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.

Thanks GivingAnswers !

AngelinaGrimke I don't blame the Grundys for having the alternative Burns night. Jolene, Lillian and Angus have ignored the Pub's regular customers to try and appeal to a different clientele so they can hardly be surprised if those regulars decide to boycott events there

Burns celebrations run by Boraetshire folk, with comedy Scottish waiter, Lassie from the Wirral, speech by English business man etc etc = cultural appropriation shurely?

Listening to the omnibus. Josh has been causing Rex problems again. What will Ruth and David say?

Well. I do think I should be accorded a 🔮 of my very own. Wasn’t that exactly what I said Kirsty and Philip would do, weeks ago?

Go me.

Nice hearing the whole week at once. Seemed more ... believable than being thrown into a twelve and a half minute fragment. Although the fact I’m noticing believability after half a century’s listening is a worry in itself. I’ve been anxiously watching all the interviews and articles on plans for a new, slimmed down BBC Radio this week. No one actually said they’d be cutting the TA budget, and it’s already recorded in a London version of ‘the North’ - but I still fear they’ll turn it into some sort of podcast.

AngelinaGrimke
I don't blame the Grundys for having the alternative Burns night. Jolene, Lillian and Angus have ignored the Pub's regular customers to try and appeal to a different clientele so they can hardly be surprised if those regulars decide to boycott events there.

Jolene and Fag Ash Lil have been banging on about attracting a younger crowd. They don't want the old regulars. Friday's (or Saturday's) episode served them right.

I loved the Three Amigos road trip, and the scene with Jim and Michael was very touching. Hopefully they both can find (fictional) peace.

Nice hearing the whole week at once. Seemed more ... believable than being thrown into a twelve and a half minute fragment. Interesting that you say that - I felt exactly the same when I caught up after a break over Christmas. I have wondered about going over to listening to the Omnibus full time (which is how I originally started listening many moons ago when Jethro Larkin introduced it). One thing which stops me is that I like catching up on here after each episode, but I agree it sounds better when listened to all at once.

Twas Tom Forrest who did the intros. I hated them, they messed with my suspension of disbelief.

I hated them too -t was just more convenient to listen on Sunday mornings back in those days.

@MereDintofPandiculation - I think R4 was being humorous about commenting on an episode which is apparently from the future. Ah. I thought she was simply saying "I can't comment on Friday's episode because it's not yet Saturday" and I was mystified. I can do literal. I can't do subtle.

We used to do a Burns Night lunch at work, in the SE, back in the days when you could take a 2hr lunch if you made up the time (or, more accurately, in recompense for all the extra unpaid hours you had already worked). Usual haggis and neaps. Dessert involving huge volumes of whipped cream, toasted oatmeal and whisky. Genuine Scot reading the Ode to a Haggis. Genuine Scots might have raised an eyebrow at our Northumbrian piper.

I can do literal. I can't do subtle.
Ha! That's probably the first time I have ever been called subtle.

We didn't do Burns Night last night, we did Chinese New Year.

Michael had a N Yorks accent. Heard the minibus this morning.
Rex rocks!

Have you told Alistair that I am single? Do you think Shula will mind and do I need to get a cream cardigan?

Have you told Alistair that I am single? Do you think Shula will mind and do I need to get a cream cardigan?

Shula will definitely mind, she is 100% not over Alistair, despite having voluntarily ended the marriage (for no good reason). She will have long, agonising chats with Alan and Elizabeth about her conflicting feelings, and if they are on air and we have to endure them then you will be to blame!

No cardies, twin sets, or pearls required. I'm sure Alistair has had his fill of those!

Oh good. Do you think he'd be ok with needing peace and quiet between 7 pm and 7.15 pm every day apart from Saturday?

The accommodation fairy strikes again with Jim's daughter turning up unannounced for an unspecified number days and Jazzer happily moves out of the room he's paying rent for to Harrison's gaff, who's also happy to oblige

Do you think Shula will mind and do I need to get a cream cardigan?

Ecru, darling, ecru. Nothing so common as mere cream.

I don't remember which LSW wrote Shula as having a cupboard full of "ecru" cardigans but I've loved them for it ever since.

She will have long, agonising chats with Alan and Elizabeth about her conflicting feelings, and if they are on air and we have to endure them then you will be to blame!

I think there will be a mass switching off with a quick skim of the summaries to check for anything interesting happening

I loved the Three Amigos road trip, and the scene with Jim and Michael was very touching. Hopefully they both can find (fictional) peace

It was all beautifully written and acted.

The accommodation fairy strikes again with Jim's daughter turning up unannounced for an unspecified number days and Jazzer happily moves out of the room he's paying rent for to Harrison's gaff, who's also happy to oblige

I suppose to be fair I doubt Jazzer pays much rent and in the circumstances Harrison might be sympathetic. (Although presumably Fallon can't know anything about what happened?)

Harrison doesn't know it's Jim who was abused. Jazzer just told him it was a friend.

It looks like Josh knows that the trailer he sold to Rex was kicked, he seemed nervous when he was asking David where Rex was.

I assumed Harrison guessed it was Jim (probably no evidence to support that).

I doubt Jim is charging Jazzer rent for the period when Fiona is staying.

But what if she wants to stay longer? I've a hunch there is more to her visit than she's saying.

I thought it was pretty clear that, by a swift process of elimination, Harrison had guessed whose misfortune was occupying so much of Jazzer’s attention.

I’m a little horrified that we might be about to find out Josh has voluntarily been dealing in stolen farm equipment. Because all through the evolution of his business I have marvelled at how apparently easy it has been for him - but ascribed his success to the secure, landed, easy cash flow, First Family position from which he began ... His keenness to avoid Rex yesterday was kinda sickening.

So who was the ‘friend’ Fiona was on holiday with???

Anna Tregorran?

(Because the thing they did with James and Leonie wasn’t nearly far fetched enough ...)

Possibly she’s about to move into poor Jazzer’s extension (if the story is another relationship breakup). But perhaps she’s planning a more orderly move to Ambridge and is here to scope out available houses.