Amos In 1980

Amos and Mr Wilks in the 1980s.

Click on each illustration for a readable view.

Ah, 1980! The year of Solidarity, Ronald Reagan (his election in the USA did far more to shape the decade than the election of Mrs T in the UK in 1979 - more here), the vexing question of whether we were going to the Moscow Olympics or not, the arrival of the first personal stereos in the UK (costing nearly £100 and known as the Sony Stowaway - more here), the release of the Rubik's Cube, which hit Britain just before Christmas (though in very short supply - more here), the ZX80 (more here) and the craze which caused us all to sit down, do a weird rowing dance and chant "Oops Upside Your Head..."

Pretty average year.

On the telly, we were fascinated by Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World.

Riffling through some old newspapers from 1980, I was interested that various synopsis for Emmerdale Farm indicate that it was a very eventful year for Amos Brearly. Do you know who Enid Pottle, the newcomer to Beckindale that took an interest in his poetry in January, was?

What was causing the strange noises at the Woolpack in March?

Who was Amos' mystery lady in November?

And can you tell me who was the unexpected visitor at the Woolpack in December?

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I was watching at the time, but I've slept since then!

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All material/information about Amos' 1980 "doings" gratefully received!

The Pub And The Church - Traditional Focal Points Of The English Village...

Amos Brearly is at the pumps whilst the Vicar, the Reverend Donald Hinton, enjoys Woolpack hospitality in the 1980s.

An interesting piece about the unlikely bond between the pub and the church in English villages on the TV Times soaps page, 21-27 September, 1985. Below that, we find an article about Paul Beringer, of Brookside and Albion Market. His part as busker Paul O'Donnell in the Market soap required a violin. Said Paul: "In fact I had to borrow a violin from my girlfriend, Malandra Burrows, who will soon be seen in Emmerdale Farm..."

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More about Albion Market here.

Walter Walks Out...

Thank you very much indeed to those who have sent e-mails regarding the Emmerdale '80s quizzes. It's good to know they were enjoyed and there will certainly be more to come. And to take you into 2008, here's a little something to ponder: why did faithful customer Walter (Al Dixon) leave the Woolpack in utter disgust in 1983, the last of Amos and Mr Wilks' regulars to desert the bar?

The answer will follow - in 2008!

UPDATE - 1/1/2008 - The Answer!

This was how things were...

Amos was being his usual difficult self. He wanted to get the Woolpack a glowing review from the Hotten Courier, and he wanted to quell the NY Estates workers, who were in dispute with Alan Turner. They held rather a loud meeting about their industrial strife at the Woolpack and Amos stuck his nose in, siding firmly with Alan. So the NY lads boycotted the Woolpack and other regulars followed suit.

But Walter remained.

Until the night when Amos set peanuts out on the bar (to impress any visiting hostelry reviewers from the Courier) and told Walter they were not for him. He graciously conceded that Walter could have one, and told him off quite fiercely when he caught him taking more.

Walter mulled the situation over, rapped on the bar sharply with his pint pot, and walked out.

"Walter! You can't!" said an aghast Amos. But he could. And he did.

It took a little while for Amos to discover he might be at fault, but an unpleasant experience at the local golf club, where he'd been taken by Alan Turner, set Amos thinking. Slagged off by a frightfully posh Major, who was positively fawned over by Alan, Amos realised that currying favour with this set was not worth it. And he realised who his true friends were.

Amos apologised to the NY Estates men and they returned to the Woolpack...

... as did Walter.

And the Woolpack was restored to its old peculiar normality.

Ernie Shuttleworth - The Two Faces Of...

Ernie Shuttleworth was, of course, landlord of Beckindale's other hostelry, the Malt Shovel, and a long time rival of Amos Brearly. Ernie was not a regular character in the show, and was originally played by actor John Comer (on the right in the DVD cover illustration above), who also appeared as cafe owner Sid in Last Of The Summer Wine, and as Mr Brandon in I Didn't Know You Cared.

I don't know how many appearances Mr Comer made as Ernie Shuttleworth, but two Emmerdale Farm publications list him in the role - a 1976 special and the 1982 10th Anniversary magazine - although there is a printing error in the 1982 publication and the actor's surname appears as "Corner".

John Comer died in 1984. See his IMDB profile here.

