Denis Folwell and Thelma Rogers (Jack and Peggy Archer) with regulars in The Bull
So Peggy has leapfrogged Tony, and plans to leave her estate to Tom and Helen. Is one of her motivations a fear that Tony has inherited some flaky genes from her first husband, Jack Archer?
Jack was the son of Dan and Doris Archer and the elder brother of the far more reliable Phil. He met and married Londoner Peggy Perkins (now Woolley) during WW2. They had three children. Jennifer was born in 1945, Lilian in 1947 and Anthony William Daniel (Tony) in 1951.
After the war, Jack and Peggy ran a smallholding in Ambridge. Jack briefly moved the family to Cornwall in an ill-conceived plan to set up a farm with an old army pal, Barney Lee. But Barney took too much of a shine to Peggy for that to work out.
Jack worked at Brookfield while learning the licenced trade and took over the Bull as a tenant in December 1952. But it wasn’t long before he felt restless behind the bar and started to indulge too much in its products. The brewery insisted that the licence be transferred to Peggy. Jack took it hard, and was admitted to the county hospital for four months’ psychiatric treatment.
Peggy in charge
A few quiet years followed, with Peggy running the Bull and Jack working as foreman of a local market garden. In 1959 they bought the pub from the brewery to run as a free house, with a generous loan from ‘Aunt’ Laura Archer. But although they now both worked in the pub, Peggy was definitely the senior partner.
Jack found it hard being the father of lively teenage daughters. When unmarried Jennifer became pregnant, he flew off the handle, furious. It took the intercession of the wider family to prevent a permanent rift.
After this upset, Jack and Peggy took a cruise. Jack loved living the high life, but it sowed the seeds of his downfall. By the time they returned, he was drinking again. And he had added another sin to his bow – gambling.
He tried to hide his drinking from Peggy, but it started seriously to affect his health. In July 1971 he entered a clinic in Scotland for urgent liver treatment. But he died there on 12 January 1972.
He was 49.
Keri Davies is an Archers scriptwriter and web producer.
Learn more about Peggy in our Who’s Who
