Archers thread #114: Bull banished, Bali beaches beckon, bickering bullshitters burgeon

[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 Gavin 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 for all thread title suggestions! I've gone with a B theme which with a bit of luck will seem odd and irrelevant by the end of this thread. Here's hoping, anyway.

Haven't caught up with tonight's episode yet, so off to do that shortly.

Jim is over eighty, and was driven a fair distance to this funeral non-event, while under a fair amount of strain,

He was and is tired after the strain was released, as you often are if something stops worrying you.

I don't think I am going to be tooconcerned about him too much just yet. After all, he lives in Ambridge, and nobody there ever gets disabled or left in a vegetative state by a stroke.

I thought that episode was pretty good (the road trip part, anyway). I hope that marks the end of the storyline, as I feel it's pretty much run its course now. That was a plausible way to end it, and for once the introduction of a completely new character we will never hear again was totally justified.

Also rather pleased that it looks as if Josh has at best been turning a blind eye to some dodgy stuff. David will be incandescent.

Forgot to say I agree completely that Jim being tired is a very natural thing, in the circumstances and at his age. I'd be knackered too.

.... and I'm over 20 years younger.

Can someone explain...if Jim is over 80. How old was the chap who sexually abused him, when it happened?

If only it had been Perfect Pip who'd been doing dodgy deals.

Can someone explain...if Jim is over 80. How old was the chap who sexually abused him, when it happened?

Jim was 7, and I think Harold was an older teenager when it happened, so about 10 years older.

Harrison Burns described Jayston to Jazzer as "well into his nineties". So he was at least twelve years older than eighty-year-old Jim, probably more like fifteen years older: if he had been only just in his nineties then "well into" wouldn't have been right. Jim was first assaulted when he was eight ("I was only eight" is what he said) so Jayston must have been in his twenties at the time he committed that crime.

Not heard the earlier episodes this week but I have liked the Jim, Alistair, Jazzer road trip. Agree that a large part of its success is that it seems true to their characters. Hope it has helped Jim but slightly dreading more advice from Helen when I listen on on Sunday.

I thought the scene between Jim & Michael was very good, quite upsetting.

There certainly seems to have been a step change in the quality of the writing this week.

I enjoyed the trip up north and the support from Al and Jazzer on Weds.
But Pat does not read, let alone buy, Borsetshire Life!

It’s Keri Davies writing this week.

Another who appreciated the Jim storyline this week. Well done all round to the SW and actors. Agree that Jim being tired is perfectly normal for anybody in Jim's shoes, I often feel very tired just after release of a stressful thing. It's the crash from a system that has been flooded with stress hormones for too long and suddenly the limbic system switches to rest and digest.

I imagine kirsty will get pregnant this year and Gav will go apocalyptic. I don't think I've heard anything that suggests she already is though..?!

I wish Lee vs Ian hadn't been a thing. It was just uncomfortable for no reason, and Ian isn't the type to make blunders like that.

Are they trying to portray Ian as having PND?

Are they trying to portray Ian as having PND?

Haven't heard the episode, but for information, Post Adoption Depression is a 'real thing'.

Are they trying to portray Ian as having PND?

Buyer's Remorse, more like

I thought Ian was just being his usual not-very-pleasant self. Taking out his anger (which he has always with him bubbling away under the fake chuckles) on Lee was quite normal for Ian.

What I don't at all understand is why Lee didn't point out that his profession is as a physiotherapist, not as a karate teacher. Or that karate doesn't have to be a martial art, and that as he is teaching it, it's about controlling your anger and not hitting people when you could. (Actually, Ian could use a bit of that: he's the one who lashed out at Rob in public because he lost his temper.) Maybe Lee was doing what he is good at, and not rising to the bait and reacting to aggression.

It's really quite odd that the SWs can do something like the Jim storyline so well, but at the same time come up with such badly researched crap as the rewilding one. The internal dynamics and politics at scriptwriters' meetings must be fascinating.

I too thought that the Jim and Michael conversation was the best thing the SWs have done for some considerable time. Michael sounded as if it was Paul Copley (Leonard) speaking Yorkshire though.

I hate Josh (met too many like him in business), is he being raised to be a Matt substitute?

Where's MysticBore when you want her? 🔮
I would comment on tonight's episode but since Saturday hasn't happened yet, I can't.

Maybe Lee was doing what he is good at, and not rising to the bait and reacting to aggression

That's a good point.

Oh that was a lovely episode.

I would comment on tonight's episode but since Saturday hasn't happened yet, I can't. Why can't you? Is that a bit of MN/Archers etiquette that I've not picked up? Or are you saying that you listen to it on iPlayer the following morning so you haven't heard it yet?

Is that a bit of MN/Archers etiquette that I've not picked up?
Wot, the etiquette that says that XXXdy's episode is about what happened on XXXday. Saturday only ever gets reported afterwards, it never happens in real time because Ambridge does an inverse-Brigadoon on Saturdays.

@MereDintofPandiculation - I think R4 was being humorous about commenting on an episode which is apparently from the future.

I know we've occasionally had episodes that present or continue the action from a previous day, but have we ever had an episode covering a day that hasn't happened? It did feel a bit shocking because it shatters the fantasy that you are listening to real events that were happening in Ambridge earlier today.