He's not a pheasant poacher, he's a pheasant poacher's grandson. Join us for trials, tribulations and tipsy tractor trips in Ambridge.

[PseudoBadger]

Will this thread see the end of The Trial? And SOC?

Totally, Lillian. I enjoy dramatic events and can handle tedious ones Pip/Trex. Siobhan/Brian was tremendous. It's the forced drama, inconsistencies and people acting out of character that makes me so cross. We are not 'pearl grabbers' but listeners who like intelligent, well written drama.

Hello and thanks for the new thread and updates

Still, there are some really good bits where people do act in character - the cricketing Johnny,Rob and Ian epi with even Shula's sandwich-wafting fitting with her current situation.

@CheesyWeez

Alistair definitely knew about Shula and Richard, I remember David blabbing it as he assumed Alistair already knew. Alistair said "You mean RICHARD LOCKE is my rival?" all stunned. David was mortified. I don't know who else knew, and Shula went on to marry Alistair anyway, God knows why, I think he's a most unsympathetic character

When was this??!?!

When Daniel was a child and had juvenile arthritis, so 15ish years ago.

Tom is another one with amnesia - he appears to have totally forgotten about Knob's involvement in his jilting of Kirsty, arranging a job for him in Canada and all the secret phone calls which the rest of the family knew nothing about while wondering where he was. In other words totally manipulating him in and isolating him from his family in the same way he did to Helen.

Olivia & AcKee that's right, Daniel was about 4 or 5? and Richard, being an excellent doctor before he let Knob switch his DNA for Stefan's at Ethan's paternity test spotted the serious condition straight away and took him to hospital. Shula wanted to dress Daniel but Richard said there was no time.

*Stefan's DNA - not a spoiler Olivia, I made that up

I'm so over-invested but I love it

I think the hour long episode shows SOC has given up - he is unable to rise to the challenge of telling the story with a 15 minute daily snapshot of life in Ambridge which is surely the whole point of and indeed charm of The Archers. It's the other end of the spectrum from the flood - one day, spread over a week which only really worked - and even then not very satisfactorily - when listened to in a long stretch during the omnibus.

Also, given his stabbing was front page national news - I'd bet money that Charlie would ring Adam for the full goss

In real life - this slums then have rekindled a long distance emotional affair via Whatsapp.

which is surely the whole point of and indeed charm of The Archers.

Totally agree Lillian. I want an every day tale. I do not want drama in a rural setting. Even more so, I do not want melodrama in some urbanite's idea of the countryside.

I wonder if Sunday 11th is a job application for something bigger than EastEnders ...

Are sibling love triangles part of an urbanites view of the countryside - not quite inbreeding but there does seem to be an excess.

Nigel loves shula then lizzie
william and ed both marry Emma
Toby and Rex both fancy Pip (any bets yet on when Pip will settle down with Rex, which surely must be the eventual outcome)
Now both Shula and lizzie fancying Richard.

Have there been any others?

I think there was a time when Kenton showed a passing interest in Ruth! When she was new to Brookfield and hadn't yet paired up with David.

Ooh - yes, there was a man (honestly, I just cannot be bothered to look it up) who veered from Jenny to Lil way back in Anglo Saxon times. Could have been Lil's first DH. Leslie?

I daresay Julia and her sister fell out once or twice over men.

Sure to have been more!

Lester (Nicholson, known as Nick). Don't know why I remember that but not whether Lil and Jenny D both had an eye on him.

Oh dear. Well remembered Lucretia - but it seems I was wrong!

Was actually Roger Travers-Macy - originally Lilian's boyfriend - who ended up married to Jenny. (But by the time he and Jenny were an item Lil had hooked up with Lester, who she eventually married!)

Telegraph comment on the Archers : www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/the-last-thing-the-archers-needs-is-a-lazy-lesbian-pastiche/

I don't mind a bit of drama (and there has been plenty in The Archers in the past) but the skill is to weave it into those 15 minute daily snapshots. When the programme has to be extended to encompass the melodrama (or single evening is stretched out over a week of episodes) then IMO the scriptwriters are not doing their job properly (badly done SOC badly done).

Carol had to pull out of Calendar Girls to be with Anna when the relationship with Max broke down. (14 Dec 2015) Was SOC avoiding pronouns even then?

Didn't Jill suggest that Max had hit Anna? Wouldn't Jill have said something if Max had been a female partner?

No one on here is remotely surprised by Max being a woman. It will be interesting to see whether after the supposedly shock horror reveal, the scriptwriters can sustain the storyline. Or will it be like Kate and her shock horror black husband (and children) - shuffled into the background and never referred to again because after the shock reveal it no longer suits the plot - just hope listeners forget all about it (or stop listening).

No one is surprised that Max turns out to be a woman now, because there's been clunky signposting for the last while, but why wasn't it mentioned before? Jill is her Godmother - was she invited to the wedding? Anna's relationship was described as over the week of Adam and Ian's wedding. But there was nothing then. Jenny moaned on about finding Anna difficult after John's funeral, but nothing was said then. Now, ta-da!

It's like Dorothy. I think she is meant to be (shock horror) black, but if she is, I don't see how it's ever going to crop up, as Susan hasn't made a bitchy comment about it, which is how I expect to find out about physical stuff which isn't apparent from someone's voice. And it's too late for her to start gossiping now.

No one is surprised that Max turns out to be a woman now, because there's been clunky signposting for the last while, but why wasn't it mentioned before?

Because she's only just become a woman!

With Dorothy the only way to find out her skin colour would be to have a conversation with Usha about where to ft make up in darker skin tones, or Amy about a good hairdresser for their kind of hair.
Of course a good story would be her to go off with Anna, having stopped being a beard to Dan (although I think we are supposed to think that Dan fell in love at first sight).

Errol There was also Pusscat and Matt/Paul.