You may be wondering how on earth the unlikely combination of Roy and Kate ever produced a child. The answer is of course 'the usual way'. But it was a rather more complicated story...
When they first got together, Kate Aldridge (now Madikane) and Roy Tucker were not a natural fit. At the time, Roy was mixing with extreme right-wingers and Kate was a dope-smoking middle class hippie. The fact that Roy was ‘the milkman’s son’ (to use her father Brian’s phrase) was probably part of the attraction for rebellious Kate.
In March 1995, Kate returned home after spending months on the road with travellers. Although scornful of her cannabis smoking, Roy asked her out and they started dating.
Kate was not happy about the racist company Roy was keeping. But he eventually came to his senses, and took a severe beating after informing on his erstwhile mates. Kate was very sympathetic.
Then a rival entered: the charming Gibson. He moved into Kate’s cottage, ostensibly just as a friend. Kate’s mother Jennifer felt that well-spoken Gibson was a significant improvement on Roy.
Because of Gibson living in the cottage, Roy and Kate quarrelled and split up. After a drunken evening, Kate ended up sleeping with Gibson. Afterwards she felt very guilty and unhappy, realising that Gibson was just using her. Not only that, but he was dealing drugs from the cottage.
On New Year’s Eve, hurt and alone, Kate took a potentially fatal combination of temazepam and alcohol. Fortunately she was found in time. Roy blamed Gibson, and on 24 January, he attacked Gibson and threw him out.
Roy and Kate were reunited. That summer, they travelled the country attending festivals and selling wholefoods from a van under the name Pulsations. When the van gave up, they returned to Ambridge.
Phoebe
Kate and Roy were together on and off until 3 November 1997, when they split up. But on 24 November, Kate confessed that she was pregnant, although insisting she wasn’t sure who the father was.
Roy consulted a solicitor, who told him that there was nothing he could do until the baby was born. Then he could apply to court for a paternity test. If Kate refused, the court would consider the baby to be Roy's.
On 28 June 1998, Phoebe was born in a tepee at Glastonbury Festival. Roy was miffed to find out through village gossip.
A few weeks later, Roy discovered that Kate was planning to take Phoebe to France. He quickly obtained a ‘prohibited steps order’ to keep Kate in the UK until the paternity hearing. Kate lost the hearing and later the blood test proved Roy to be Phoebe’s father.
Eventually, Kate allowed Roy to see more of their daughter, finding him a useful babysitter on occasions.
Itchy feet
By November 1999, Kate was frustrated with her limited life in Ambridge, working in the village shop. Hearing that her old friend Spike was driving an aged bus to Morocco, she jumped at the chance. Roy was mortified that his daughter would be taken from him just before Christmas. But after Kate had told him how she felt, he sadly agreed.
Things didn’t go the way Kate planned. A few days after arriving in Morocco, Phoebe became sick. Panicked Kate phoned her parents and they flew her and Phoebe back to Ambridge.
As soon as her daughter was better, Kate’s melancholy returned. Try as she might, she was not suited to being a single mother in a small English village. Before Christmas she was on the move again, this time without her daughter.
Roy – by now a full-time university student – bravely became Phoebe’s full-time dad.
Keri Davies is an Archers scriptwriter and web producer.
Learn more about Kate, Roy, Brian, Jennifer and Phoebe – and the actors who play them – in our Who’s Who