Here's Amos and Ernie Shuttleworth mark II arguing it out at the Woolpack in 1986. Peter Schofield, who was a well-known face on UK TV, made sure that the Shuttleworth/Brearly war of the boozers continued to entertain. Remember him as Joe Dawson, the nasty cafe owner who reported Len Fairclough for not having a loo at his Kabin cafe in 1978? See Mr Schofield's IMDB profile here.

A brief role for Peter Schofield as unloved cafe owner Joe Dawson in Coronation Street.

I enjoyed the Amos/Ernie absurdities in Emmerdale Farm. I've just been revisiting some 1986 episodes with a storyline revolving round a dominoes tournament. Amos and the Peter Schofield era Ernie were at their absolute best, the script was witty, the acting superb and I was greatly entertained.

Happy days in Beckindale.

Amos Brearly Meets Angie Watts

From the Sun, July 28, 1986:

Remember all the charity events of the 1980s? You couldn't turn round without colliding with a sponsored walk, a sponsored silence, a sponsored bean scoff, a telethon, a walkathon, a talkathon, a bonkathon (you should be so lucky), etc, etc. This particular event, part of Soap Aid, seems to have been a bit of a wash-out, but it's good to see Amos (Ronald Magill), Seth (Stan Richards) and Dolly (Jean Rogers) hobnobbing with Angie (Anita Dobson) and 'Chelle (Susan Tully).

1986: The Night The Mobile Phone Arrived In Beckindale...

A freezing cold night in 1986, with snow on the ground, and a figure came running down from The Struggle...

... and into the village of Beckindale.

Young Kathy Bates (Malandra Burrows) emerged from her mother's house to fetch something from the car and heard the sound of metal dustbins clattering and a cat yowling. She paused, alarmed. But everything was still.

At the Woolpack...

... Amos (Ronald Magill) was unhappy. He was suffering from conjunctivitis (or "conjunc-tia-vities" as he called it), hence his pirate-style eye patch...

... and Seth (Stan Richards) never tired of teasing him about it.

Having left the pub, Seth started for home...

... and was surprised when two police cars come roaring into the village, sirens going "nee-norr"...

Seth never liked to mix with the police. This feeling got the better of his curiosity and he continued on home.

Curtains twitched at the Woolpack as the police arrived there. The regulars were told that a dangerous man was on the loose.

Over at the village church, the Reverend Donald Hinton (Hugh Manning), locking up for the night, was startled when Derek Warner (Dennis Blanche) jumped out on him, brandishing a shot gun.

At the vicarage, Derek told Donald Hinton that he was the killer of local Mr Nasty Harry Mowlam (Godfrey James)...

A siege was underway, Derek told the vicar he could leave, but the Rev Hinton, stirred by his plight, decided to stay and talk to him. Outside, the police wanted to phone the vicarage and on came a hand-held mobile phone!

It was a Motorola analogue model - state of the art. The first mobile phone call in England - indeed the whole of Britain, had been made by comedian Ernie Wise at St Katherine's Dock, London, on 1 January 1985. The very first commercially available hand-helds had been unveiled by Motorola in 1983. They were hugely expensive and many of us dismissed them: "Yuppie toys - ridiculous, haven't they ever heard of phone boxes?!!"

So, the first sighting of a hand-held mobile in Emmerdale Farm was quite a milestone in the serial's history!

Back to the storyline, and the assembled police (including village bobby Sergeant MacArthur, played by Ian Dale) awaited developments at the vicarage. Finally, Derek emerged with the vicar, and was hustled away by police officers.

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Life in Beckindale soon settled down again, but the glimpse of the mobile phone was an indication that a great technological change was soon to impact on everyday life in the village. And everywhere else!

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When you add to that the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners Lee in 1989, which brought the Internet into all our homes in the 1990s, and the arrival of Sky TV, also in 1989, it seems surprising just how recent the advent of the technology we now take for granted actually was.

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Read more about the arrival of mobile phones in the 1980s here.

Remember This? Amos, Sweet As Honey - June 1985

From the TV Times, 13 June 1985.

Does anyone recall the details of this storyline?

1982: What Happened On Amos' Spanish Holiday?

In August 1982, Thames TV were repeating episodes of Emmerdale Farm from earlier in the year. Does anybody remember why Amos wouldn't spill the beans about his Spanish holiday?