Big Farma in Little Ambridge - come and talk The Archers talk

[PseudoBadger]

New thread for the beginning of the pheasant season.

I loved Mr Derek. And Basil.

Jill's outburst was very nasty and not at all Christian. I'm wondering if the SWs want us to have Deep Thoughts about goings on at The Stables. Darrell's life is in a mess; Shula wants to help him but can't get through. Shula's do-gooding is in a mess; villagers want to help her but can't get through...

I'm also wondering what the SWs are going to do with Jess. Her arrival in the area coinciding with Birmingham Social Services being headline news is unfortunate timing.

Jill has always had a mean streak IMO

(Although that has probably depended on who was writing her scripts)

Jill never seems sympathetic to the plight of the badgers either (well I haven't heard it if she has been).

Could be R4 (I thought that when Alastair started on about chucking Das out but he's been supportive and actually constructive) So maybe their marriage is not in jeopardy.

It bugs me that Hellin is perfectly happy for Rob to be a total shit to his wife, i.e. the woman he promised to love and honour etc, but is utterly outraged that he has decided to honour his marriage vows and in so doing has dumped her, i.e. the woman who chose to have an affair with a married man. Sorry, if you do that you go into it with your eyes wide open and you don't get to expect anything other than that the man will treat you as badly as he is treating his wife.

Just listened to omnibus.....
Hellin sounding increasingly unhinged...really bored wirh the never ending rob saga. Obviously brewing up for a seasonal showdown.

But Jill- wow could she be anymore shrill and horrible talk about a radical character shift, years ago she was the bee keeping voice of reason, now someone mean and uncaring except with her blood relatives of course)

Yes, Jill is being horrible - and she does it in such a smug tone of voice too. However nothing can possibly be as irritating as Darrell. The vagueness, the complete and utter lack of a clue about what is going on - he sounds actually imbecilic. He didn't used to be like this, is Shula slipping him some Valium in his tea or summat?!

Helen becoming a crazed bunny-boiler was SO obviously going to happen, wasn't it
What's the betting that she delivers the coup de grace at the panto, with the entire village as an audience ...

Quite agree that Jill has always had a nasty streak. The brusque and belittling way she talks about Kenton, who after all is her own son, has often amazed me in the past. Clearly the dreadful Lizzie (tragic widow, conveniently-forgotten-at-the-moment heart problems) is her favourite. But the Foghorn so obviously has incipient cataracts or something that I'm sure they're planning a full-on Xmas disaster in true SATTC style.

I'm afraid I wanted to shake Darrell when he was being so vacant with Alistair over the housing arrangements. God knows how Ilona put up with it, he's like a wet lettuce.

To be honest I'm with Jill as far as Darrell is concerned. Shula loves martyring herself and didn't want to think that anyone else other than her could help Darrell. I just stop listening when he turns up, he is so irritating.

Darrell being forgetful and vacant is purely a symptom of his depression, isn't it? I suspect that he doesn't take in what they tell him a out how to get his own flat because mentally he can't. I fear the reality is that if they do get him there and sort out his benefits, he will simply drink himself into a stupor and burn the place down or something similar, and we'll have weeks of Shula angsting about how guilty she feels.

I was a bit worried when I listened to the omnibus today and heard Ruth checking that Josh/ Ben ( middle child) had got batteries for his bike lamp. Makes me very worried that Jill is going to mow one of them down imminently.

I'm realised too how bored I am of the IT public service announcements.

Jill has always been a sanctimonious old cow. All that "lovely service, Alan" stuff doesn't disguise the fact that she doesn't have a single Christian impulse. I'm really looking forward to the cataract-generated SATTC plot device at Christmas.
I did enjoy the Hellqueen-Iain conversation where he very gently established that Rob hadn't given her any indication whatsoever that he was thinking of leaving Jess. Lock up your rabbits, Ambridge!

After Nigel demise the was a fair bit of talk on the old mustardland BBC boards about how it would have been better if he had survived but with a serious injury. I wonder if they've decided to run with this idea. Tom and Kirsty were exceptionally slushy when at Peggy's . It never ends well when there's loveydovey shit going on.

Peggy saying that Tom and Kirstie reminded her of herself and the first Jack seemed peculiarly uncomplimentary - wasn't he an alcoholic who gave her no end of grief and trouble before he died and left her penniless?

There's scope for Jill to accidentally injure Ben when he's staying with her while Dave'n'Ruth are off in Budapest.

Re Peggy and Jack - latterly, yes, I think Peggy had a lot of unhappiness. But in the early days it must have been good, or surely she wouldn't have married him? They had three children and some good years before the scriptwriters of the day introduced Jack's drink problem.

Did anyone think Sunday's (which I just heard) was strange? with talking about nymphomaniac cows ffs!! Also women of "a certain age' . Lilian's lost her compassionate side too (she owes darryl doesn't she?).

The talk about the cows is probably a bowdlerised version of farmyard reality!

That's no doubt true but we don't usually hear it on TA.

Ah no I can't listen to them singing from now till Christmas!

Come on Helen , unleash that bunny boiler

Who was Grandad Reg? Daniel's late dad's dad?

Yes, Reg and Bunty are Mark's parents, Mark was Shula's first husband. Daniel never knew Mark as Shula found out she was pg after he died (they were undergoing IVF).

Poor Daniel - what a moment for the cuckoo in the nest to barge in.

but didn't Shula handle that badly? when Darrell ignored her initially saying it was a bad time she should have said it again

"DARRELL I CAN'T DEAL WITH THIS NOW! I NEED TO TALK TO DAN! I WILL COME & FIND YOU WHEN I HAVE TIME!!!"

as it was it would have really sounded to Daniel as if Darrell took priority

(I don't think Shula would have behaved like that, but obv the SWs know better )

After being an Archers fan for over 30 years I have actually given up listening. I did hear the omnibus on Sunday, because I was in the car, and heard nothing which is going to tempt me back.

Darrell is just too annoying and why are they making Helen behave like a spoilt teenager?

at Lock up your bunnies!

Indrid Can you tell us how it feels?

Because I say I'm going to stop listening almost every week - but I wouldn't know how to exist without 12 minutes of Ambridge almost every day. I'm sorry to say I think of it as rather a large part of who I am.

Don't you miss it? Did you find a replacement?