Archers thread #115: Johnny's in the gym, Josh is in a jam, Rex is riled, Kate's with child - 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 share a camomile tea with Kate, 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 @LillianGish for the excellent Bert Fry tribute title!

I don't think this thread will get us to Easter, but we should be well into Lent before we need a new title. I wonder if St Stephen's will have a new oh-so-interesting Lent initiative this year. When did we last hear from Alan?

Signing in. I’m a long time lurker and have been an intermittent Archers listener for over 30 years. I now listen every night when I go to bed. But often fall asleep so miss bits.

I used to enjoy the Lowfeld site. Why did it stop?

Thanks for the new thread @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g!

I'm back again to say that oddly, because I mostly found him annoying and badly behaved, I am starting to feel quite sorry for Josh. There has been some quite good acting from his scenes lately - he sounds like a kid (and he is, really, but his scenes with David & Rex really brought that home in his voice), who got in way over his head through carelessness/heedlessness, which is frankly extremely common in the 18/19 year old bracket! It's just that most of them are off being careless at university, where the consequences are not generally so disastrous, as a lot of people are around to help and support when the results of such carelessness start showing up! But for Josh, now all of these older/more mature adults around him are, rather than trying to help him, mostly sticking the boot in (Ruth is the absolute worst for this). I am not saying he should suffer no consequences, but this is a chance to support him such that he LEARNS, not veer between the two poles of 1) being mean and 2) acting like nothing's happened and he should just get over it.

Loved Lynda & Robert, but agree that they had peculiarly good weather in Ambridge this weekend. Similarly for Alice casually riding about - unless we discover tonight that she was actually blown away on that trip!

Thanks for the new thread @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g and brilliant title suggestion @LillianGish !

I agree most people arent running a business at Josh's age, they are usually more protected in a job or at college etc. I feel sorry for Josh.

Welcome, Jay, and what a great name!

Deianira, I agree that Angus Imrie is making a very good job of playing Josh. He's actually several years older than Josh, but sounds younger. I feel slightly sorry for him, but he's an Archer and will therefore probably eventually be sorted out by the SWs sort himself out.

Perhaps Kate is having an early menopause and has mistaken it for pregnancy

Thank you for the new thread, love the title!

I do like Robert and Lynda but I’m not sure I needed to hear them planning to have pairbonding sex.

Josh was born on 13/9/1997, so he is now 22 years and 5 months old.

He still doesn't need to be bullied and railed at by his family instead of given even the least bit of actual help.

Hello!
I wondered whether Kate was peri menopausal too. She's the type who would decide she was pregnant by reading the moon or something without actually POAS.
I hope she isn't, or this storyline will end in tears.

Time seems to be going extraordinarily quickly for me - I could've sworn that he was due to go off to university last year, but took a year out to do the business instead. But now of course I remember that he was the same year as Phoebe, so that can't possibly be right.

So, I'll clearly have to revise up his age in my head (and feel very old myself all of a sudden) - but even so, 22 is still not that old!

He has been treated as a fifteen-year-old by his parents ever since they didn't seem to care what subjects he might be going to do for A-level. Meanwhile the infantile Pip has been treated by them as if she were the senior member of the family all of whose whims (including when she demanded and got a job on their farm when there wasn't one and she had been repeatedly told as much) were immediately pandered to.

Thank you, Gaspode.

In answer to your OP, we have heard Alan comparatively recently - helping Shula to discover her vocation, for example - relative, that is, to the women of his family. Usha is still apparently The Only Solicitor in Borsetshire and Ruth's bestie (witness her arranging a lawyer from who knows where for Josh) and yet hasn't been heard from in years. Poor Amy could be anywhere for all we know, I think the last time she was mentioned was when she was dumped by Carl the sleazy boyfriend about 7 or 8 years ago. She could have had several children, moved abroad, quit midwifery for a life of full time animal rights activism, and be taking part in a round the world yacht adventure by now for all we know.

I really hate it when characters are just abandoned with no explanation.

Usha was last heard in August 2018 giving poor legal advice to Freddie just before he went to court, I think.

I hope she isn't, or this storyline will end in tears.

I think that's going to happen for someone or another, whichever way this storyline goes.

I really really hope that Kate isn't really pregnant. Poor Yakult. (Can't wait for the Dum Tee Dum podcast)

It is weird the way that they have abandoned so many characters and introduced so many new regional caricatures.

Was it just me, or is Alice beginning to sound a bit like Kate? I'm sure they didn't used to have similar intonation.

Usha was last heard in August 2018

Yes, but she's been mentioned in the last couple of weeks.

Thank you, Gasp0, and Lil’G!

I demand that we now hear from Amy, and her children, and all the animals accompanying her across oceans ...

I am fairly sure we are now going to get a "Johnny on steroids" public information story.

Ignoring the fact that what anabolic steroids do is exaggerate emotions which are already present rather than creating a complete new emotional state, that is what it's bound to be.

(Either that or Johnny is fed up with being pestered and who should blame him, but I bet it will be steroids.)

Ironic that the other characters noticed that Johnny was not himself.
Normally the personality transplants go unspotted.

Actually ... just remembered a major complaint about some scriptwriting last week.

Lee, after the gym session with Johnny gatecrashed by Freddie,

“Johhny’s posh mate is a bit ...” [I forget what exactly ...]

It is inconceivable that he would not know Johnny and Freddie are related. Just sounded clunckingly wrong. Where the jeff is the Editor?

Not sure Lee necessarily would know Freddie. Lee doesn't live in Ambridge, Freddie doesn't live in Ambridge, and Helen probably doesn't mention him on account of his being a jailbird. If he didn't go to karate, and I am fairly sure he didn't because he was in prison when that was the storyline du jour, where would Lee have come across him?

You pipped me at the post, AnyQuestions. My immediate thought was steroids, too.

Oh, it's interesting that you thought steroids. That hadn't even occured to me, it's why I love being on here - lots of new things that I'd never think of myself. I was thinking either that he was going to get obsessed about his body image to try to make Bella like him and end up being way too OTT/stalkerish with her; or that he was going to get obsessed with Lee as a replacement father figure and go too far down that road trying to impress him. Even though his relationship with his stepfather appeared pretty healthy.

DH came into the kitchen in time to hear the tail end of Johnny vs Freddie tonight, and commented "I wonder what he's going to do". That struck, as I used to discuss with him what the character would do next, but on MN we all discuss what the SW are going to do next. Is this a function of poor scriptwriting, or is it us - we've got into the habit of being cynical and condemnatory and can no longer get into the spirit of listening to them as people?

I wonder if Alice is going to have an accident on the unpredictable new horse?

Seemed to be pretty heavily signposted last night