeleteI do hope P and N don’t form A choir.
We already have the bell ringers, but what about a church choir at St.Stephen's.
DeleteHas there ever been one??
Stasia 4.40pm
Delete👍🤣
Stasia - I only know Jennifer has some sort of Welsh origin.
ReplyDeleteI don't think she is actually true Welsh.
I am looking forward to hearing about her beginnings, from others, who I know, know so much more.
I actually like Philip now. At first he was a character, who I did not like and thought he was a scrounger, getting what he could, when he could, in whatever way possible.
It shows that first impressions, aren't always, accurate or correct.
Jennifer,Welsh?
ReplyDeleteSince when?
Have a listen to Alf this evening if he is on and see if you can detect a touch of the valleys.
Your first impression of Phillip might well be correct,Miriam.
I wouldn’t trust him or his son with a barge pole.
I probably meant Pat... I just couldn't recall which of them had a welsh heritage.
DeleteIt's now over and done with.
Miriam, Did you mean Pat? I think she came from Wales originally
ReplyDeleteI think Jennifer, Lilian and Tony are all Ambridge born and bred as they are the offspring of Jack Archer and Peggy, who was an incomer but can’t remember where from!
ReplyDeletePeggy was a Londoner, she met and married Jack Archer during WW2
ReplyDeleteWell I won't and those who do can have Alf as consolation prize.
ReplyDeleteAah memories tonight 😊 warts an all (as Bert is also about to reveal in his ode to Joe 🤣)
ReplyDeleteDo hope Alf is not to remain in situ to take his dads place as it were pleading for free drinks etc. Although I think Joe was a nicer person overall than his son Alf!
Respect to Rex for wishing to remain financially independent in driving his business forward.
After tonight I don’t think I can give Alf the benefit of the doubt, I thought he was really noxious.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to Berts ode, “ I’ve come to bury Joe, not to praise him “
Alf repulses me. He makes my flesh crawl! 😛
ReplyDeleteKP I don’t think that Bert will be able to say of Joe
ReplyDelete“This was the noblest Ambridgean of them all “
Pat's uncle Haydyn (Evans?) ran the garage in Ambridge and Pat came to help him when she was a young girl. Took up with Tony and the rest is history, as they say, with a couple of ups and downs along the way! ( Oh a rhyming couplet!🤣)
ReplyDeleteYet another joe Grundy episode.....🤦♀️
ReplyDeleteAt this rate it’ll be renamed “the grundies” rather than the archers. Hurry up. Get him planted. I’ll volunteer to come help dig the hole if it’ll stop this maudlin carry on. Any other volunteers? ⚰️
My Archers book says that in 1973 Tony Archer went into partnership with Haydn Evans at Willow Farm. Pat “came to Ambridge in the summer of 1974 to look after her uncle, Haydn Evans, who had fallen and slipped a disc, and while she was tending him she met his young go-ahead partner at Willow Farm, Tony Archer. It was only a few weeks after sports-car mad Tony had been chucked by his fiancée, farm secretary Mary Weston, and during harvest time that Pat (who was a decisive girl from the Welsh valleys) proposed to him and was accepted.” Among other strong-minded things she did was to arbitrarily change their newspaper from the Daily Express to the Guardian. Haydn Evans later sold Willow Farm to Bill Ainsley.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that info!
DeleteI knew cars came into it! I was living in Australia between 73-76 and what with a new business and two babies I did not hear TA.
(My TA book is among the pile of a couple of hundred currently being moved from second to ground floor 'study' and awaiting son putting together the new bookcases!)
That should have been Bill Insley, not Ainsley - retired farmer from Derbyshire, sweet on Martha Woodford,.
DeleteMaybe Joe’s legacy will be his completed autobiography - my Archers book (1985) says he “has written two chapters of an autobiography called A Straight Furrow, by Joe Grundy, ‘Man of the Land’, which is designed to expose the way his father George was cheated out of the Brookfield tenancy while he was away fighting in the First World War”.
