- This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 5 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
LONG POST. SORRY! Yesterday both Goddessdeeva and I attended a talk at the Bristol Watershed venue.
On the panel were Tim Bentinck, uncle God Keri Davies, Mary Cutler (scriptwriter) and Helen (I’ve already forgotten her last name but she’s a novel writer!)
Anyway. A good time was had by all. We learnt a few interesting facts and rest assured the Brizzledum chapter of Dum tee Dumm did you all proud by asking difficult questions and chasing for answers!
A big boo hiss went round the room at the first mention of Rob! Mary said she’d been writing the archers for 38 years and Keri for 12. There is now NO dedicated archivist as the lady who did it has retired and not been replaced. The other staffers in the office have taken on doing it as well as there own jobs but both Keri and Mary lamented the lose of someone who instantly knew the answers to everything!
Mary let slip she was the one who threw Nigel off that roof at which point Tim shouted ‘nooo I pushed him’!)
Things we learnt:- CARE!!! SPOILER FOLLOWS. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW!!
(Spoiler marked)1. There was absolutely no love for the BBC among the archers writing staff. Difficult to tell the mood re Sean O’Connor. Tim seemed very happy with him as did Keri. They did from my reading of it seem to close ranks round Mr O’Connor although I could be completely wrong. They all mentioned the ‘let’s put the archers at Brookers back at the centre of the story’ as a thing Mr O’Connor instigated
2. Scripts are written ten or eleven weeks in advance – they’ve just written Valentine’s Day and shrove Tuesday.
3. They had no particular plan for Rob to be as nasty as he is when they first started writing him. He’s developed that way over the 18mths or so he’s been around. Keri interestly described Rob as not a monster just very very protective of Helen who he (Rob)considers weak. There was no hint of a resolution to this storyline anytime soon but then they were very tight lipped about storylines! Boo hoo
4. The lady novelist who’s name I can’t remember(!) said she was very irritated (aren’t we all!) at Pat’s apparent change from feminist to Rob’s champion and said she couldn’t understand it. Keri and Mary both said its because Pat so desperately wants Helen to be happy she’s not seeing the whole picture.
5. I asked a question re the changes of casts members, new cast members etc who all sound the same. (There was a ripple of oh yes…from the audience). I was surprised by Tim’s answer which was as a professional actor he didn’t like acting with amateurs and was pleased they’re recruiting trained actors now as he’d had to train hard to be an actor. The implication was that the amateurs didn’t train at all and Tim thought it very unfair they were being paid to do the same job as him. Also mentioned was the fact that we’ve had to out up with lots of changes recently & it would calm down now.
Keri did mention when I pushed that Old Tom being replaced by NuTom was a different matter (!) but wouldn’t say anything further.
Tim got a bit defensive when I described NuPip’s voice was far too old so I felt I had to go up afterwards and say that I wasn’t in anyway having a go at Daisy Badger or her acting chops just that I found her voice too old! He was very gracious and understood
that there were indeed too many changes all at once and that when Pip is 30 it’ll be a v good voice! Point taken.6. Goddessdeeva asked about the Rob/Helen plot, wanting to know when there would be a conclusion before ‘ she has to go out and hunt someone down’!! Both Keri and Mary said that one of the pleasures of writing the archers (and as evidence cited Jack Wooley’s descent into dementia over a long period) is that unlike the TV soaps the archers writers can take years if necessary to bring a storyline to a conclusion as would actually happen in real life. But they both said they realised how hard it is to listen to this storylines.
***SPOILER FOLLOWS at that point Mary let slip she just written a scene between David and Ruth for Valentine’s Day next year! As Tim said he didn’t even know Ruth was coming back from NZ! Keri looked a bit shocked she’d let it slip. Whoops. Tim then said he’d known all along that they weren’t ever going to leave Brookers (the suddenly we never hear about it Route B plot) but had to lie about it when asked. I was tempted to shout ‘but we all KNEW you weren’t going and therefore that was a no tension storyline’ but I held my tongue!
7. Someone else asked about technology and the archers and Keri gave a very eloquent answer (and showed his love for the program) when he said that a program that’s 65 years old is perfectly suited to the 21st century and podcasts, Twitter etc he also says that the Sunday tweet along is one of the funniest things ever! Also because they write so far in advance they take absolutely no notice (in the nicest way)of what’s said on Twitter, Facebook etc as there’s little point
8.tim kept mentioning that he felt making people shout at the radio and really care about the characters meant they were doing a good job. I thinks he’s probably right!
Keri (when asked by a younger audience member) said that the average age of an archers listener was 54 (yay us 54yr olds!) and that when they drew in younger listeners they tended to be from the 35 to 45 age group. They don’t actively write to attract new listeners though.Ok I think that’s pretty much it. I’ll post again if anything else occurs or Goddessdeeva may well post to add.
Aunty Jean.
Sounds like a fun and fascinating evening, Aunty Jean – thank you for writing it all up in so much detail!
Sad, but not surprising, to hear there’s no longer an archivist – it explains a lot, including AirB’n’Brookfield with its fluctuating numbers of bedrooms, and the surprising lack of reference by anyone involved in Calendar Girls to the calendar done only 10 or so years ago!
Good to hear that following all the recent changes it is expected that things will settle down, cast-wise – just need to reincarnate Nigel, bring Hailey back from Brum, and leave Ruth in Hobbit-land, for all to be right with the world.
An unpopular view to express now, though, and that’s my relief that the Rob/Helen SL could take a long time to resolve: it’s bluddy uncomfortable to listen to, superbly written and acted, and as in real life (as with Jack’s dementia SL) it can take not weeks but years for these things to be resolved, if ever. Having invested so heavily in this SL, evolving and developing it so steadily and slowly, it would be wrong to magic some sudden denouement out of thin air.
Anyway, thank you again, Aunty Jean!
Thank you Aunty Jean! That was very interesting.
I just wanted to make a point about the “professional actor” issue. If someone is employed as an actor, does that not make them a “professional” by definition? (following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain – Dictionary.com) An amateur actor is someone who performs in, well, something like Lynda’s productions. So whether the person is professional or not is really not the issue. I really liked OldPip’s voice! NuPip is a great actor and everything but, OldPip’s accent was something special.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.