Archers thread #113: Who’ll find some Magic Time this Christmas in Ambridge? Share the glad tidings (and bad writing) in The Archers! Election-free zone so far ...

[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 Hannah 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 @SurpriseSparDay for the title. I haven't heard 12/12 yet so must catch up now, seeking relief from the outside world.

@r4 because you will probably create a rift in the space time continuum

😁

Tom shows nothing but contempt for his dad. He is such an unpleasant young man.

His sudden leap to suspecting an affair was odd given that a) prior to Natasha mentioning Joy had a crush on Tony he hadn't noticed anything was amiss and didn't have any underlying suspicions at all and b) Tony has no form whatsoever for being unfaithful or mistreating women (unlike Tom).

I like Joy.

There, I've said it.

The SWs really went over the top with Angus, I'm surprise his business isn't called Bona Interiors. His line about getting inspiration was very close to be lifted from the Julian and Sandy scripts - I've read them obsessively so know these things.

As for Eccles, I thought it might turn into a version of the dead parrot sketch.

I still think Joy has boundary issues, knocking on Kirtsy and Phil's door on Christmas Eve - or was it to bring round the gingerbread?

You create the invoice "today", as per usual, and do the necessary printing, saving, updating, etc. You then reset the computer date back to today-today. Hmm ... so if you had something like Time Machine running, creating regular archives, and the crime was something that was going to be seriously investigated, then someone could step back in Time Machine to the 16th Dec, or whatever the date was, and find out that although the document was apparently created on 16th Dec, it didn't actually start appearing in the archives until 24th Dec?

still think Joy has boundary issues, knocking on Kirtsy and Phil's door on Christmas Eve - or was it to bring round the gingerbread? Aren't they neighbours? I'd find it really strange if my neighbours texted before knocking. Beside, it wasn't untill they'd lived there for about a year that we got round to exchanging telephone nos.

although the document was apparently created on 16th Dec, it didn't actually start appearing in the archives until 24th Dec?
Oh no. Someone forgot to archive / the archive won't restore / we've been off work since the 16th so there was nothing to archive / I overwrote the back-up disc.
I'm soooo useless with this technology stuff.
Is there a problem, Officer?

R4 You've done this before, have you?

If the archive is automatic, none of that will work (and I'm assuming the offence is serious enough for them to have removed your computer ofr investigation). However, if you're computer savvy enough to change the date, presumably you'd remember to tamper with the archive.

R4 You've done this before, have you?
Gosh, no. I'd never do anything like that.[innocent face]

It's not just the invoice they would have to mess around with, it's also the accounting records.

I still think Joy has boundary issues, knocking on Kirtsy and Phil's door on Christmas Eve - or was it to bring round the gingerbread?

Joy is a nightmare.

Joy is a nightmare.
I don't know what we are supposed to make of Joy. She is often portrayed as bulldozing her way in to social situations with the subtly of a hippopotamus but there have been a couple of occasions recently where people have gone on to enjoy her company. It seems that once she is in the situation she relaxes, stops being try-hard, becomes more normal and, even, quite good fun.
However, her own family still avoided her over Christmas.
I don't know what they are doing with her and it feels like the SW don't either.

Joy is being rehabilitated (as I predicted). She’ll be toned down, and now she actually has relationships with people rather than just talking at them relentlessly she will be more bearable. Hopefully she will be used to inject some humour from time to time. She and Pat will be friends. She will clash with Lynda over community projects (new prediction), she will be jumping in with both feet to “get things done” while Lynda will still be researching. Her long story arc will be a reconciliation with Rochelle, or possibly she will end up having to have Rochelle’s children live with her for some reason.

I wondered if someone from ambridge will end up sharing Joy's too big for 1 person's house.

Just caught up with last night's episode.

I liked Kirsty and Philip together. I liked Joy spilling the beans to Kirsty and Kirsty dishing up further dirt on Tom.

I loathed, loathed, loathed all the bits with Kenton, Lilian and Angus. Angus was a 2D caricature. The mention of bare ankles and loafers was the only redeeming feature. I see young men like that all the time on their way to work in Shoreditch, trouser hems an inch or so above the ankle, and in one of the myriad ways I know I am turning into my mother all I can think of is how cold it must be.

Where was Jolene, who actually owns a share of the pub? Why are the SWs so determined to pretend that Kenton is the landlord when as far as we've been told his name is not on the deeds at all? We can all remember that Jamie Perks owns a share of the pub, so why can't they?

That's before we even start on the idiocy of supposing that a business mogul who is portrayed as having a sharp business acumen (when it suits the SWs, other times of course he has so little to occupy him he can drop everything and debate the choice of pig food supplier) would think someone like Angus was a suitable person to give advice on a pub like The Bull. Surely a person with genuine experience of advising on rural pubs would have seen horse brasses before. And if he knows nothing about rural pubs, what's he doing in Ambridge? Who's paying for this advice? How much will it cost?

Pah! QBL to the max.

Hmm ... I’d love to see Joy as the new Marjorie Antrobus - but I can’t at the moment. She still seems to me like a woman who’ll soon be serving Pat her own goats in an unexpected stew ...

But it’s true she could accommodate another person.

Who was it who is looking for a new office assistant? I was too far into the gin to do more than vaguely wonder who needs a job right now.

I loved Kirsty and Phil enjoying Cards Against Humanity (or whatever it was) with Joy.

Angus was a silly cameo, I’m not going to get annoyed about him!

Is running over a peacock bad luck?

@SurpriseSparDay hahahaha at goat stew

Batasha needs an assistant.

Angus was ridiculous. So much so that it shows contempt for the listeners.

Thanks MUM. Wonder who’ll get the job.

George?

Mia?

BA Hons?

Oh - Ruairi is spare at the moment.

Jim’s at a loose end.

Someone new bringing added complications?

Has Eccles the pub peacock ever made an appearance before in the Archers?

Another one who thought the gay pub adviser character was an absurd caricature ...

Eccles is an old character who has presumably, been in the cupboard with the other missing people.

Eccles is a very old character but, apparently, peacocks in captivity can live up to 50 years! Even so, I think he was well due to fall off his perch, be no more, rest in peace, etc.
He is now Eccles-the-ex.