ReplyDeleteAll this “we will all miss him “ stuff doesn’t quite ring true. I think it’s more a tribute to the actor than the character who will be much missed by the actors and crew, judging by what they said when Edward Kelsey died.
ReplyDeletePtbY. 11.08 pm.
ReplyDeleteI’ve got my allotment tools at the ready to help you dig the grave.⛏⚰️😝
My imagine of Alf? He is a grubby elderly man with a hairy chin, bad yellow teeth and dirty fingernails. He like Joe probably doesn’t cut his toenails. Absolutely repulsive and slimy.
I do hope all have finished their breakfast.
So where were you both P tbY and Stasia?
ReplyDeleteThere I was with my spade and gardening gloves and apart from a woman nearby who was weeding the graves but didn’t speak to me, the Churchyard was deserted.
Maryellen :7.58 am
ReplyDeleteYou have stuck a chord in my memory! I remember Bill Insley and I think he was played by Ted Moult who was a real farmer from Derbyshire, turned actor. He appeared in lots of radio programmes including being on various quiz teams. He was the BBC’s go-to ‘countryman’ and his genuine country accent fitted very well into TA.
Yes, I just looked him up on Google to check my facts only to discover he committed suicide by shotgun in 1986 after a period of depression. His character, Bill Insley was not replaced by another actor.
And he was long the "face" of Everest double glazing!
DeleteA clever man who came into the public eye when he won Brain of Britain, the Radio 4 quiz. He auditioned for Dan Archer when Edgar Harrison died but the part was given to Frank Middlemass and apparently the part of Bill Insley was introduced specifically for Moult.
DeleteBill Insley befriended Neil and left him the land of Willow Farm in his Will which is where Neil had his pigs and eventually got planning permission and built his own house.
A nice reminder from the S/Ws last night that The Bull is owned by Jolene and that she holds the licence and not Kenton.
ReplyDeleteA nod to the newer scriptwriters that Kenton is actually just a hired help?
I still don't understand why, the combination of Jolene + Lilian, didn't offer to do Joe's "wake" instead of Fallon.
DeleteThanks to all above for resurrection of memories.
ReplyDeleteAnd one correction for my memory.
I have always remembered Pat as arriving as a travelling Farm Secretary.
I now realise that I have remembered the previous girlfriend of Tony and mixed her up with Pat.
I was listening at this time in the seventies but perhaps not assiduously.
Like others I was deeply into the daily practicalities of family and other concerns.
Shocked to hear of the form of demise of Ted Moult.
Remember him well.
Lanjan 1.38pm. We had been and gone by the time you got there. Was the woman weeding about sixty years of age? She is known locally as St Shula and can be seen on her hands and knees doing a Lough Dergh pilgrimage around the graveyard weeding as she shuffles along. This debasement of herself is penance for wrongdoings. Afterwards she has dry toast and black tea.
ReplyDeleteI have thought of this behaviour as she a bit attention seeking.
Now that Basil has gone quiet, we have Hilda on the run, are they together perhaps?
ReplyDeleteI thought the woman tidying round the graves looked older than 60 ,Stasia but then she did have a large headscarf on -looked like silk- a bit like you see the Queen wearing when she is out with her horses so it could have been her .
ReplyDeleteLike I say ,she ignored me .Oh and I did see someone skulking behind a tree with a large slice of what looked like sponge cake and someone else carrying two spades and wondered if it might have been you two but since I didn’t see any signs of any work having been started I assumed it wasn’t .
I must have arrived later. I tripped over the woman who was weeding with the nice headscarf, and she insisted on taking me to see a "wonderful" doctor called Richard Locke even though I was fine.
DeleteI think Joy might be on to something.
ReplyDeleteBut she needs to refine her scheme:
All the cats know exactly where Hilda is. All Joy needs to do is work out the place where they - and all the other animals of Ambridge - are avoiding. There she'll find Hilda : )
Just a thought, the psycho cat has had 'the op' hasn't she?
