The Archers: Will Pip grow or Jill blow? Lil make her vow or Justin take his bow? Discussion #83

[DadDadDad]

TA (The Archers) annoys me intensely but I still have to listen
I think there is a possibility that we obsess about TA in a way that most listeners don't

If this is you (genuine quotes from earlier threads), or you're new and want to ask anything about The Archers, then this is the right place.

PseudoBadger started it, but we're going to finish it (er, will TA ever finish?)

The panto is meant to be Sleeping Beauty, but are you expecting farce (Mother Goose Pip) or tragedy (Puss Cat in Wedding Dress Boots )?

This should see us through to Christmas.

At the end of the last thread we were remembering recent successful marriages in Ambridge. How long ago was Ed & Emma?

The Food Programme is invariably a turn off for me. Insufferably smug middle class anxiety about the origins of one's quinoa. Ugh

It was a typo - meant to write big! But thank you for confirming ( isn’t that a video game?)

It's line of duty not call of duty!
Does that mean she might not come back?

Just call her Caffeine (which is what C8H10N4O2 is).

This is why I still lurk on these TA threads, even though I lost interest in most of the storylines ages ago. Lurking here is an education in itself, top notch, DDD, thank you.

Totally agree about the food program BOOP - it's just so earnest

I don't understand why anisha can't be a silent character. Her disappearance is weird

The Food Programme is invariably a turn off for me. Insufferably smug middle class anxiety about the origins of one's quinoa. Ugh

Ah, I misread that. I thought you said quince. I am MC enough to know where mine comes from my back garden and I make an excellent home-made pickled quince.

But, yeah, The Food Programme is unrealistic. I've been to one of their favourites - the motorway services at Gloucester - and couldn't believe the cost. Real "I-saw-you-coming" prices that ordinary mortals couldn't afford on a regular basis.

I don't get why the pantomime isn't normal country life, or the herd getting a new milking parlour in Brookfield.? It's a mix.

Most soaps on telly are total shite, (has anyone tried to watch Emmerdale lately? ) I was watching it at my dm's and omg it makes TA seem the most intellectual fodder ever!!!!!

Hmm. You know what? I think I need to get out of my rut. I'm going to tune all the radios in the house to R3, so that becomes my default (apart from Today programme alarm, which I do need, and which I can program to run from 6 to 7.15 and then switch to R3). The more I read this thread and recognise all the low-level boredom and irritation with the R4 offering, the more I think I need to vote with my ears. Woman's Hour, John Smugfries and the increasingly pointless 'magazine pieces' on the Today programme after the first hour, You and Yours, The Food Programme, Saturday Live, Desert Island Discs, crap storylines and acting on TA - great slabs of radio that have no life in them. I really need to break these habits and increase my happiness by redesigning my aural environment! That's my 2018 resolutions sorted then...

If we have got to the point where the archers is defended as not being as bad as the tv soaps - well I think that's pretty damning actually!

“It's line of duty not call of duty!
Does that mean she might not come back?”

Oops!

She’s come back before.......

Totally agree about the food program BOOP - it's just so earnest

It can be but they also cover a lot of environmental and politics issues which go largely ignored elsewhere.

Some of the artisan quinoa knitting pieces are excruciating but items on fisheries, sustainable farming, varroa mites, pesticides and legislation, seasonality etc are all relevant to TA and not covered well on other programming.

home-made pickled quince

Pickled? How do you pickle it? We had a bumper crop of quinces this year and there are only so many jars of quince jelly we can fob off kindly offer to friends and family!

I can’t remember quite what Pip said about having her family’s support to have the baby but what does she actually think is going to happen re childcare? Her parents both work full time on the farm, as does she- does she imagine that they will devise some sort of rota which involves one of the three of them looking after the child in the same way they take turns to do the milking? Please tell me she can’t be expecting her grandmother in her eighties to step in as full time nanny?
And unless she intends (unrealistically) to go back to work within weeks of giving birth they’ll need to they’ll have to pay someone else to cover for her. Did the scripts ever go into detail about Ruth’s maternity leave/childcare arrangements for Pup and her siblings, can anyone recall?

The only Food Programme I thinking I ever enjoyed was about scratchings. But then I'm a Black Country girl so that makes sense!

I think I'd have more time for the earnestness if it occasionally spoke about affordability (or otherwise) of food for the less well off members of our society. Rather than the history of Cheddar making in America or whatever.

Cromwell that's a really excellent idea. I have the radio on almost 24/7, always BBC, and swap between R2 (pop master, Simon mayo), R4, 5Live (I'm a massive sports fan), 6 music and, possibly my current favourite, 4Extra

How do you pickle it?

It's not easy.[understatement]. I par boil them to make them less bullet-like and then peel, core and cut them into orange-segment shapes.
I don't know what happened to our crop this year. I think we only had one! Do you want to swap quince jelly for some two year old crabapple jelly.

She's had the example of Helen dumping Henwee on her parents whilst she carries on with her life so presumed it will be easy. Her parents working full time and child care being expensive hasn't occurred to her. She is very dim. I'm never sure why she's treated like some sort of genius. She's another Ambridge girl who has never made it past the front door.

BOOP, yeah, I know my inertia is to blame - I found a really good 5Live programme on Brexit the other day and all it took was just a bit of looking beyond my usual horizons.

Pip’s baby will be looked after by the Ambridge childcare fairy - it will be left to fend for itself in Rickyard while various members of the family - including its great grandmother - keep an eye on it. Ben will probably be allowed out of the cereal cupboard to act as babysitter in chief so they can be silent together.

May be that’s what we should call the dreaded Pip sprig, JessieMcJessie: Pup?

sprig/sprog!

Well I can't win, can I? The Anti What ever I say it's moaned about, I think I'll go and just listen without trying to be positive on here. TA is not (and never was) perfection I don't expect it to be.

Nothing is.

I agree ppeat!
And I listen to a variety of podcasts rather than just turn on R4 nowadays- although I usually find it interesting when I do.
And the issues around Cheese making in America I find very enlightening, and maybe worrying for the future.

What do we think about Freddie jacking in sixth form to become a DJ?

Thanks Beka

I LIKE Freddie, he's very true to life. I also liked Lily's reaction to his pill taking (exactly like her mother's would have been). Lizzie seems to have forgotten how imperfect she was as a youth ( I enjoyed Jill reminding her of it!).