Don't blame it on a Grundy, don't blame it on Route B, don't blame it on Sean O'C, blame it on the badgers. Discuss The Archers of Prudhoe here.

[PseudoBadger]

I got this from dear Nancy B-S, in 2009:

'Old Harry, Tom Archer's prize boar (known to readers of the Echo as the Beast of Borsetshire), has escaped and is devastating Ambridge, offering an unrivalled opportunity to say, "Is he wild?"
"Well, he's a bit annoyed."'

hahaha

Eric must have been before Harry...Eric is a much cooler name though, we loved Cantona here in the glory days of MU

I think it means you're not called Robert, but I didn't think you were anyway!

I think that's the first time I've ever heard it called a cool name, TheOne! Mind you, Eric Bana is helping matters along.

Matt would see straight through the unctuous surface to the git beneath - they'd never be friends, they should definitely become enemies.

I could see matt and Justin as frenemies

Although that would assume Justin isn't a cardboard cutout stereotype taken straight from the book of 'the evils of capitalism'

A lot of senior people in banks/finance are actually from working class stock. It's not just the upper classes. But hey, why let real life get in the way of a good dig at the cartoon baddies of the day

More matt, less Justin, pc plot and Charlie

Oh an les fallon. She's just so annoying.

Anyone else want to reveal their age to a bunch of strangers on the internet? I've gleaned 48 ages from posters on this thread and I feel a bar chart coming on.

I'm 48 and a r4 listener since18 .archers on and off though so bits of plot pass me by!

I would like to hear more of Matt and also of Jim. I would love a scene with Jim and Jazzer at home because it's such an unlikely pairing yet seems to work. Jazzer was reading Jim's books a while back, wasn't he?

I've had quite enough of Damara Capital and its personnel. OK, we are being shown a village being put under pressure from changes wrought by big business but, well, enough now. We get the message. Get back to the actual villagers and home-grown tycoons please, Mr O'C. It's an every day story of country folk.

I started listening to Tuesday's podcast & then stopped & looked on here. I don't want unpleasant drama intruding into my life, the sense of doom with the shoot - guns, Grundy brothers, jobs under threat made me just switch off. If I wanted doom, unlikely drama etc I'd watch tv.

... everyday story of country folk.

It's a while since I lived the rural life but I have a horrible feeling that farmers selling up, unpleasant people sweeping in for the shoot (and patronising the locals) and, of course the constant threat of the road are all pretty "everyday" concerns. (The one thing Ambridge doesn't seem to have is unfortunate pedestrians being constantly squished on the "old" road.)

But I hated last night too.

I've been listening from when I was tiny. Listened off and on all through Uni and beyond. But I missed John's deading etc. as I was overseas! Came back and didn't realise he'd died as Tom sounded so similar and seemed to be playing the same role.

We all have Archer's names although the ages of the character's are somewhat different to ours.
I have the oldest character's name, then DH has one quite a bit younger, then DS and DD2 have ones of the next generation (I'm guessing for DD2)
Then DD1 has the name of the youngest character, who is much younger than her (and spells her name wrong!)

We did have two cats with B names, but not Bill and Ben.

Hey you lot lay off Simon Williams aka Justin !!!!! Remember him in Upstairs Downstairs ?? Phoarrrr Maybe he sounds a little older now. ,

I think last night might have been a set up for Charlie having a dig at Will (yokel) about his job.

I am 40.

And to the PP who said their dog was half good half bad character name is your dog called Clarrie Horribin?

Oh and my kids used to think the archers theme tune was the ice cream van. I have been an r4 listener for years but TA for about 6. Podcast.

dad^3 at feeling a bar chart coming on... Going through similar after an evening of MYMaths with my Yr 9 son!

But MN 'published'research could prove v useful in discussions with Feedback!!

I really didn't need to hear from that obnoxious Martyn Gibson again.

My 2 dc have the names of 3 Archers characters past and present between them. My db and dsil have the same name as an Archers couple.

So they wasted an episodes pay on Martin Gibson. That money could have been used far more effectively. I would have preferred to hear from Eddie.

The S.W.s were playing off Gibson and Justin IMO making the point that Justin is more of a shxx than Gibson which as we all know is saying something !!! ( I have just caught up so take back what I said about Justin) I still fancy the actor though .

Good to hear the Grundy boys almost having a truce.

Zero I agree with you that O'C might be making a valid point about rural life today. I just feel it's too much in too large doses at the moment.

Brian and his cronies have been the representative robber barons quite satisfactorily for this kind of drama. It seems to lack balance now though and there's too much of 'them' and not enough about 'us'. IYSWIM.

Urgh I am thick - who is Martin Gibson??
I know he was in last night's episode but I have no memory of him.

I have an Archers name and so does DDog1.
Mine is an awful character and his is nice.

YY to more of Jim and Jazzer, and Matt and pusscat. I love them.

I wonder if there will be a reversal of fortunes for the Grundy brothers for Xmas - Ed picks up lots of little odd jobs and has a nice christmas, Will thrown into penury because of the rubbish tips from the shoot. What does Nick do again? Can't remember if she is a SAHM or not.

I thought Justin was well played and rang true IME.

I used to have a crush on Simon Williams when he was in the sitcom Don't Wait Up in the 80s despite the fact he is older than my mam

Who was it made the dig about Adam doesn't say what he means, even to himself? Is it that obvious that he is yearning for Charlie?

martyn, please, trev

he was the one who was bullying kathy at the golf club and never got his comeuppance

SURVEY RESULT

OK - as I have exactly 50 ages, from our carefully selected sample of listeners, now is a good time. Each smiley in the chart below represents 1 person or 2%.

Age.. Frequency
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64

The range of ages was from 28 to 63.
The average (mean) age is 45.7.

I've no idea what the significance of the bimodal shape of the distribution is. (Translation: I wonder why we have a peak in the late thirties, then another peak in the late fifties?) I suspect it's a lot to do with chance; we'd need to know more about the age distribution of MNetters in general.

{Technical note: I didn't type "smile" inside square brackets 50 times; I used formulas in Excel to generate strings of smiles}.

I was holding my breath in hope that Martyn had been brought back to meet a nasty end.

To be frank I'm still completely flummoxed as to how they started out with a young, oilily charming Justin (whose suits I fantasised about) and then turned him into this miserable, carping, spiteful ... thing.

62, another long-time lurker and lifetime listener to TA. Both my sons (30s) have "graduated" to R4 now too.

The new Editor has certainly reduced his listening age profile as, from never missing an episode, I'm now only hearing an occasional one if the radio happens to be on - and it's still unbelievable drivel. Loving the summaries and comments on here though.