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The Archers: oh spare us the Rural Dean!!!!!!

56 replies

ipanemagirl · 22/08/2008 19:12

Parties! All the young characters trying to sound cool! David at a Karaoke bar!

The horror of it!!!

OP posts:
Threadwworm · 23/08/2008 15:59

I loved Linda Smith too. She was very funny indeed and her death was very sad. But I do think that R4 went a bit over the top after her death with all the special commemoration programmes. It was a bit too much like making 'Dead Linda' a brand, a marketing ploy. They've done this a lot recently. Eg the 'dead Charles Wheeler' brand.

MaryAnnSingleton · 23/08/2008 16:01

and 'dead Humphrey Lyttletton'

Threadwworm · 23/08/2008 16:03

Yes! I knew there was another recent example!

MaryAnnSingleton · 23/08/2008 16:04
Grin
LittleBella · 23/08/2008 21:20

I saw Barry Cryer on the TV the other night and got very confused because I'd thought he was dead, thanks to all these Radio 4 tribute programmes

I get confused...

FiveGoMadInDorset · 23/08/2008 21:24

I have requested a radio addicts section

scanner · 23/08/2008 21:25

Why don't you all like Will, he's not so bad - a little dull maybe.

I think Ed sounds sexy.

WhatSheSaid · 23/08/2008 21:52

Just something about Will's voice - he always sounds moany and hard-done-by, no matter what he is saying.

He was very irritating with Nic too. Mind you, she was a bit of an irritating character herself...I do love the Archers though...didn't listen for 7 years (live abroad), then they started podcasts so I could listen again. Download every morning and listen while giving dd breakfast.

MaryAnnSingleton · 23/08/2008 21:55

argh that Nic !! it's Will's voice really and he is just an unappealing character...

FiveGoMadInDorset · 23/08/2008 21:56

Will is just so nasty and vicious when he doesn't get his own way.

MaryAnnSingleton · 23/08/2008 21:57

actually the voice thing is a big thing with me, I cannot bear to hear Shula,Jennifer,Mrs Wooley or Lilian..I couldn't bear to listen to that dreadful Richard either. Not keen on Ruth,Nigel or Lizzie come to that.As for the kids....
However, loved Debbie's voice, but I love Tamsin Greig.

FanjolinaJolly · 23/08/2008 22:00

Spoilsport I luurve Lilians dirty laugh

(Sweats as thousands of pedants curse at lack of apostrophe)

MaryAnnSingleton · 23/08/2008 22:02

!

LittleBella · 23/08/2008 22:06

I hate all of them except Christopher, Ed, Brian, Neil and Lilian. I frequently shout at them.

I have been listening to this bloody soap and these bloody characters for 20 years and I hate it. Why do I put myself through it? Why do you lot? What is it about it?

Oh I love Sandy Toksvig too, she's a scream.

WhatSheSaid · 23/08/2008 23:05

Well, I started listening when Elizabeth was pregnant and abandoned by her dodgy boyfriend in a cafe (motorway service station maybe?). She then went on to have a termination and Shula was upset as she was ttc.

So that must be getting on for 20 years ago as it was pre-Daniel.

I've just been addicted ever since.

Someof the characters annoy me but I kind of enjoy being annoyed by them. Quite cathartic to shout at Shula/Elizabeth/whoever on the radio (or laptop). It usually is Shula or Elizabeth I shout out, good grief, they are so annoying.

Love Lillian though. Matt has grown on me a lot too...Pussycat! Tiger!

ipanemagirl · 23/08/2008 23:27

oh I love and hate the Archers so much, it is the point of it I think, I ROW with a girlfriend about it.

I think she subconsciously thinks it's all REAL. Not like the people who sent wreaths or whatever when Grace Archer was burnt to death at the stake I mean in the terribly tragic Barn Fire which my mother told me about..... But this friend gets SO angry about the injustice of Brian's infidelity to Jennifer and Ed and Emma's injustice to Will. And I say "It's only a soap!" and she says " I know but.... " and then we can even have a row about it! Heaven forbid if I defend Bwian! which I do just to piss her off sometimes!

I hate most of the posh women, but sometimes I like Lillian unless she is saying tiger which makes me barf.

Can't bear Ruth ever just can't bear her and wish terrible things to happen to her, she just has so little range imho. And hate Shula too.

Adore Debbie, she's just lovely. Quite like Adam the way he moans a lot.

Can't bear Kenton's constant attempts at youthful language, dire and dreadful.

I like it best when they do family money stories - I think they do them really well, the Aldridge's, the Archers and the organic lot and Roy's lot. Hate it when they try full on comedy - oh spare me when they think they're being hilarious...... But I would go on a march if they tried to take it away from me!

OP posts:
ipanemagirl · 23/08/2008 23:31

Agree with all posters about Radio 4 going mad when people die. I liked Linda Smith loads but the coverage was over the top. And as for the Humphrey Littleton wall to wall programming, it seemed like for weeks on end it was 'I'm sorry I haven't a clue" or an obit about "Humph", enough already, over the top.

But the summer schedule of docs has been uber dull.

Did anyone hear Jenny Eclair on Parking meters?

That must have been a whole joke don't you think? The dullest thing I've ever heard, had to turn it off. Could they have been just kidding???!!!

OP posts:
ipanemagirl · 23/08/2008 23:37

MaryAnnS... who's Richard? Isn't he the dr who was with OOOsha and then had a fling with Strumpet Shula butter wouldn't melt in her mouth... much!

Maybe Matt is Mrs Woolley's long forgotten love child with some former Rural Dean... so he'd be Lillian's half brother - oo incest, not a common storyline in Ambridge!

OP posts:
FanjolinaJolly · 23/08/2008 23:48

Ipanema girl,I agree with everything but Humph.....He was a Legend!!!

harpsichordcarrier · 24/08/2008 00:09

we should just have an "Archers" topic and be done with it

MaryAnnSingleton · 24/08/2008 08:48

yes,Richard the Northern doctor !
The children,with their variable accents make me laugh and I just want to whack bloody Pip in the head.
I have always loved poor Mr Woolley and love the way Joe Grundy refers to people by their full names 'Now then Jennifer Aldridge..etc'
And I hate the recapping of things,in case you've forgotten..
'Dad, I'm going into Borchester this afternoon'
'You mean to meet The Young Farmers to discuss the carnival float' - you know,that kind of thing, we do remember stuff you know.
Off to listen to omnibus in the bath shortly.

LittleBella · 24/08/2008 08:48

ooh I liked the wall to wall Humph coverage. I could listen to I'm sorry I haven't a clue all day.

MaryAnnSingleton · 24/08/2008 08:54

was there the same when Alastair Cooke died ?

jura · 24/08/2008 12:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Threadwworm · 24/08/2008 12:28

I think it must be Curse of Greg (the suicide-comitting ex-gamekeeper.) The brooding presence of Greg's ghost in the cottage is causing Will to react over-moodily to the smallish fact of trying to strangle Ed, following Ed's reuniting with Emma.

If it is not Curse of Greg, it is the scriptwriter reading too much Thomas Hardy. Next thing you know, Eddie Senior will drink too much cider and wander off into the wilderness (Gloucestershire) in penance for selling Clarie off to Brian.

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