Exeunt, pursued by a sow. And so on, for the next 60 years of The Archers.

[PseudoBadger]

It's all about the Sons at the moment. Tom is having an identity crisis, Dan is off to Sandhurst, and poor old Adam is working his socks off.
Follow the undulating Ambridge pastures here!

[WillieWaggledagger]

pancake i agree, and i think it would be realistic too, showing the drip drip drip effect of an abusive relationship as it develops over time

[Sneezecakesmum]

Can't quite cope with years of rob n Hellin but definitely several months. Abusers take about a year to show their true colours, so let's just hope Peggy doesn't croak before then and leave Hellin loaded with a vulture on her back.

Also loving the kitchen farce with big and little steve! All we need now is trousers falling down!

And the grannygate affair will play out nicely. Maybe Lillian will employ Kaffe Fassett to knit a cardie.

Anyone fancy listing your favourite/least favourite archers female........ Mine is Lillian by a long chalk, and as for least favourite, well there are too many to choose from to be honest

[PseudoBadger]

Ian's in Casualty NOW

[ZeroSomeGameThingy]

Ahh..... Is that why they're prepping Adam a new partner? (Or is Ian tonight's fatal casualty?)

[Pancakeflipper]

I also

[PseudoBadger]

He's an incompetent:money grabbing nursing home manager

[cheminotte]

Yes it could go on for years, the relationship where things are 'not quite right'.

[Swannykazoo]

Phew - I was wracking my brains about Ian. Kept on not recognising him then he would speak....

[cheminotte]

Sorry, that was in response to Willie WD. Had not seen that the thread had moved on.

[NotQuitePerfect]

Favourite Archers female: The battling grandmas-to-be, Lillian & Linda, by a million miles.

Least favourite: where to begin? Smug, sanctimonious Shula who has passive/aggressive down to a fine art? Selfish, deluded Hellin ("I'm so independent! Mum, can you have Henry for me?") Yodelling Roooth? No I think it has to be awful, awful Jill with her tediously over-acted delivery of every line ooooh she makes my teeth itch !

[ZeroSomeGameThingy]

Oooh, look!

Perhaps a "game playing" allusion to add to the next title? (Where's the football emoticon?)

It's probably too late to invite Charlie to get on his ....

Pseudo could we have another "shout out" to new listeners/posters? Because I look like a stalker, constantly crashing people's threads to drag them here. (Sneezecakesmum what form of words in Active conversations would have tempted you?)

Oh - did Ian live to the end of Casualty?

[ZeroSomeGameThingy]

Favourite Archers characters? I tried a process of elimination - but quite honestly after a lifetime of living with them I love even the most tiresome and can find Freudian excuses for any bad behaviour. (I imagine that's why comedy villains with no redeeming features like Hazel seem so jarring...)

I worry that "they" have decided they can't cope with over-educated Alice and will make (fury inducing) efforts to dumb her down. Brenda is going to be fabulous. Waiting to see how Ben develops. Lily and Freddie have great potential. Bring back Rosa!

And Rupert should bring so much fun to the village.

[ppeatfruit]

Has psuedo done her bit yet?

If not WRF to Dan returning from Sandhurst on the actual day and not mentioning the 70th Anniversary of D day AT ALL?????

[AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves]

I thought that, ppeat! Perhaps they assumed we would all make the link without it having to be spelled out, but I did wonder if there might have been special events at Sandhurts that Dan would have stayed for this weekend.

I hope Brenda matures into the Lilian of her generation. I want her to swoop in from London from time to time, showering Phoebe and Abi with inappropriate gifts, talking a lot about how much money she has and how successful she has been in her new job and generally putting other people's noses out of joint. Toyboys and gin aplenty, naturally!

[Sneezecakesmum]

Maybe MN should have a permanent banner....archers fans >>>here. Game of thrones >>>here etc. .........Mmmmmm Sherlock!

I was on the BBC archers forum (where has it gone?) and the concensus was the the Archers women were universally hated

Shula has been teeth grindingly irritating forever.

