The Archers No. 94: Freddie’s doing porridge, Tom gets his oats, but will Home Farm be toast? We’ll have to wheat and see ... Serial production is in full swing in Ambridge

[witchmountain]

Thanks to LilG for the title, and DDD for starting the last thread and the tradition of the thread starter nominating the next thread starter

Lurkers are always welcome to unlurk and join in, including asking questions of the many very knowledgeable posters with a long Archers-listening history.

Don't post spoilers based on forthcoming plot synopses that you've read, there's another thread for that (and we'd love to see you over there). Once an episode has aired then it's fair game.

(It's honestly not personal! Occasionally, browsing through past threads I notice that maybe NewPoster A gets lots of immediate attention, and then NewPoster B appears to be completely ignored - and is never seen again. But it's so entirely random. Sometimes if someone asks a question I might anticipate that another long-standing listener could offer a better answer than I could. But of course the anticipated expert might not realise - through telepathy - that I'm leaving it to them ... I humbly and heartily apologise for all past and future neglect of new posters. Welcome All!)

OK, R4, you're proving my point. I'll continue lurking and skim reading much of this topic.

Welcome, Joyce! To be fair, it's usually me that bores on about the Archers of yesteryear and I haven't been on this thread much recently.

Robert and Lynda: they moved to Ambridge in the 80s from Sunningdale because they wanted to live a more rural life. They bought Ambridge Hall from the estate of Aunt Laura Archer, a New Zealander who rather improbably came over to Ambridge after the death of her husband, Dan Archer's brother, who emigrated there in the distant past. [This was because the BBC at the time was hoping to sell broadcasting rights to TA to the ex-colonies. There was also a Canadian, Lester something, who was Lilian's first husband and was rapidly killed off when the colonial plan came to nothing. ] Aunt Laura had intended the Hall to go to her friend and lodger, Colonel Danby, but rather improbably didn't sign the will, so it went to relative in NZ who sold it, and Colonel D disappeared from Ambridge. (He was played by Ballard Berkeley, who was also the Major in Fawlty Towers.)

Robert was married before to ?Bobo and his two daughters, Coriander and Leonie, are the product of that marriage. Lynda was his secretary. Not sure if we have ever been told whether R's first marriage had ended before he and L got together - I hope so. R worked in IT. He ran his own business for a long time, contracting I think, and eventually ran into financial trouble and seemed to be unable to return to that line of work. Lynda responded by getting a part-time job as a receptionist at Grey Gables and I think it was after that they started taking in B&B guests. Robert also used to do odd jobs - carpentry and so forth.

Lynda was for a long time still the bossy incomer who the indigenous Ambridgeites (and the incomers who'd been there a bit longer, e.g. Jill) resented. My parents live in a village with a lot of incomers, and I can testify to the realism of this aspect!

Lynda's relationship with Leonie and Coriander has been a bit strained at times but seems to be pretty good now, largely because she is a doting grandmother. Lynda was unable to have children of her own and was sad about it. One of the many things I like about Lynda is that she's mostly used for comic effect but just occasionally we see another side to her. (Of course it helps that Carole Boyd plays the role to perfection. That sniff! I live for the episodes where Lynda sniffs. )

There! That's my brain dump about the Snells. Hope it helps.

There was also a Canadian, Lester something, who was Lilian's first husband and was rapidly killed off when the colonial plan came to nothing.

Heavens - I never connected Lester with any wider BBC imperialist plot!

I may have got that from a William Smethurst book, QM, in which case it had perhaps best be taken with a pinch of salt. All his writing about TA is of the ilk of 'They may have started it off but it was best when I was Editor and look how fast it went downhill when I left ...'

Thanks Tiger. I'd wondered how they'd ended up in Ambridge and had never got around to asking, but, it turns out, had guessed correctly anyway.

I'm disappointed I missed the days of The Major on the Archers!

I'd agree, it's not personal. At least it's not until you start making stroppy comments! I'd usually check the BBC Archers site before asking something that requires more than a one sentence answer - it just seems more respectful of other people's time.

omg, just listening to the omnibus (!!) I need a vent because Elizabeth's naivety about Freddie being 'easily led' made me cross.

