Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum

Subject: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Menita
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 12:09 PM

How may 'Archers' Fans are there out there? And have you noticed that Folk singing and Music doesn't feature in the programme? What happened to Eddie's songs? - He could perform them in the Bull at a session. Isn't singing and playing in the pubs what we do around here on long winter nights?

La

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Morticia
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 12:22 PM

I had to wean myself off it which was a long and painful process.....too often I was late for meetings because it had got to an exciting bit (sic) and I couldn't leave the radio in my car.I think what they do on long winter evenings is make little Archers *BG*.

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 01:06 PM

It hasn't been the same folk music wise since "Uncle Tom" died, as he was a folkie in real life.(Tom Arnold)
For our trans-pond colleagues this uncle Tom was not what you may understand by that term, he was Tom Forrest, a character in a long running radio soap. His party piece was invariably "The village pump"....Giok

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 01:53 PM

Giok - yes, I thought that folk music left Ambridge when Tom Forrest died, (leaving only Dross, C&W and line-dancing - though it has to be said that Buffy Davis who plays Jolene used to sing in folk clubs and even came to Herga on one occasion. On the other hand,no, Tom Arnold was married to Roseanne Barr. It was Bob Arnold who played Tom Forrest. He grew up hearing songs because his father kept a pub.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Mr Red
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 02:00 PM

Terrible about Shula isn't it?
Uncle Tom? gawd it was going down the tubes when Walter Gabriel died and as for Nelson ..... well
never watch it myself, personally
though I have supped in the Bull in Inkberrow.

Folk tunes & performers? Isn't that Pete Shuttler of the Yetties playing the accordian on the Sunday omnibus intro?
I happen to know that Eddie Grundy (well the actor in real life) lives in Upton upon severn and has been known to play in a folk band because the owner of the music shop there (www.uptonmusic.com) plays in several bands sometimes with same actor, allegedly

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Grab
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 06:11 PM

My wife is. I personally find it a good incentive to get the hell out of the room and shut myself away with a guitar. I'm not sure I'd gnaw a leg off to get away - maybe a finger or two though. It gives Vogon poetry some serious competition.

Graham.

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Gareth
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 06:26 PM

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 04:10 AM

It's all very exciting and very naughty at the moment! what with Brian's antics AGAIN! Tum-te-tum indeed!

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 04:28 AM

Mention of Upton-on Severn, reminds me of the "Cajun" weekend forthcoming. See Here for Upton

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Gervase
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 07:30 AM

Oh shit - outed!
'Fraid I'm an Archers addict of long standing. But the dire lack of trad music in Ambridge doesn't seem so odd to me - go to the average village pub offering live music these days and you're mor likely to have a band like Dross playing than a folk session - sadly.
And as for that Brian Aldridge...

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 08:26 AM

Ah! Ned Larkin, John Tregorran, Prudence Kitten ... where are they now? That shows how old I am, doesn't it? I sat through the whole omnibus on Sunday morning (we get up early especially) without hearing a word, as I'm temporarily deaf just now.

You'd think though , wouldn't you, that the Bull would have an arran-sweater-and-beard, finger-in-the-ear folk traditional club of the sort popularly supposed to exizt in such places by the ignorant! Check out the AA website, and send your complaints to [e-mail]--in fact, why don't we organise a Mudcat mass complaint and all send one?

Steve

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Mr Red
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 09:52 AM

StF
what is Brian up to - do tell - does it involve the vicaress? and a "tum test tum?"

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Mr Red
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 09:57 AM

AND who amongst us ever heard Pru Forest speak? Well my girlfriend of the time.
Funnily enough my girlfriend of this time is a radio 4 addict and a farmer and can't stand the tum ti tum ti............

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Gervase
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 10:06 AM

The only time I ever remember Pru talking, they couldn't shut the bloody woman up (It was a guest appearance by Judi Dench, if I recall).
Nonetheless, I'm still waiting for the rest of the unsung Ambridge residents to speak up; the camp Shane, Jack and Piggy's handyman Higgs and Baggy and Snatch Foster. Surely they must have some dirt to dish on some of the more saccharine characters!

