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Neil
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Message 1.Â
Posted by pigsrlovely (U14715579) on Friday, 9th December 2011
I think Neil used to really like Shula.
Where did Neil live and how did he meet Susan. Well, what I am asking is - do we know anything about his back story.
I think he is a really good character. -
Message 2
Posted by mike (U14258103) on Saturday, 10th December 2011
Neil used to lodge with Martha Woodford. Susan won a piglet at the fete and pig expert Neil (then pigman at Brookfield) helped her look after it. I remember thinking he was more interested in the piglet than Susan.
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Message 3
Posted by Reggie Trentham (U2746099) on Saturday, 10th December 2011
My memory isn't what it was but iirc Neil first appeared in the early seventies when he was about fifteen years old. He was an orphan who, I think, had committed a fairly minor criminal offence and was employed as some kind of apprentice at Brookfield by Dan Archer.
He was extremely friendly with Shula on at least one occasion. -
Message 4
Posted by rick_yard_withdrawn (U14573092) on Saturday, 10th December 2011
Doesn't the atmosphere jstill ust crackle on the few occasions when Neil and Shula have a conversation?
Yes, I love the universe of eloquent grunts and sighs Neil gives when some new horror is outlined by Susan about her family.... -
Message 5
Posted by Elnora Cornstalk (U5646495) on Saturday, 10th December 2011
Was Sid one of his mentors?
Imo Neil never got over Shula - Gabriel Oak to her Bathsheba.
There was some Archery snobbery at the time, as he was a mere farm-hand; but he and Shula did get on very well together. In the rare scenes or mentions now, they still sound much more at home with each other than Shula ever did with Mark or Alistair.
Oh, and I agree with Mike about Neil's interest in the piglet. -
Message 6
Posted by Reggie Trentham (U2746099) on Saturday, 10th December 2011
Come to think of it it was probably Sid who had the minor criminal record not Neil.
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Message 7
Posted by Elnora Cornstalk (U5646495) on Saturday, 10th December 2011
I started looking for this, Reggie, but was distracted by:
'She [Shula] became the love interest. She enslaved Neil Carter, the Brookfield farm apprentice, so that he mooned about the place leaving farm gates open and driving his tractor into posts, then she made him join Borchester Young Conservatives, so that he could vote for her as social secretary. On Jubilee Night, they sat on Lakey Hill until the early hours of the morning, holding hands as they watched the string of bonfires as far away as Malvern and Wenlock Edge ... then she dumped him and started going out with Simon Parker, the young editor of the 'Borchester Echo'.
(William Smethurst, 'The Archers: The True Story' p. 148)
Agree with above - Much more crackle and spark between these two (as there was between Caroline and Nigel) than with their awful wedded spouses. -
Message 8
Posted by Dinah Shore (U14984316) on Saturday, 10th December 2011
Neil wasn't an orphan, his mother had remarried and he didn't like his stepfather, I think, and he was 16 when he arrived, and Jill got him lodgings at Martha's.
He lived with some girls at Nightingale Farm flat, as well, I vaguely recall he was engaged to a Bull barmaid, and was done for drugs when another girlfriend put a reefer in his jacket pocket during an Ambridge-style police raid. -
Message 9
Posted by pigsrlovely (U14715579) on Saturday, 10th December 2011
Thanks for all the above info. Its really fascinating..
Reckon Neil is more interesting than any Archer. More Neil please -
Message 10
Posted by rick_yard_withdrawn (U14573092) on Saturday, 10th December 2011
he was 16 when he arrived, and Jill got him lodgings at Martha's.
he was engaged to a Bull barmaid, Â
a) Sure he was 15 - he was in the last year before school leaving age was raised...
b) Julie -
Message 11
Posted by Dinah Shore (U14984316) on Saturday, 10th December 2011
He was born in Oxfordshire, moved to Bormingham with his mother, and at sixteen was apprenticed to Ambridge Frmers under the agricultural scheme. He left the city and got lodgings with the Woodfords.
from The book of The Archers.
Also
He was a good footballer, and was invited to play for Borchester United, but by this time he had decided that farming was his life. -
Message 12
Posted by ThisLizzie (U5294918) on Saturday, 10th December 2011
At some point he told Christopher that he was never to think he wasn't good enough for Alice.
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Message 13
Posted by Elnora Cornstalk (U5646495) on Saturday, 10th December 2011
That was marvellous, and I heard it as an 'only if...' moment for Neil. -
Message 14
Posted by mk_vii (U5457987) on Saturday, 10th December 2011
As I recall the piglet got out and Neil helped her recapture it. Afterwards he was 'kind' to Susan, as a result of which she found herself up the duff with Emma. Hilarity ensues!
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Message 15
Posted by dickie (U2267358) on Sunday, 11th December 2011
I remember an episode where Shula was playing the guitar and singing for Neil; it ended with a mangled chord and one could imagine precisely what had caused this.
Later, Phil commented that "Me daughter's got the hots for me pig man", his concern being for the pigs. -
Message 16
Posted by Elnora Cornstalk (U5646495) on Sunday, 11th December 2011
Neil's later admirer was the gruff-voiced Mo, who closed in on him when Susan was behind bars. Neil resisted her attractions, but for a while I thought he might lose the battle.
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Message 17
Posted by Organoleptic Icon (U11219171) on Sunday, 11th December 2011
My memory isn't what it was but iirc Neil first appeared in the early seventies when he was about fifteen years old. He was an orphan who, I think, had committed a fairly minor criminal offence and was employed as some kind of apprentice at Brookfield by Dan Archer.
He was extremely friendly with Shula on at least one occasion.Â
Are we talking horizontal jogging?
More salacious facts please! -
Message 18
Posted by dickie (U2267358) on Sunday, 11th December 2011
So far as I recall, no salacious facts to report; all left to the imagination. For what it's worth, my impression at the time was that they had "done it".
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Message 19
Posted by JoinedPeetsBoard_Smeesues_too (U14519481) on Sunday, 11th December 2011
That episode - from memory ...
SFX guitar playing ...
Some desultory conversation
SFX more guitar playing
a second or so's silence
Neil: Shu-la arrrr .. sound of breathe being exhaled ..
End music: dum de dum de dum de dum ...
I remember Neil couldn't look Phil in the eye the next morning ..
JPBS
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