Some examples from the directory

The Archers
21

Time for a few more…

Albert Thomas Griggs
Name: Albert Thomas Griggs
Sorted name: Griggs, Albert Thomas
Notes: Unknown stranger who was prosecuted over effluent disposal in 1975 but whose name was reported in the Borchester Echo as Albert Thomas Gibbs. Bert Gibbs sued the Echo, claiming that his reputation had been ruined, and the case was settled out of court.
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Name: Alf Grundy
aka: Alfred George Grundy
Sorted name: Grundy, Alf
Played by: Terry Molloy, 1986; David Hargreaves, 2016,
Born: 13th November 1944
Immediate family:
Susan Grundy (Mother, deceased)
Joe Grundy (Father)
Eddie Grundy (Brother)
William Grundy (Nephew)
Ed Grundy (Nephew)
Notes: The black sheep even of the Grundy family, and a wheedling rogue with an eye for the ladies, Alf started stealing chocolate from Woolworths when he was a child, and never looked back. Joe reared him to be an expert poacher, but he disliked farming and left home to go and live in Gloucester, making a living by various dubious means before joining Eddie in a scrap metal business there. Eddie went home in 1969 to look after Joe when Susan died; Alf stayed in Gloucester, where in 1980 he was acquitted of receiving stolen copper wire, but shortly afterwards his luck failed and he was caught breaking and entering and imprisoned. Joe hypocritically disowned him, but he turned up in Ambridge after the end of his sentence in 1986 and stayed for a short while at Grange Farm before vanishing again, taking William’s savings from his money-box and Eddie’s stereo from his car with him. Stealing from his family was Too Much, and Eddie disowned him as well.
William drove Joe to visit Alf in Gloucester in 2001, getting Joe out of the way while a greenhouse was built for his seventieth birthday; the visit was not said to have been a success. Alf next turned up in March 2016 when he was invited to Eddie’s sixty-fifth birthday party; he stayed long enough to steal money at least twice from Clarrie’s purse, and probably the money which was being saved by the village for new curtains for the village hall, before leaving one morning without saying goodbye.
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Name: Alfred Redding
Sorted name: Redding, Alfred
Notes: Alfred and his wife Gloria moved from Birmingham into one of the Hollowtree flats in October 1973 after his retirement
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(missing out Alice Carter because her entry is not finished)
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Name: Alice Dyer
Sorted name: Dyer, Alice
Immediate family:
Edward Dyer (Father)
Bess Cooper (Aunt)
Simon Cooper (Uncle)
Notes: Alice Dyer had been blind since the age of three, and very much enjoyed her piano lessons; her family could not afford to get her a piano of her own. In 1951her father and uncle saved up and bought her a piano, wherat she cried with joy on Christmas morning.
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Name: Alice Peters
Sorted name: Peters, Alice
Immediate family:
Sam Peters (Husband)
Key relationships:
Notes: Wife of Sam Peters, Alice became caretaker at Hollowtree Flats when Sam lost his job in 1974 because of illness.
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Name: Alison Fry
Sorted name: Fry, Alison
Immediate family:
Gavin Fry (Husband)
Notes: A friend of Betty’s whose children played with Roy Tucker. They lived in the Glebelands estate.
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Name: Alice Hart
Sorted name: Hart, Alice
Notes: Alice was the domestic bursar at the Field Study Centre until she got married in 1974 and went away to live in Penny Hassett.
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22

gawblime, Fish, you don’t let the weed grow under yer fins…

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23

Well, I have been rather, because I ought to have got Alice completely done and dusted but I got so bored by the wretched woman, you wouldn’t believe. Also I need to decide whether events in Ambridge Extra need to be included, and if they are I’ll have to listen to it to find out what they were, which will be a bore.

Do you think I have to? It seems to me that they are not really part of the Archers Canon, but I am open to argument.

