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?

Lillian and Jolene were awful but Lynda chaining herself to The Bull is ridiculous.

A slight overreaction to put it mildly.

It's infuriating listening to them wind each other up. Lynda should just tell Lillian it's a pity the pub doesn't care about its old regulars. Courting new customers because it appears they'd prefer them to the old crowd. Also, when will Jolene or Kenton realise that an empty pub is not a viable business chance what it's called.

Does anyone remember when coco pops became choco crispies then changed back? Can't stand the things but it made this luddite (who hasn't bought an opal fruit since the name change) happy.

A pub near us was bought out and its name was changed to a generic chain-name. The regulars went elsewhere (there was choice quite close by, to be fair) and after six weeks of echoes and cobwebs the name was changed back.

How likely is it that the yoof crahd will drive out six miles to a not-very-interesting pub in the country of a weekday evening or lunchtime? The Bull needs its locals as well as some trendy crowd which cares about having a trendy name for its pub. (Not one of the trendy people I have known this century ever gave a tinker's cuss about the name of their chosen watering-hole.)

Hello, I’m new to the thread and relatively new (two years) to TA.

Has Lynda’s character always been so ridiculous? This storyline with her sabotaging the pub feels like new heights of silliness, and why are so many people going along with her?

Are Rex and Pip going to end up together? It was signposted a while back (if I remember rightly) but there hasn’t been any chemistry during this rewinding thing so I’m wondering if it’s been shelved.

Kate also feels like a parody of herself at the moment. But to be honest I’m a little bored with TA right now and a bit fed up with some of its inhabitants!

@Harakeke - welcome to the thread. Always good to have new views and new questions. Most of us seem to have a bit of love/hate relationship with TA - a sort of well-worn affection for (most of) the characters, mixed with frustration at some of the storylines.

I think Lynda has always been a strong-minded person, who likes a good "campaign" and can be quite obstinate in her views. So, I think it does fit with her character that she sees The Bull as an important part of the Ambridge community, and so she would object to change and protest loudly about it. However, organising people to go "undercover" to Bull events to subvert them and then chaining herself to the pub sign both seem a bit on the far-fetched side, even for Lynda.

hrmph
sounds doesn't show the archers anymore in my subscriptions.

But to be honest I’m a little bored with TA right now and a bit fed up with some of its inhabitants!
Sometimes keeping up with this thread is the only thing that keeps me listening at all.

Hey @DadDadDad, thanks for the welcome (and love your work). So not just me then.

I love Lynda and she is one of my favourite characters. I think this campaign is beneath her. I think her prickly side is best deployed in more highbrow ways like adapting Chaucer or rubbishing Tolkein.

@CaptainMyCaptain I have been lurking on this thread for a while and love the analysis. Also amazed that so many of you can see the storyline ahead!

I don't understand the Lynda-indefinitely-chaining-herself-to-the-pub thing. Doesn't she have shifts at GG to go to?

Welcome Harekeke.
The B@ storyline is getting ridiculous. I am not Lynda's #1 fan, but this just feels completely out of character. I am sure Robert would have found another project to distract her and I am slightly concerned that the pair of them seem to have lengths of chain and padlocks in their cupboards.

If Ed is scratching around for jobs, what is Will up to? I am surprised neither of them have been given a handyman job at Grey Gables or something.

echt I picked up that immediately.

DS says it all the time.

I mean, why try & introduce teenage vernacular and then do it wrong?

I am slightly concerned that the pair of them seem to have lengths of chain and padlocks in their cupboards.

It’s a dreary morning. I haven’t heard last night’s yet. But suddenly I feel a whole new interest in life ...

When did Ben learn to drive, and pass his test?

The last I heard of him driving, he was razzing illegally around the lanes with Ruarhi, running over poor innocent badgers.

Didn't Ben fail his test and then pass it on a rapid re-take last year?

If he did, I must've blinked and missed it.

Or whatever the aural equivalent of a blink is.....

Can someone recommend a Nancy Mitford book to start with, as I obviously have a gap in my education?

Also I wondered if Lynda was inspired to chain herself to the pub by the ‘you’re not a suffragette comment or was going to anyway.

The Pursuit of Love and then Love in a Cold Climate.

I still laugh to myself when I remember bits of those books and I read them decades ago.

Thanks Abraid

I do apologise, Archers addicts, I've somehow blundered onto your thread rather than the 50 books challenge

I've reported myself.

No need to apologise Terpsichore - reading matter takes up a fair proportion of this thread. And the three posts immediately above yours were about books.