Reflections on Cask Ale Week - with the Grundys

As I sipped a pint at a splendid south Cheshire pub beer festival at the end of National Cask Ale Week, I pondered what the week may have achieved. Certainly, I witnessed many people – the young and female especially - trying and enjoying cask-conditioned ale for the first time.

So that was encouraging then. Nevertheless, I had already learnt from fellow scribes that the St Pancras Station launch with the garrulous Oz Clark, the equally verbose mayor of the capital Boris and the rather luscious Melanie Sykes - of the wonderful 'Cream of Manchester' Boddie’s ad fame - had not attracted the interest of a single main stream journalist. No change there then.

"Eigh up, some posh bloke is pinching me ale"

However, perhaps organisers Cask Marque should still be proud. News reaches me that ‘real ale’ was mentioned at least six times on The Archers during the run up to Easter. So presumably this was ‘a result’.

The longest running soap in the world, BBC Radio 4’s ‘everyday story' of the gay farmers, dodgy spivs, adulterers and just plain daft folk with a very feminist agenda attracts more than one million listeners.The Beeb says it is the most listened to non-news programme - with an international audience to boot. Funny, though’, how you can rarely find anybody who admits to listening.

"By 'eck Oz love, I'll have another ale"

However, my (very reliable) informant tells me that the scoundrel father and son duo Eddie and Joe Grundy went on the razzle at ‘that real ale pub’ during the week long celebration of cask. Of course they got legless, which we know proper upstanding cask ale drinkers would never do. We’ll let that pass as dramatic licence (or was it the prog's hidden PC agenda?).

The good news is this national radio institution, born of the post Second World War austerity years, is finally recognising Britain’s unique national beverage. What concerns me most however is this; just what has Sid been serving in the Bull as ‘a pint of Shire’s’ all these years? Time for Cask Marque to get on the case there methinks. (Ok, ok, I know it’s not real and why should I care? And I don't listen to it anyway!)

PS: In the course of my meticulous research for this blog I came across the website Saddicts.com - an unoffical site for Archers fans it is well worth checking out.