ReplyDeleteOtherwise I fear she might come back from her jaunt and present Peggy with some little Oglets.
It has just struck me that the three latest characters to be introduced to Ambridge are all rather unpleasant.
ReplyDeleteThere is annoying, garrulous Joy, trying much too hard to be everyone’s friend and overstaying her welcome wherever she goes.
Then dodgy Vince, the hardheaded business man, trying to wring every penny out of local farmers with a threatening personality.
And now disgusting, untrustworthy Alf, cadging money, drinks and somewhere to stay on the pretext of his father’s funeral.
Why can’t we have a couple of normal pleasant and friendly people move into the village, or a nice young family with happy children move into the village for a change?
I couldn't stand Hayley when she first arrived, she became one of my favourite characters.
DeleteLynda was OTT but as her character has developed I have learnt to be less irritated by her and realised her many good points.
As I said earlier, Joy is having to work extra hard because no-one will meet her half-way.
So I was pleased to hear Pat inviting her in for tea. She might secretly have thought Joy's idea crazy but she had the kindness to listen and encourage.
Joy will be OK once she's settled in and found her feet. At least she's not a social-climbing gossip - like certain other Ambridge motor-mouth I could mention ....
Archerphile 10.31pm Seems TA is following the lead of TV soaps which are full of ghastly characters and are very short on happy folk or storylines. The seedier and more unpleasant the character the more screen time they're given.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned on the previous blog that characters seem to have to arrive with a bang, with an exaggerated personality. Perhaps the script writers think we won’t notice them if they skip into the village sweetly. The only recent character I remember arriving with totally positive presentation was Rob Tichener.
ReplyDeleteOh dear... and look how that turned out 😱
ReplyDeleteLeonard Berry? Too nsipid to inspire hostility?
ReplyDeleteI am with you,Old Woman.
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for Joy.
I don’t think she realises that her brand of neighbourliness is not everyone’s cup of tea though.
I don’t want any more families with children ,Archerphile.
I am sick of hearing their posh little voices.
Ambridge children should be imagined but not heard.
Bah humbug!
As for Leonard ,he is not insipid just kind and generous.
You cling onto him Jill .
He’s OK.
Lanjan and Old woman,
ReplyDeleteI agree re Joy. I like the way she is causing mayhem with the established characters. Eventually she will get on my wick though I’m sure.
No more families and kids please!!!
I really like Leonard. He’s kind and polite and there’s been touches of humour with his attempted painting and baking. He could go on to be one of my favourites. I feel pleased that Jill has found such a companion later in life to get her out of some drudgery of being a skivvy at Brookfield.
I'm with you Lanjan and PtbY re Joy and Leonard, and I liked the way that Pat invited Joy in and took the trouble to listen to her. Her ideas do sound very odd, but then I spotted an article in the Times this morning about a cocker spaniel that finds lost pets, so maybe she's not so far off the mark (although I think she might need to concentrate on a dog with a keen sense of smell!). As for Leonard, I think he's a really nice character, and Paul Copley's gentle voice a great addition to the cast - could listen to him for hours. As you say, so nice that Jill has an understanding companion at last - and I also liked the way that Leonard cut short the conversation with Alf when he saw that Jill was becoming upset. More please.
ReplyDeletePtbY : 8.51an
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about Leonard. He is just the sort of new resident I meant in my comment last night. I think he’s lovely, kindly, friendly, has a sense of humour, a perfect partner for Jill (with whom I feel a great affinity). I would love him and Jill to move into Glebe Cottage together, Carole having decided to move elsewhere.
As for a new family, why would the children have to have ‘posh little voices’ Lanjan?
They could be a young family moved into one of the new houses from Borchester with children who speak with the universal Estuary English accent most school children seem to have these days.
Perhaps they would have a toddler, a little friend for Rosie perhaps; a youngish mother who could give Adam & Ian better advice on babycare than Pip; a father who’d be an enthusiastic cricketer or perhaps persuade other young men in the village to start up a football club.
