Out, damned SOC! Out I say! When will Ambridge be free? Discuss The Archers here

[PseudoBadger]

A once-great soap is going down the Beverley drain.

If you had ambitions as an editor, would you want to destroy your career by trying to carry on from SOC's pile of steaming manure storylines?
I imagine anyone with any sense is steering well clear for the moment.

Having recently read a thread about the glass cliff and its application to modern political times, my money is on the new ed being a woman!

Mmm. The last three editors before SOC were women. TA has done quite well on that front.

This is a poisoned chalice isn't it!

Just LA to last night's episode. For crying out loud. There are no words. The Arsula/Bruce nonsense…..

Is it normal for families to tiptoe around vile bullies letting them have their way and appeasing them? In my house if you behaved like Bruce you would get short shrift, and if you continued then nobody would want to stay with you. Accepting that he is a long term bullying arse and they all go along with it takes a suspension of disbelief.
Miles and Belinda may be too posh to clean for Bruce but there must be a "lady who does" and probably a girl groom to help with the horses as well. I hope we meet Miles and Belinda, they are tantalisingly blank canvas at present.

"Is it normal for families to tiptoe around vile bullies letting them have their way and appeasing them?"

Just wondering whether you're a new listener?

Just wondering whether you're a new listener?

Or new to MN/the real world?

When the Bruce of the house is an abusive control freak then yes

"Is it normal for families to tiptoe around vile bullies letting them have their way and appeasing them"

I did wonder if we were still talking about the appointment of the new editor?

Having been around the top of large bureaucratic organisations for many years, the delay might just be normal inertia or a sense that the editor of The Archers isn't particularly urgent in the large scheme of things.

Or, sometimes it is because the incumbent wants to maintain his (and it's usually a he) legacy, with continuing oversight (a kind of Executive Editor) or he may be trying to ensure his successor is an acolyte or in his own image.

My vague recollection is most of the previous editors have retired. Is that the case? An editor who goes on to a better role inside the BBC has power.

Just my POV.

Haha Bert I am an old lag and have been a listener for over forty years. I just momentarily forgot that Ursula and Helen are frogs in a pan slowly brought to the boil and listened to Bruce and thought "Why the fuck do they put up with this vile nasty bully?" But it is truly chilling to hear the appeasement and the fear in Ursula's voice. The actress is excellent even if she makes me shudder like hearing a fingernail down a blackboard.

Bruce is just too OTT though isn't he? Knob is obviously a vile, abusive bastard, but he doesn't present himself like that to everyone all the time (even to Helen before she stabbed him) - that's how he managed to get away with it. I know we are supposed to be seeing parallels with Knob and his dad, but could it not have been done with more subtlety? If Arsula and Knob are supposed to be mirroring Helen and Henwee wouldn't she be saying - "Knob needs me, I'm not coming back." She's made her escape! If she supposed to still be in his thrall I think we need to hear him being a bit nicer. It's all gone a bit too pantomime villain at BHC.
On the subject of SOC's replacement, I agree with those saying it is a poisoned chalice. SCC's made such a pig's ear of it, it is hard to imagine what a new editor could do to steer the ship back on course. I can't stop thinking of SOC as Boris Johnson figure - he's buggered it up and now he's buggering off.

IMO and E as people get older some of them get more and more unpleasant, he could be an alcoholic, Bruce will hopefully probably die soon

If only!

Joe Grundy is unpleasant (in my opinion), smokes baccy, has 'cough' famers lung and has been drinking cider by gallon for years....

Joe is lovely! And most of his interactions with his favourite grandson leave me close to tears - they're so sweet together.

The item baught from the gents slot machine is disturbing me greatly.

Delurking because of sheer rage at how vile both Bruce and Toby are.

Obviously Toby is a very different kind of vile but he certainly is an absolute utter shit.

Thanks all and Pseudo for keeping the threads going. x

Hello! I found you!

glowfrog Well at least Pip is going into the relationship with Toby with her eyes open.

Bruce n Urse sound like an unpleasant version of the Adams family!!

BOOP ! For Bert's poetry

Place marking so I can stick my two-penny worth in for tonight just like Toby and his change for the Jonny machine

That was a really odd episode. None of the Titcheners appear to know each other. I'm sure Broooce isn't ugly all the time. Arsula has shown that she's not ugly all the time. So has Rob. Nothing for me signalled profound dysfunction. Just nastiness all round. Dysfunction, if that's the problem, is more layered. Yawning at the pantomime.

ppeat true, and of course she doesn't know Rex has a thing for her. I just can't believe Toby. Well, I can, I suppose, and I want rabied hens to peck at his pecker until all he has left is his scrotum.

Ahem.

The condom machine bit was

I do NOT want to have to think about Toby's cock when I'm stirring the sausage casserole at 7.10pm, thanks

I do hope there will not be squelching. Can they not censor it with carefully placed beeps.