DD is newly arrived at large indy 6th form. I correctly predicted that rich kids meant a lot more drugs. Some kids are popular precisely because they are dealers. DD knew of but not to chat with, the dealers at her state school; 6 weeks in to new school & the dealers are part of anyone/everyone's social circle. This 6th form is nominally selective with plenty of high achievers... including the entrepreneurial dealers (sigh).

DD wants a future job that a positive drug test would completely rule out, thank goodness.

Listening to the film and sighing with pleasure at Robert and Lynda in the shepherd hut. And laughing at them wondering whether to give Nathan Booth a non speaking part in the play. That has to be a nod to these threads.

to my ears - comedy Borchester accents Which are those @OneforsorrowTwoforJoyce?Just curious. Eddie and Clarrie have always seemed fairly reasonable for Vale of Evesham, William is a bit more towards Herefordshire. But I wouldn't say my ear for accents was great.

Having moaned plenty on these threads in the past, I want to say that I am loving* TA in the last few weeks. Character-driven and lots of great humour.

New Editor next week! I hope we don't have to fasten our seatbelts too tightly.

The comedy accents are those of the locals who are not Archers or Aldridges or posh. Emmur, Kristifur, Fallon, Roy, The Grundeys, Susan etc have fake West County arksents that vary and sound fake.

Oh god i am HOOTING at Pat having ‘the emotional literacy of mince’, so true.

Having heard the actress who plays Susan, it's not exactly a fake accent just her own.
Which I think is the general thing for regional accents, and is why they sound a bit "confused" at times.

I love Johnny at the moment. I imagine him to be deeply handsome. Be still my beating heart 😀

There was an interesting point made, possibly on the last thread, about “delurkers” (of which I am one recent) sometimes feeling like they’re being ignored because they feel they know everyone, whereas to the regular posters they are new. I do feel maybe one other recent delurker might like to bear that in mind...

Looking forward to hearing how Lizzie has fared with the —blatantly money grabbing blackguard— lawyer Anna recommended.

Oh strikethrough fail 😳

I've heard Charlotte Martin and it is a fake accent, same voice though. Pat is Welsh, but her accent disappeared after few episodes.

Everyone gets ignored here half the time. For example, my last post suggested we need to start a national campaign to find Lily, and that has gone down like an inflatable thing made entirely from the element with atomic number 82. It's subject to the whims of whether another poster with something to say picks up on it.

I still think this thread is a friendly place - there's a lot of toleration for different points of view and a willingness to help newcomers, but no-one's in charge and sometimes that makes the welcome haphazard.

Yes I have been asking about Lexi for weeks and been soundly ignored, I took it as utter indifference to Lexi rather than a personal slight!

Oh no, birds, we've all been PMing each other about Lexi and hoping you wouldn't find out.

Actually, on that storyline, when was the last time we even heard a conversation between Ian and Adam?

I think Lexi is gone never to return.
Lily is being "rested" for a bit - the money shouldn't have run out yet and of the Ambridge people the only ones she'd moan to are Freddie and Phoebe who are both "out of the village" at present. So we're not even likely to hear any news in passing. And most people don't know about Russ (unless the so far unheard teenage gossip knows more).

Welcome to any new people! I just interject when I have a random thought or moment, and often listen via podcast the morning after (stops me getting grumpy with posh school parents).

Fascinated to learn that Lynda and Robert originally came from Sunningdale.

The makes so much sense! They are just how I imagine residents of Sunningdale to be.

(Apologies to anyone on this thread who may hail from there.)

You might want to work on the subterfuge DDD, but utter gits the lot of you

Oh DDD, I meant to say I’d share a “MisPer” on fb of Lily if anyone cared to make one... but I forgot. Actually lots of people wouldn’t find it funny so best not...

Puts me in mind of the time that Pat and Tony were prayed for in the intercessions in my then church just after John had died. It was a “prayer from the visitors’ board” and I never found out whether the vicar knew and was going along with it, or was none the wiser!