But above all, they would be a normal, happy family - no marital problems or breakups, no delinquent children, an example of the majority of families found in real-life villages these days.
I’m obviously wishing for the impossible!!
Could they not move into Leonard’s place, so Carol could remain where she is happy and Jill would still get the rent?
DeleteYes, another perfectly feasible possibility, with the added bonus that Jill would be far enough away from Brookfield to not have to do all their cooking!
DeleteWhat about the Fairbloaters? Definitely fish out of water in a small farming village.
ReplyDeleteI would rather have poor lonely Joy, who has at least bought her own house and is not scrounging on the rest of the village. She wants to help and will find Hilda, but not in Ambridge. Joy will decide to have a cut and blow dry at Fabrice’s and there sitting on a cat cushion will be the infamous Hilda. Being fussed over by the clients.
Archerphile 9.27 am
ReplyDeleteWhen did you last hear a child in Ambridge who spoke with a regional accent?
I can’t remember any .
Not only do they speak “posh” but because they are very young they usually can’t act.
Remember how Henry used to annoy some of us?
Ambridge children seem to spend a lot of their time saying “Aw right”.
Let them vanish until they are at least 18 years of age
That’s exactly why I suggested a normal (not posh) family with children who speak like the majority of school children these days, not like the ones already heard in Ambridge!
DeleteI am also of the thought, that Jill + Leonard should move into Glebe Cottage, but there is the slight problem that Carole T. is still living there.
ReplyDeleteAs for Joy - although she seems to be a bit OTT, she means well and seems kind-hearted, at the moment.
However, I think she will start to ruffle feathers soon.
Yes but Archerphile ,my point is regardless of whether the family is posh or not every child in Ambridge speaks as if they have been for elocution lessons: the latest being Keira.
ReplyDeleteEven if Rochelle turned up, her child would speak exactly the same way as the others youngsters from Ambridge.
That is one reason why I don’t want to hear any children.
They do not sound natural.
Perhaps though, the lack of accents in the children, is solely due to whom is acting them?
DeleteChildren are a part of all persons lives, even in The Archers.
I would like to hear about the latest + a future Ambridge generation, and to be heard, in whatever they way they talk. It is their character which is so important. Henry has an unknown father, so what has he inherited and Jack, will he show traits of his father, Rob.
We now have Xander, mother unknown ...
You have a very good point there Miriam.
ReplyDeleteThree children in a small village, each with unknown origins within them.
And before anyone corrects me, I am including Jack, as we only know one two or three year episode in his fathers life, not the complete man.
Although there is always the possibility that we might know more of said character in the future.
I am confused here.
ReplyDeleteAre you saying Miriam and Mrs P that our accents depend upon our forbears and the way they spoke?
Surely children pick up accents by listening to the people-usually parents -they are with for most of the time.
It isn’t just children.
I know of a Danish footballer who played for Liverpool and to hear him talk you would have thought he was a Scouser and the present Manager of United is actually a Norwegian but his English has been learnt in and around Manchester so his accent is very Mancunian.
My point is that if there are to be child actors they should have either the accent of their parents or the people they are most in contact with or the accents of the children they meet at school.
If they can’t find any child actors with appropriate accents they should not be heard in the programme in my opinion.
It just sounds so wrong.
I just thought that I would prefer to hear a child speaking, even with an accent which is wrong, just to see how they are developing, characterwise, unlike Ruiari, who disappeared to boarding school, for many years and was seldom heard from.
DeleteIt reminds me of the old saying: It’s wise child that knows it’s own father!
DeleteThinking of children's accents, Greg, before he took up with Helen, was married to a French woman. Their daughters spent most of their lives with their mother in France. When one (Annette?) came back to Ambridge, she talked in perfect RP!
ReplyDeleteShula, have you met Joy? No, I don't think so. Ah, these social niceties, too rude to say a straight no.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Joy we have discovered there are two ratters at Bridge Farm, a sedentary cat at the Horobins' and a stray at the Stables.
