Pip's older boyfriend

'- and a Hereford calf'? Without its characteristic white face??



Herefords have white faces, honest, not brown faces with sweet white splashes. Ayrshires can have a little white splash like that shown as a Hereford calf in the picture, Mr. K, but Google is your friend for researching pics of the evidence: trust me.

Hmmm, Felicity Finch = Wor Ruthy: check.

Helen Monks = Bo Pip: check.

Hereford calf = hang on a mo, WHOOAAAA there. Steady, old girl. Wouldn't the ex-everyday tale of country folk have used a PROPER Hereford calf? Herefords are iconic! They're all tufty and white on their heads, with brooooaaaaad foreheads. Even as calves, whereas this calf here is not a Hereford .... it's(I know it, give me a mo)... it's AN ACTOR!



Lovely picture. 2 out of 3 for accuracy. Let's hope the calf doesn't have a lawyer, or access to a keyboard, shall we?



[cue gales of laughter. From just a townie.]

It's OK, the calf is an actor, too.

However, such an egregious howler is pretty well par for the course for TA at the moment. The thing is pepered with own goals and no-one will own up to it.



Whoever edited this blog and inserted the pic is insultingly ignorant and frankly should get fired. Top blog on The Archers website of all places to make such a mistake.

It is a publicity photo and I hardly think it matters that they have used the wrong sort of cow. To suggest someone gets fired for this just way way OTT!

It really is a hoot, isn't it? OK, it's a calf, and gorgeous at that, but it's still a hoot for what it represents. Wonder what breed it is? Is Ayrshire Cowman still around? His posts always made a lot of sense, and he'd know.



Of all the places to get it wrong. Yes, Dracs, I was thinking that this is quite par for the course for the New Way Forward. Another nail in the coffin of the suspended disbelief breakdown, and plenty of disbelief when I saw the sweet non-Hereford. Couldn't make it up. Oh, hang on: they did.



Signed,

Wrong Kind of Listener, in being switched on enough to recognise a Hereford or a well-plotted radio drama (well, I WOULD be the wrong kind of listener if I was still listening [trots off whistling 'The Day The Archers Died' to the tune of 'Bye Bye Miss Ambridgian Pie'])

What a laugh! You really couldn't make this comedy of errors up could you?

Actually, Mike, it DOES matter, in that it highlights the poor quality of research and scripting that is currently deemed acceptable.



Fundamental factual errors do not inspire confidence in the production team and, worse, suggest an implicit disdain of the audience.

It's highlighting also the change in attitude in listener - just thinking how my own attitude has switched from, 'Never mind, eh? We all make mistakes.' Since the SATTC misjudgement in both the Nigel, and the Helen, storylines, such an error irritates, and all indulgence has evaporated: instead of glossing over it in a light-hearted fashion, I lean towards interpreting this blip as yet another confirmation about the knowledge gaps in people who are involved closely with creative work on The Archers. They aren't as well-steeped in the background and things about which they write so serves me right for presuming such things, despite having delivered good stuff at different times. I think disappointment is in there, too, as I'm still feeling the programme is pretty broken and will take ages to fix (writes the non-listener of 10 years until you-know-when.)

That calf looks like a Hereford/ Friesian cross, I am a farmers daughter who once fed lots of these, they sometimes come out black with an all white face.

Come on, Mr Keri, we need a response.



Is the calf in the photo an Ayrshire acting the part of a Hereford, or is it a Hereford/ Friesian cross, or is it a mistake in casting for the photo?



And if it is a Hereford/ Friesian cross, is that what they have at Brookfield?



Thanking you in advance.

GK

OFFICIAL STATEMENT:



The young actor playing the part of 'Hereford Calf' was chosen from amongst many 'baby calves' auditioned at various drama groups in the Birmingham area.



He is not related to any member of the cast, or the production team. He secured the role on his own merits, and has become a valued and talented member of the Brookfield community, with an acting ability to rival Pip's own. It is very unfair to criticize 'Hereford Calf' because of his mixed-raced background.



Following the criticism of Ruairi Aldridge's accent, which wounded the production team deeply, it was decided that 'Hereford Calf' should possess an authentic Hereford accent, and that his ethnic origin would not matter.



Also we thought you are all a bunch of townies and anyway, too thick to notice.

Great post, Kitty! And the last sentence is so true....

They look awfully clean for people working on a farm.

Oh for pities sake.



Keri et al.....you've made a small boo boo and misnamed the calf breed. Easy mistake if cows are not part of your everyday life. No shame there.



Why O Why can't the Ed team even say "Oopsy sorry everyone. We've corrected it now"??? No shame, only credit, by correcting one's mistakes in life.



Many of the above put it superbly (#4, #6, #9 for instance). Normally we'd not mind a sniff of an error - but everything is amplified these days - not least by lack of correction after 4 days?



This is so bunker mentality to pretend nothing is wrong that Gaddafi has a lesson to learn.



It's becoming pitiful, it really is.

Quite right. Unless I hear on the six o'clock new tonight that the entire Archers production team has resigned over this grossly misleading picture of a calf on the programme's blog I shall chain myself to the railings of Downing Street and refuse ever to pay my licence fee again, even though I know I don't need one to listen to the radio.

This is the latest shameful, outrageous, disgusting, inept straw, camel, back, Littlejohn, PC-gone-mad, Melanie Philips, nurse, the screens...blah, blah (contd p.94)

And. Breathe.

Hello Gervase.



Have you been drinking again?

Excuse me, but who in real life wanders around in a sleeveless top in February. And when they are Sooooo Bizzy how do they find the time to get their hair tinted/highlighted/blowdried and nails polished? These photos detract rather than add.

The picture was clearly not taken in February (trees in full leaf) and why should it? No one said it was. I expect it was when Pip was being trendy, which would explain her painted nails, though I agree she should be looking untidier and, in general, photos of actors detract rather than add.



Especially in the case of the calf, who is also not in the right costume. Why no response yet, Mr Keri?

Surely it would be racism to prevent one breed of bovine thespian portraying another breed.

Thank-you, Mr Keri, you are forgiven.