Ambridge is in the doldrums. When will Pip pop? Does anybody even care? And Anisha’s off, leaving Rex in the (pig) trough? Discuss the Archers here.

[PseudoBadger]

Sorry about the title, nothing particularly inspiring in the storylines currently

No spoilers please, there’s a thread for that.

What is it that posters don't like about Anisha? Is it solely that she is taking the job in Newmarket and thereby leaving Alastair in the lurch?

I don't feel strongly about her either way but I think she was a wasted opportunity. The LSWs never really developed her or integrated her into the village beyond her relationship with Rex and the cricket team. They took her off mike for prolonged periods without her getting a mention. Seems a shame - was quite nice getting a new character who was female, professional and relatively normal, especially now that Usha has practically disappeared.

What is it that posters don't like about Anisha?
To quote myself: "She has always been one for getting ahead without caring too much about niceties and for not caring about who she tramples on in the process." She is self-centred.

They took her off mike for prolonged periods without her getting a mention.
I think she took herself off; the actress had better offers elsewhere. They probably got fed up with her and thought that her disappearance would be a good tie-in with the marriage break-up.

What could people possibly dislike about an assertive,professional, high earning sexually confident, independent woman who gives as good as she gets? Hmm-I do wonder......

She's not assertive, she's aggressive.

We have got to the break-up scene. She's said "when you said that you would come to Newmarket I realised that you must be serious and I ought to give it a go". How romantic

If I was the anisha actress I would have gone looking elsewhere too. An episode of the clangers would have had better character development.

Where has she been aggressive? The business over the partnership is the script writers screwing up-that's why it's so clunky.

I disliked her from day one. I thought cheating in the drinking game with Jazzer was pathetic and nothing for a supposedly professional person to boast about.

Didn't Alistair have to tell her about rude conduct towards clients?

She was blowing her own trumpet pretty loudly with no particular evidence of her being any good.

So far as the actress- I thought she was terrible. She is a Scottish Pip.

Aside from not being terribly good as an actress . I hate her voice. Her accent really grated.

I thought she had a lovely voice! Just badly let down by the SWs and the irregular rhythm of her appearances. They were trying so hard to convey huge amounts of character info in tiny segments of script - inevitably (to me) she seemed too everything. And a bit unconvincing.

It’s a shame - she was a nice idea ...

You can't separate the character from what the scriptwriters do with the character. It would be like saying Iago's a lovely guy, really, it's not his fault Shakespeare wrote him like that. Breaching the terms of a partnership agreement and leaving your business partner at short notice in a potentially disastrous situation purely for the sake of advancing your own career is clearly an aggressive act, and it would be absurd to say that that's not Anisha's fault, it's the SWs'.

The point is that she would not have broken the partnership agreement because she would have known it would land her in the shit legally. It’s not a matter of being nice or non aggressive- it’s a case of being knowledgeable.

It’s not a matter of being nice or non aggressive- it’s a case of being knowledgeable.

I agree and honestly most of the examples I hear of her aggressiveness or rudeness would be written off as "assertive" or "blunt" in a man in her age and situation. I've had plenty of young male staff who needed coaching in talking to clients when they started out. They learned from it and improved - just like Anisha did. I don't hold it against them now that when they started they were pretty gauche.

I think the tentative start to the relationship with Rex shows more someone who isn't that confident in their own place in relationships and is afraid of being hurt - she pretty much said that when she first started going out with Rex.

She had no qualms about cheating in the drinking game and she had no qualms about breaking up the partnership contract. Her behaviour has been consistent throughout.

A junior member of staff being rude to and impatient with clients is being rude and impatient, no matter what their sex.

She just wouldn't have broken up the partnership like that because she would know that she was in the wrong and it would cost her money and make herself look bad.

And she wasn't a junior member of staff-she was an equal partner.

And she wasn't a junior member of staff-she was an equal partner

The reality is Anisha would not be an equal partner. She would have been a salaried partner.

She behaved like a junior member of staff. Her personality has been consistent throughout. She was selfish, arrogant, prepared to cheat and fond of bragging about how good she was with no evidence of it. She was horrible from day one.

Why would Carol Tregorran celebrate the bringing home of the baby?

I thought her goodbye was strange. Rex said, "goodbye, Neesh" i.e. used a pet name. She replied, "goodbye, Fairbrother". She's a cold fish. I think the only time I heard her getting excited about Rex was when she beat his time on a jog. She's all about competitiveness.

I want to know who provided the reference for the Newmarket job, although that is probably yet another real-life practicality that the SW never even thought about.

Interesting. I thought there was plenty of evidence that she was a very good vet. I don't care for her myself- but I do think the anti Anisha feeling has a lot of misogyny in it. And the "Goodbye Fairbrother" sounded affectionate to me.

Jazzer was being an idiot in the drinking game and to be frank deserved to be shown up but I am not as keen on jazzer as everyone else is!

I do think the anti Anisha feeling has a lot of misogyny in it.

Hmm ... self-centred, self-approbating, headstrong, in too much of a hurry, financially imprudent, dodgy ethics. When we all loathed Tom for these characteristics did you put that down to (a) his unpleasant character or (b) misandry?

"Hmm ... self-centred, self-approbating, headstrong, in too much of a hurry, financially imprudent, dodgy ethics"
Dodgy ethics? Do you mean the partnership? As I said, I think that's poor scripting. She is too canny to do anything tht would make herself look bad to cost her money. And, unlike Tom, she has a proven professional track record which she has a right to be proud of.

You can't cherry-pick the bits you like and write off the bits you don't like to "poor scripting". She has consistently put herself first with little regard for others: she overcooked it by deserting the partnership for Newmarket and has paid the price for her hubris.

I'm with R4 on this. I actually quite liked Anisha and am vaguely sorry to see her go, but she was consistently portrayed from first to last as quite a ruthless person, and that's not a very attractive characteristic. Tom has it too, so does Pip, so do lots of people who live in Ambridge. Soaps are not about nice people, on the whole.

I think Alisha has been pretty selfish in pursuing the Newmarket opportunity. She discussed it with neither Alastair or Rex, just presented it as a fait accompli.

Anisha obviously

I don’t think she wouldn’t break the partnership because I think she’s nice. I think she wouldn’t break it because she would know she would be in financial and reputational trouble if she did. She would be completely ruthless about giving Alasdair as little as she possibly could, but she wouldn’t hand him the opportunity to sue her. She’s not stupid!