Discuss The Archers #108: Has Ed & Emma’s ship sailed? Will Alice stick her oar into Kate's love life? Can Shula walk on water? Come and discuss whatever floats your boat in The Archers.

[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 @QuaterMiss for the title of this thread. For reasons of space had to cut out the bit speculating about Oliver and Tracy pairing off. Surely not!

Off now to give blood, something nobody in Ambridge ever does. See you all later.

Just listened to the omnibus. Blimey. Very intense.

I think this might be the last straw for me. I want The Archers back.

Me too.
I want the core characters back. Not new ones, and while we're at it where are the characters? Are they all on holiday?

I'm inclined to agree, Phonic. Real life is stressful enough with Brexit etc. I want to feel happy about something I hear on the radio for a change.

I just want it to feel normal. What was the original strapline? "An everyday story of country folk"? Village life is full of excitement, but it's the excitement of disagreements about things that matter - the Parish Council wants to plant daffodils on the grass verge where people have got used to parking for Church, the petrol station company has applied for a Post Office license thus threatening the village post office, the application to build 55 houses on agricultural land (which in real life takes at least 3 years to play out) - not the abnormal rate of sudden unexpected deaths, child snatching by relatives, sudden break-ups of happy marriages, shotgun tussles.

It's the difference between reading a good novel where not a great deal happens but we enjoy the complex interplay between characters we know in great death, and a picture comic where every page has "Pow" "splat".

I think *has it in the last paragraph. It’s no longer character driven, it’s all about crisis and tragedy. The writers aren’t good enough to make mundane conversations interesting so they rely on increasingly unlikely plot lines. And Shula, for some reason, even though she is written as the dullest woman in Christendom. I would like to hear Brian talking about the frustration of retirement to Jim, or Lynda chatting to Lillian about their son and daughter, or Phoebe talking to her mother about anything. People chatting, not people crying, shouting and arguing. I miss Bert and Joe in the lead up to the produce show trying to psych each other out. There is no normal life now.

I hate my phone. I think Meredint has it right in their last paragraph.

I agree! I’d love more character driven conversations - and it’s not as if there isn’t a rich seam of half-done plot lines for the scriptwriters to fall back on!

I didn’t really sense any tension in the Will-Ed-Eddie stand off because there simply weren’t any stakes - the scriptwriters weren’t going to shoot anyone, and there wasn’t even a minor injury to force the gun issue into the open the next time Bev comes calling.

I think I’m one of the few people who sympathises with Bev. For all Clarrie’s good points, she hasn’t been able to address Will’s issues properly and, while Bev may have been heavy handed, I think she was right. The kids are not ok with Will.

Unless, of course, the scriptwriters do a typical character transplant with Will and have other characters tell us (rather than their actions showing us) that he is, in fact, Father of the Year, alongside the other Heroes of Ambridge, Golden Pip, Independent Helen and Confidential Shula.

At least stage I was hopeful that we might lose both Grundy boys on Friday.

I’m a long time lurker and listened to the last 15 mins of the film before heading out for the day.

I used to love The Archers when nothing much happened in individual episodes but stories evolved over time. I hated the episode where David and Ruth got it together -blurgh. It was so not what The Archers should be. Now every episode is like that.

I wish Ed had taken the whole family out.

Is it cruel of me to say I really don’t give a stuff about Poppy, Jake, Mia, Keira and George?!

I am a listener with a twenty five year history but just can’t be arsed recently. Inconsistency and plot driven drama is just painful. It all lumbers towards you with such inevitable thudding crassness.

It's a strange feeling to be bored by the drama with the shotgun, and all the stuff leading up to it. Is there anything on line like Lowfield used to be?

At least stage I was hopeful that we might lose both Grundy boys on Friday. And that speaks volumes! Ten years ago would we ever have been hopeful of losing both Grundy boys, no matter how much we may have disliked them?

DH said something similar - I pointed out we couldn't lose one of the male characters whose voice is actually recognisable.

Is it cruel of me to say I really don’t give a stuff about Poppy, Jake, Mia, Keira and George?! Well, why would you? They're not people. And that's the SWs fault.

Mardy is right. Plot driven drama with no character is just boring.

We have already had the gamekeeper-shooting-himself storyline when Greg did this.

MereDinto - that is an excellent way of putting it! And thank you for helping me to understand why I actually like the plot lines about the drama over the veg contest at the village fayre!

While I agree with all of you about wanting the TAs to portray character-driven "normal" life, I live in a very rural farming location (much of the time) and this summer we have experienced the burning down of a cottage and barn (with the explosion of the caravan it housed) , a man high on drugs being found unconscious in the middle of the road who then attacked the police and villagers who tried to move him, followed, very sadly, by the tragic death of a 23 year old villager (the son of the local garage owner) in a motor bike accident. So RL isn't always as calm and measured as one would have thought. Farming life in particular is fraught with physical danger, accidents, money and mh problems.

I’m sorry but - I’ve just laughed out loud at the flapjack exchange between Peggy and Jakob!

I've never lived rurally but have a friend who does (former Londoner who married a farmer) and she has told me a few things over the years that make my crime ridden corner of East London seem quite tame by comparison!

I don't often laugh at the Archers, but if you're not vegan, what attracted you to Kate? was the best line in years seconds, coming after the "a flapjack isn't a cake" exchange.

I agree with QuaterMiss and Choccyp1g.

I also enjoyed the game, set and match to Peggy.

I don't like cake.

I'm sorry?

Peggy would totally have been me then.

Also the bit where she pretended to need a carer was great.

Peggy was fabulous tonight.

Really enjoyed that

It's pretty obvious to me that Jakob is on the Asperger's spectrum.

I do hope the SWs have done sufficent research, and make a decent job of developing his character.

BOOP to Peggy: "Can you take me to the lavatory, Kate?"

Silly Kate, if she really does fancy Jakob. He of all people is unlikely to be able to forgive lies.