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]

marking place...love the thread title

Wow. This new thread has taken off like a rocket

I'm 55. Have been listening since the early 80’s, ie about the time that Brine was rolling about in ditches locked in passionate clinches with Caroline.
And even though I hate almost every character in TA, I feel as though the earth is shifting on its axis at the moment, and not in a good way. It won't take much to make me stop listening, which is

Yayyyyy! I never win things! I ought to thank my DH, my mum, the cat - but I probably owe my prize to you chatty lot and the late surge caused by discussion of Upstairs Downstairs and the total ludicrousness of the Brookfield plot.

[starts worrying]. So what is the prize then?

Pheasant. Possibly squashed ...

OK - if somewhere on this thread you have stated your age (to the accuracy of a year, ie not "I'm in my fifties", but yes to the pair of you who said "I'm 62 this month"), then I have captured it. If you stated it on an earlier thread, or still want to declare, put it below - the spreadshit is still hungry for more data....

If I tell you the mean is currently running at 47.1 then you can deduce my age, which I've added to the data but not yet stated on this thread.

Hello, you two! I am thrilled in a rather Lyndipoppish way that you are using my title!

I can understand SO'C wanting to get rid of the Dopeys, they are really dire, but this storyline is SO VERY UNCONVINCING in every respect that it's making me want to fire a nailgun at the radio. Has SO'C ever met a teenager? Doesn't he know that they go into meltdown at the notion of any kind of change whatsoever? And Josh and Ben have never, to my knowledge, ever been anywhere else in the British Isles, so they would be utterly terrified of the idea of leaving Ambridge. Frankly, if SO'C wants rid of the Brookfield bunch, he would be better off employing the method that Tony Hancock uses in the episode called "The Bowmans" where the whole family end up disappearing into a crevasse that opens up in the farm.

Re the feminist analysis of TA, it is a bit depressing. There are an awful lot of female characters who have comfortable lives because they have married money and an embarrassing paucity of female characters who have achieved anything for themselves. I was hoping that Fallon would suddenly realise that she would make a fantastic police person, and go off and join the force, but no! She would rather waste her life daubing chalk paint on crappy old furniture. I am holding out for Molly Button getting a full scholarship to an Ivy League university.

47.1 was pre-Halsall. She took it up to 47.7. (I assume it's acceptable to presume someone is female on MN unless there is an indication otherwise).

Oh god, that makes me feel old, dx3

35

Re teenagers - none of them are particularly teenagery are they?

Freddie is a good attempt but he's not very convincing either. I thi I it would probably be best if they stopped trying with teenagers!

You think that's bad: "dx3" makes me sound like a robot.

By the way, icimoi, why are you worried? The half life-sized figurine of Justin Elliott will look splendid in your sitting room or even the bedroom.

Sorry, DadDadDad, didn't mean to liken you to K9

Blimey - makes you realise just how old TA is, that Hancock parodied it.

Note to SO'C - reducing the average age of TA listenership by alienating older listeners is not a smart move.

Quick de-lurk....
I am 36, been listening for about 7 years on an off. Regularly for the last 18 months or so.

52. Grew up with R4. I sometimes believe I have heard stories that I actually missed. I generally misremember stories I listened closely to at the time. I am enjoying the current fuss and don't yet feel any of the intense anger I suffered over Nigel. I would welcome even more living, breathing playwrights working on TA and more theatricality (eg the Jazzer Maurice episode) rather than hackneyed sub-TV shlock. I am trying with the next generation; I've "invested" in a much nicer radio than I've ever had myself, purely to encourage a pre-teen. So there'd better be something good for them to listen to ... (I did post a question for Jane Garvey during her recent MN webchat about how the BBC intended to attract the young when they're even getting rid of the 4 o'clock Show.)

Ew, Justin Elliott glowering at me in the bedroom? I think I'd get nightmares. I'd prefer the squashed pheasant.

Tonight's episode descended to new levels of ludicrousness. Are we seriously supposed to believe that the only thing that bothers Jill about moving is the bees? She doesn't mind moving hundreds of miles from her other children and grandchildren - including the child who is going through the dreadful crisis of being so grief-stricken that she has to shag the hired help; she doesn't mind leaving her nieces, nephews and cousins; she doesn't mind leaving all her oldest friends; she doesn't mind leaving the place that has been her home for several decades, where she lived with her beloved husband and brought up her children; she doesn't mind moving to somewhere where she will know no-one except her immediate family and her DIL's increasingly shaky mother. But what she DOES mind is leaving the bloody bees.

And even if none of that is true and she's just putting a brave face on it, just how pathologically stupid would David have to be to believe it?

Mainly a lurker on these threads (but proud to be the first person ever to post a thread on MN about TA, back in October 2001).

For the record / spreadshit am 45 and have been listening since I went to Uni in France in 1988. Was a lovely reminder of home (& the only English soap I could get!)

Icimoi - oh, didn't I say, it's a classical nude figurine JE - I don't think it's the expression on his face that will be giving you nightmares.

dadx3 I'm 49 and have been listening intermittently since I was 22 but regularly since was 31.

I wasn't a R4 listener but sought out TA as I had vaguely heard of it. Then started listening to the rest of the programming.

Well done emsie - what was your thread about and did you get good responses?

I am 41. Can't remember not listening to the Archers. Usually in snatches during the week and then omnibus over Sunday family breakfast. First real storyline that grabbed me was Brine and Caroline, possibly Kate going missing around the same time? Most of my calls home from University used to consist of discussing Ambridge with my Dad (though that was mostly to avoid awkward questions about what I was really up to!). Both parents have now passed away and continuing to listen is an important way of keeping their memory alive. I still discuss storylines with them in my head. My brother claims not to listen any more but has a suspiciously up to date knowledge of plot lines. For me, TA came first then the whole of Radio 4 opened up to me after that.

Now, Jill and the bees- I hear it as a screamingly obvious "of course I am utterly against the whole fucking move, if I was on board I'd be discussing more practicalities than just the bloody bees you dimwit". I wish she'd stop it though.
What I can't fathom is why nobody has mentioned the comoensation for Route B that will be paid out by the government. Shouldn't they wait and pocket that? A buyer/buyers is/are unlikely to agree to a price that takes into account an as-yet undetermined payment, and it may be impossible to calculate anyway if the land is divided up.Do they even know what exactly they can sell before Route B is fully marked out? Route B won't happen (sink holes) and they'll find out just as they are about to complete the sale, then pull out.

Haha at your brother's knowledge of current TA storylines through osmosis!

De lurking to say I'm 35. And hi

Another lurker - 42 and grew up listening to The Archers.

I'm 43 and have been listening since Sept 1996, the omnibus that involved the car number plate scam with the Grundy men to be exact. I was trapped in a car en route to Holyhead with then BF, not husband and I was initiated into the world of R4.

My teenagers have grown up with it on during dinner, the younger one used to bounce in his high chair in time to the music but really couldn't care less now. The older one has a passing knowledge of the storylines, is quite in to the HelRob one as DV is a topic we chat about a fair bit. She was rather disgusted about the treatment of Tom's actor when I filled her in yesterday.
My Ma is a film listener and was converted by me.