As another voice actor does a bunk in the night, is he watching them all with the eyeeeeeee .... of the TIGER? Bring back Matt unadulterated to The Archers NOW.

[PseudoBadger]

This is too much for me now. I need to meditate.

Helen has a great idea there:
"I'll ask Tom or mum to look in on the shop".
Do they normally make veg deliveries with their eyes shut?

I'm aghast at the prospect of Adam and Ian's wedding being Eatendered.

As for the Dower House, obviously James and Leonie buy it. They make a nice Granny Flat for Lillian and have two Grannies on tap for free child care. And bring up Mungo in the Countryside (going on to the Cathedral school eventually).

Well yes - we'd have a right to be disappointed if they'd gone to the trouble of bringing two Ambridge families together only to leave Mungo invisible in London. But it would all have been a million times better with Matt causing havoc in the granny-flat as well.

And now I'm worried about all the shlocktastic wedding scenarios. Once was fun (in this era) - any more would be taking the pee.

BOOP points for tonight:
Ian is back. Yay!!
Jolene in kindness mode is so much preferable to leering at her daughter's boyfriend after she disturbs him in shower
Lillian getting support now she's told somebody other than PC Plot of her troubles
And Emmur and Ed talking is always good
Also pleased Helen and Emma are being 'allowed' to catch up now and then. or - as I should honour Scotland's Bard.

Huge BOOP for tonight's episode! All of it! It sounded like The Archers with a full cast of recognisable characters and Hurray for Ian being back. How long before Hellin tells him about the baby - and how long after that before Knob tells him about the snog?

Thanks to Jessie for the Jazzer article. I don't know of any rules about accents. I can think of all sorts of ways children I know have changed or not changed when moving, even amongst siblings of similar ages who have ended up talking quite differently as adults, even though they moved around same time/stage in life. I wonder if the footballing pigs was an idea off the back of J's actor's footballing budgie.

Thinking more of Lillian being 'cleaned out' or not. It IS worrying that she didn't buy the Dower House. Dear knows whose name/s it is in. But how can Matt the jailbird have access to business funds?? Surely the reason for him not being able to own a business after his fraud charge was to avoid further fraud? So surely she still has the business. If Lillian really is cleaned out, she will have a state pension and access to other help. She must be well into her 60s, I assume?The script team do need to read the DWP and HMRC websites as part of their research. Esp if she owns the Dower House outright herself, she could, with care, be okay-ish for money - still be able to afford fags and the odd bucket of gin, I'd hope.

Here's an idea. Somebody - maybe Alan the vicar or maybe even jess the social worker - could get Ed and Em to claim some help. They - Ed and Em - could then be heard chatting with Lil about how bad they all feel, but could then have a very positive conclusion about how such help may be stigmatised but it is there to help 'hard- working families' (as our dear WM government would have it) in trouble (with a bit about struggling farmers too) and so nobody should feel guilty. bladdy bla.

I heard a psychologist talk about accents once, and his theory seemed to be that whether you "kept" or "lost" your accent had a lot to do with how much you still identified with your "home" culture.
An ex-boyfriend of mine's Mum still had a distinct Austrian accent having left the country 40+ years before, as a small child.

Helen is so not going to get to the Valentine's Day dance, is she? After all tonight's signposting about how she was looking forward to it whilst Rob wasn't, he's sure to find a way to stop her.

Lordy - almost out of time for today's BOOP. I was a wee bit boredbut it was lovely to have Ian back. Though it's probably only to say goodbye ...

Well we moan about Helen's friends not seeing her and suddenly two come around at once.
Ian was tactfully probing about the shop and Helen sounded really happy with both him and Emma in marked contrast to how she usually sounds these days.
Both of them will notice if she's not at the dance and Ian will have a thing or two to say if she's wearing mauve flannelette.

Now then. Are we being led to expect a very dramatic Valentines dance? Or is it going to be a damp squid?
Is Rob suddenly going to find somewhere else to be like he did last year? Or is he going to be incensed at Helen for enjoying herself and make a scene?

When is SOC booked to be on Feedback? I think this has a bearing on whether the squid will be damp or not!

Maybe Valentine's Day is when Jess will turn up with Knob junior looking the the image of his father.

The daily fail has an article in about
The archers. BBC chief has signalled a move to take the archers back to its roots after listeners complain about it being like eastenders in a field. Someone is listening.

Thanks, fishfingersfortea! Here is a link to that Daily Mail story.

[Tony Hall (Director-General of the BBC] told Radio Times: ‘It is an extraordinary drama … I live with some Archers devotees. I know how people feel about [it] and I hope Gwyneth [Williams, Radio 4 Controller] and the team will be thinking about what is happening and making sure that we don’t lose what is precious.’

It's lifted from a Radio Times interview, it seems. Off on the trail of that now...

Perhaps someone will think to ask H what she did last Valentine's day....

Guardian story about the same thing here

Big old BOOP for finally hearing Ian, and for Helen seeing two friends in one day.
I reckon Kenton might end up on the business end of a bunch of fives when he 'pins down Dave' for a sale date...

Same in the Times too. Perhaps they will replace SOC with an actor with a strange accent.

Hah! Tentative BOOP for Tony Hall.

(I hadn't seen the article beneath that in the Guardian before - about the critic who played the Blithe Spirit critic. Interesting.)

Boop for Kenton sounding sympathetic to David when he really just wanted to know when he was getting his cash! (poss Sun's episode)

Hmmmm, I think tony halls intervention will make soc and gwynie dig their heels in.

I also think soc will suddenly be indisposed for feedback after this.

'fighting for life in a forest of exclamation marks'

I bloody LOVE Nancy Banks-Smith

While the listening figures are holding up they will do nothing.

Perhaps a listeners' strike..........?

Thanks for the Guardian link Mimsy ( I don't link to the DM ) I heard the news on R2 this morning maybe we'll be saved from having to listen to TEEA!!!! (I stopped watching Corrie when it decided to become Misery Alley to compete with EE). But TA would have to become VERY bad to make me stop listening !!!

Big BOOP for Ian's return! But I can't understand why he didn't ask why Rob was interfering in shop bizniz. Helen knows Ian doesn't like him, so I don't see why he wouldn't have said something. Why is NO-ONE saying anything about Rob's interference? Do you think when Tony returns we'll discover that the doctors also managed to attach some cojones and he's going to be all 'life's too short to pussyfoot around' and start telling Hellin and Rob what's what?! I can live in hope....