We never thought we’d feel sorry for Will. Although of course it should have been Pip! Discuss The Archers here (Titled edited by MNHQ)

[PseudoBadger]

Welcome all! I was really touched by the potential for Ed and Will to reconcile. But wonder if Will can accept Ed’s support.

As ever, no spoilers here (there’s a thread for that) - discussion permitted as soon as the pm episode is broadcast.

I couldn't believe, not that they'd killed off Nic, but how appallingly bad an actor 'Will' is. There are some really excellent actors in TA who are so believable I forget they're actors (e.g. Kenton, Brian, Gill), but his speech in I think Sunday's episode was so bad, it sounded like he was complaining about the drains or something, just wooden.

And re Alice, my guess is that she's developing a drinking problem, partly because she is being sexually harassed in the workplace by that guy she doesn't like (topical).

I couldn't believe, not that they'd killed off Nic, but how appallingly bad an actor 'Will' is.

He can’t be that bad an actor if his character manages to arouse such strong feelings?

When we complain about Pip we’re usually remarking on Daisy Badger portrayal of the character. Will, the character, is totally believable in my opinion.

The Home Farm illegal dumping SL does not ring true at all to me.

Who's Gill?
If you mean Jill, I think she often sounds like she's reading a script. As does David. Both are good on occasions.

Who's Gill?
If you mean Jill

FFS.

I read it as Gill with a hard G.
Spellings matter. If I see Linda I do not think of Lynda Snell.

Took me a long time to work out who Gill was, not because I pronounce it any differently from Jill, but because I know it only as an abbreviation of Gillian, and no-one ever has referred to Jill as Gillian.

I know a Jill. Her name is Jill but people call her Gill, Gillian and even Jillian. Obviously, a four letter name of one syllable is going to be tricky. Poor Susan struggles with Neil.

The name can be spelled both ways. As this is a RADIO programme, it's not hard to see why people might hear it as Gill. Which is a name. Jill can of course also be short for Jillian, which is less usual but happens.

We never heard Nic called Nicola, Nicole, or Nicoletta, but I assume Nic wasn't on her imaginary birth certificate!

If I see Linda, I know this character spells it Lynda, but I'd probably manage to make the connection and not go 'Linda? Who on earth is Linda? Do you mean Lynda?

Yeah you're right. My favourite characters are Cate, Jenni, Soo, Rooth, Debi and Allis, but I like Kris and Neal too. I like Sharron when she was going out with Jon. Allen is ok. Henri and Jak are a bit annoying but Kira is going to be a mini-me of her mum. Edi and Jo Grundy are good hearted. Justyn isn't. Freddy and Lillie are well acted.

Freddy is female. cf Leslie/Lesley

Yeah, see I do know who you mean though, Mike. I am not being a dick about it, even though with several of those you've actually just made up phonetic spellings that are never used. I still know who you mean.

It's on the RADIO, and lots of women are called Gill. I happen to know it's Jill in this instance, but there's no need to be a tool about it.

Didn't Joe call her Nicola during the dying scene?

@LillianGish I'm in awe of your analysis of Will. Spot on. Just because someone is an arse doesn't mean it's not sad when a terrible thing happens to them. Even if Peep had something bad happen I would be sad.

I have to say the Nic storyline has been really upsetting for me. She was the same age as me and we were pregnant at the same time. I've had several glass-of-wine-slightly-weepy conversations with my Dh about what we would do if this happened to us. He pats my hand gently and tries not to laugh. So glad I'm not married to Will.

If I had thought about going up on a glider during any of my pregnancies I think pretty much everyone around me would have been astonished. Is this considered an ok thing to do?

Are gliders more proportionately accident prone than cars? I can’t find them on the RoSPA ‘Accidents caused by...’ list. Shocked by how dangerous lawn mowers are, tho!

And toasters! Wow! Watch out Jill, Fallon and all other toaster-operatives.

What happens with toasters?!

Yeah, Gill, Jill, whatevs.

But I'm right about Alice being sexually harassed, no?

I love the characters who have some real depth to them - not love them as in like them as people, just love them as characters. So all the Grundies, the Carters (though not Chris as he’s not particularly fleshed out), most of the Archers (though Pip, Josh and Ben feel like wasted opportunities) and the Aldridges, the Snells (but not Robert’s children), Kirsty, Roy - people who we’ve known for a long time and have been portrayed consistently. The characters I dislike are people like Justin who have been parachuted in to be baddies, whose background we don’t really know much about and whose portrayal is inconsistent - so ruthless businessman, transformed briefly into affable country gent before morphing back into BL bore to suit the vagaries of the plot. Harrison is another character who feels very thin to me as well. It’s why I find it hard to warm to the Fairbrothers because there is a large chunk of their life we know nothing about - couldn’t analyse either of them to any degree or predict how they might behave in any given situation. It’s hard to be gripped by plots involving these characters because the drama always feels much more forced and I don’t really care what happens to them. They are like the people who work in an entirely different department to you at work so you might know them by sight and be vaguely interested if they did something worthy of gossip, but you wouldn’t join in because you don’t really know enough about them to be able to contribute anything.

Longtime lurker here have always suspected nic for mowing down Matt nic was very sheepish around Christmas about accepting what a kind person she was when she took on the nativity etc she felt v awkward

I completely agree lilliangish. It’s not only difficult to care about the outcomes for characters that aren’t fleshed out, but those that are inconsistent sow confusion, as you’re unsure how you’re meant to be reading them. Mind you, it’s increasingly a problem even with supposedly fleshed out characters. Do we understand the.motivations of Kirstie in returning to the village?

Here’s Ruth doing good.

Afghanaid.