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Harold Macmillan in the Archers

• Message 1. 

  Posted by AddictKeith (U4844160) on Thursday, 7th December 2006

  I read recently that shortly becoming Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan appeared in the Archers.
  
  Neither the Book of The Archers nor the Archers Encyclopaedia mentions this fact.
  
  Is it true, please, and what was it all about.
  
  Thank you.
  
  Keith

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by triffid (U2389672) on Friday, 8th December 2006

  I'm not sure about this (and I have been a listener since 1951). But there was an occasion, which I'm fairly certain was during Macmillan's premiership, when Dan Archer went to Downing Street and dined with the PM along with various other farmers and agriculturalists.

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Reggie Trentham (U2746099) on Friday, 8th December 2006

  I think this almost certainly untrue. TA didn't do celebrity in those days and Supermac was much too patrician to appear on anything as tacky as a radio soap. Additionally I have absolutely no recollection of it.

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by mike (U2254029) on Saturday, 9th December 2006

  Archers actors were the celebs of the 50s and used to do more in the way of personal appearances etc. There is a picture of Harry Oakes and Gwen Berryman opening a Conservative fete in the Smethurst book along with a comment that the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú governors put a stop to that sort of thing after a complaint from a Labour MP. There is a picture of Monte Crick (Dan number 2) in the Vanessa Whitburn book at the opening of the "Sixth June Dairy Festival National Inauguration" standing alongside Harold Macmillan at the Royal Exchange, London.

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• Message 5

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  Posted by AddictKeith (U4844160) on Saturday, 9th December 2006

  Mike, and others who have replied. Thank you.
  
  As already mentioned by me on another topic, I can't see, so haven't the benefit of a lot of reference books, but what you write, Mike, is very interesting.
  
  I have also been listening since pretty well the very start. I have no recollection of Mac being on TA, but I read in the Sunday Express (in the column "Did you know" for 3 December 2006:
  
  "Before becoming Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan appeared on The Archers."
  
  (I should say that I am able to read papers because I receive them on a CD, and use a speech synthesiser.)
  
  I suppose I should really take the matter up with the Sunday Express?
  
  Keith
  

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• Message 6

  , in reply to message 5.

  Posted by RosieT (U2224719) on Saturday, 9th December 2006

  A cropped version of the photo Mike refers to is also in Norman Painting's "Forever Ambridge," with the caption:
  
  "Monte Crick as Dan Archer found Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister very knowledgeable about farming at the 1963 dairy festival."
  
  (Makes it sound as if Mr. Macmillan was acting, doesn't it?)
  
  There is a smidgeon about this in the 1963 chapter:
  
  ""Early in June, the chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Reginald Maudling, opened a special exhibition at the Royal Exchange in London to highlight Britain's eighth Dairy Festival.Press reports abounded with details of his speech, facts and figures about the dairy industry, and the problems of milk production. All serious and important stuff indeed: but the headline? It would appear that the "News of the World" was using the same tecnique as we were using on the air, for the report is headed not "Chancellor opens Dairy Exhibition" but "Why the Archers are In Town Today" ! And the first word was ... Ambridge! "
  ...
  " ... the chancellor's visit, which ended with a visit to a mock up of The Bull, where he met Dan, Doris and Jack."
  
  But the only reference to Mr. Macmillan is the sentence:
  "1963 THE YEAR WHEN Harold Macmillan resigned and Sir Alec Douglas-Home became Prime Minister."

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• Message 7

  , in reply to message 6.

  Posted by AddictKeith (U4844160) on Saturday, 9th December 2006

  Rosie, many thanks for all the details.
  
  You can see that I am getting familiar with the Message Board, and thoroughly enjoying it.
  
  Thank you for what you've written.
  
  It's interesting, though, that the Sunday Express refers to Mac as being in The Archers BEFORE he became Prime Minister, so this would be around 1957. I guess they could have got it wrong, though!
  
  Keith

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• Message 8

  , in reply to message 5.

