Okay, So Archers Extra - What do we think?

[GrendelsMum]

I wasn't very convinced by the opening scene with Alice and her uni mates. What day was it? Does it go over several days? Why were they drinking vodka shots one minute and then studying the next?

The Jamie one works better, I think, as we know who Marty is, even if we don't know Steve.

[NetworkGuy]

sorry, just started an 'Ambridge Extra' thread...

[Lio]

I am recording the 'omnibus edition' on my swanky recording radio and am officially Quite Excited. I've been wondering what happened to the Fallon/Harry storyline. Will check old threads...

[NetworkGuy]

Feeling a bit puzzled as to how people with just FM will be feeling if there are "fill in" bits of story which somehow manage to get mentioned on R4 later on.

Still think it a crafty excuse to push DAB/Digital to FM users, just like moving Stuart and Maconie from R2 to 6Music. Make them "must hear" and eventually the target of 50% "listenership on digital" might get there... and enable closure of national FM services

[NetworkGuy]

aaargh Maconie getting in my head with R4 rambling show and on TV in north west... Radcliffe and Maconie

[GrendelsMum]

Ah - thanks for the spelling of Maconie - I couldn't find Marconi on iPlayer and thought they were off air

[NetworkGuy]

When I was a student in Bitterne, Southampton in the latter half of the 70s I stayed in digs with an Italian woman who had worked for the Guglielmo Marconi (radio pioneer) as a secretary.

My landlady made gorgeous food (one evening a week I had a whole cauliflower cheese to enjoy... happy days!)

[NetworkGuy]

Of course I was studying Radio and Radar with plans to be a Radio Officer in the Navy, before I was sidetracked by computers and the growth of Supertankers and scrapping of many, many smaller tankers made chance of going to sea almost nil, as every R.O. needs a 6 month apprenticeship on board.

Since the few ships one could get onto were liners or tankers (accommodation, salary, food, for 6 months hardly possible on cargo ships etc), and they had 3 times the number of R.O.s from the small tankers compared with the need for the supertankers, made it even more competitive.

Cadets for Shell and BP were told they would get the sack next day if they failed any exam... too many people for too few places... I quit before January and started job hunt rather than wait until June with everyone from Uni, College, and school leavers.

[NetworkGuy]

Should have mentioned there's a link to iPlayer on that 'Ambridge Extra' thread.

Oh, and sorry for hijack re college/ Marconi / Maconie

[R4]

Very interesting NG

I didn't hear ArchersLite live and I'm not going to add to some BBC statistic by accessing it through i-player. Anyway, I am still in denial about YoofArchers.

[MonicaDickens]

I listened for all of a minute. Nauseating lovey guff with Alice & someone else.
Didn't appeal.
yy to "YoofArchers"

[Frimblypoo]

I am FM as DAB receptionis soooo pants and can't iplayer because the broadband is rubbish.
Glad I'm not missing out on this one

[NetworkGuy]

While DAB may be grotty, do you have any digital TV equipment (Freeview box, FreeSat, Sky or Virgin Media) ? At least with the first three (not sure about Virgin) you should have options to hear the digital radio stations from the BBC - regional services, unlike DAB, so no local radio included, but still it is a way to hear 6 Music and Radio 4 Extra (even if Ambridge Extra is not something you will listen out for).

Frimblypoo - even with poor broadband service you should be OK for iPlayer (at least for the radio services). ... my landline was installed (OK - enabled) in February 2010 and I had ADSL from March. However the speed dropped from 2000 kbps to 200 kbps (and when it rained, I could lose internet and voice calls for up to 5 days at a time).

The iPlayer test page showed 3 red lights (for HD video, video and something else) and 1 green light for radio service at 128 kbps. My connection was able to give me 160 kbps download speed, and while frustrating not to be able to see any video clips (off YouTube even) without it being start- stop- start- stop I could download some items to view - such as Click, the gadget show they do on BBC News at weekends.

After many faults, some reported, an engineer came one Saturday and had gone up his ladder before I opened the door, as he spotted the dropwire from the gutter to the ground had perished insulation. Fitted a new master socket in my computer room upstairs and I get download speeds of up to 2500 kbps.

I would urge you to consider further checks (post in geeky_stuff maybe!) and it could be that your broadband connection can be speeded up...

[GrendelsMum]

Well, if you really did listen for a minute, MonicaDickens, I think you heard the worst part of it - I thought the opening minutes were a bit crap - Alice being lovey-dovey and a load of confusing house mates - but I like Jamie going off the rails further, and I'm pleased to hear Alice screwing up her happy marriage. I'll keep listening for a while at least.

[MonicaDickens]

I know I didn't give it a fair hearing. Was just grumpy not in the mood for mush.
S'pose YoofArchers can't be worse than Lucy Perks was. Or Kate Aldridge.

[ppeatfruit]

Did anyone know that jamie part owns the bull?!! i quite liked it but agree with monica about the yoof emphasis and it could be very confusing for non compooter owners.i think i'm confused are they repeating on normal radio?

[UnquietDad]

This would be "Ambridge: The Skins Generation", right?

[Scholes34]

Looking forward to switching over to the omnibus of Ambridge Extra on Sunday evening as there's no Front Row on Radio 4. Desperately, desperately missing Radcliff and Maconie on Radio 2 in the evenings. There's nothing on TV and Jo Whilley needs someone to talk to!

[ppeatfruit]

Sorry scholes I know R & M play some good stuff sadly i can't get past the ummming and aahhing i'm 60 so not being ageist but they sound about 90

[GrendelsMum]

Why on earth did Daniel help Jamie buy the cider?

[Acekicker]

I listened to the first two podcasts today in the car...

First of all OH MY GOD THE THEME MUSIC! 'tis terrible!

It was ok - I spend a couple of hours a day driving on my own so I'll probably stick with the podcasts as it's something else to listen too. Clearly they can't write 'student' any more than they can write 'kids' - it's a long time since I was at University but I thought the dialogue of Alice, Chaz etc was terrible - like old people trying to be cool.

My main worry is that it's going to be massively 'foreshadowing' the main Archers show... it all felt a bit like December when they were clunking their way up to SATTC like Cybermen lumbering across London.

Rather than just enjoying the gentleness of the Book Club, Will descending into jealous madness, the village shop running out of shortbread or whatever, I'm going to be listening to the main show wondering whether Jamie will be horribly maimed as a result of drunken joy riding (waaaay too much time being devoted to setting up racing games, paying for petrol, 'driving around' etc) before or after Alice and Chris decide a spur of the moment marriage in Vegas was a really bad idea and get separate etc...

[Acekicker]

'get separate' of course being what you do when you start typing 'get divorced', answer a phone call and then resume thinking they'll 'separate'...

or perhaps it will be what the kidz in Archers Extra actually say, maybe I can get a job as a scriptwriter...

[jodevizes]

I am with Acekicker, what dreadful music the theme tune with a hint of Eminem to get us down in the Ambridge Hood. Not. I am tired of fighting, let us just hand everything over to Murdoch and have done with it rather than this drip drip ruination thing.

[ppeatfruit]

I liked the music a good trad itional really folky version of the Archers theme. It's different that's all!

[R4]

I finally gave in and listened to the omnibus today. It's a bit boring, innit. All storylines seem to centre around either alcohol or how much study they are/aren't doing.
If I, as an old-un, think it's boring then goodness knows what teenagers think of it.