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Menita
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 10:16 AM

Steve, I think that's a great idea. Maybe we could start writing a script for the folk session: i.e. who's gonna run the sesh? Who's the serious trad singer? who sings out of tune but everyone smiles and listens politely? who sings the funny songs? who's noisy their crisp packets and won't stop talking? The possibilities are endless. 'The Folk Club' could be a soap all of its own!

LA

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 10:22 AM

Higgs did once speak; but only in the distance. He was pissed and refusing to come down off the roof, if I remember right. The BBC Archers pages are here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archers/

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 10:26 AM

Look out Brian, Siobhan will be boiling your rabbits soon.And that Janet: lets start a thread on English priests for a change. But seriously,keep your eye on Dross,its early days yet and a big stylistic change is perfectly possible.

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 10:29 AM

I think youre right about Judi Dench, Gervase.... Hmmmm...it must be almost that long since I regularly listened to it though. It sounds like I wouldnt know who half the people in it are now.

....& yes its unrealistic, I.M.O. that there is NOTHING folk related in it....not that I know anything about what a typical Midland farming village is like!

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 10:38 AM

What I cant understand is that they've started having trailers for forthcoming Archers episodes. How can the announcers know what is going to happen in Ambridge before it's actually happened?

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: GUEST,Peter from Essex
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 11:25 AM

When will Sid be prosecuted for not having a PEL?

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Gervase
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 11:51 AM

I have to admit to a snigger during this weekend's omnibus when Jennifer asked the caddish Brian: "Is it too late for you to pull out?". Or have I just got a filthy mind?
Talking of smut versus saintliness, that Janet always used to get on my chimes a bit - she was just so bloomin' goody-goody. Mind you, now she's getting regular portions from the Doc, maybe she'll get a little more hip (or is fantasising about that sort of clerical/medical union classed as a mortal sin?).
Troubles is, I've found it hard to take snogging in the Archers seriously since I learned that the cast suck the backs of their hands during recording to create the right sound. Oh, and the squelchy sound of a lamb's afterbirth hitting the floor is created with a spoon in a pot of yoghurt.
Just thought I'd share that!
Yoghurt, anyone? Sorry, I'll get me coat...

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 12:09 PM

Yes, Dame Judi did guest as Pru Forest, but I'm old enough to remember the real Prue--how long ago is that? (I must have had one of those subliminal messages from my unconscious when I mentioned Prudence Kitten back there--I'd forgotten all about her!) And what about Jack Archer, the alcoholic landlord of the Bull in former days? And there's someone else, just around the corner of my mind (as Sir jim used to say) ... well, it'll come to me.

Steve

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: eloise
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 12:41 PM

And does anyone remember when Princess Margaret was in an episode and stayed at Grey Gables (in the garden suite) - and whatever happened to Hebe? She used to sing in Nelsons Wine Bar. She had a lovely voice.

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 01:41 PM

I don't listen to the Archers but I have friends that do and I have been told that the script writers/story editors change on a fairly regular basis. Apparently Roger Watson (folkie) was doing the story line some years back and had planned in an Ambridge Folk Festival but when his stint was up and the festival haddn't taken place when the editor changed the idea was written out. How true this is I don't know, but those who have been listening to the show might be able to shed some light on it. Cllr

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: GUEST,Skipjack K8
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 04:09 PM

I think Linda Snell's yer woman. She is the wassail queen, after all. But I can't see her squeezing her thrupenny bit in the Bull on the first Sundayof the month

I suspect Dross will disband after Jazzer mainlines Jeyes Fluid.

Skipjack

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 16 Apr 02 - 03:17 AM

Omigod, not Linda Snell!! Maybe she'll elect herself caller to the band and leave the singers alone ...

Steve

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: GUEST,Chipper
Date: 16 Apr 02 - 03:35 AM

Didn't they have some morris dancers at the village fete one year? Amazingly they managed to recruit them at a minute's notice (perhaps they didn't have many other invitations that year?)