I wonder what accent these new characters use - rp or estuary or? 🐱
DeleteReceived Purr of course ; )
DeleteYou have to hand it to Joy, she's found quite a neat way of meeting several Ambridge residents in a short space of time.
And if she does help find Hilda she'll be the hero of the village.
No, hang on, Peggy might revise her opinion of her; the rest of the village might not feel quite the same ...
I'm warming to Joy after initially thinking that she was going to be very irritating. But, then, anyone who is so obviously a 'cat person' will always be a friend of mine. I love the way she shows up just what a grumpy old chap Tony has turned into.
ReplyDeleteI just love any-one, who is a cat person.
DeleteBe it Peggy, Joy or perhaps myself.
My "puss" is 14yrs old now, but is still very active + loving.
I so hope Hilda returns to Peggy, who she loves + cares for.
I actually thought that the stray cat would turn out to be Hilda because I reckoned that Freddie isn’t likely to have visited Peggy recently and wouldn’t have known what Hilda looked .
ReplyDeletelike.
Disappointed but hopeful she will be found soon -alive and well.
Lan Jan and replies regarding accents
ReplyDeleteChildren will speak with an accent that they hear most! Sadly my youngest granddaughter spends much of her time watching dreadful American cartoons and has had, at her International schools in Vienna and Frankfurt, American teachers so when I visit every three months or so you would think she is American. But by the end of my stay, with both her Dad and me talking and playing with her she sounds more English
(Her older sister is not so bad, I think because she speaks more with her Dad. The younger is very much a Mummy's girl.)
None of the Grundy children would speak RP, certainly not Keira who parents and grandparents with whom she has lived for years all speak with a 'country accent.'
Neither Jennifer nor Elizabeth spoke, as teenagers, in such an upper class manner because their parents didn't.
As to what Henry has inherited. He has inherited a genetic coding! That's all!
And why would Jack show traits of his father, Rob?
Rob had about three months (?) imput into this new born. No behaviour or 'character traits' would have been learned in that time.
I agree Lanjan it would be better if there were no real children acting and recording. For many years Judy Bennet played several children's parts. Then we had the awful baby Henry for years. No , much better for the children to be referred to or a specialist actor playing a child than these inappropriate voices.
Whenever Henry speaks I always get the very distinct impression that the the child actor's voice was recorded in a different time and place from that of Helen or Adam or whoever he is speaking to. It really bugs me! It somehow just sounds "spliced in".
ReplyDeleteI would rather never hear any of the younger characters speak until they are of an age when the person playing them can properly act. In a radio drama there is LITERALLY nothing worse than a voice not ringing true - it's ALL we have to go on after all!
Gary ,I believe that is what actually does happen.
DeleteThe child isn’t in the studio when the recordings take place.
Ha! It obviously doesn't work then does it? 😁
DeleteThere is a book called. “Molly the pet detective dog “ by Colin Butcher.
ReplyDeleteColin Butcher charges £95 per hour plus expenses to look for cats who have gone awol .
He lives in Guildford ,Surrey.
Check him out Peggy.
I bet Joy has read his book.
I wonder if Oliver would be mortified if he heard the rumour about him and Stacey. Maybe his ego would be slightly flattered that anyone believed it possible.
ReplyDeleteI’m beginning to wish I had never put forward the idea of a new young family moving into the village - because it has prompted all this discussion about accents, the dislike of hearing children in TA and the old nature v nurture argument.
ReplyDeleteI’m sorry but I disagree with those who want children’s voices banned until they are adults.
I think it would be very unnatural never to hear a child’s voice in Ambridge.
Think how many complains there were about Ben being confined to his bedroom for years on end before he was heard speaking! And then, when he did, people said he sounded too old!
To be a realistic drama there need to be children’s voices but the casting director apparently has to be careful to find child actors with accents acceptable to the listeners.
