CUSTARD, CULVERTS AND CAKE
Academics on Life in The Archers
CUSTARD, CULVERTS AND CAKE
Academics on Life in The Archers
Edited by
CARA COURAGE
Independent Researcher
NICOLA HEADLAM
University of Oxford, UK
United Kingdom North America Japan
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Emerald Publishing Limited
Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK
First edition 2017
Copyright 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited
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ISBN: 978-1-78743-286-4 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-78743-285-7 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-78743-440-0 (Epub)
The BBC word mark and BBC Radio 4 logo are trade marks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and used under licence. BBC Logo BBC 2005. Radio 4 Logo BBC 2011
CONTENTS
Rachel Daniels and Annie Maddison Warren
Joanna Dobson
Christine Michael
Madeleine Lefebvre
Grant Bage and Jane Turner
Ruth Heilbronn and Rosalind Janssen
Felicity Macdonald-Smith
Angela Connelly
Fiona Gleed
Tom Nicholls
Louise Gillies and Helen M. Burrows
Nicola Headlam
Jonathan Hustler
Jessica Meyer
Lizzie Coles-Kemp and Debi Ashenden
Olivia Vandyk
Jerome Turner
Jennifer Brown
Katherine Runswick-Cole and Rebecca Wood
Amber Medland
Elizabeth R. A. Campion
Anna-Marie OConnor
Emily Baker and Freya Jarman
Caroline M. Taylor
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES
CHAPTER SYNOPSES
SECTION ONE: GENTEEL COUNTRY HOBBIES?
Chapter One: My Parsnips Are Bigger Than Your Parsnips: The Negative Aspects of Competing at Flower and Produce Shows, Rachel Daniels and Annie Maddison Warren. It ought to be obvious how Bert Fry comes to this subject, having devoted a lifetime to the various feuds and intrigues of the Flower and Produce. He will be disgruntled to hear that this was the only paper which was passed unanimously by our listener peer review panel and academics and was awarded a prize at the conference of two parsnips for this clean sweep.
Chapter Two: Big Telephoto Lens, Small Ticklist: Birdwatching, Class and Gender in Ambridge, Joanna Dobson, commenting on the gender dynamics of birdwatching, with a reply from Jennifer Aldridge who somehow manages to get in a mention of Phoebe being at Oxford.
Chapter Three: The Ambridge Paradox: Cake Consumption and Metabolic Health in a Defined Rural Population, Christine Michael. This chapter was awarded the prize of a tin of shop-bought custard for the most Ambridge paper of Academic Archers 2017. The often culinary-slighted Christine Barford has been given the right to reply concerning the campaign of intimate terrorism deployed by her closest friends regarding her bake-off credentials.
SECTION TWO: EDUCATING AMBRIDGE
Chapter Four: Ambridge as Metaphor: Sharing the Mission and Values of a 21st-Century Library, Madeleine Lefebvre, talking of the place and absence of a mobile library in Ambridge.
Chapter Five: We Dont Need No Education? The Absence of Primary Education in The Archers, Dr Grant Bage and Jane Turner. Nic Grundy, mum-of-four and one of the silent characters at the time of writing, finds her voice in response, giving her view before rushing to meet the school bus.
Chapter Six: Educating Freddie Pargetter: or, Will He Pass His Maths GCSE?, Ruth Heilbronn and Rosalind Janssen, bringing a UCL Institute of Education analysis to ask whether Freddie Pargetter is an underachiever and if so is this attributable to his bereavement aged twelve. State-education advocate, Jill Archer, responds.
Chapter Seven: Phoebe Goes to Oxford, Felicity Macdonald-Smith, turning our focus from early years to elite higher education, and Jennifer Aldridge, whose pride in and hope for self-reflected glory from Phoebe led to fairly Olympic-standard boasting.
SECTION THREE: THE GEOGRAPHY OF AMBRIDGE
Chapters Eight and Nine: These two chapters concern complementary analyses of the Ambridge Flood.
First, Get Me Out of Here! Assessing Ambridges Flood Resilience, Angela Connelly sets up a review from the very disgruntled Stefan, who may or may not have more to say in the future.
Second, After the Flood: How Can Ambridge Residents Develop Resilience to Future Flooding?, Fiona Gleed, turning our attention from developing resilience to future flooding, offers an action plan for another casualty of the flood, Charlie Thomas.
Chapter Ten: Locating Ambridge: Public Broadcasting, Region and Identity, an Everyday Story of Worcestershire Folk?, Tom Nicholls considers the midlands location of Ambridge, to which loyal Ambridge resident Clarrie Grundy will add her thoughts.
SECTION FOUR: POWER RELATIONSHIPS
Chapters Eleven and Twelve: Both have a visual element as authors seek to present information about the relationships that underpin the village.
First, Louise Gillies and Helen M. Burrows, A Case Study in the Use of Genograms to Assess Family Dysfunction and Social Class: To the Manor Born versus Shameless. Their analysis somewhat vindicates the much maligned Horrobins and we hear from the most incorrigible of them, Clive Horrobin in response.
Second, Kinship Networks in Ambridge, Nicola Headlam warms to this theme and presents The Headlam Hypothesis, The Archers are dead, long live the network. Hazel Woolley responds.
Chapter Thirteen: Revd Dr Jonathan Hustler, God in Ambridge: The Archers as Rural Theology and a response from Alan Franks.
Chapter Fourteen: Jessica Meyer tries to locate the Ambridge war memorial and approaches The Archers as lieu de memoire of the Great War in Britain. Jim Lloyd, whose interests are more classical than modern, replies.
SECTION FIVE: AMBRIDGE ONLINE
Chapter Fifteen: An Everyday Story of Country Folk Online? The Marginalisation of the Internet and Social Media in The Archers, Professor Lizzie Coles-Kemp and Professor Debi Ashenden argue that for the younger characters particularly this has been a gap.
Chapter Sixteen: The Importance of Social Media in Modern Borsetshire Life: Domestic and Commercial, Olivia Vandyk, presenting her social media marketing perspective to the villagers. Josh Archer, who appears to making a path for himself combining eBay with Grindr, replies.
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