Chipper

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 16 Apr 02 - 03:46 AM

Gervase I too sniggered at the Jennifer comment! Mr Red the current major story line involves Brian and the doctor's soon to be ex missus Siobhan and a tum tum tum test and then Tim the doctor and the vicar's wife who is running to the bishop for advice who are not yet having a tum tum tum test. Then there are the young druggies of Ambridge.... who will be first to go????

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 16 Apr 02 - 04:34 AM

Never mind the Archers Addicts, this is the place for all the real inside stuff Archers Anarchists

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Julie B
Date: 16 Apr 02 - 07:33 AM

I'm now a regular listener and my Archers 'claim to fame' is that I know the actor who plays Jack Woolley (stage name 'Arnold Peters'). He lives in my home town of Wellingborough (also home of snooker player Peter Ebdon) and used to run the local youth club when I was a teenager.

When I was applying to Universities and needed to visit Birmingham he gave me a lift up on his way to a rehearsal. After my interview I met him at the Pebble Mill studios (where it was recorded at the time) and got a guided tour of the studio, met the actors and sat in on some recording. Very interesting! Unfortunately, at the time, I didn't really listen to the program, so I can't remember exactly who I did meet. I can't remember if he was playing Jack Woolley then, as I know he appeared as another character Archers some years before taking on the JW role.

Julie

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 16 Apr 02 - 07:53 AM

Sounds like Jack's our Trojan Horse, then Julie. Threaten him with revealing his hidden past as a youth club predator, and get us all in for the session in the Bull

Skipjack

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Apr 02 - 06:20 AM

The Bull has been declared as being in isolation, as the deadly Line Dancing virus has been detected there. Police say that it may have been brought to the midlands from North America by a Colorado beetle. Jazzer is quoted as asking how near Colorado is to Colombia, it is generally believed that he wanted to cook the beetle, grind it up, and sniff it up his nose. The moral of this is of course, that The Archers is addictive.
Tum te tum....Giok

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Guessed
Date: 17 Apr 02 - 10:20 AM

greg stephens
I knew someone was going to ask the "how do they know before it happens" question. The answer is: they are turning the page before you!!!!!

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: John J
Date: 17 Apr 02 - 11:47 AM

Gosh, I thought I was the only closet Archers addict on the Mudcat!

Sunday mornings have the Yetties playing 'tum-te-tum'. I suppose that's the closest we get to 'folk' on the Archers these days.

Who remembers when the omnibus edition was always introduced by one of the cast, I can't remember who it was, with a 'Good morning' and then a few words of wisdom, rather like Jack Warner's intro in Dixon of Dock Green?

Eeee, I must be getting old!

John

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Apr 02 - 12:04 PM

The late Tom Forrest I think it was.
Tum....Giok

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Mrs Cobble
Date: 17 Apr 02 - 07:52 PM

..... who remembers Grace Archer dying in the fire???.

..me.... tum-te-tum-te-tum....

Mrs C

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 Apr 02 - 07:58 PM

Pete Shuttler only on the omnibus and that info is 10 years old but it sound the same as it did 10 years ago.

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 03:56 AM

Grace Archer dying in the fire was one of the BBCs best advertising ploys ever. It coincided with the launch of commercial television in the U.K. and drew off a number of would be viewers. It also ensured that media columnists (although not known as such in those far off days) concentrated their columns the next day on the BBCs output.

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 06:11 AM

Boy, is my cachet going up round here or what??! I have just put down the electric telephone after speaking to Mike Tucker (or Terry Molloy for those deranged flat-earthers that propound the fiction theory) as I have bagged him as a speaker at a conference (Eastern Compounders Association, so he can slag off Borchester Feed Mills) and I raised this very subject with the man. I alluded to the Wooley sex-for-pingpong campaign, and he assured me that he would mention the idea to the scriptwriters without that awful sanction being invoked. I'll keep you posted.

I think I'll have the rest of the day off!

Skipjack

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: John J
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 06:14 AM

There's talk of a barn dance in the village hall. Anyone fancy going? Perhaps we should have a Mudcat outing.

