The Archers, the British radio soap opera I’ve been stuck on for over ten years—and which has been around for 60—goes all play-within-a-play every year or so, with subplots about the rural village of Ambridge’s hallowed holiday pageant. This entertainment has taken many forms. This year it’s a dinner-theater revue of “Christmas Around the World.” As ever, the self-appointed arbiter of culture in Ambridge, Lynda Snell, has organized the show.
In past years, the suspense has involved finding an audience or wondering if a set piece will pass inspection. This year it was whether the resident Latin scholar Jim Lloyd would get the projection equipment he insisted upon for an oration which was bound to bore the crowd anyway, and whether barcrawling ladies’ man Jazzer would belt out a vulgar drinking song or something more delicate during his time at the mic.
The Christmas concert episode, which aired yesterday (Wednesday Dec. 28), is here.
The full version of the song Jazzer ultimately sings is here
Ryan Kelly, who joined the Archers cast as Jazzer in 2000, has a special distinction: the actor has been blind since birth yet plays a sighted character, a rowdy Scottish milkman and pig-tender at that. Kelly’s just been interviewed on the BBC series In Touch, which covers issues concerning the blind. That show is here.
The Archers’ spin-off series, Ambridge Extra on BBC Radio 4 Extra, also featured a Christmas pageant recently—a school one, where one of the students accused Jim Lloyd’s upstanding veterinarian son Alistair of propositioning her. Much seamier than the elder Archers series, and much less devoted to the process of putting on a show.