Elves have needs too - will there be a pheasants' revolt? Discuss The Archers here

[PseudoBadger]

I've just browsed Lowfield for the first time - they really don't like Pat do they!

Augusta - I am exactly the same. Some sort of subliminal filter must have been kicking in as I now realise the elves are a 'thing' and a proper storyline…. but have no idea what it's all about. Mental hard disc refusing to save superfluous information….

I'm confused by the elf thing. It was started by Ed for Keira. When she was led to the elf-surprise she had absolutely no on air reaction at all. Now the whole of Borsetshire is going mad for them - adding to the collection, making half term pilgrimages, buying Eddie's tat and Kenton's Tshirts. But still no word from the girl who it was all aimed at in the first place. Or any other Ambridge child, come to that.
It's a story about children that contains no children.

I would have loved something like that as a child. That doesn't mean it makes for good radio though.

I think it could have made a good story, but it was edited out to the barebones by the Hel Rob story. So we haven't had lots of slow build up and hints, so feel more confused and less engaged.

R4 absolutely - I tend to blame myself for not listening properly and missing it. But if that's all there is to it then I haven't missed anything... One minute Ed took (a silent) Keira to see the fairy door, the next minute it seems to be attracting tourists by the bus load. I presumed there was some sort of meat to the story that I had missed. Evidently it's just crap writing.

My favourite storyline ever was the Brian/Siobhan affair. That started slowly and most of the time was just one strand in a nicely judged story plait. Entirely credibly, it was more or less the only storyline for a while when Ruairi was born and then when Debbie finally worked out who Ruairi's father was. The writing was good, the plotting was mostly pretty good, the acting was terrific (and I must conced that in that case the direction and editing must have been great too, or it wouldn't have worked).

Such a contrast with the present state of affairs. The HelRob storyline is being handled with amazing ineptitude now, given the care they took to build up the EA storyline over such a long period. No other storyline is getting enough time or attention to work properly. It's all a sorry mess.

*concede

Agree, Gaspode, on the Brian Siobhan storyline.
And what's with Wayne's woman, Have I missed summink?

She's a pretendy girlfriend that J'lene and Wayne cooked up pardon crap pun to stop Kenton boring on about how Wayne still fancies J'lene / vice versa. It's more bollocks.

can I just ask ..has Rob actaully seen gideon yet ?

Now we know Rob is a nasty bit of work...but if we can suspend that for a moment, wouldnt in RL most new dad's go and see the baby ? Wouldnt he have been to court to get a residence order so Hellllinnnnn...could not take baby Gids to MABU ?
In eyes of law he is blameless victim and she is potentially attempted murderess...surely he would be stormin up there to demand his son ?

Ps I am bored of the elves and backing Brian ( who i am developing a strange radio crush on ) ...us poor birds are getting very disturbed by the soddin elves

I wonder how common it is for the two women a week who give birth in the UK prison system to have estranged partners who want to see the baby but for legal reasons can't see the mother. It can't be the first time it's happened.

Brian is wonderful, theredjellybean, Apparently he wears tasselled loafers but I can't hold that against him.

Another big Brian fan here and I think I'll just try to put the loafers image out of my mind….

Personally, I don't resent the time they are giving to the Hel/Rob saga - it's HOW they're doing it. If it was done well I'd happily have a lot more of it, frankly. All gone unrealistically quiet on that front, recently. I suspect a knee-jerk reaction to critical comment from some quarters on here about that storyline dominating too much. j

Not pink trousers though.

He wears pink trousers? Surely red cords (clutches at straws)

Very DARK red cords….

Oh yes he's definitely a wearer of red trousers. Plus tweedy vets jacket and flat cap. I find his voice sexy but the sleeping around definitely not.

No one has seen the baby yet as far as we know...

oh yes brian will have red cords and maybe some mustard yellow ones too...and a tatterstall check shirt and old worn cashmere jumper...( sighs ....in quiet contemplation) .
i am quite new to TA..i have recently been updated on who Ruari is ...did/brian have a bit of rep then for EMA ? or was the one with Ruari's mother a long term thing ?

Yes Brian has form jellybean. I might be wrong but have dim memories of an affair which led him to miss one of the girl's births?

He's had a few jellybean. Siobhan was the last one.

Yes, Brian had had several affairs before Siobhan appeared in the village. Their affair wasn't all that long-term. They'd only been carrying on for a few months when Siobhan told him she was pregnant. She was married to the village doctor and he was married to Jennifer. She initially allowed her husband (Tim) to believe that he was the father. They then split up and in a very satisfying scene (I'm not really violent, honest guv) he gave Brian a black eye. He then left the village, rapidly followed by the lady vicar (Janet) who had been pining for him from afar for many months.

Siobhan stayed in Ambridge, refusing to say who the daddy was. After Ruairi was born, Debbie (Jennifer's daughter from her first marriage, ergo Brian's stepdaughter) spotted that he was Brian's living image. Then the manure hit the fan big time.

Siobhan was sure that Brian would leave Jennifer for her, but he didn't, so she flounced. However, she reaped the rewards of her scarlet woman lifestyle and eventually died of skin cancer, having pointed out to Brian (not quite in these words, but not far off) that as she had had nobody to check her back for her it was really his fault that she was dying and leaving his child motherless.

Brian was devastated and (incredibly) persuaded Jennifer to take Ruairi in and bring him up. And that's where we are now, with the ticking time bomb of Ruairi's inheritance claims waiting for a few years to pass.

Missing Alice's birth - Mandy Beesborough, who ran the Pony Club (silently). She had red hair. He seems to have a weakness for that, as Siobhan had it too.

Prior to that, he had a short, unhappy fling with Caroline (now married to Oliver). He chased Betty Tucker (first wife of Mike, mother of Roy and Brenda) round the swimming pool but she took advice from Jill Archer and found a way of fending him off. I'm reminded by this article on the BBC website that he also had a fling with a French delegate from Ambridge's long forgotten twin town.

Jennifer isn't blameless either. She was far too close to John Tregorran (Carol's husband) for good sense, even if they were just good friends. She also had an affair with her first husband, Roger Travers-Macy (Debbie's father) while she was married to Brian.

For me Gasp0de you the THE archivist of TA

Forgot, are!

Aw, shucks! For some reason my memory for all this dross The Archers is amazingly retentive. For useful stuff, not so much, sadly.