Archie's caravan was destroyed by Nick Bates in the Emmerdale Farm tractor. YIPIS stood for "Yorkshire Independence Party And International Socialists".An e-mail from Carol...
The best Emmerdale Farm character in the 1980s was Archie Brooks, played by Tony Pitts. He was politically aware and a bit of an activist - highly involved in the anti-nuclear protests of 1987, and an "80s Man" or "New Man" too. He was determinedly non-sexist and in the early '90s helped Nick care for baby Alice.
He reflected the concerns of a lot of young people in the '80s and was a breed of youngster that was involved and politically active. It's absolute trash the way people try to dismiss the '80s as being simply greedy. They were a very polarised and turbulent era. These days, of course, apathy rules and youngsters would rather have an ipod than social/political justice, and insist they are far more caring than '80s youngsters whilst doing nothing to justify it.
Please can you do a write-up of one of Emmerdale's most original and true-to-life characters, who truly reflected the era he lived in?
It was fitting that the character was killed off when the show turned completely stupid and insensitive with the plane crash of December 1993.
I agree that Archie, who made his debut in November 1983, was a great character, Carol, he was a huge favourite of mine - and yes, there were a lot of Archies around in the 1980s. A very well-written and acted character. A quote from Emmerdale Farm - The Official Companion by James Ferguson, 1988:
The realistic behaviour and speech which Tony uses is based upon his own twenty-one-old brother, who is chairman of the Socialist Workers' Party in Sheffield.
The character is nowadays too often overlooked. Thanks for writing!
From the Sun, January 1983. Read more about the '80s/New Man here.
2 comments:
Archie was great!
Archie's body was never found..Sounds like a great reason to write him back in.
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