My favourite man was the roof diving Nigel.

The omnibus is going to start soon so I will paint my garden fence and listen to it.....bliss

[AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves]

Hi, Sneezecakesmum! I was on the BBC TA MB too. The BBC decided to close it down as a cost-saving measure. They push people towards Twitter, Facebook and their own blog. The blog gets a handful of posts a week, in marked contrast to the old MB which was vv popular. However, I found that latterly it was also vv negative about TA, full of nitpicking about details, and I didn't enjoy reading it so much any more. I love the MN threads as I think we are all on the same sort of wavelength about TA.

If you did want to catch up with other TA fans in a dedicated forum, there are at least two:

This is Peet's place: started by a technically minded TA fan many years ago.

[[http://mustardland.boards.net/ This is another board set up by a woman who used to use the BBC board (Sue?).

I don't use either of them but they seem to have a reasonable amount of traffic.

The Archers Addicts had a messageboard for some years, but that seems to be defunct now - I think they may rely on Facebook instead. It was never heavily used. I looked at it a few times but found it much too twee and cosy for my taste.

There may be others, but I find this thread is just the ticket for me!

[Whenwillwe3meetagain]

I heard Brenda advertising Toby Carvery on the radio this week. Maybe things aren't so rosy in London!

[AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves]

On the contrary, When, I gather that doing voiceovers is extremely lucrative so if Brenda has managed to get that kind of work she will be in clover now!

Did she do it in her TA Caramel Bunny-style accent? (This will not mean anything to our younger posters!)

[OneEggIsAnOeuf]

I love Lil and Lindy too but my favourite female is Usha. Why so little Alan and Usha of late? They have had their moments of great comedy value when allowed to, but they're mostly either given really dull storylines or nothing at all. Waste of good characters. Grrrr.

My loathing is mostly reserved for Peggy, though Shula is a pretty close second. My least favourite character of all though is Roy - i can barely listen to him, especially when he's trying to be a 'bloke'.

Are we thinking Adam and Charlie shenanigans are going to be a way of exiting Ian, so Hel is even more isolated?

[Bluestocking]

I love Lillian and Lyndipops, especially in their Battling Grannies incarnation. I also love dear Clarrie - she's so kind and solid, and she loves all her awful menfolk so wholeheartedly, but isn't at all a doormat.
Of the men, I love Jazzer most, especially when he and Jim are duetting (and "Jizzer" is the most genius celeb-couple-name). I know this is probably a heresy, but I never liked Nigel much and quite enjoyed his swan-dive off the roof.

[StandsOnGoldenSands]

Lilian's attempts to knit remind me of when I first started (and it's still my approach now tbh) - large glass of chardonnay needed
She is def my favourite female character - apart from the Paul interlude, that just wasn't believable.

[ppeatfruit]

Yes OneEggIs I like Usha too where have she and Hayley gone? I'm not keen on Hayley but it's odd that we haven't heard from her for soooo long. (esp. with a slightly suspect relationship developing between Lizzie and Roy.)

I don't like Chris. and we haven't heard from her for ages (but I don't miss her ) It's more her terrible acting than the character. I like Lilian in a comic actor way (she's not very true to life IMO the affair was believable though) she'd be laid up by now what with the fags and booze and she seems quite keen on THE ROAD . I like Clarrie too.

I liked David Having a go at Brian It's about time

[impomea]

Missed loads and the "film"
Do we know what Alistair was up to yet?

All time favourite-Nelson
Worst- Pipsqueak .I stopped listening last time she had a big sl.

[WillieWaggledagger]

i like lil and lyndy too

i'm a roy-hater too. my heart is sinking at the prospect of him and lizzie at this sodding festival in the next week or so

[ZeroSomeGameThingy]

"Archers fans, Loxfest lovers, cereal stalkers, Albion devotees - all welcome on the road to Ambridge. (Bring a list of baby names. Or a tent.)"

???