Call #111 for Archers advice: Is Hilda breathing? Should Joy be breathing? Could Nelson Gabriel be in cryogenic suspension? Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

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

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 Joy'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 for all the input on title suggestions. I'd missed the significance of 111, but @R4 and DDD, our resident numerologist, were right on to it. Strongly tempted by Bore's suggestion but couldn't resist the chance to mention my favourite ever Archers character, Nelson Gabriel. Have not managed to incorporate a cricket reference, so you'll have to read up on that for yourselves. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_(cricket)

I wonder if this thread will last till Joe's funeral.

Lower Loxley has Cranford Crystal the horse and Ellie-May the cow.

Eccles arrived in 1993, and apparently peacocks can live for between twenty and thirty years, so he ought to die within the next four years or so. Someone claims a forty-year old peacock on the internet somewhere, I think, but I can't find it.

Doesn't Keira and George have a dog? I can't remember it's name though, it used to ruin Susan's house pride.

Sorry about my conjugating!

Holly

George's dog (not Keira's) is Holly, the dog bought (cheap! at Christmas!) by Ed to make up to George for Ed having killed Will's dog. (No, it made no sense at the time either.) Holly is not house-trained as far as we know: she was still shitting in the house when Ed and Emma were last at Susan's house, and she was well over a year old then. Since that time she hasn't been mentioned at all as far as I remember. She is presumably sharing Grange Farm premises with another completely forgotten dog, Kai, Will's gun-dog.

I feel that having dog-shit around your house because someone else brings an untrained dog in to it is a reasonable thing to feel aggrieved about, really; being house-proud and not liking a shitty floor aren't really the same thing to me.

Oh of course Hollie thanks. She's obviously been consigned to poo in the cereal cupboard at Susan's, since the split It would be right, the children need some normality considering their Dad isn't with them all the time now. (I know that Will is G's bio. father btw!).

Asking I was trying to be lighthearted btw.

Putting my hand up as another Mustardland lurker. Probably from around 2004.
Tbh I prefer this single thread format as I was never really confident enough to go onto The Bull or The Bull Upstairs chats.

Bill and Ben: Two kittens given by Joe to Peggy in November 2000, sadly Ben has died.

Bill died not long after Jack, and Ben got run over by Brine.

I think you need to change your username Mustardland lurker before you get reported.

OK, lots of dogs then.

But I am thinking that instead of dog-related plots, they should just feature more generally.

Horses feature quite a lot. So should dogs - people out walking their dogs, etc. Taking the dog for a walk is a daily occurrence for almost everyone I know who lives in the country. Meeting your friends for a dog walk too.

Well I am downloading the Podcasts, and it says they are The Archers but it bears no resemblance to TA I remember. It is absolute rubbish and I cannot believe I keep listening.

I am giving it gone more month and if no improvement am giving up after listening for over 40 years! Sad.

“Wouldn’t you love a new washing machine and tumble dryer?”

Now ... I really hope the SW intended Alf to mean “once you move to No 1 The Green”. Because if they meant at Grange Farm - that would be plain ridiculous. Oliver and Caroline had the entire kitchen / utility area / ground floor luxuriously refitted courtesy of their insurers post-flood. Surely the Grundys haven’t completely trashed all the white goods?

I'm unclear on this Carmen thing, but surely the Grundys might think she would want to be told of Joe's death?

Oh fgs this Carmen story is dire. And Alf is soooooo boring- as boring as Shula's autobiography.

Why does Alf talk like a Pirates of the Caribbean comedy character?

Shula's autobiography should be interesting.

I'm out and proud @MikeUniformMike

We're all equal here and all that

Thanks Gaspode - I remember Bill and Ben, and Sammy. Peggy's got to be OK if she's a cat person.

An earlier post mentioned Lynda once having a Bichon Frise.

When was this? It must be be before I started listening, because the only dog of Lynda's that I remember is Scruff, and I don't think he was a pedigree anything!

Or was he....?

It doesn't make sense. Why don't Eddie, Clarrie, Will and Ed round on Alf? He was never there for Joe. He is trampling on their grief (except that they seem to have forgotten to be griefstricken at the moment). He is trampling on the memory of Joe's love for moi Susan. He is stirring up the 'ancestral home' delusion and disturbing their move.
Why are they tolerating him?

Did anyone else snort when Shula said, "I'm finding it hard to think about myself"?

WheresThatCatGoneNow
An earlier post mentioned Lynda once having a Bichon Frise.
When was this?

She didn't own it. It was in April/May 2018, and Lynda borrowed at least two dogs for a week each from some sort of "try out a dog" scheme (one of them was a poodle which people said was just like Lynda) and then the Bichon Frise called Lady. Lady ate Robert's copy of the Silmarillion, which he'd apparently had at university, and had to go back sharpish.

Then Lynda went to a rescue home and fell for a Doberman.

What a tiresome episode. I hope Alf leaves immediately after the funeral, but I'm not holding my breath.

Bichon Frise etc - Lynda tried out several dogs before settling on Monty. I think the Bichon Frise was probably one of those.

If Alf & Joy become permanent speaking characters I think I am out...