Archers thread #112: Quelle beau de lollox! And yet we stick with it. 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 Alf to stay around, 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 @DoctorTwo for the thread title! I was strongly tempted by R4's suggestion of Wildlife on Four: Jonneh is wild at Lily, Phoebe rewilds by Occam, Joy is in the wilderness and David is bewildered by a marriage proposal.

So we did make it past Joe's funeral at last. Are we heading for a Christmas octogenarian wedding now?

Do you think the actors who’ve been playing these characters for years ever say “Hang on, I would never say that!”? Or are they too scared of being sent out onto the roof?

Heavens, the John Fouldes’ piano piece just finished on R3 would be perfect for Ghost Stories in the Attic. Made my hair stand on end. Horribly spooky in parts.

I seem to remember Bert that Norman Painting (Phil) was responsible for his exact words and delivery when Grace Archer died. But I don’t recall any more recent actors talking about making script decisions.

Obviously there’s some dreadful writing - but it would be awfully trying as a SW if the actors took liberties with your script.

I've wondered that too, Bert.

Really, what is up with Jill and her wibbling about ghost stories at Christmas? The BBC used to have them on every year when I was a teenager, it was part of Christmas TV, like watching the Great Escape on Boxing Day. Again. And as for it setting Elizabeth off, or was it some clumsy reference to Nigel/ the ghost of Nigel?

Well done Justin for putting Hannah in her place, and being direct about her undermining of Neil.

Mark Gattis has been reviving them.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-08-21/peter-capaldi-to-star-in-new-bbc4-christmas-ghost-story/amp/

As the mother of a child with mental health issues I am on Jill’s side whatever she says. Being in the wrong is part of the territory.

Silly old Elizabeth, what would she know about organising weddings? Of course a fancy pants wedding in a stately home and grounds is very different to a relaxed barn wedding/hog roast affair, and there's nothing wrong with going for that market! I was a young bride on a budget who loved my handmade barn wedding, like the couples Elizabeth said he should be targeting. I couldn't afford, and nor did I want a LL wedding. David is such a bell-end.

Has any one taken the Jill/mince pie thing to pieces yet? Just two things: a) only making 24????? b) jar mincemeat without even adding booze????

But Elizabeth has a real point about putting all their eggs into the handmade barn basket. It may be popular now but could be deeply unfashionable in a year's time.

I seem to rememberBertthat Norman Painting (Phil) was responsible for his exact words and delivery when Grace Archer died. But I don’t recall any more recent actors talking about making script decisions.

Fairly sure I have heard an interview with Paddy Greene (Jill) in about the last three years where she said she's said, "Jill wouldn't use those words, she'd say..."

David needs a (figurative) slap round the head. He is meant to be running a business not sulking like a child when someone gives him advice he doesn’t like.
Go Justin!!! Now I suppose Hannah will be bad mouthing him as well. Dramatic sacking scene coming up? Rex to get a proper job replacing her and not to have time for rewilding?
Maybe the intern should come back and tell us what’s happening (she’s been very busy on other things lately).

I haven't listened to the Jill mince pie thing, but if she only made 24, they'd all be gone by the next day. I used to make dozens, and that was just for 4 or 5 of us, and a few I used to give my friend, because he loved them.

I was so very glad to hear Justin listening to, and agreeing with Neil, and I loved him telling Hannah to stop undermining Neil. It was lovely hearing her put in her place!

Despite my almost-BOOP I don’t really believe any of this Justin & The Piggery stuff. Because I can’t forget the mega-dairy. Charlie, in charge of Rob, in charge of - was it Stefan? and a host of other underlings. Justin was skiing, or shooting, or being fitted for an expensive suit en route, in a private plane, to some far-flung summit meeting. And now he’s pretty much sleeves rolled up in the pig-pen, personally overseeing every little detail?

I haven't listened to the Jill mince pie thing
Public Service Announcement: do not listen!!
It's full of moist, squelchy noises. It's really unpleasant. It's also 13 minutes of your life that you won't get back.

jar mincemeat without even adding booze????
If you've made the jar yourself then it already has plenty of booze in it.
How come Jill is modern enough to use clingfilm but not modern enough to have a machine to mix the pastry? - it's a lot of work to make enough pastry for 24 mince pies. Someone needs to buy her a KitchenAid for Christmas.

R4 - you can make pastry in a Kitchen Aid - tell me more...

I liked Charlie despite his lust for Adam. I wish they'd bring him back as a vegan.

And Rob had a great voice for radio drama. I want him back as a slightly reformed character, having under gone counselling, to marry Emma and buy a house together on that housing development the name of which I've forgotten.
I also like Russ because he's so butt clencingly awful.

Disclaimer: I might have got carried away with the Christmas sherry.

you can make pastry in a Kitchen Aid? - tell me more...
From the horse's mouth
I always make pastry (and cakes) in my bog-standard food processor with the bog-standard multi-purpose blade.

You might need to call an ambulance if you have drunk that much, theoliphant.

Oh good point about Jill obviously having made her own and just put it in a jar. I doubt she’d EVER go over to a kitchen aid though. Making pastry for her would be as natural as breathing. My great aunt was an amazing baker and frowned on using anything but a fork for mixing/whisking! Her arms must have been amazing.

Ooh Chemenger, tell us more...

Norman Painting was a scriptwriter under a pseudonym.

I suspect Patricia Greene and June Spencer can get away with just about anything as there's no way they'll be re-cast, but SOC showed nobody else is irreplaceable.

I'm annoyed about what they've done to Hannah. She was one of the few characters I could imagine spending time with when she was first in Ambridge years and years ago. Why bother bringing a character back if you're going to completely reinvent them? This incarnation is repellent. She can't leave fast enough for me. Rex replacing her is a good idea.

But Jill was introduced to TA as a "household gadget demonstrator" and "Patricia Greene's first words as Jill ...were, “and now I’ll show you the fifteenth use to which this very versatile little household gadget can be put…" ". BBC blog
She knew all about nifty labour-saving devices 60 years ago!

I think even very traditional bakers use some form of electric mixer (either hand or stand) these days. They tend to have kept some old Kenwood Chefette or similar that has been working reliably for 40 years and aren’t interested in the latest gadgets, but even my grannies had stopped whisking by hand in 1970.

Can anybody remember where the LL waxwork dummy came from? I have a very vague recollection of it cropping up in Nigel's ice cream van days.

Was it a passenger in his old sports car to make his girlfriend jealous?

I only ever used a food processor once, to make the pastry for mince pies, as I was following a Nigella Lawson recipe that involved grating butter and mixing it all in the FP.. Never tried making it in my KA, that was mainly used for making bread and cakes. I enjoyed the process of making pastry by hand. I didn't make them all on the same day though, I'd make a batch of 24 or 36 one day, then make another batch of the same a few days later, after a bunch had been eaten.

I can't do cooking anymore though, and really miss the run up to Christmas with all the baking, not to mention eating the results of my labour.

I used bought mincemeat though, I can't see Jill not making her own, with a ton of booze!