Thread 98 - Discuss The Archers here! If you don’t give a ha’porthfor Pip come and add your two penn’orth - we do enjoy a bit of change counting (especially if it’s in old money)

[Bittermints]

Many thanks to @LilianGish for the title (again - she has real gift for this!). Further thanks due to @PseudoBadger for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads and to @DadDadDad for being our resident statistician and keeping the ball rolling when Pseudo stepped back a bit.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to be Susan's best friend or other odd unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3439443-keep-it-to-yourself-the-archers-spoilers-thread-4, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

(Change counting references arose specifically out of a nostalgic discussion on the previous thread, if anyone is intrigued.)

To be fair I think the MCs have been holidaying in Rock Where's Rock?

Rock is in Cornwall. David Cameron bought a holiday home close to it for a mere £2m. Gordon Ramsey (£4m) is a near neighbour.

What did strike me as odd was Emma's dwelling on JD appearing at the door with 'a huge knife' that was 'dripping with blood'.

As we all know, Emma is a country girl born and bred, works in a chicken-processing factory and can be no stranger to nature red in tooth and claw. Someone cutting up raw meat with a knife is not going to spook her. I couldn't honestly get what was going on there. Other than perhaps some snippiness that JD was making a game pie....?

She was just adding some drama to get story for joe. Joe has a kindness in him that I rarely notice in Eddie.

Where's Rock?

Next to the legendary Tresoddit.

If you can get your hands on one of Posy Simmond's graphic books or the film "Tresoddit for Easter" they explain Rock perfectly. I remember it being referred to as Chelsea on Sea when I was a child.

The locals have a different name for it!

Mmmm...some fine down-nose-looking at Emma here today.

Rock is in Cornwall Ah, opposite Padstow. Isn't Padstow where Rick Stein had a restaurant. OK, I get the picture. I remember Tresoddit, though not seen "Tresoddit for Easter" - which of the books is it in?

Thanks - "Rock" as a holiday destination isn't an easy thing to Google!

I wouldn't see it like that Cromer. Aren't we all just trying to unpick what motivates her towards particular aspirations - and what limits her likelihood of achieving them?

I always feel bad for Susan. In most ways she's successful. Strong marriage, decent, hardworking, ambitious children in stable relationships. Her own home. Reasonably satisfying work and good relationships with colleagues and employers. But she can never have what she really wants - the respect and status enjoyed by the First Family. Instead, she'll always be a Horrobin. (With the Clive incident hanging over her forever.) So she's never, ever content.

And one might perceive Emma's simmering anger about her own 'station' in life to stem partly from her mother's bewildered powerlessness. That's not the same as looking down one's nose at her ...

(And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how I spend my Saturday nights ... 🐜)

which of the books is it in?

I don't have them to hand but "Mrs Weber's Omnibus" has pretty much the entire set of strips relating to the Weber family, including their trips to Tresoddit in the yellow Volvo.

I love Posy Simmonds - she completely catches her targets in those cartoons

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how I spend my Saturday nights ... 🐜

But we can give it up any time.

some fine down-nose-looking at Emma here today
What goes around comes around. We wouldn't look down on Emma if she didn't look enviously at other people. If she was at peace with herself then she wouldn't get this level of scrutiny.
And if she and Susan were happy with their lot then TA wouldn't be so interesting!

some fine down-nose-looking at Emma here today

Nor sure about this as she's not a real person, not posting on AIBU and getting a pasting. The problem is the scripting. Emmurr has turned gratuitously unpleasant for no reason. Bizarre. I foresee more nastiness when things get tight about money for the new house.

I foresee more nastiness when things get tight about money for the new house.

Didn't Susan rather grandly promise to help out with money for a deposit shortly after she & Neil became "management" - well now the kefir isn't happening for her maybe when Emma comes looking for that money it won't be there. I remember Neil suggesting at the time that Susan was being a little premature & grandiose in her Lady Bountiful role with her new management staus. Also they are clearly setting Ed up for some sort of disaster with Timotei. So yes, the trouble may start rather than end with the new home....

Oh goodness yes. Only the money was supposed to come out of Neil's grand new job. The one Hannah's about to push him out of.

That's how it'll happen. Suddenly the promised deposit won't be available - Ed will be desperate - Oatey will have a suggestion ...

I love Posy Simmonds - she completely catches her targets in those cartoons Uncomfortable if you realise that one of the targets has a lot in common with you.

Gonads. Ah Joe, how lovely you are.
Guffaw worthy Malapropism and a summing up of Brian's attitude before lunch.

What goes around comes around. We wouldn't look down on Emma if she didn't look enviously at other people. If she was at peace with herself then she wouldn't get this level of scrutiny.

That does sound dreadfully like you are saying the poor (and exploited) should be happy with their lot, happily doffing their cap to the Squire etc. Not having any ambition for better things.

I would not be at peace with myself if I was Emma. I would be fighting to escape and that might well involve being a bit arsey sometimes.

We look down our noses at lots of the characters in TA. Why should Emmur be immune when she's being nasty?

Emma is as moral and ethical as she can afford to be. I hope things go their way with the house. Ditto Kirsty... she deserves a lot of good luck.

Why does Helen have to be told to give Jonny some nice feedback and praise?

Helen is so bloody rude and awful. Why does anyone like her?

That does sound dreadfully like you are saying the poor (and exploited) should be happy with their lot
How did you arrive at that? You can strive to improve your life without being mean about other people in the process.

I loved Continuity's back-introduction after the film: "That was The Moral Maze with Joe Grundy."

Emma and Susan are amongst the best characters in TA in that they are believable, complex and consistent. I also love the fact that both the SWs and the actors have worked hard at making Emma more and more like Susan as she gets older, which is horribly true to life, in my experience, anyway. For me, E and S are more 3-dimensional than Clarrie and Eddie, who get good lines sometimes, but far too often are just used for only partially successful comedic effect. The SWs have done better with Ed (and oddly also with Joe).

I really, really want Ed and Emma to get the house without incident and to make it lovely. I bet I'm disappointed, though.

loved Continuity's back-introduction after the film: "That was The Moral Maze with Joe Grundy." came in to just that!