The Archers: The Ambridge chronicles: moments that made the nation’s favourite radio drama

260 Pages·2013·4.66 MB·English

by  Joanna Toye

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The Archers, like life, is made of
moments: marriages and births,
loves and losses, triumphs and
disasters. It has been the soundtrack
of our lives for over six decades,
from stooking corn with Dan Archer
in the 1950s to the tragic death of
Nigel Pargetter in 2011.
We know the characters of Ambridge
- from much-loved Phil and Jill
Archer and the irrepressible
Grundys to wayward Brian Aldridge
— like we know close friends. This
book is their tribute.
The Ambridge Chronicles relives
some of the defining moments in The
Archers history, delving into the rich
archive of its scripts to celebrate the
highs and lows that have made the
world’s longest running radio serial
so treasured.
£
9.99
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The Ambridge
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CHRONICLES
MOMENTS THAT MADE THE
NATION’S FAVOURITE
RADIO DRAMA
JOANNA TOYE
AND KAREN FARRINGTON
B B S
BOOKS
This book is published to accompany the BBC Radio 4 series The Archers
Vanessa Whitburn edited The Archers from 1992 to 2013.
13579 10 8642
Published in 2013 by BBC Books, an imprint of Ebury Publishing.
A Random House Group Company.
Copyright ©Joanna Toye and Karen Farrington, 2013
Joanne Toye and Karen Farrington have asserted their right to be identified as the authors
of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
Script extracts written by: Debbie Cook, Mary Cutler, Paul Bums, Tessa Diamond,
John Fletcher, Adrian Flynn, Simon Frith, Nawal Gadalla, Caroline Harrington,
Graham Harvey, Christopher Hawes, Brian Hayles, Sam Jacobs, Peter Kerry,
Helen Leadbeater, Malcolm Lynch, Edward J Mason, Bruno Milna, James Robson,
Carole Simpson Solazzo, Tim Stimpson, Chris Thompson, Joanna Toye and Geoffrey Webb.
While every effort has been made to trace and acknowledge script writers,
we would like to apologise should there be any errors or omissions.
The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009
Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at
www.randomhouse.co.uk
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 9781849905770
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Commissioning editor: Albert DePetrillo
Project editors: Nicholas Payne, Laura Higginson and Lizzy Gaisford
Designer: O’Leary &. Cooper
Production: Phil Spencer
4
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CRO YY
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CO NTENTS
7
- -
Introduction
-9 -
Country Life
- 61 -
Love Life
- 113 -
Village Life
- 171 -
Family Life
-215 -
In the Midst of Life

INTRODUCTION
‘The problem has always been not to find but to choose,' wrote
Dr Watson about bis seventeen years' worth of notes on Sherlock
Holmes’s twenty-three years of detecting. Lucky Watson! With
almost sixty-three years of The Archers on air and over 17,000 scripts
- stored on disc, tape and CD, on paper and microfilm, card index and
computer - our problem was both in the choosing and the finding.
There were helpful suggestions from listeners, cast, writers and
production team; there were also folk memories, which were the
most difficult and sometimes impossible to track down: ‘A lovely
episode where Phil and Tom went fishing...’ didn’t narrow it down
much. While the saga of Ned Larkin's first encounter with a zipped
fly on his trousers - pretty revolutionary in 1950s Ambridge, it
seems, at least for a farmworker - led to apparently hilarious
consequences which sadly remain frustratingly elusive. However,
there were plenty of other incidents to choose from...
The most exciting challenge was selecting the actual script
extracts. Previous books have retold storylines and quoted snippets
of script, but we wanted to present entire sections of dialogue -
sometimes almost entire scenes - to help tell the story but also to
recreate the mood of a particular moment. Would they work on
the page or did you need to ‘be there’, in the sense of hearing them
7
The Ambridge Chronicles
played out? Would scripts from the 1950s come over with their full
period charm? It soon became clear that the words had a resonance
of their own, and the book also uses a lot of script material that
has never before been reproduced, giving a new dimension to
emblematic Archers events - the death of Grace, for example, or
the Grundy s’ eviction from Grange Farm.
Many people deserve special thanks. Archers Editor Vanessa
Whitburn has been a staunch support throughout, and the fount of all
knowledge, Archers Archivist Camilla Fisher, stimulated ideas as well
as helped to source specific scripts. At BBC Books, Nicholas Payne
and Laura Higginson provided editorial support, while Jeff Walden at
BBC Written Archives was a great help in digging out older material.
Writers past and present generously gave permission for their dialogue
to be reproduced - not forgetting the skill over the years of various
production teams and technical crews, and the magnificent Archers
cast, which made it so memorable in the first place.
With so much material, the result is inevitably partial, personal
and totally idiosyncratic - but whether the book surprises with the
unknown, revives memories or even provokes cries of ‘Oh, but what
about... V then its job is done. Heartbreak and happiness, triumph and
tragedy, wit and wisdom - they’re all here for you to enjoy.
Joanna Toye and Karen Farrington
8