Male or female, young or old - Bad Stuff can happen to you in The Archers. Discuss the perils of Ambridge life here.

[PseudoBadger]

Not exactly upbeat at the moment is it

Delurking, after reading for ages, to say that I fear it's all going awfully wrong with the Canoe man.
The interim editor seemed to do a great job. But now it's all weirdly 1950s gender relations, fluff plots which are dreary rather than amusing, and out of character stuff. For me it's been almost unlistenable this week. So many cliches and so clunky.

I absolutely agree, auntyelle- it's awful at the moment.

Could it be the recent good episodes were pre canoe and post soc?

That's what i was thinking TheAntiBoop, that interim editor, Alison Hindell, did a good job, but now we're seeing HKJ's work.

He's barely started. And already he can't win! I can hear him steadily picking up on characters and activities that have been neglected for the last couple of years......Ruairi, Lynda's b&b operation, Lily and Freddie, cricket etc. It also seems that he's listening to some of our regular complaints (eg. Jill's servile role at Brookfield) and acknowledging them. Surely this week's storyline about Kirsty is in response to the overwhelming listener complaints last year about the fact that no-one seemed to be talking about the stabbing as they would in any normal village? Honestly, it's must be too early to be writing him off?

I agree, Vango. As for Jill and the dishwasher, that could have been me! I love stacking the dishwasher and nobody else in my house does it right. Yes, they all take her for granted and yes, she is a martyr. That all strikes me as totally realistic. My mum is in her 80s and would be just the same.

I wish they would find something better to do with Eleanor Bron, though. What a waste of a top notch actress to have her basically reciting a list from IMDB.

I'm prepared to give him a chance to settle into his seat.
It does seem dull without Rob yet I was longing to see the back of him and I dislike the tawdry affair SL. However, the BBC took months to choose a new editor and he must have had some good ideas to present at interview.
However, I've missed several episodes this week and have now missed all but the end of the film.

Well he can't possibly make it worse than soc! There is possibly quite a lot to unpick so I too am willing to give him a chance. But I stopped listening for long chunks under soc and would rather not end up doing the same.

I don't like the stories he has chosen to develop rather than quietly drop - eg Lillian

Have any or the writers changed? Sometimes it's not the sl itself but the clunky writing. I always thought the writing was excellent pre soc with a few odd spots but it definitely became clunkier and more cliched of late.

I assume the editor decides on the story arcs and reviews the scripts to make sure he is happy with them?

I always thought the writing was excellent pre soc

A look back at the threads about the endless Darryl storyline/Kathy &Pat/Nigel's scream etc (under VW) might dispel that view .

What on earth was all that CLUNKY film chat about?

Were they trying to draw parallels between Charles Foster Kane and Justin Elliot? Shades of SOC.

Oh. Sorry to be so negative, Vango. I had just noticed such a change in tone and was, I guess, worrying that it must be linked to HKJ, as it had been so much better.

Other than Nigel's scream the rest didn't really bother me as much as others!

Maybe it was the proportion of bad to good in an episode. At the moment it seems to be an excellent episode followed by a terrible episode, rather than mainly good and a little bad.

The acting makes a huge difference as well - as soon as pip is on all suspension of disbelief goes and I just switch off. Past few weeks we have at least had the return of decent actors and less dominance by a few characters as we had under soc

Auntie! I think we were just momentarily relieved that we were no longer being subjected to the endless abuse storyline and Alison happened to be in the right place at the right time!

I re Kong one the SW team fancies themselves as a film buff, hence the clunky film refs.

Very apposite and timely. Well played auto-correct.

Why couldn't Lilian and Justin just go to an hotel? Seems like they want to flaunt their affair

Why couldn't Lilian and Justin just go to an hotel? Seems like they want to flaunt their affair

Justin is supposed to be loaded - they could rent a little "love nest". And doesn't Lil have a letting business?

Where would be the drama in that though?

Remember how dull the love-nest thing was with Paul? No contact with Ambridge whatsoever (apart from Lilian occasionally confiding in Jolene).

There really is no reason at all for Lilian not living in her own house - other than that the SWs need her in the thick of things.

In fact - other than the tea-witch - is there anyone in Ambridge not domestically yoked to some random other for comedy dramatic effect?

In a way the interim editor had a relatively easy job, in that she knew we all wanted karma for Rob and had the sense to give it to us. I don't think HKJ could quietly drop the Lill and Justin SL, as they're both pretty major characters, though I dislike quite strongly the way they're playing it all as a bit of a jolly jape. However, I think they've done the Kirsty/Tom story quite we, and I like the fact that other characters are getting more of a voice.

And tonight we have Kiera! I think we're going to touch base with all of them before we're set on another long running storyline (though to be honest I'm pretty sure we've already started on the long road towards the eventual happy marriage of Tom and Kirsty ).

Oh here you all are! I was so bored this week I fell asleep during the film which is unheard of.

But I'm prepared to give Huge Canoe a chance - I'd rather boring than overblown.

Did anyone else hear Feedback with the Archers academic conference on it? Twas great!

is there anyone in Ambridge not domestically yoked to some random other for comedy dramatic effect?

No, but that doesn't bother me too much - it's the Archers, not Ambridge, and I can think of a couple of villages where you can basically do the family tree of the village (and that's without links through employment, tenancies and other business associates - see Nicola Headlam's AA paper.) OTOH, I'd have thought a village like Ambridge would also have more people who work in Borchester and Felpersham (Richard and Sabrina Thwaite maybe, or the Button parents?) and they're being a bit useless in exploiting these incomers for the cricket team etc, even if they were silent characters. It's often incomers who keep these things going. Though I suppose in their time, Lynda, Alistair, Usha, Harrison and various others have all been incomers. And I assume it wasn't anyone with a speaking part (except maybe Jim and Lynda & Robert) who went to the talk on the history of Borsetshire's railways (which I'd quite like to hear myself...) But it's difficult to know who all these people are when they're never even mentioned in passing.

I probably expect too much, because it would be confusing, I suppose.

Sorry about lack of paragraphs.

The party "theme" plot is beyond ridiculous.

(though to be honest I'm pretty sure we've already started on the long road towards the eventual happy marriage of Tom and Kirsty )

Well I hope they emigrate to Canada. I find both of them tedious. I have been very bored this week.