Thread #106: Jim’s in a jam, Peggy’s made a pickle and Lexi is blooming - sounds like the entries are lining up for this year’s flower and produce show, but who will be on the organising committee?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads and @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 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!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to LillianGish for the title of this thread.

Holding episode tonight, I thought - not much progress on any current storyline. I was a touch surprised Natasha wasn't offended by the postnup idea but I suspect she's biding her time.

I missed the beginning, and came in at the point she was discussing it with Alan. I'll listen to the whole episode tomorrow afternoon

It was a cracker.

Shula having so little sense or empathy that she said to Clarrie that it will be so hard for Clarrie having to move out of Grange Farm. As if Clarrie needed to be told that. Rub it in Shula "I've just broken my Christian marriage vows but I've held on to the lovely matrimonial home" Hebden -Lloyd.

Shula collaring Alan despite it being obvious that it was inconvenient.

Shula turning up at the vicarage because we hadn't had enough of talking about Shula.

How will Shula manage the stables as well as the vicaring course? Or will that transform itself into a job for Freddie? And if she succeeds, how likely is it that her curacy will be near Ambridge, or will Alan suddenly be allowed to have one?

Hang on....

Does running her stables and being Joint? Hunt Master leave Shula enough time to become ordained and then to do God's work?

I always thought it might have been interesting to hear more about the challenges of running a stable but perhaps the SWs don't have the knowledge. There's still an adviser, isn't there?

Joe will be found having ‘fallen asleep’ for the last time. He has seen in the hay for the last time and seen his grandsons working as a team, for once.

I don’t think there’s an equestrian advisor. I’ve never forgiven Shula for a) not realising her horse's bit was hanging out of its mouth (and thus having to be rescued by Rob) and b) then calling a bridle harness. How she manages to run a supposedly successful equine business with such an utter lack of knowledge is beyond me, so I imagine it won’t be at all difficult to also study for her vicaring duties. All totally bonkers.

Did we establish when this came up before that Shula has time to qualify before she has to retire?

I always thought it might have been interesting to hear more about the challenges of running a stable but perhaps the SWs don't have the knowledge.

When has lack of knowledge ever inhibited the SWs in coming up with a storyline? I mean, I heard Peggy appointing Lillian Chief Operating Officer of an organisation that has no staff, no premises, no infrastructure. Is she going to appoint a CFO and CEO?

Or do the SWs know their stuff and so are we meant to infer that it's Peggy who doesn't have a clue? I always get the impression that the SWs think Peggy is the shrewd matriarch with a sharp eye for a financial opportunity.

Sorry, that storyline has got me frothing again.

And at all the compliments. I suspect most of us on this thread could each write the script for one cracking episode if we put our mind to it. But, doing it week in week out to tight deadlines, keeping track of plots and characters would be challenging (doesn't mean I let the SWs off the hook for daftness - see above). And then having you lot critiquing it would drive me to a breakdown...

By the way, we'll need a new thread this week. Any ideas for thread titles?

As others have said many times before, I suspect what happens when the production team ask experts for input is that the experts provide a lot of information and the Editor/SWs cherrypick it and put things together that would never happen, or they misunderstand/misremember what they've been advised, or even consciously change it because they think it will make a better storyline and after all, who's going to notice!

(Odd that they still think that, if they do. They had their own messageboard on the BBC website for well over 10 years and a huge percentage of discussions were nitpicking about details that the SWs were thought to have got wrong. In fact, I'm sure that's why they closed it down in the end.)

No ideas for thread titles, but I should be able to start the new thread, unless anyone else would like to do it. Unlikely to be needed tomorrow, I assume.

The horse thing pisses me off too. There is no way a reasonably sized English country gentleman like Justin would be riding an Arab. He would look ridiculous.

"The Assumption of the Ambridge Angel, StShula slips out the stables and sods off to Seminary, "

True, this thread will probably see us beyond Wednesday night.

Talking of script-writing, I just had dig for the extra-curricular thread where some of us (well Vango mainly) wrote a fantasy script. Fantasy is the word - I notice Julius Caesar, Thomas Hardy and Phil Mitchell wander in at one point.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/a2608674-Write-The-Archers-One-Line-At-A-Time

Perhaps Justin looks like Patrick Swayze on his Arab.

The trouble with this is that it would be seen as further proof that Jim needs help

Ah yes, the Catch 22 situation, unless you appear to agree with the purveyors of mumbo-jumbo it's then taken as an indication that you need same. Of course you're diagnosed as needing therapy, those making the decisions have a vested interest in your paying up!

Shula collaring Alan despite it being obvious that it was inconvenient.

Yes, why on earth was it suddenly so important that she had to see him on his busiest day of the week? You'd think if she really had Christian kindness she might have left it till Monday so that he could have a quiet evening.

Back in the 60s 70s I used to go "home for lunch" something which is heavily discourage nowadays.

Sorry @MollyButton I don’t get what you mean by that (you said it in the context of a post about the prevalence of sexual abuse of young boys). Can you explain a bit more?

Sorry @MollyButton I don’t get what you mean by that I thought it was in the context of a discussion about packed lunch/pack lunch.

Oh. I was confused by “home for lunch” being in quotation marks and also about it being discouraged- can schools really dictate where pupils go at lunchtime? I lived really close to both my schools and never ate lunch at school once in 14 years, went home every day.

Had the weirdest dream last night.

I was watching a TV version of The Archers. Can't recall the storyline, or who else was in it, but I do know that Shula was played by Susan Sarandon (doing an English accent)

I'm sort of hoping I dream some more of it tonight!

I recently heard the phrase "spiritual bypass" for the first time - Shula has one, indeed so many she could stand in for Spaghetti junction.

It's basically attribution theory on a grandiose scale. You balls up? You need God in your life and to be more Christian. I balls up, and I am so loved by God that he forgives me and shows me his love and mercy.

By using her spiritual bypass regarding Alistair and her vows, she does not have to look at her human hypocrisy and selfishness.

My brother and I always used to go home for lunch (no quotation marks!) in the Sixties as our primary school was a 10 minute walk away, with one very quiet road to cross! We didn't for secondary but that was because we had to travel further, though I remember people who lived in walking distance of the secondary school also going home for lunch in the late Sixties and early Seventies, though it was also possible to take a packed lunch in to school.

I hope Shula is ordained...in time to be the chaplain on the first manned mission to Mars.

Surely Shula will have to do her vicaring in another parish, far, far away?

This if the C of E, they have all the retirees working for free where they live (honestly not paid) and bump the few paid vicars they have left elsewhere.

To be honest the thought of Shula droning on about her calling puts me off listening. Doubtless she’ll be having long conversations with everyone she knows explaining what she’s doing. She gets far too much air time already. I hope she gets kicked in the head by a horse and wakes up an atheist, although she’d probably make a meal of that too.