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People using The Archers message board often discover things in common, but few have as much in common as John Swanson and Julie Bacon. In the area called The Bull (which is for discussion on non-Archers topics), Julie posted a message saying she'd got a part in The Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Sorcerer. John posted an allusion to a song in it and said he'd sung it at university. It soon became apparent that they had been in the same G&S society and had overlapped for three years!

John (pictured left in his university days) is now a scientific adviser on environmental issues for a large utility, and can occasionally be heard on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4Â’s Today or Breakfast TV answering questions about industry's attitude to the environment. He explains:

"I was at Oxford from 1982-1989 and Jules from 1983-1986. In that time we sang in the chorus (bass and soprano respectively) for six of the same productions, Jules sang in the chorus for a production of Iolanthe at the Oxford Playhouse which I lit, and we must have attended heaven knows how many of the same sing-throughs, members evenings, parties - oh, and we both sang in the same marathon 30-hour continuous sing-through of all 13 operas.

"Jules remembers my name, I half remember her (maiden) name, but stuck as we both were in the anonymity of the chorus we neither of us have a clear memory of the other.

"But the fun starts with the other people we both knew. For instance, I reminisced about the director of several of the shows and said I remembered vaguely he'd married a soprano. Turns out that the soprano in question was Jules' best friend, she was bridesmaid, and still goes on holiday with them!

"We have already exchanged a veritable orgy of reminiscences about all sorts of people we both knew and all sorts of activities more or less closely connected to the G&S operas (it was a very sociable G&S society!). But as most of the reminiscences were about who had flings with whom, and as most of the people are now - 20 years on - pillars of the community and respectable married people, and as they include a Head of Department in a major public school and the precentor of a cathedral among others, we'd better draw a veil there!"

Julie Bacon adds:

"After Oxford, I worked for a while at the Stock Exchange, retrained as a solicitor, met and married Matt in 1991 and am currently a full-time mum to Jack (7) and Kate (4). I got back into G&S two years ago after a lay-off of about seven years, and am loving it (I'd done choral singing in the meantime, but was delighted to return to my first love).

"The marathon nonstop singthrough of all the G&S operas, which John mentioned included a gender-reversed HMS Pinafore, in which I sang Captain Corcoran! I think we decided to do it because it was a perennial moan of the ladies that the men (principals and chorus) always got the best tunes, so we thought this would be a good chance to turn the tables. The punt parties were always a summer highlight - we would hire out as many college punts as we could and take a huge picnic, punt upriver and moor by a field, eat, play silly games and indulge in a certain amount of inter-punt horseplay both there and back. And we would sing, too, of course...

"College and G&S were very important to me, and to meet up with someone who shares so much of my history has given me a real buzz. I've been around The Archers message board for about 15-18 months, on and off, and love the sense of community and the real care contributors seem to have for each other. A couple of "MBers" have threatened to come to The Sorceror next year - I thought they were joking, but now I'm not so sure!"

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