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 think it's true to a certain extent that they don't bother with children & teenagers in general, Vango, they certainly seem unwilling to splash out on paying for speaking roles. Notable example recently with Jake who was silent as his mother died (I presume the trip to the café didn't take the whole night and he was back by the end). On a longer term scale, it's unbelievable that we never hear from Ruari (when home from school), George, Ben ... given the amount of time spent in scenes in their homes. And the younger children's presence seems to be entirely characterised by background sound effects of children babbling indistinctly. Honourable mention for the exceptions: Henry the unfeasibly babyish, although even he's not been heard from recently, and IIRC Keira was allowed to complain about baked bean brands with Johnnie.

When they say 'Year 11' they mean 'Upper Fifth'.
HTH

"Upper Fifth" ? I wasn't aware of any Scottish school having an "Upper Fifth"

(disclaimer possibly the really posh private ones who want to be "public schools" might but state schools and ordinary private schools don't)

When did any child last speak in Ambridge?

You would think that someone would have invented the technology by now to modulate an adult-actor's voice into sounding like a child's voice.
We don't need a lot of input from the children of Ambridge but the odd interjection wouldn't go amiss.

I think if all the children in a family are silent and just referred to from time to time then that’s fine - I can kind of accept they are there and we don’t need to hear from them. We can know about them from what we are told about them without needing to hear them. What seems wrong is when one child is given undue prominence in a family and others are left silent even when they live in the same house - eg Ben at Brookfield or when Lily was the silent twin at LL. Thinking back to the previous generation I feel we knew Helen, Tom and John (when he was alive) equally, likewise Brenda and Roy, William and Edward and Emma and Christopher and they were all given equal billing or is it just my imagination?

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Not strictly the archers, but what's with the bbc killing off two previously healthy fairly women from sepsis within a week. Just watched this weeks call the midwife. Meningitis induced sepsis on that one but bbc it's just too much

Isn't it Sepsis awareness week? And there are big publicity campaigns to raise awareness lots of posters all around the hospital last time I was there.

The odd thing about Pip is that when a character is meant to be objectionable it's usually signalled in some way by the reactions of other people. Plenty of people acknowledge what an idiot Kate is, for instance, or get exasperated when Lynda is being a pain. But the only person who seems to think Pip is anything other than near-perfect is Josh, and that is basically attributable to sibling rivalry.

My post at 22:27 was a mistake in case anyone has zero 8 Teresa in it.

Delurking to say thank you to Lillian for her amazingly insightful posts on Will - suddenly I understand him so much better. You should really get a job advising on continuity at TA!

Also liked pps' ideas about Alice having been sexually harassed at work and that explaining the change in personality recently, and lol (or should that be ewwww) at the idea of Ben wanking away in his cereal cupboard!

Does anyone know why Kate is coming back soon, mentioned by Jenny? Also I'd like more on the Freddie drug dealing story - there being no come back for nearly killing his cousin by drug-dealing at home was dropped unsatisfactorily IMO.

Gnu That’s a good point about no other characters noticing how selfish Pip is. Even Ed helped Pip cover up the fact that the cows had escaped when there was all that palaver of the cow disease thingy ( 8 years of listening and I still have zero 8 Teresa in farming terms)

Actually, I know it’s a bit soon to be suggesting the next title thread but can it please please feature “ zero 8 Teresa” in it?!

I'll never forget Pip making Josh do her fieldwork for Uni.

FrancisCrawford - sorry, am not keeping up at the back, when you say: "Rob was another one parachuted in to be a villain. I remember saying that it was deeply suspicious he seemed to know an awful lot about Ambridge residents in a very short time.

He who must not be named and the old couple were only ever a means to an end." - who do you mean, Rob's brother and his parents?

I've just listened to last night's episode - Joe was excellent, I was sniffing away (not in a Lynda Snell fashion, either)

@OuaisMaisBon who must not be named was D who was a builder (and very depressed/depressing character) married to a carer for Peggy's late husband Jack (2). The old couple lived in a flat that Matt was trying to force them out of so he could profit from it.

D must not be named or a regular gets very annoyed - especially as the SW/editor might remember him and bring him back.

Ah, thank you so much for the explanation, Bekabeech - I had stopped listening around the time he who must not be named disappeared as I was so pissed off with the whole let's move Brookfield to Northumbria (which doesn't exist) storyline, whilst completely ignoring Archers' family history and logistics of any sort.

Jennifer's cookbook. I've had a copy since publication 24 years ago. Some quite good recipes.

Belated thanks for the new thread Pseudo.

Totally agree GnotherGnu about the other character's reactions to Pip's selfishness (or not as it happens!). Perhaps it is because her character wasn't properly drawn in the first place ie she grew up on set without being fully fleshed out as an adult, as it were. I'm similarly bemused by Shula's behaviour and character atm. I'm not sure what I am supposed to think about her! One doesn't mind being ambivalent about a character if the ambivalence is deliberately manufactured ifyswim, but it's unsettling when confusion is generated by inconsistent/ambiguous/unresolved script writing.

The only thing I remember Henwee saying recently is "all-wiggght" when asked to go and wash his hands or go to bed. Funny how dc in soap operas always comply immediately with parental requests... .

The reason for the non appearance of child actors is that, apart from Daniel Radcliffe and Shirley Temple, most can't act!

I'm happy to keep them off air with just the odd mention. Thank goodness we don't have Henry these days.

The reason for the non appearance of child actors is that, apart from Daniel Radcliffe and Shirley Temple, most can't act! Er ... have you watched the early Harry Potter films?

I won't comment on Shirley Temple's acting ability because I've never been able to tolerate watching her for longer than it took me to switch off.