I think I heard some folk dance type music in the background of last night's exciting episode.

John

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 09:30 AM

I remember one character from about 40 years back called Walter Gabriel, I think he was supposed to be a shepherd. In one episode he decided he had French ancestry and changed his name to Walter de Gabriel. Funny things minds. JohnB

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 10:46 AM

I know a man who called himself JohnB because he thought he was a sloop.

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: The Walrus at work
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 01:48 PM

So that's it, is it? We're all agreed?
Mudcat gathering at "The Bull", date and time to be arranged.

W

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 03:26 PM

As long as it's line-dancing night

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 03:20 AM

Aar, me ol' pal, me ol' beauty! Walter only died a few short years ago; indeed, it only seems like five minutes ... His secret alter ego, Chris Gittings, was apparently a fine actor; I heard him in a radio play once, and he sounded like Walter Gabriel in a serious mood. And son Nelson (Jack May, in the Other World) had a voice that could read the Anthology of London Cab-drivers and have everyone in thrall. And of course, Nelson's "unofficial" daughter (name...?) is still going strong; a police officer: such irony!
Oh, and did you know that Sid "the Sexpot" Perks used to be jack Wooley's chauffeur in the dim distant past?

Steve

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Menita
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 02:17 PM

I have been in touch with the powers that be and they're thinking about folk at the Bull. Maybe we should have a Mudcat gathering and get the session recorded by the Beeb so that they can use it as background when needed. Will update when I hear more. LA

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 02:47 PM

I think that Nelson's daughter who went to the bad and joined the police force, is called Rosemary.
Tum...Giok

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 02:21 PM

Steve Parks
Yoghurt, anyone? at least we can agree that IS cultured

& FWIW didn't Walter Gabriel have to have three actors as they died and the BBC finally felt that the resurection would be too much of a farce fourth time round. AND wasn't he sweet on Mrs P? and wasn't she a Perkins and is Sid related. I know, I know. I should have been following it all these years but I used to record it for my sister in NZ when they stopped broadcasting it there. Well IT IS TRUE.

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 04:51 AM

No, Mr R, not Walter: several well-loved characters have had their actors replaced--not always successfully; remember Frank Middlemass as Dan Archer?--through death, conflicting professional demands, or plain old-fahsioned walking out: like Heather Bell (Clarry), who left in a dudgeon becase they wouldn't give her time off from rehearsals to go to Haydn Jones' (Joe Grundy) funeral.

"Mrs P, ma'am" was indeed Mrs Perkins, Peggy, Jill and Jennifer's mother. They were evacuated from the East End of London in the war, and stayed; Peggy married Jack, Jill married Phil, and Jennifer married that wicked capitalist and philanderer Brain Aldridge. Sid Perks came from Birmingham with Jack Woolley, I think, who moved in from Stirchley.

And of course, Aunt Laura (remember her at Ambridge Hall?) came from New Zealand, where Dan and Jack's brother (name??) had emigrated years before to raise sheep; I think she was his daughter, but I never quite worked it out.

Steve

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 05:34 AM

Mrs. P. was Peggy's mother, and moved to Ambridge when her daughter married Jack (Phil's older brother; their parents were Dan and Doris, "Uncle" Tom being Doris' younger brother). Jennifer and Lillian are Peggy's daughters; Jill is Phil's second wife and not related, other than by marriage.

Used to listen to it quite a bit, me.

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 03:31 AM

Who listened to the Euro archers on Dead Ringers - brilliant! especially the Ruth bit "oooooh nein!"

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 01:43 PM

Zer gut ja.

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: GUEST,Smokeyboat
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 05:25 AM

Can anyone tell me who opened the village fete in 1952, please?

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Morticia
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 05:46 AM

blimey, I wasn't even born then

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 05:47 AM

I did hear Shane in Nelson's wine bar speak once - he said "I should be so lucky"

Can't help with 1952 though, we lived near Bristol then and we used to listen to 'The Luscombes' instead.

Subject: RE: Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 06:43 AM

But why do you need to know please ?