Sack the Sock - put a sock in it or pull your socks up - frankly we're a bit sick of it. The Archers is shit, discuss it here.

[PseudoBadger]

I have it on good authority that this is the thread that people enjoy more than the programme it's about

It is odd. And surely obvious that anyone who is interested in teens getting drunk at a party would probably be too busy partying to care about TA.

Kate getting drunk was hilarious. Josh - not so much.

Yes!

I've always thought of the the archers as something you either discover as a child through a parent listening ("Mummy, why is that man saying the baby isn't his? whose is it?") and may not listen for a few years but will return. Or they discover it as an adult who doesn't go out much in the evening!

That's super enochroot. I simply love the Baroque Cycle* and am really looking foward to sitting down one day and reading it all again.

• far far more than other works of his

Well they've lost me, I've given up. I listened to most episodes during the week and made a point of listening on a Sunday when I couldn't. Now, I'm so confused as to which voice is which person that I actively avoid it now - I can't believe I turn the radio OFF at 7pm after 20 years+ of making sure it was on. The whole thing has has turned into a farce and is lurching from one ridiculous plot to another - the turnover of new voices has made it impossible to keep up, so I won't. I'm off!

Isn't Charlie off at the Oxford conference?

I had forgotten about the phone call and what actually happened with the dinner -that-never-was. Clearly my memory is trying to protect me... Either way, whatever the reality of who caused the initial breakdown and why, I think it's clear Rob has v little contact with his parents. I think also Jess knows exactly what she's doing, because she's realised what Rob is like - and did try to warn Helen, but it's going to be a while before she allows herself to see.

I was trying to remember if they've done an abuse storyline before - going back a bit (a lot), was there something dodgy about Lizzie and Cameron Fraser? I remember it ended badly, but I don't remember the details. Did he assault her? Or am I confusing it with Debbie and Simon Gerard? That might have been an affair with a student...

my problem with Jess is that she sounds deranged to me. not in a 'i've been abused way' but in a 'i'm a bit twisted and enjoy the fight' way if that makes sense. Even before the marriage broke down she sounded creepy to me!

i think that could be bad acting rather than what they are intending though

Cameron Fraser dumped Elizabeth at a motorway service station when he was fleeing the country after his investment business collapsed, taking with it large chunks of the life savings of Marjorie Antrobus and Caroline Bone/Pemberton/Sterling. Elizabeth was pregnant and infatuated and had begged to go with him. Rather than end things properly with her, he cut and ran. Utterly humiliating for her and of course she then had a termination.

Simon Pemberton went out with Shula for a bit and slapped her. She did nothing about it and felt very bad when he then did the same with Debbie. Debbie went to the police and he was prosecuted but let off with a caution.

Simon Gerrard was not physically abusive but he was sleazy. He seems to have been unfaithful to Debbie with his head of department's wife and probably previously with one or more students.

Plenty of loathsome men have passed through Ambridge over the years!

Finally caught up after 2 weeks away over Christmas! They obviously know the new voices are confusing, as characters are now saying names in really unnatural ways. Pat, I think, threw in a weird 'Blah blah blah, Rob' on her birthday - you just wouldn't say someone's name like that. I hope you know what the jeff i'm on about because it's hard to explain.

Whoever is writing Rob and Hellin's lines is an absolute genius, I think. It's so frustrating that this is being done so well and other storylines just aren't. Elizabeth is obviously about to find the new Love of her Life, but had to had a meaningless SATTC affair with Roy to realise that. And I just can't talk about the Brookfield SL. The ramifications when it goes tits up will be marvelous, but again, how they've got to that point is just ridiculous and rushed through.

And I still don't see what the point of Carol is. I haven't read all of this or the last thread but I don't like what they're doing to JennyDarling. She's better than this. And the 'satirical' kitchen - she was better than that too.

Oh and what's BOOP Points, precious?

I'm about to listen again because Rob confused me yesterday. I thought he sounded properly incredulous that the baby could be his, but as PPs have pointed out, he has never actually said it's impossible, which surely he would have done had he not shagged Jess at all during the crucial period.

My BOOP point is that I am still enjoying this storyline, I do hope they don't balls it up with some melodramatic nonsense when it has been psychologically plausible so far.

BOOP points: Bit Out Of Practice thought we were all getting very negative so we are trying to mention the positives as well. I'm putting before mine to highlight them.

Another poster thought we were all Whiny Ardent Listeners who couldn't cope with change. So we also now have WAL points, which I'm highlighting with .

Haha love it! I unwittingly had BOOP and WAL points in my post!

"I've been amazed by the extraordinary response from the audience to Rob's casual comments to Helen about her hair - or her cooking. Surely only The Archers audience could be so sensitive to nuance, the slightest change in timbre of Rob's perfectly modulated received pronunciation?" Is he taking the piss?

BOOP - finally addressing the Mystery Baby Problem, I too reckon that Rob will secretly just pay up when he realises he can't sweet-talk Belfast Barb or whoever, and Helen will be kept in the dark for now.

BOOP again - Jill being so sensitive and secretly really pissed off with D & R.

Worse than taking the piss Elephants. I'm afraid (though it's impossible to imagine) that they hadn't realised they were writing an EA storyline till we pointed it out to them.

i wonder if D&R are among the dairy farmers not paid today...

I'm wondering if maybe the baby isn't his.

Was Jonny looking for the note where he had written down the order so he could prove he was in the right?

The note was in the shop

I love the idea of it not being his baby! So many possibilities!!

It is of course possible if Helen loses too much weight she could have problems conceiving. A blessing in disguise perhaps. Though I wonder if Helen - who isn't daft really - remembers how hard she found the early days with Henry and how she couldn't cope. And she had problems with the birth. We'll have to see ....

With the help of Wiki I've learnt John Hannah is almost as old as me - so ages more with Jazzer's dad. That of course could be an interesting SL. Working on the assumption that you can't get too many Scots on the BBC, and having my memory jogged by perusal of Wiki, I wonder where the lovely Ken Stott would fit in in Ambridge ......

Now off to read the blog comments. Soc's blog entry was pointless IMO, and no, I didn't think of the kitchen fiasco as a satire either. He is just trying to muck with our brains methinks.

I am still laughing at Jill with her love eggs. Do you think that we've found the 'point' of Carol after all, that she introduced Jill to love eggs? or maybe one of her daughters did?

If SOC is astounded that anyone's detecting anything in Rob and Hellin's relationship, then I am both astounded and frankly troubled.

You are approaching the matter with insufficient seriousness Topaz.

SOC has shown himself to be very respectful towards the idea of elderly people leading full and enjoyable lives ...

The note in the shop could have been from a duplicate book? It would be a sensible way to keep track of orders and invoicing if Bridge farm isn't computerised.

The Oxford Farming Conference was last week, so Charlie could be back this week.

Sorry, I didn't explain that very well. I meant that the note Helen saw in the shop could have been the delivery note which accompanied the veg delivery, and it was perhaps a carbon copy of the order Johnny took, which would still be in the packhouse at Bridge Farm?

I know, Zero, we are all truly grateful to Mr O'C. But I do worry that Jill was too busy giggling and didn't hear Carol tell her to take the said love eggs out occasionally.

Well, someone knows they're writing an EA story, I don't doubt they could slip it past SOC though. He sounds a bit barking tbh, how is Jenny's kitchen "satire"? Admittedly I missed a lot of those episodes but wasn't it more sort of light comedy? Or does, I dunno, Poirot's fussiness count as satire as well?