  Posted by bob larkin (U2297537) on Sunday, 10th December 2006

  Keith
  
  I don't think we should regard the "Sunday Express" as the newspaper of record.
  
  As Dolly in "Dinnerladies" often starts her comments : "it says in the Daily Mail that...".
  
  bob

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• Message 9

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  Posted by Reggie Trentham (U2746099) on Sunday, 10th December 2006

  Keith, are you sure you're not confusing him with Squire Lawson-Hope?

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• Message 10

  , in reply to message 9.

  Posted by AddictKeith (U4844160) on Sunday, 10th December 2006

  Reggie, I don't think so. But I remember YOU very well. How is Val, by the way, and that daughter of yours?
  
  Best wishes,
  
  Keith

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• Message 11

  , in reply to message 10.

  Posted by Keri Davies (U2219620) on Monday, 11th December 2006

  I'm pretty sure the Express is incorrect on this but (pace Reggie) it would be wrong to say that The Archers was immune from celebrity appearances in the 50s. Openers of Ambridge fetes in that decade included Richard Todd and Humphrey Lyttleton.

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• Message 12

  , in reply to message 11.

  Posted by AddictKeith (U4844160) on Tuesday, 12th December 2006

  Keri, for what it's worth, I dropped an e-mail to Mitchell Symons at the Sunday Express, and today received the following reply, but don't really think it gets us much further:
  
  "As far as I'm aware, Harold Macmillan appeared on the programme when he was Minister for Housing (i.e. before he became Prime Minister) in the 1950s. I
  hope that answers your question."
  
  With best wishes,
  
  Keith

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• Message 13

  , in reply to message 12.

  Posted by NB100 (U2268668) on Tuesday, 12th December 2006

  Just a thought, but I wonder if The Archers used a radio broadcast by Harold Macmillan. Dan and Doris sitting round the steam radio listening to a ministrial broadcast at Brockfield, and then making some comment on how it will affect the country/village/children.
  
  This way he could have appeared in the programme without actually appearing it.
  
  Come on those of you with long memories - did such a scene ever take place?
  
  Luv Psi-5

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• Message 14

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  Posted by Reggie Trentham (U2746099) on Tuesday, 12th December 2006

  I have no recollection of this, but my infallible memory of all things Archers has already been exposed by Mr K. (see above).

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• Message 15

  , in reply to message 13.

  Posted by AddictKeith (U4844160) on Wednesday, 13th December 2006

  I guess that's almost certainly what happened.
  
  I can't recall it myself.
  
  What I do recall, but only because I have the Archers Vintage tapes, is that Dan and Doris listened live to the Budget, and commented on it. I can't recall who the Chancellor was, but this happened much closer to the start of The Archers.
  
  With best wishes,
  
  Keith
  
  
  

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• Message 16

  , in reply to message 15.

  Posted by triffid (U2389672) on Wednesday, 13th December 2006

  I'm aware that this posting may not be terribly helpful in the context of this particular thread but I remember one occasion, in the days when the programme went out at 6.45pm, when Tom Forrest and Dan Archer were in the Bull discussing the Chancellor's Budget Speech which had been delivered that day. They were both extraordinarly well informed on the changes that had been introduced (obviously a topical insert by the programme editors) but the last words in this particular episode were "Well, let's hear what the radio has to say about it all". This was followed immediately by the pips and the 7pm news bulletin, without the normal Barwick Green music. Cleverly done I always thought.

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• Message 17

  , in reply to message 16.

  Posted by AddictKeith (U4844160) on Thursday, 14th December 2006

  I have to confess to being wrong about the Chancellor of the Exchequer appearing on the programme.
  
  I have now found the Vintage tape in question.
  
  Grace is visiting Brookfield, and Dan, Doris and Phil are there.
  
  Dan mentions that it's gone 6:00, and they should switch on the radio to see what Mr Butler had to say in his Budget speech.
  
  It's a news reader who then gives the details.
  
  With best wishes,
  
  Keith

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