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Where were you when you heard?
With so many people listening to The Archers on podcasts or radios traveling to and from so many different places, I am curious to find out where people were when something huge happened on the show.
For Nigel’s fall from the roof, I was walking along the street listening with headphones. For some reason I accidentally skipped the crucial episode, and I found myself listening to the aftermath reactions not knowing what had happened. What followed was a crazy man standing in the street saying random things to myself and puzzled passers by, like: “Wait. What happened? What…?”” to no one in particular but strangely half expecting Susan Carter to fill me in.
Similarly, when the judgement on Rob came in I was in a DIY store in New York, and passers by were met with a punch to the air and a “YES!!” from a crazy Englishman standing too close to the paint fumes.
For Nic’s death, I was on the New York subway on my way to work. These trains are used to crazy people talking to themselves, but maybe not used to seeing someone happily listening to something that people could assume was music, but then whose jaw suddenly goes slack and mouth opens in shock.
Then someone I knew came onto the train and said hello to me.
“Hi,” I said sadly.
– “Is everything ok?” he asked.
“Sorry. I just heard some bad news.”
– “Oh no. What happened?”
“Umm…? Ok. Difficult to explain, but….”
I normally listen in my tea break at work , although on my days off, or when I know that a big story is coming up, I listen in my study overlooking the very non-English Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.
It was in my study that I heard the Nigel off the roof ; and Nic’s death episodes.
However, I was sitting overlooking the sea in West Wales, when I heard Ed Grundy crash Will’s car and pull Emma out of the wreckage
I had to park my car in a layby outside St Albans to hear the fiasco of Will and Emma’s wedding. I was shouting at the radio, at got a very funny look from a passerby ….thank goodness I was in England! I just had to say “So sorry, the Archers” and got a nod of understanding. (Don’t tell me! The woman said, I’m an omnibus listener )
Come to think of it, I was in Wales again for the Greg suicide as well and years ago, Tony proposing to Pat (I was in Snowdonia for that)
Working on a dairy farm in Somerset, I heard Polly Perks’ car crash on the radio on my way home.
In Scarborough for Betty Tucker’s death …..I do get about don’t I? But never without TA!!
When Ed married Emma, I was in Cornwall, with two American friends who were giggling over the fact that no matter what, I seem to always faithfully tune in to this “odd show” Two days later at a B&B they told two other guests
“Fiona is ALWAYS ear glued to this odd show ” The English guests laughed and asked if anything had happened …..and my American friends said “not a lot”. “Well that sums up TA” said the man “60 years of Notalot ….”
Oh what does he know??I was ironing in the spare room during the extended episode which was the jury deliberations of Helen’s trial. I was in the kitchen in the house I lived in in Ipswich when I found out the results of George’s paternity test.
I had The Archers on during a lull in proceedings on the evening I gave birth to my daughter. I don’t remember anything about the episode but I do remember noticing it was 7pm and asking for the radio to be put on 🙂
Also, I had just found out I was pregnant and was listening in the car park at the cinema waiting to go into a film, when Hayley thought she was pregnant and I remember being thrilled we would be pregnant together. But it turned out she wasn’t pregnant and it wasn’t until while later that she conceived Abbie. No-one else will remember that episode (sometime in September 2006) but I can remember where I was exactly.
Look forward to hearing about other people’s memories.
I was in Denver, Colorado, at a conference when Helen’s trial came to its end. i had to skip out of a meeting to hear the jury deliberations, and a lovely American friend who had read about the storyline texted me afterwards to ask the outcome.
These days I usually listen to the omnibus and tweet along, and only occasionally hear an episode mid week. But back in the early 90s I lived in Boston and my long-distance girlfriend sent me cassettes once a week, with The Archers on one side and some chat on the other. D’t podcasts and internet radio make life easier!
I moved the the USA in 1995, and I was not fortunate to have a friend record for me on cassettes so there were a few years when I could not listen. I had to wait until Radio 4 was broadcast live via the internet, and this opened up my world – particularly when I discovered how to record MP3s on an early, and very clunky device (before Apple stepped int o help my world!)
It was amazing to see that Helen’s trial made it into an article in the New York Times, and this was the first time I discussed a storyline with American friends.
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