We're on a road through Ambridge, come on inside. Archers chat here

[PseudoBadger]

Have you had your free venison burger?

But Stands are you sure your complaint is completely justified? I was partially in agreement with you before (too many new stories) but I don't think they need to wrap each one up before starting a new one. Because that's not how life is; and it was a rubbish method under the old regime.

If I break my head and lie comatose in hospital for a week the world doesn't stop - but that particular incident isn't finished for all time as soon as I'm discharged. If my aunt has an affair - there are far more likely ways for it to end than the man dying alone in a hotel room. (I would cite Darrell as further evidence, but I suspect that story was jettisoned by the incoming authorities out of sheer embarrassment.)

I think it's going to be fantastic to have all the tectonic plates shifting - eventually all the old power structures and relationships will settle into a new order. But it's not going to be the work of a couple of weeks. Don't give up. Keep the faith!

Zero - I just feel like it's too much 'serious' stuff all at once. Up to three or for big things -I can understand. New editor, wants to shake things up, etc. And yes anything that's not Darryl and Shula's competitive martyrdom has got to be welcome, it had become desperate in the last months of the previous regime.
The Nigel/roof storyline was also a desperately attention-grabbing measure.

I just feel that this whole Lady Chatterley scenario is where I draw the line.
It is not Roy. It is probably not Lizzie. But that doesn't even matter compared to the fact that it is cheap and obvious and naff, from a scriptwriting point of view. It doesn't feel well-explored. None of it does. It feels as though they are throwing things at us mindlessly to see what sticks.

One of the things I have always loved about TA is the way they can fill 15 minutes with village life - nothing "happens", and yet you enjoy listening. I find it relaxing.
Now everything is "happening", there is no time for reaction, processing, gossip, actual real life being depicted in its usual drudgery and gossip and chitchat and reaction, the way things really pan out for months after the "real storyline" happens.

This is a rant now. Sorry.

I'm sure I'm overreacting, the new editor is just being a bit overenthusiastic and in a few months he'll run out of ideas and gradually realise that the joy of the Archers is that it doesn't actually need storylines.
Or he'll go the other way and turn it into some kind of sub-EastEnders sensationalist pile of crap. Who knows. That would be a shame.

Sorry, that turned out a lot longer than I expected.

Just listening and what? Roy the devoted husband is suddenly revealing he's been dying to shag the Widow Pargetter and she has no guilt at all about his kids and wife - also her fecking employee! Ummmmm no. That's so out of character. Was the writer on drugs?

I'm just trying to work out the relationship between Roy's former posh totty, Kate, and his boss-cum-OW, Elizabeth.

E is Phil's daughter.

Jack Archer was Phil's brother.

Jennifer is Jack's daughter.

Kate is Jennifer's daughter.

So E is Jennifer's first cousin - does that make Kate E's first cousin once removed and Phoebe E's first cousin twice removed?

Poor, poor Hayley.

Isn't the whole point of Roy that he is mr boring and dependable which acts in juxtaposition of Kate

The Brian and siobhan storyline was really well done and felt real. This just feels like a cheap shot by a crap script writer more used to having to fit a cliffhanger in every half an hour.

And they take their listeners for idiots by shoehorning in 'comedy' plots like the kitchen and knitting which just aren't very funny.

Having read next weeks teasers in not sure I can be bothered to listen anymore either

and in a few months he'll run out of ideas

Why do I feel you're (polite word for) missing the point - no, not that, more that they have failed to adequately make their point to you? Can you not think of it as a necessary cleansing? He's completely remaking TA - interrogating and examining everything that has underpinned it for years. It's not superficial; it's not about scattering random glitter - everthing that's happening now is fundamental.

I completely get what you mean about everyday village life - but if they continued to only do that the strory would truly stagnate - it can't be the way it was when you or I first started listening. And the stupid, vulgar nonsense that the previous "they" inflicted on us did absolutely nothing to acknowledge, or drag the village into, the twenty first century.

It is a bit punishing I agree (Rob is doing serious harm to my blood pressure ) but the excitement is not in the event today but in where that event, each event, is going to take us in the future. I'm prepared to trust a Hardy/ Shakespeare fan to follow a story through all it's consequences - if that doesn't happen I'll join you on the refusers' bench.

Zero: I do get what you mean about remaking and I was one of those calling for it beforehand, and then welcoming it at first.

I just think that there are better, cleverer, less simplistically sensationalist ways to go about doing it, and I'd like to see them start to explore the implications of the SATTC things they've already done before they go on to pile yet more SATTC storylines onto the pile.

Not saying I'll never listen to it again; just that I've run out of patience for the meantime. So many extremely potentially great storylines in the past year, just chucked away in an ephemeral couple of weeks (or relegated to the goddamn Ambridge Extra shudder). Total waste.

But that was someone else's fault!

And there's no more AmEx to hide behind - it didn't work.

I'll be deeply disappointed if he lets a single story drop.

Borsetshire Land for example. Brine getting the boot - a once-in-50-years storyline. The squire got cut down to size! How did they handle it? Well he can't make coffee very well in his kitchen, boohoo.
Seriously, if you were Jenny, would Brian getting his BL marching orders not undermine your entire sense of self? Would you not be worried about what snarky column Jim would write in the county magazine? Would Sabrina Thwaite not mock you subtly at the next possible opportunity?
And more than that, what about the future of your children? Would Debbie not come back to secure her inheritance? Would Jenny-darling not fret about how Home Farm would do without the BL associations?

This is just an example. One plotline, thrown into the mix. Of course it will take a long time to work through, but what irks me is that they don't even give it the immediate reaction that it deserves. Why do we not hear what Jenny thinks, what Lil thinks (if you were Lil, you'd have a little snark, right?), what Adam thinks, what Debbie thinks? What does this mean about The Illegitimate Irish Child and his inheritance in a shrinking pot?