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24

Ooo er David Hargreaves, maybe in another entry soon…

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25

Well, they do keep on introducing new characters who will need to be included, don’t they.

sigh

A fish’s work is never done…

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26

No. Do not subject yourself to that, it is a sufficiently mammoth task as it is and anyway AmEx is not canonical. Snitty wee references to any dark doings of which you have become aware that seem relevant can be included, referred to AmEx, on that basis. Alastair’s snog with a passing Lolita, for instance… but only if you are in the general nature of things aware of them.

BTW, I would be happy to poofraid if you feel that might be hlepful…

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27

Oh gosh, oh golly yes, that would be Very Useful. Even if you are trying to pretend you would be no good at it! I’ll get it to the stage at which there is some point, though, first.

Typos are the devil and all when you know what you meant to type and your eye just sort of slides over them.

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28

I have done a fair bit of it on and off in my time and I have this advice to any young person aspiring to proofread: do not do it at a desk at which you have lunched on a poppyseed roll. That way madness lies.

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29

I’m trying to cut down.

Typo’s? I’m new here but haven’t spotted any non-deliberate yet…

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30

That, Fishy, is astonishing.

I think you could rightly leave AmEx alone & return to it once this is finished if you then get withdrawal.

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31

There are some very boring people beginning with A.

Name: Alice Dyer
Sorted name: Dyer, Alice
Immediate family:
Edward Dyer (Father)
Bess Cooper (Aunt)
Simon Cooper (Uncle)
Notes: Alice Dyer had been blind since the age of three, and very much enjoyed her piano lessons; her family could not afford to get her a piano of her own. In 1951her father and uncle saved up and bought her a piano, wherat she cried with joy on Christmas morning.
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Name: Alice Hart
Sorted name: Hart, Alice
Notes: Alice was the domestic bursar at the Field Study Centre until she got married in 1974 and went away to live in Penny Hassett.
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Name: Alice Peters
Sorted name: Peters, Alice
Immediate family:
Sam Peters (Husband)
Key relationships:
Notes: Wife of Sam Peters, Alice became caretaker at Hollowtree Flats when Sam lost his job in 1974 because of illness.
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Name: Alison Fry
Sorted name: Fry, Alison
Immediate family:
Gavin Fry (Husband)
Notes: A friend of Betty’s whose children played with Roy Tucker. They lived in the Glebelands estate.
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Name: Dr Aloysius Vyce
Sorted name: Vyce, Dr Aloysius
Played by: Lewis Gedge
Notes: A shareholder in the “Health by Nature” home founded at Manor House in 1955 by Dr Cavendish, to which John Tregorran also contributed to the tune of £3000 and was a shareholder. In 1956 the business failed and Dr Vyce left the village.
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Name: Amos Atkins
Sorted name: Atkins, Amos
Played by: Wortley Allen
Residence: Atkins’ Farm (previously Wagstaff’s Farm)
Immediate family:
Audrey Atkins (Niece)
Notes: A nasty individual and a bad farmer and neighbour. He bought Wagstaff’s Farm in 1954 and allowed his under-fed cattle to stray into Brookfield land, and when Dan Archer went to remonstrate drove Dan off his land with a gun. He spread unpleasant rumours about Jack and Phil Archer having designs on his niece Audrey, who acted as his housekeeper. When he was discovered in January 1955 to have set gin-traps in open fields, Simon Cooper, Tom Forrest and Jack Archer went to have a word with him about it and found him dead at the foot of his stairs.
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Name: Reverend Amos Hebblethwaite
Sorted name: Hebblethwaite, Reverend Amos
Notes: This vicar of Darrington officiated at Walter Gabriel’s funeral in 1988; they had been friends from childhood.
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Name: Mossy Plant
Sorted name: Plant, Mossy
aka: Amos Plant
Played by: Harry Soan
Notes: Amos was employed by Carol Tregorran as a gardener’s boy in 1968. He had risen to being in charge of vegetables in her market garden by 1972.
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Name: Amy Butler
Sorted name: Butler, Amy
Played by: Patricia Gibson
Notes: Amy spent nine years from 1960 to 1969 working as a barmaid at the Bull. Her cooking meals for Dan Archer and Nigel Burton while Doris was away looking after Christine in Newmarket following a riding accident was treated as salacious gossip at the Bull, but there was never any chance there was anything in that.
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32

Proffers Strong Drink…

Carinthia.xx

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33

Micro-typo, Fanta, a missing space between 1951 and ‘her’. Speaking of typos, Armitage made a fantastic one on another site, changing possible to ‘pissible’. So appropriate!