It’s really awful the way that rumours like this start. Am sure Oliver just enjoys her company and there’s no romance involved!
ReplyDeleteNorman Painting said that grandchildren were no longer seen until much older. Before they were played by other actors and later recorded away from the script. So you were right Lanjan and Gary.
ReplyDeleteRancid Russ is back and talk about pot calling Tracy black. He is an interloper hitting on a younger woman and having wormed his way into LL he has Elizabeth depending on him to solve her problems. He is slimy, oozing with creepyness and condescending deviousness.
ReplyDeleteJoy is, like Tracy, a relief from the Grundys, Joe’s demise and all the gawd awful reminiscing.
The the purrsuit of Hilda is an uplifting and light storyline and I’m enjoying it.
Three cheer for Joy and Tracy, along with all the cats and dogs 🐕😻everywhere.
✔️✔️✔️
DeleteStasia,
DeleteHow could you?
Russ's love for Lily is as pure as the driven snow.
As soon as his maligngering ex does the decent thing and cooperates in the divorce there will be a fairytale wedding and Mr and Ms Rancid will live in wedded bliss 'til death do them part.
Or at least until the next love-struck teenage girl comes along.
Hip Hip...! 🐱🐈
ReplyDeleteHear hear Stasia
ReplyDeleteI call RussOlly(oleaginous)
Elizabeth will eventually see through him.
Re Hilda.
I have ordered the book I mentioned (10:02pm last night ) from the library about what Joy was talking about and plan to collect it tomorrow.When I have read it I might pop up to Ambridge and have a word withJoy who is really on the ball.
I will try and rope Tracy in too.
We won’t charge Peggy Woolley £95 an hour but I might ask for travel expenses
Think I will go by train 1st class .
Like the perks.
Birmingham New St-Hollerton Junction then Rex can pick me up from there.
Can't think why Elizabeth is still taken in by him. She is SO grateful for all he's done - er - what, exactly ? Surely Kenton did far more to keep LL afloat, & she only started panicking in Underwoods because he'd insisted on driving her there when she wanted to go somewhere else. At the same time, she objected to his spiteful denigration of Tracey, disagreed with him on a number of other things, yet fails every time to note that he always deflects any reference to divorce.
ReplyDeleteStill think he's not married, that story is a back up for when it becomes too hot for him at LL, & he senses he's about to be rumbled. He'll invent a breakdown for this non existent woman, as he did before with Lily, to delay events, & make his getaway.
No, Elizabeth, your therapy is incomplete. You say you've achieved a better sense of self worth, but you forget lashing out at the wrong people ( Geraldine, Kenton, Roy), & are in denial about those who are actually malign( namely Rancid Russ, as Stasia so aptly describes him), because you can't cope with the truth or any kind of confrontation.
Didn't they go to Underwoods in the first place because Russ needed to be like all the other students and stock-up on Egyptian cotton bedding and top-of-the-range coffee maker? All at Mum's expense.
DeleteThink how shameful it would have been to turn up on campus with Wilko's bedding and and Argos kettle.
Oh wait, he's not the student, Lizzy is not his Mum but his girlfriend's, and they weren't even going to live on campus and mix with students anyway. (A pity that, he might have transferred his affections within the first month.)
I don’t think I would be so friendly to a man twice my daughter’s age who had taken advantage in spite of the taboo on teacher/pupil relationships and apparently married to top it all! What is Elizabeth like?!!
ReplyDeleteCarolyn; 3.09
ReplyDeleteI’m quite looking forward to the story pendulum swinging back in the direction of Lower Loxley and away from Grundy-ville and Joy-ville.
I have heard more than enough about the Grundy’s misery and am not at all entranced by Joy and her desperate attempts at friend-making. Sorry folks, but I just don’t like the woman!
But the situation at Lower Loxley and the strange/strained relationship between Lily, Russ and Elizabeth’s is much more interesting to me and the snippets from last night make me keen to hear more. Time for Russ to be found out, hopefully disgraced and barred from LL for good. I want to hear more about Lily’s job and plans for the future and how Elizabeth manages to resurrect her business.
