THE FAIRWELL STORYO N THE RADIO FULL

The group has opened for dozens of major recording artists including 3 Doors Down and Hinder, and has appeared in numerous magazine, radio, television appearances, as recently as Maon CBS televisions 'Live at 9'. The other band members have changed over the years, with the notable exception of long-time and current guitarist and vocalist Chris Allen, who played and started a fanbase on Beale Street at an early age, having joined in 2008. He is also a lead and rhythm guitarist for multi-platinum band Shinedown. You might not love them, or even like them much, but boy do you respect them.The band was founded by lead singer and guitarist Zach Myers, a Beale Street based, internationally touring blues artist from age 14. Think Sharon Watts and Kathy Beale who have been in EastEnders on and off since the show’s inception in 1985. By turns lambasting and lionising their wayward kids, right into adulthood and well into middle age, they link past and present and embody tradition – most especially at times of turbulence and change. They are the champions of the community moral compasses in housecoats who stand their ground, defend their values and support their invariably feckless menfolk.

Strong women have always been at the heart of soaps. The producers are banking that it could, in fact, be enough to draw you back in.

It seemed like she’d been on our screens, on the street, forever but therein lies the unique power and status of a long-running character.Įven if you don’t watch every episode or just tune in occasionally by accident, there’s a peculiar comfort in seeing a familiar face. The animal, inherited from Peggy’s hairdresser, the fabulously-named Fabrice, is named after another soap queen, Coronation Street’s gossip and resident busybody played from 1964 to 1987 by Jean Alexander.

Peggy is a fastidious remnant of an older, more orderly generation, a stickler for etiquette who refuses to suffer fools gladly yet (in a masterstroke of genius!) overlooks the tooth-and-claw foibles of her heroically aggressive cat, Hilda Ogden. Having listened throughout, it’s fair to say age has definitely mellowed me as a listener if not her as a character.

THE FAIRWELL STORYO N THE RADIO FULL

The slow burn course of his dementia and the harrowing effect it had on Peggy lasted a full 11 years and was widely applauded for its sensitivity and verisimilitude. Her first husband, Jack Archer, was ravaged by alcoholism and died.Īfter finding happiness again, with second husband Jack Woolley, he developed Alzheimer’s in 2003. Peggy’s storyline has - literally - lasted the best part of a lifetime and has presented her with many a challenge which she has always met with dignified stoicism. But now that actress June Spencer, 103, is bowing out after 71 years, I must admit that I will miss Ambridge’s purse-lipped matriarch. I still don’t think I’ve ever heard her laugh. Back when I started listening as a schoolgirl (weird yes, but I was) she’d already been on The Archers for two decades and to me seemed too old, too posh and too humourless to be in the least bit interesting.įorty years on, she really is ancient and those terribly, terribly Brief Encounter vowels haven’t altered one jot.

The fairwell storyo n the radio