Seven moments that changed The Archers forever
In the programme’s 70-year history, a number of events have left listeners crying out at their radios, desperate to know the fate of beloved characters. We look back on seven of the show’s most notable tragedies that have shaken Ambridge and its residents.
Grace Archer’s demise in the stable fire
In 1955, four years after Grace Archer was first heard on air, she appeared in the programme for the final time. When a fire tore through the stables, Grace ran into the burning building to rescue one of the horses. The roof collapsed and she was trapped under a fallen beam. After being pulled from the wreckage, she died in her husband Phil Archer’s arms on the way to the hospital.
John Archer’s tractor accident
Almost every long-standing Archers listener remembers where they were when John Archer died in 1998. When John failed to return home to Bridge Farm one evening after a family row, his dad Tony and brother Tom went in search of him. Tony discovered John’s body, already cold, in his overturned tractor. The late Colin Skipp gave a moving portrayal of Tony’s grief in the haunting scene in which he sat with his son’s body until the ambulance arrived. Even two decades later, listeners recount it as a moment of radio history that will stay with them forever.
The fire that killed Grace
Phil Archer rushes to save his wife from inside a burning barn.
Nigel鈥檚 fatal fall from the Lower Loxley roof
Listeners helplessly shouted at their radios to dissuade David Archer and Nigel Pargetter from venturing onto the roof of Nigel鈥檚 ancestral stately home.
A bitterly cold January night in 2011 had listeners helplessly shouting at their radios to dissuade David Archer and his brother-in-law Nigel Pargetter from venturing onto the roof of Nigel’s ancestral stately home, Lower Loxley. David wanted to take a New Year banner down from the roof, and taunted Nigel into helping him, asking if he was a man or a mouse. David lived to regret his words, when Nigel lost his footing and plummeted to his death. Years later Nigel’s widow Elizabeth had to come to terms with the fact she was suffering from depression after suppressing her grief for eight years. She felt she’d lost control of everything after her son Freddie was imprisoned for drug dealing, and her teenage daughter Lily had an affair with an older, married teacher. Elizabeth eventually confronted her mental illness, and began to recover with the help of a counsellor and the support of her family and friends.
Helen stabbing her abuser Rob
Years of coercive control left Helen Archer desperate to escape from her abusive husband, Rob. Fearing for her life and the safety of her son Henry and unborn baby, Helen made plans to leave. Rob intercepted her and offered her an ultimatum: the only way he’d ever let her go would be if she killed herself. Rob then threatened Henry, which was the last straw for Helen; she took the knife Rob had placed in her hands and stabbed him. The storyline had ramifications beyond Ambridge and sparked nationwide discussions around domestic abuse and coercive control: a Twitter campaign was launched to show solidarity with Helen and victims of domestic abuse; over £150,000 was raised for charity; and Lady Hale, former president of the Supreme Court – the UK’s most senior judge – praised The Archers for drawing attention to coercive control. Helen was ultimately found ‘not guilty’ and was able to return home with her two boys.
Helen has the final word
Helen races to rescue Jack from Rob and challenges him on what he planned to do.
Nic鈥檚 death from sepsis
When Nic Grundy scratched her arm on a rusty nail, she didn’t give it a second thought. Within a week, however, it became apparent that this was no mere graze. Nic took to her bed, thinking she’d contracted the flu, but when her husband Will came home to find her ice-cold and struggling to remain conscious, he rushed her to hospital. There, he was informed that Nic had developed sepsis, where the body responds to an infection in a potentially life-threatening way. By the morning, Nic had died, leaving behind Will, her three children Jake, Mia and Poppy, and her step-son George. The next year saw Will caving under the pressure of single-parenthood, becoming heavily reliant on 13-year-old Mia to help run the house and care for Poppy. Struggling to cope with balancing school work, caring for the family and the weight of her grief, Mia moved out of the family home with Jake, leaving Will and Poppy alone. When it was discovered that Will had been taking Poppy to work with him at night instead of arranging childcare, Nic’s mother intervened and moved Poppy in with her. Fearing his final tie with Nic had been cut, Will suffered a breakdown and threatened to end his own life in a dramatic incident which saw his brother Ed wrestling a shotgun off him. Will finally admitted that he needed help and moved into Grange Farm with Poppy to live with his parents.
Joe quietly takes his leave of Ambridge
It was autumn cider making time, and the old cider press at Grange Farm had suffered a broken screw. Brothers Ed and Will Grundy struggled together to fix the press. In one of their moments of uneasy unity they reminisced about the time they almost trashed Baggy’s car by joy-riding it round the farm. They worked together to fix its bust wheel in no time; they can surely do the same for the cider press.
With the press fixed and working, club members met later for cider pressing and jollity. At the end of the night only Eddie, Will, Ed and Lilian were left standing. Joe was so happy to see the cider press in action, they were a little surprised to see him heading inside early. Before going to bed, Eddie checked on his precious dad. Now he understood why Joe had slipped off early: he’d died peacefully in his sleep. As Eddie sat at the bedside he spotted the picture of Joe’s beloved wife Susan next to him; his dad must have wanted to say goodbye to her too. Eddie was pleased that Joe’s time came while he was in a house full of people who loved him, on the farm he fought so hard to keep.
An explosion at Grey Gables
Cups of tea were dropped in shock across the country on the evening of 8 March 2020 when an explosion resounded in Ambridge. Listeners later discovered that the kitchen of country hotel Grey Gables was destroyed, with a number of residents still inside.
Showing huge courage and strength, kitchen porter Freddie Pargetter pulled himself from the rubble and managed to drag both himself and his colleague Lynda from the wreckage, collapsing on the ground outside after calling for help. Listeners and Ambridge residents alike were thrown into disarray: what caused the blast? Would the kitchen workman be rescued in time? What had happened to Lynda?! When the dust settled and the full extent of the effects of the explosion became apparent, there were questions to be answered by Philip Moss and his son Gavin, whose involvement in modern slavery had contributed to the cause of the accident. The ripples were to affect Ambridge life for months to come.