I’d also like that pendulum to swing in the direction of Grey Gables and learn how Tracy is ‘making a difference’ to the clientele as Oliver wanted. She’s a real Joy to listen to!
And finally, what is happening with Peggy’sPrize? I thought the terrible threesome were supposed to come up with evidence of land bought and concrete proposals by the end of last month?
It all seems to have gone quiet on the rewilding front. 🤔
Perhaps Lizzie's counselling sessions, will help her see the truth about Russ and his relationship with Lily, and begin to start to question this.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure Lizzie actually remembers and appreciates, what Kenton + David did to help her and LL. She was in "bad" place at that time.
Archerphile our posts crossed.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking along the very same lines - in that, the focus should be returning to LL, Grey Gables and Freddie's developement there, alongside Oliver + Tracy.
I am looking forward to the first "Murder, Mystery" evening + meal, at GG.
Can any-one let me know, when Freddie is able to "inherit" LL and so, he will be the new custodian. He will be, hopefully, following in his fathers footsteps, the late great Nigel.
ReplyDeleteI know it depends on the trustees, which Nigel set up (who they are?).
I just hope that Lizzie doesn't make any silly decisions, to rebound on Freddie, plus Lily, in future times.
But will he be allowed to be licensee?
DeleteEv........4:19
ReplyDeleteElizabeth. Probably all too well aware of her own association with.....
1. A married man
2. A man far older than herself
If you've had a rackety youth you probably do your best to protect your daughter from similar mistakes, or keep quiet for fear that daughter might well be in a position to accuse you of same.
I'm glad Hilda's back but why didn't the women invite her friend in.
ReplyDeleteKate will be back with Jakob, she can't stop repeating his name.
Childish sniggering and ridiculous assumptions - it was Russ who started it and Tracy retorted that he's an older man too except that he's not rich.
We heard it from Alf first, like Oliver said.
ReplyDeleteOliver said that Alf blames him for Joe's death by giving the Grundys notice to vacate Grange Farm.
DeleteOliver blames Alf for blackening his name generally.
DeleteOnce again Elizabeth has to open her mouth.
ReplyDeleteWhy repeat gossip that Freddie is passing on to her.?
I hope this doesn’t make Oliver behave differently towards Tracy but I feel it will.
Oliver is old enough to look after himself and if he enjoys Tracy’s company and she makes him laugh then what is the harm?
If it does go further then good luck to the pair of them.
Well done Joy and white cat for bringing Hilda home.
ReplyDeleteI hope you invite Joy round to thank her ,Peggy.
I am thrilled for Peggy, that Hilda has returned, who she just loves + adores.
ReplyDeleteI thought tonight was a mixed and entertaining episode.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have no complaints.
I've enjoyed the tale of the lost cat, which has given us the appearance of several Ambridge cats that we did not formerly know about.
What's the betting the white cat moves in with Peggy and Hilda.
So agree as to an entertaining TA episode tonight. 😁 ✔✔. I enjoyed it.
DeleteTonight’s episode as already “written” by our very own bloggers 😂
ReplyDeleteWill Joy become the talk of the village, and begin to make friends?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Hilda came back accompanied by another cat. Perhaps Tony won't be so dismissive next time.
Kate and Jakob? Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
Just checked the quote online. I made a common mistake 😮. Should have put "methinks" at the end. Apologies to bloggers who know better.
DeleteAs if by magic.......Yesterday I mentioned not hearing about Peggy's Prize and the irksome threesome’s rewilding scheme recently.
ReplyDeleteThen, Abracadabra, it was spoken about last night!
Peggy said they had until Christmas to get the land they need or they won’t get the money.
I thought they had to do that by the end of September or October and don’t recall Christmas being agreed on. Is it my mind playing tricks or have the SWs forgotten the details and just made up a new deadline?