One Stiletto In The Grave

A couple of months ago, in between writing blocks of The Archers, I had the pleasure of joining actor Sunny Ormonde and her long-time friend and collaborator Jane James on their fabulous podcast One Stiletto In The Grave.

Archers listeners will be familiar with Sunny’s voice – or more precisely her exuberant and slightly dirty cackle – as she plays Lilian Belamy, wayward daughter of Peggy Woolley, and devoted sister to Jennifer Aldridge R.I.P. Considering I spend a portion of my life channeling Lilian onto the page, I don’t get to see Sunny (or any of the cast) very much. COVID has meant we visit recordings even less than before, and barring the occasional drinks party at Clarence House(!) writers and actors tend to be ships that pass in the night.

It was therefore a real luxury to be able to sit down (admittedly over the computer) and chat about the show. We discuss the fun of sound effects, whether silent character Sabrina Thwaite will ever speak, and of course the groundbreaking Helen and Rob gaslighting storyline, which is rearing its ugly head again in the show. And if that has whetted your appetite, there are plenty of other podcasts to listen to, including interviews with Archers actors like Felicity Finch (Ruth Archer), Kim Durham (Matt Crawford), and Madeleine Leslay (Chelsea Horrobin), as well as Guardian journalist and uber-fan Charlotte Higgins, and Academic Archers Dr. Cara Courage and Helen Burrows.

Search for One Stiletto In The Grave wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to my interview on SoundCloud HERE.

Talking about The Archers flood

After a day spent in an Archers script meeting planning what’s going to a happen three months hence, I had a chance to look back at recent events in Ambridge at a special Writers’ Guild event at BBC Birmingham.

As the writer of ‘flood week’, I was joined on the panel by Editor Sean O’Connor, Agricultural Advisor Graham Harvey and Pip Archer herself AKA actor Daisy Badger. We were interview by WGGB West Midlands Branch Chair William Gallagher and took questions from an audience of both writers and fans.

Flood week was not without controversy and we were warned we may face some tough questions from listeners who were not so enamoured with the recent dramatic storyline. As it turned out though everyone was very friendly and interested in how we went about researching and structuring the week. I was particularly moved by one listener whose home had been flooded a few years ago and explained that she felt the same panic rise in her as she listened to the episodes. It’s always strangely satisfying to know that you’ve touched people, however tragic the events. It was also pleasing to know that we got the details right.

Not that the flood story is over. As in real life the after effects will be felt in Ambridge for a long time yet…

Ambridge hits a high water mark

The flood waters are subsiding and it’s a relief to finally be able to talk about writing the last dramatic six days of The Archers. It seems like a long time ago that the show’s editor Sean O’Connor pointed in my direction and said I’d be the one to pen one of the biggest events to ever hit Ambridge. In fact it was only about five months ago.

Shortly afterwards we began researching, which included visiting a Worcestershire farmer whose land had been submerged by the Severn, but had driven his tractor through the waters to help neighbours; the publican who broke down whenever he mentioned the kindness of villagers as he tried to rebuild his business despite the building now being uninsurable; the sheep farmer who thought he’d taken his flock up to high enough ground only to wake in the morning to find many were drowned or stuck in hedges. To those people who think the story is sensationalist I can only point out that the same thing has happened to many rural communities around the country and their stories deserve to be dramatised. Flooding is sadly becoming an everyday story of country folk.

Our research gave us many real-life incidents that we wouldn’t have thought of otherwise, in particular the story of the Brookfield milking pit filling with water and Pip having to single-handedly save the parlour. We also had to come up with incidents that would impact and catalyse storylines that were already running. With the Archers still coming to terms with David’s decision not to move the farm to Northumberland, I decided I needed to use the flood to physically and metaphorically split the family up. The arc of the week would be their separation and eventual reunification. The other challenge was that we would be breaking with the normal format and all six episodes would take place over the course of one night. Making the action clear, maintaining the suspense and building an epic picture of a village in crisis with only a limited number of castings were some of the most difficult things to handle.

Whether we succeeded or not isn’t for me to say, but I was pleased to see yesterday’s review in The Telegraph saying that the ‘flood storyline is the best thing to happen in Ambridge in ages’. Good – because that’s what we wanted it to be.

 

Archers Episode Wins Award

Pal Aron who plays maths teacher Iftikar Shah has won the 2013 Celebrity Champion Award from the Council For Learning Outside The Classroom.

When Freddy Pargetter was struggling with his maths lessons, his mother employed Iftikar to give him extra tuition. Recognising that Freddy was an active boy, Iftikar felt Freddy would learn more through applying maths to real-life situations he used a range of activities to help Freddy engage with maths. Together, they explored the Lower Loxley estate, looking at the geometry of buildings, solving maths problems related to horses and horse riding, and even using maths during a visit to a theme park. Within a year, Freddy had found that he quite enjoyed maths, he caught up with his peers, and no longer needed extra tuition.

On receiving his award Pal commented “I’m thrilled to receive the LOtC award. It was a joy to collaborate with director Kim Greengrass on Tim Stimpson’s script and I’m glad that the Ifty and Freddy storyline on The Archers has been recognised in this way.”

Other nominees included Dara O’Briain and Mr Tumble from CBeebies!

Extra Extra

Following two successful series last year, Ambridge Extra has been recommissioned for 2012. There will be two more twenty episode series – the first starting in July on BBC Radio 4 Extra.  Keri Davies and I are back on board for Series 3, but this time we’ll be joined by seasoned Archers writers, Simon Frith and Caroline Harrington. And unlike last time when we wrote each series in blocks over three months, this time we’ll be writing the entire series all in one go. Unfortunately I’m not available to write Series 4, but given that I’ll have done three in a row I could probably do with the break! In the meantime, you can hear me back on The Archers . I’m in the process of writing my next batch of scripts now, which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 13th – 18th May.