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

It's got a very healthy audience though.

I listened to most of the play whilst in the van driving between deliveries. You could tell it was live, Ruth Jones' character (Clover, was it? Or some other ersatz butter) wouldn't've been allowed to stumble over a line like she did, but we all do that irl.

Clover (other butter substitutes are available) had to stay, didn't she? No women escape Ambridge and find their fortune ever! :o

Fuck. It was Flora. Bollocks.

I haven't listened to yesterday's yet. Don't know if I will. All feels too close to the bone, even though my baby boy arrived safely 5 months ago I worried a lot when pregnant and reassured myself that late miscarriages were extremely rare. Kirsty would have been about 22 weeks I think? I really hate the SWs for making her go through this and can't see how it can be a good storyline at all; why make one person suffer two horrendous emotional events that hardly ever happen in real life? (The other one being the jilting). I am also angry at the TASWAMA implication that a woman choosing to go it alone with a baby will come to a sticky end.

I did not need that storyline - am 12 weeks and will now be panicking every time I catch a feverish bug from my toddler... (he's had one this week).
Obviously I realise it's something that happens to people (quite rare at 22 weeks though I imagine?) so shouldn't not be discussed, just bad timing for me.
I wonder what the rate of pregnancy complications is in The Archers - Helen with the pre-eclampsia, Hayley having Abbie early, now Kirsty. I guess Emma and Nic have had theirs without problems, also Helen the second time. Trying to think who else has had a baby since I've been listening.... Oh there's Kate, she was fine I think?

So - international businessman Justin, who previously barely had time for a board meeting in Felpersham, now has to stick around in Ambridge for the sake of a boiler? How stupid is Miranda supposed to be?

No, a broiler unit - chickens reared for meat! Lol.

Still clearly an excuse though: maybe he thought Miranda didn't know what broilers were either...

Wasn't that a dreary episode?

The Tom angst didn't ring true to me. It didn't seem realistic to me. Or is it just me?

Tom is meddling and needs to butt out. Roy is her boss and knows already what has happened. Of course it's sad for Tom but he needs to leave Kirsty alone. She has made it clear she doesn't want him in her life. I am still annoyed about the needless misery landed on them

Did the chink in Anisha's armour do anything to endear her to the haters?

Not at all. Considering the trouble she got into with village tittle-tattle after Burns Night, what was she doing gossiping about Justin and Lillian to some random (who turned out not to be so random after all).

Would Anisha have even known Justin was married? If not, then saying she'd seen him socialising in the pub with one of Shula's relatives wasn't exactly gossiping - though she would have done well to pause to think why Shula mentioned him when starting to introduce Miranda.

Yes, I thought it was an unfortunate mistake rather than gossip per se. Given how indiscreet Justin and Lilian are being she could be forgiven for not realising there was a wife in the background. And Shula could have helped by introducing Miranda like a normal person, i.e. This is Miranda, you might have met her husband Justin already.

I don't like the pushy side of Anisha at all, as it happens, but at least she's not completely one dimensional. I quite like the fact that many of the characters have likeable and unlikeable characteristics. Like normal humans. Would be very weird if all the characters were just nice and admirable.

though she would have done well to pause to think why Shula mentioned him when starting to introduce Miranda.

Of course. It's social convention to say "do you know Janet/John ..." and then go on to say "this is their wife/mother/neighbour."
Unless they do it differently in Scotland.
Why is Alistair so desperate to see the best in her? She is committing faux pas in all directions and is most unprofessional.

Well, maybe she is indeed very good at curing sick animals?

Thinking about it. When Alistair mentioned Mr Grumpy, Anisha's first reaction was to ask "was there a complaint?" Shouldn't it have been "has his dog/guineapig had a relapse in the night?" Does she have a history of complaints against her because she's such an abrasive character and that's why she changed jobs.

Ha! cross posts.

Maybe she's all too used to complaints arising from some combination of sexism, racism and ageism - that's what it sounded like to me. And the 'water off a ducks back' was bravado.

I imagine she thought there might been a complaint because Mr Whatshisname was an arse when she was there. Given Alistair said he was awkward, and reported Pat as saying he was chauvinistic, and saintly Shula's immediate reaction was that she couldn't abide him, I had concluded that he was being a dick and Anisha hadn't bothered pandering to him in the way he would have liked.

I am also angry at the TASWAMA implication that a woman choosing to go it alone with a baby will come to a sticky end

Oh, come off it, in the recentish past we've had a married woman having a miscarriage, we've had a single woman going full term and delivering a healthy baby, and we've had a married woman with a child with Down's. The sad fact is that approximately 1 in 4 pregnancies ends in miscarriage, so TA is just about reflecting reality.

I'm with you Mega. And as I said on the last thread, Tom's lost a baby too (so I'm also struggling with the 'meddling' accusation).

Still not getting the Anisha dislike either. The way I see it, she's a newcomer trying to fit in. Jazzer talked her into the drinking 'competition'. He wasn't taking no for an answer so she handled it the best way she could. I only had half an ear on the radio last night but wasn't her initial reaction to Alistair's question about Mr Hodge that everything was fine? Wasn't it only later when Alistair relayed the details of the phone conversation that she explained in more depth? She has a sunny voice. A great addition in my opinion.