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]

Umm not sure what a frequency chart is Dad3 but can you not just do age bands - under 20 3%, 20-29 15%, 30-39 26% ... etc?

I wonder if the problem Ed is having with the water pressure in his trough is anything to do with the sink hole

I'm 38 and have been listening for about 12 years, first stories I remember well are the Brine & Siobhan affair and Ruairi being born and the Emmur - Ed - Willyum triangle.

I got into R4 when I had a job that meant I spent a lot of time in the car and got sick of R1 etc playing the same records in rotation. I started off listening to the afternoon play (as it passed 45 mins of a journey) and gradually started listening to the Archers before this, then regularly tuning in for The Archers. Now I only listen to R4 or 4Extra and have radios dotted all round the house and the i-player on my phone.

My DS knows the theme tune and used to dance to it at bedtime, now he uses it as his cue to start playing up. I have recently got my DSis hooked and regularly get texts asking who people are and what their back stories are. I'm sure I remember listening as a child with my Grandmother (I remember the theme tune playing from her radio in the back living room) but my Dad denies she ever listened - perhaps it was her guilty pleasure!

I'm sure that they ran trailers on R1 during the Emmur - Ed - Willyum triangle storyline to try and attract a younger audience - does anyone else remember this or have I dreamt it??

cheminotte - that's a bar chart, to you. Basically, it will be a visual way of presenting the kind of bands you are suggesting.

I see the Dad3 abbreviation is gaining legs. I was thinking Dad^3 (ie Dad cubed) but I'll try to keep my maths geekery in check, and it will probably play havoc with the italics code.

basket hurrah for Northumberland.

Now someone just needs to tell Deeavid that he is weird for hoping Heatherpet has made him some of those stottie cakes he loves.
It's a BREADBUN you dimwit. Not a cake.

Or maybe he just likes bread a lot.

I'm 38 and have been listening for about 12 years, first stories I remember well are the Brine & Siobhan affair and Ruairi being born and the Emmur - Ed - Willyum triangle.

pallindrome this is too spooky! I am the same age and remember the same stories when I started listening. Thankyou for saving me from trying to spell Ruairi

My mam used to listen when I was little too - Archers music = time for bed.

I'm 30, been listening since uni.

Have been listening since I was 16! Now nearly 40 and haven't stopped.

Very dismayed by the Brookfield goings on - the Archers won't be the Archers without Brookfield, Ruth and David. Story line doesn't seem to work - running too fast and without the level of discussion amongst the characters that you'd expect. I desperately wanted a family meeting broadcast between Josh, Pip and Ben - with one of them objecting.

I wonder if the listening figures have been going up? SOC's remit was no doubt to boost listeners. Perhaps he had a deadline for his pay bonus, so had to hasten the road storyline. If it had been done in a realistic timeframe, I think it would be an ok plot. I think there will be a last minute reprieve, perhaps with Jill dying of stress related heart attack??? Really sad to see the old Tom go, though.

PS I said I was 50 in the last thread, but I'm actually 51 Difficult to keep count after a certain age!

Heather making stottie cakes?!! She'd end up face down in the dough wouldn't she ? From what I can make out she can't stand without falling over .

Come on Mr O'C enough of the SATTC lark can we go back to normal please???????

waves to trevortrevorslattery - hello Archers listening twin! I admit I had to google how to spell Ruairi

They think listener figures have gone up due to all the podcast listeners. But they don't seem to have thought if people who listen to both

I think the thread has so many posts because a lot of lurkers have come out to ad their ages!!

How did you and Justin pass the night, icimoi? Does he glow in the dark? Congratulations on your powers of divination, btw. Did you use turkey entrails?

Fine, thanks, had to turn his face and his [ahem] nudity to the wall.

I used a combination of very very rough maths plus optimism that the hunt ball would produce something ultra exciting for us all to talk about. So, basically, guesswork.