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34

Thanks; corrected in the original.

I too like “pissible”: who was it about?

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35

It was our lovely Armitage who wrote on Peet’s in the ‘Nooooo’ thread:

'To be fair (not my normal state, so cherish this moment) it’s very pissible that Kim Durham was fullt aware of the finite period of this role and the route it was to take. ’

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36

I feel I am being ticked aboot.

Yours,

Officer Crabtree

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37

Sorry, Armers! And snork for the ‘ticked aboot’. I did manage to translate it. Husband used to get laughed at by my mean family for saying he was ‘going for a wok’. Yes, if any siblings are reading this, I am looking at you!

(Though to be fair I admit I teased him about the never-ending search for a wok too.)

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38

I remember it well, Mr Janie always ‘going for a wok’ and never ever bringing one back :grinning: Did you ever get one or does he still owe you one ?

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39

We have one, but it’s getting a bit worn, so I’ll ask him to go for another wok. :slight_smile:

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40

I think it may be time for another tranche of people-beginning-with-A

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Name: Andrene
Sorted name: Andrene
Played by: Marian Kemmer
Occupation: Waitress
Works: Nelson’s Wine Bar
Notes: After starting work in the Wine Bar in 1980, Andrene was rude to customers while Nelson was at the races, and left his employ soon afterwards.
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Name: Andrew Sinclair
Sorted name: Sinclair, Andrew
Played by: James Grant
Status: Married to Dorothy Arnold on 25th November 1964
Occupation: farm manager
Immediate family:
Dorothy Sinclair (Wife)
Hamish Sinclair (Son)
Notes: When Phil Archer ceased to be farm manager for Charles Grenville in 1962 in order to work for Ambridge Farmers, Andrew Sinclair was hired to replace him. He was a hard worker but lacked a feeling for the place he was working, as when he felled trees in spite of public attempts to save them, and simply said that he was within the law to do so.
He got on very well with Charles Grenville and his wife Carol, and was asked to be godfather to their son Richard at the beginning of 1963; on his own account he was getting on well with Dorothy Arnold, whose brother had worked for Carol at her market garden, and they were married two years after he met her.
When Charles Grenville died in an accident in 1965 Sinclair continued as farm manager, although he didn’t get on as well with Ralph Bellamy, who bought the Grenville estate. Even so, Bellamy valued his work, and when he left Ambridge to settle in Guernsey asked Sinclair to stay on as estate manager, which Sinclair did until he retired in 1986.
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Name: Angela Evans
aka: born Angela Cooper
Sorted name: Evans, Angela
Played by: Elizabeth Revill
Status: Married Gwyn Evans in April 1973
Residence: Vancouver
Immediate family:
Stanley Cooper (Father)
Gwyn Evans (Husband)
Notes: Angela and her father Stan came to Ambridge in 1972 to run the village shop. Angela was unfortunate: although her job looking after the Post Office section of the shop and working as a hairdresser did not get her into any trouble, she was a witness of a plane crashing onto Heydon Berrow in September that year, in October Stan had an accident driving the engine for Jack Woolley’s train at the country park, and while he was in hospital recovering she was assaulted. The stranger responsible for the assault was eventually caught and arrested, but Angela was traumatised by the experience and whilst he was still free she crashed her scooter and was hospitalised herself. After that she had had enough of the place, and fell in love with Gwyn Evans; Stanley forbade it because of Gwyn’s brother Dylan, a bad lot, so the couple eloped in April and went to settle in Vancouver.
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Name: Angus
Sorted name: Angus
Played by: Lester Mudditt; Laidlaw Dalling; Andrew Faulds
