Bonus Posting – Keep Tom In Canada Campaign!

News in the press (3rd November) of Tom Archer started warning bells ringing. The Daily Mail headline read ’Tom jilted by Archers’ and revealed that Tom Graham, who has played Tom for 17 years, has been dropped from the soap. As he put it, “My reign as the Sausage King of Ambridge has come to an end and I am being deposed.”

My first thought was ‘good, that means we won’t hear from Tom again’, but reading on, the article said that a few weeks ago, the Archers editor revealed that some of the younger cast members would be replaced by more experienced actors. A spokesman was quoted as saying “Characters are frequently recast”.

It was the words ‘replaced’ and ‘recast’ that set off the alarms – having got rid of Tom to Canada, this was an ideal opportunity to let the character fade into obscurity and never again darken our radios. However, if Tom is being recast, that implies that he will be returning at some stage.

NO, NO, NO! This must not happen! Pick up your pens, exercise your Tweeting finger, fire up the e-mails and let the BBC know that Tom is really very happy in Canada and doing very well and the last thing he wants is to return home. Rumour has it he’s thinking of marrying a local girl who has a terrible phobia about travelling – planes, ships; you name it and she just cannot travel in it. Sad that this means that they are forever confined to Canada, but there you go.

While you’re at it, ask the Archers editor to try and persuade Peggy to change her Will – as things stand at the moment, when she pops her clogs, he will inherit the majority of her estate and that might just persuade Tom to come back to Blighty. And we don’t want that, do we?