I began listening to Radio 4 back in the dark ages when I used an illegally smuggled in radio to listen to I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again at my naice boarding school. The Archers came a bit later - I listened very occasionally, got infested at the time when the Kate/Phoebe/Roy saga had me shouting at the radio; listened on and off from then on, more regularly over the last 10 years or so.

I used a combination of very very rough maths plus optimism that the hunt ball would produce something ultra exciting for us all to talk about. So, basically, guesswork.

But, icimoi, that's my method! I just do it in a spreadshit, with formulas.

In other news, I hope you weren't kept awake all night by the sight of the full moon.

Isn't it naice having a man on here to do all the manly maths for us girlies? But, Dddaaaddd, if nobody has worked out your age correctly in the next 24 hours I think you re obliged not to be coy since we are all being honest (presumably!!). I say 24hours cos it involves reading back several pages though I know I am perfectly capable of doing the maths. Given enough time. I think of you with your user name as either a father of 3 or father of one very demanding person.

I've already alluded to my age in recent posts. I am 53. I can remember the night Eddie came into the Bull and announced he had another son, Edward. I also remember the Sunday film when Polly Perks, 1st wife of Sid, died (accident on the then very new bypass) - not sure which incident was earlier. My mum was a listener and dad was an Archers refusenik. Mum used to huddle in the kitchen on Sundays mornings so she could listen in peace.

DH was listening in the 50s. MIL was a listener too. Talking of names, DH chose Philip as his confirmations name due to TA. He is now totally lapsed and we find it very funny that this 1950s school boy was so gripped by a radio soap. BasketzMinimus has Philip as his middle name, largely because we'd got into a habit of middle names being after somebody and by the time boy 4 appeared we'd run out of dead male relatives. That we liked! It turns out - totally by coincidence - all six of us have an Archers name.

I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again - I have fond memories of listening to that on my new transistor radio (under the blankets as it was after lights out at home). I see it is now on Radio 6 from time to time.

There was a reference to pheasants missing from one area last night so I'm puzzled about the glut of pheasants elsewhere such as on the roads.

Is something afoot in the foliage which is making the blighters shift their territory? Should Will, as gamekeeper, have spotted this? Has there been massive flooding occurring in the wood to compensate for the drought elsewhere?

So do we, Basketz, but it's all coincidental. My husband's name isn't that of a human character, but we're not speciesist here.

unitarian, giant sinkhole in the woods? Justin Elliott can fall into it and that will be the end of all the shenanigans.

By lapsed I mean in a religious sense. In fact TA is the 'religion' that has kept us together here. BasketzMinimus despite his middle name tends to say 'Why are you wasting your time listening to that rubbish?' when TA begins. But he knows to not talk now while it is on. And appears highly au fait with the SLs. ds2 listens avidly. The other two don't live here now - I think they fall into the 'enduring it' category. But ds3 as a small boy was thrilled to find somebody in the radio with his name. And they all danced to the music.

Techie question here - how do they actually count listeners? Is it number of radio sets tuned to a particular programme? in which case you could have several listeners and one set, no? and several radios in one house.

how do they actually count listeners

www.rajar.co.uk/

I have no idea how it actually works (or if) but this is the organisation that does it.

It's interesting how many here talk about inheriting a love of TA from parents - not my experience. Radio 4 was unknown to in our Radio 2 home, but when I became a student, I somehow gravitated to it (can't remember why) and listened to everything. I have a strong memories of R4 turning into a 24-hour news channel when the first Gulf War started. That year, I graduated with a maths degree (no shit) and an ingrained knowledge of the R4 schedule.

And now a confession: I've never been devoted to TA since; I listen occasionally, and try to keep up with the more interesting storylines, and I find these threads entertaining - in fact they've kept me listening (eg I may have subconsciously delayed my journey home last week to make sure I caught the Hunt Ball ).

You can deduce from the above my age, but if it's really bothering you that much: I'm 44.

As to whether my name means three children or one demanding child, I have to preserve some mystery...