And this is not the only example. Yes create lots of change, I agree it's needed, but that doesn't mean don't explore it all fully at the time to eke the max out of it.

Sorry, another essay.

I think she's 47 so a pregnancy story seems fairly unlikely.

Anyway, not meaning to argue - just CBA while it's all 'change change change' without time for reaction etc. I'm sure I'll come back, I always do.

BL is new - I don't think it will significantly affect Jenny's sense of self (and didnt she say perhaps it would be a good time to step back?) And Brian's a businessman - the takeover would hurt his pride yes, but you would expect him to have some in-built resilience. The really interesting story is, as you say, how it affects Debbie and Adam (primarily) and how the new board will be absorbed into the village.

Actually Stands I think you want what I want - much longer episodes so things can be properly explored in the broadcast rather than just in my head!

EssexMummy There's some discussion of the age difference further up the thread.....

Right. Ongoing story lines
The Road
The mega dairy
BL
Ruth's miscarriage
Daryl/ Rosa
Dan and the army
Jill and moving house
Lockfest
The pigs
The shop
Hazel
Peggy and her furtue
The leonie/james baby
Amside and the property
Lillian and Paul
That dogfighting business
Ed and Oliver and the cows
The shearing business
Kenton and Jolene and the pub
Fallon and the copper
The other bridge farm grandson
Jennifer's kitchen
Bethany- the incredible vanishing baby
Kate and what's his name in SA.
Alice and her hunt for another job
Pip
Brenda
Helen and Rob
And many others I can't think of......

Tut!

Hakluyt You need to divide the list into "Old regime" and "New regime" and then create a spreadsheet for how many of each achieve full development and /or (for Stands) closure.

I'm still annoyed that we never got proper closure on the golf club saga. They spent aaaaages establishing that objectionable boss' methods were driving the clientele away, so that I confidently expected that at some point they would, as a minimum, drop in the information that the club was having to close down the restaurant after fantastic losses and the discovery that objectionable boss had run up a mahoosive tab that he'd never settled. And it just disappeared into the ether. Most disappointing.

It seems to me that Roy isn't going to go away quietly as he clearly thought that the shag was the start of something big. So he's going to keep finding excuses to manoeuvre Lizzy into dark corners, go away with her etc or just keep staring significantly at her, probably when Hayley's looking; or else he's going to go all mean and moody and end up Confessing All. I suppose the SWs thing that's a good storyline, I just find the thought unbearably tedious.

Now what would be good is if Hayley has a quick shag with someone gorgeous (she so deserves it after years of marriage to Roy), Roy finds out and starts being his usual annoying sanctimonious self, and Lizzie slaps him round the chops and tells him not to be a hypocrite.

I can't imagine what came over Lizzie (except a lot of alcohol), Roy just isn't her type.
For her first shag since Nigel, I'd have thought she'd have gone for either some posh tottie or a bit of rough, but no, a bloke in polyester trousers.

WHY would he be looking for something big? He's never previously given any indication that he was unhappy with his lovely wife and tiresome delightful offspring.

Nah Gypsy They won't kill Dan but there'll be a problem of some sort. Maybe the guy (did anyone notice the unpleasant line about ugliness?) who Dan doesn't like gets himself deaded and Dan was there or something.

Agree Icimoi about Roy not going to give up easily with Lizzie the coldness towards Hayley said it all. His dreams of being Lord Roy of Loxley have been smashed and he's pissed about it.

Stands you've said what I've been complaining about for months the cast aren't given the time to DISCUSS the issues (which are major). And it's annoying.

The other thing I find that's stretching the bounds of credulity at the moment is the pantomine-esque nature of some of the characterisation. Yes, Tony's always been a bit eeyore-ish but now he's ridiculous. And there's no way that he would be lacking in self-awareness to such an extent that he'd expect a fathers day card. Nor would it have been a big surprise that Henry made one for Rob. Rob is playing the father role in Henry's life. Of course he's going to get a stupid card! I also didn't find Piggy's sobs remotely realistic, nor Hellin's ridiculous Hallmark statements every single time Rob does anything remotely kind.

It's just not very believable.

OddFodd I do believe the Hellrob storyline because IMO Hell has realised that she can't bring Henry up on her own, that he needs a REAL father and they both need their own home. Her relationship history is bad (she's not self aware) so she's clutched at Rob as her last chance and she's desperate to make the relationship work

I think some of the BL story is to bring in Charlie - who can actually give the opposite point of view on farming. He does sound quite committed and passionate about "big" farming - seeing it as the great hope for the future. Which contrasts with Brookfield's "traditional" and Bridge Farm's "Organic" arguments.
I think Brian moaned a bit at first, but is now lying low to see what is happening. He has also been warning Adam a bit. I think Debbie is going to be side lined.

Doesn't BL own the Golf Club? If its not making a profit that could all blow up - by which time Roy will be looking for a job.

Admittedly the Festival just made Loxfest seem totally unrealistic - heck my local pub that does a one day "festival" is more organised with planning than they are.

I'm finding the storylines interesting but I do feel there is a bit too much going on all at once for proper digestion and so much of it is a bit too angst-making for my taste.

I think Dan's storyline is heading us towards a theme of army bullying. We've already got Helen being emotionally bullied. These plotlines are likely to hit raw nerves for many listeners and perhaps best served up in small doses. It's all going potentially pear-shaped for too many characters all at the same time and I want some more light relief.

I also want the realism of gossip. I live in a village which my friends refer to as Ambridge. Trust me, there would be gossip, not least about Roy and Lizzie going away for a weekend. Rob would be under constant scrutiny and there would be speculation about the future of Bridge Farm, particularly by its employees.

We need the rustic mechanicals' commentary.