The Archers: Tally-Ho for the Hunt Ball! Will Justin return from Scotland with the Gay Gordons? Will Adam feel a right Charlie? Discussion #81

[DadDadDad]

Thanks, R4, for the title (again!).

I'm your temporary host while PseudoBadger is on her sabbatical / prison term / secret mission.

Old hands and complete newbies all welcome.

Spoilers (eg Radio Times descriptions of future programmes) not welcome.

When will Matt reappear? Before / during / after the wedding?

The floor is yours...

Seems a bit illogical to give a responsible position to someone who has to go in three months' time. They will have to go through all the expense and inconvenience of recruiting and training someone else, theoretically. Except we all know that in reality Roy will marry her and she'll stay

A bit off topic it where do they find the people on fourthought?

On Mogali Masuku's Noluthando accent - I find it a fairly reasonable version of South African English. Saying "ja" is part of SAE (a borrowing from Afrikaans, but not only used by Afrikaans speakers) and I interpreted that as what she was doing, not code-switching into a posh English "yah".

That's helpful puddock!

(Is the English 'yah' a descendant of Afrikaans? )

The yah is very stereotypically South African and if she throws in too many she will sound like a parody!!

Yah comes from the Dutch which is where Afrikaans grew from

A few of the Northern European countries use ja for yes and I would imagine the upper class yah may come from that as well?

I've always associated it with German! (And habitually used it after the Lower Vth German exchange - long before I started hanging out with Sloanes at university. It does seem to have fallen out of use now.)

I agree with Puddock and others about ‘ja’ being common SAE usage. Friend’s husband has beein in UK for decades but is from SA. His ja sounds tend to come out when he’s thinking, where others might say Um. Trying to think of more examples but failing.

I can’t believe Lilian will be happy at Adam being harmed by Matt- if that should occur. She and Adam seem very close, and of all the Ambridgeans of her generation she was the quickest to accept lan and Adam’s gay relationship. Though of course they weren’t the first gays in the village.

Just popping into this thread to ask why on earth Ruth & David are going on holiday in half term? Classic Dopeys I guess. But mean not to take Ben with them! Perhaps he was worried he wouldn't be able to get his fix of cereal and musicals in Portugal.

(Side note: I went to the Algarve this time last year and the weather was appalling for half the week. Is it bad of me to wish the same on fictional characters?)

why on earth Ruth & David are going on holiday in half term?
It's not half-term everywhere at the same time though i.e. Derbyshire this past week but Sheffield next week.

Has Ben ever left the country? Or the cereal cupboard?

In our house, soup is lunch not brunch.

Yes and they were off on holiday on a Thursday, in a week that's half term for many and assuming they go for a week themselves continuing into a week that's half term for many. How many couples holidaying without children would do that? And they have a school age child so could either have avoided half term, or taken him with them! They are really lousy parents. I don't remember Ben having a holiday as they have so few.

Good point about half term. Also, the mass-market holiday season finishes at the end of October - how have the Dopeys got a holiday that extends into November?

French onion soup, or a clear, hot, sour south-east Asian type of soup, are excellent hangover cures, so I would eat either of those for brunch in that particular circumstance, but otherwise, no, weird menu. And who the fuck wants to carry sodding soup around with them on their errands? Jill is so irritating when she pulls this crap.

I hate Ruth and David. I hope they get dysentery on holiday.

I've always thought that "yah" was just lazy upper-class drawl for "yes".

And who the fuck wants to carry sodding soup around with them on their errands? Jill is so irritating when she pulls this crap.

Shula missed a trick there. She could have poured it over Matt.

The whole soup things is really almost passive-aggressive. The lucky recipient has to wait while people faff around finding a vacuum flask or similar, it's probably used relatively rarely so either they get a layer of dust or have to wait yet longer for it to be washed, then they have all the faff of washing it themselves and trekking back to give the flask back. It can't ever be worth it.

Auld Who were the first gays in the village? My memory needs jogging.

Shaun and AN Other. They ran the Cat and Fiddle which was the other pub in the village. Sid Perks didn’t like them, seemed more to do with homophobia than about the Bull having competition. I think Shaun was Welsh. That’s all l’ve been able to drag out of the depths of my memory. The Cat & Fiddle disappeared into that sink hole on Lakey Hill.

I think the 5 Brookfield Archers had a foreign holiday once years ago. One of my sons hasn’t been abroad - unless you count England and Wales. He and another have never flown. It’s unusual, l know, but not totally unknown.

damn right, Ceto! "Your soup disgusts me!" I'd have shouted.

Iin fact, I'd quite like to rewrite The Archers as a Theatre of Cruelty piece, in the manner of Joe Orton/Stephen Berkoff/Sarah Kane. Something unspeakable would be lined up for most of Brookfield (although Josh and Ben would emerge, triumphant if traumatised, wiping the blood off whatever instruments are used to deliver dead lambs/calves/geld horses).

I think l’ve totally missed the refs to soup. I know Jill was serving soup for lunch and Shula rushed off with no explanation. Of course it could relate to Ben as he presumably has a study timetable somewhere. (obscure ref to Red Dwarf as a character had spills soup on his study timetable and it’s become a family joke chez moi!)

The Cat & Fiddle was converted into "luxury flats" by Matt.