Occupation: Herd manager
Works: The Fairbrother Estate
Notes: When Phil Archer was farm manager for George Fairbrother, Angus was in charge of the pedigree Ayrshire herd. He had left Scotland at odds with his family, and Christine Archer visited them while she was in Scotland and healed the breach.
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Dr Angus McClaren
Name: Dr Angus McClaren
Sorted name: McClaren, Dr Angus
Played by: Ian Sadler; Duncan McIntyre
Notes: For fifteen years after his arrival in Ambrdge in 1959, when he took over Dr Harvey’s practice, Dr McLaren tended the health of the villagers. He had to deal with Elizabeth Archer’s difficult birth and early childhood and Jack Archer’s alcoholism among many other medical incidents small and large; his relaxation from his responsibilities was fishingin the Am. He retired in 1974, leaving the practice to his assistant Dr Poole.
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Annabelle Schrivener
Sorted name: Schrivener, Annabelle
Played by: Julia Hills
Occupation: Solicitor; on the board of Borchester Land
Residence:Borchester
Works: Borchester
Likes: Running, prickteasing
Dislikes: Losing. At anything.
Highs: Forcing Matt Crawford to resign; forcing Brian Aldridge to resign and becoming Chairman.
Lows: Overtraining before the Felpersham marathon, being ousted as Chairman.
Key relationships: She cares for nobody, no, not she, and only interacts with anyone if there might be something in it for her
Most likely to say: “Can’t you be a bit less obvious, Brian?” and "I know the law’s on our side, but let’s handle this carefully."
Notes: Supposedly a sharp cookie, this property lawyer is unable to conduct a property search with any competence, but is revered as an expert by the board of Borchester Land. That they also think Debbie is a farmer indicates the value Ms Schrivener actually has. Theoretically Brian Aldridge’s ally on the board, she is actually happy to knife anyone in the back if it is to her advantage, and she was co-opted as Chairman by Justin Elliott when he wanted to get rid of Brian from the position, then got rid of when he wanted Brian back again.
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Name: Anna Tregorran
aka: born Anna Louise Tregorran, known as Ann
Sorted name: Tregorran, Anna
Played by: Isobel Middleton April 2016 -
Born: 23rd September 1969
Occupation: Barrister
Immediate family:
Carol Tregorran (Mother)
John Tregorran (Father)
Richard Grenville (Half Brother)
Key relationships:
Max (Ex Wife)
Jill Archer (Godmother)
Notes: Ann was brought up in Ambridge until 1990, when her family moved to Bristol. Nothing more was heard of her until her father’s death in 2014, when she came to his funeral but did not speak.
In 2016 Helen Archer was in prison charged with attempted murder; Jill remembered that Ann (now called Anna) had become a barrister specialising in women’s issues, and Anna was employed to help Helen. She spent a thankless summer trying to get Helen to tell her what had been going on during her marriage to Rob Titchener, and thanks to no particular brilliance on Anna’s part Helen was eventually acquitted of all charges and sent home, where Anna also represented her in the family court and Helen was eventually given custody of both her children.
The reason for Anna’s incompetence was explained as both her having failed to win a case in the aftermath of which an abusive man who had been allowed back to the family home killed his wife, and her having broken up with her wife Max because of her preoccupation with her work; in the middle of Helen’s case Max said she wanted a divorce, and refused to be a listening ear about Helen for Anna.
Anna stayed for a while with her mother in Ambridge during and after the case, before going back to Birmingham.
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Name: Ann Briggs
Sorted name: Briggs, Ann
Immediate family:
Peter Briggs (Husband)
Stephen Briggs (Son)
Notes: Ann and her husband and son rented Rose Cottage from Sid Perks in 1976. They paid no rent, and did a moonlight flit taking some of the furniture with them.
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I doubt that I shall leave Annabelle Shrivener’s entry as-is, but I enjoy writing it.

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