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?

Diana and I were born a few days apart. The state paid for all my education, partly through a scholarship to a direct grant school. I got a far better education than she seems to have, although how much of that was down to her school and how much to her lack of interest/aptitude/focus following her parents' acrimonious divorce, I don't know. If she hadn't married Charles, I expect she would have had a pleasant few years working in Montessori nurseries or posh florists or ski chalets or similar, and then she'd have married a posh chap from a monied family. She might well have flourished later in life on finding something that really interested her.

Trying to find a connection to The Archers - not unlike Caroline Pemberton.

What i don't understand is why Lynda is doing all this protesting when she doesn't seem to spend any time in the B(ull) anyway

I agree greygirl. I think I have occasionally heard Robert having a drink in the B when it was The Bull but not Lynda, except possibly after the panto. I think she just can’t bear any changes to be made In Ambridge without her say so.

I like BeardedWeirdy’spoint that Pip is our benchmark for liking/irritation with a character. I wish we had a 🍋 pip emoji so we could give characters a rating, ‘Jolene was an absolute 3 Pip last night....’ sort of thing. I know it’s because I love the 3 star prose passages in Cold Comfort Farm.

Oh yes, need to add to The Archers Listenerhood stories. I listened as a child because my parents did but have had periods of not listening - especially when I was never at home for the daily broadcasts. This means my knowledge is a bit patchy.

As someone I know who was in the business at the time said, "Christ, if we had decided she needed killing we wouldn't have made such a cockup of it. There is a perfectly good, deep river just there, and that car would have sunk like a stone, no survivors. We wouldn't have relied on her being too fucking stupid to do up her seatbelt. How incompetent do you think we are?"

What business? You were on speaking terms with a professional hit man who shared the tricks of his trade? That's as implausible as any bonkers Archers SL.

I couldn't possibly tell you exactly what he did, because it is definitely not mine to do so and anyway he never gave me details, but "hit man" isn't exact. Remember those "the Royal Family had it done by the SAS/MI5" type conspiracy theories? well....

If you think about it, some people must know for example undercover policemen as friends, just as some people know famous authors as friends; they don't exist in a vacuum. And knowing someone who was in a position to say "That's bollocks, no professional killer would have made such a mess of it" is no more extraordinary than knowing someone who is in a position to say, "That's bollocks, no professional riding-stable owner with forty years' experience of horses would have failed to notice if an Arab horse in her charge had been getting fat in winter." (Which I also do.)

I expect she would have had a pleasant few years working in Montessori nurseries or posh florists or ski chalets or similar, and then she'd have married a posh chap from a monied family. She might well have flourished later in life on finding something that really interested her.

Interior design perhaps? Or doing up properties and renting them out. Yes, in a parallel universe perhaps she is doing something like that: still very attractive woman in her late fifties who gives exquisite dinner parties and is always very smiley and pleasant to everyone. Much liked in her local village. Her darker, needier side has faded away because she has a doting husband: a self-made man, working in the City. She herself is a loving and encouraging mother: an aristocratic version of Carole Middleton, providing the parallel universe 'Kate' for the heir to the throne's heir to the throne. And everyone is very pleased because Diana is so down-to-earth and has produced such lovely, sporty, bright but not too intellectual daughters. They get along with everyone but also understand the royal family's workings.

Diana smiles to herself as she helps her daughter choose her wedding dress, and says, You know, I could have married his father, Charles? It was suggested by my grandmother at one stage. But I wasn't sure he really loved me enough to make it work.'

There's a story there.

It's not so much that Lynda is bothered about the actual pub, greygirl.

There will be others on here who can word it better than I can, but my take on it is that she's concerned with the principle of it.

As you say, she's not exactly a 'regular', but she feels strongly about heritage and continuity in a small community like theirs, and this new name just seems like a pointless change for change's sake.

Am I on the right track here, everyone?

Or is Lynda secretely a hopeless lush who's never out of the place, and I've completely lost the plot entirely?

WheresThatCatGoneNow, I think you are definitely on the right track in the first post there.

I agree with you that she would think it "change for the sake of change", and I rather think that I agree with her, particularly since before this nonsense was suddenly foisted on us The Bull it was always rammed, even on weekday lunchtimes, whenever we went near it.

Thankyou for the affirmation, AQAAT!

It's been a wet, windy and cold Friday here in deepest darkest Lancashire, and I might have cracked open the a bit too early

Never mind! It's the weekend now, and I don't care a jot....

< skips away laughing maniacally >

I couldn't possibly tell you exactly what he did, because it is definitely not mine to do so and anyway he never gave me details

Yeah, right

Back to the Archers ...

@theThreeofWeevils Kate is "The Bolter"

she feels strongly about heritage and continuity in a small community like theirs
Does it qualify as Lynda's community these days or is she still a newbie? Does she get to define what's acceptable, or not, in Ambridge?
Also, don't forget existing frostiness between the two caused by competitive-grandmothering.

To get back on topic, I don’t remember the omnibus being cancelled on that Sunday in 1997, but the episode that evening had a topical insert with Bert and Jill talking about ‚the princess‘. You’re welcome. Wayne has been mentioned this week. Wasn’t it Ed mentioning people other than Emmur who’d be affected by the boycott.

I’m not sure what I make of TA at present. But I do enjoy all the comment. It’s a mix of being ever so slightly bored and irritated and being ever so slightly addicted. I have also ordered a couple of relevant books this week, both from an Archers Addicts conf from a few years ago. I hope they’ll arrive tomorrow.

competitive-grandmothering

If only the SWs hadn’t completely forgotten Mungo. He’s by far the most interesting connection between Lilian and Lynda. And they’re far more interesting when they’re friends.

How new a newbie is Lynda, R4?

I've just realised I have no idea how long she and Robert have lived in Ambridge, nor any knowledge of their back-story.

A concise synopsis of the Snell's history would be lovely, please 😊

How new a newbie is Lynda, R4?
I can't remember exactly but I think it is still less than 40 years, her connection to the First Family is quite tenuous and they are not Land-owners.

The Snells arrived after buying Ambridge Hall in 1986, so a mere 34 years ago. Total incomers.

Oh well. Only forty years. That's nothing in rural England.

No wonder people still snub her

I do love the way this thread can go off at the most unlikely tangents. Are Archers listeners more likely to be Royalists or Republicans I wonder?

To answer @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g question of 8am this morning - why do Lillian and Jolene put up with Kenton’s comments, I suspect they have little choice in the matter. He has an opinion, he will share it as if he is the most knowledgeable person in the room, I doubt Ambridge is immune from mansplaining.

Sorry! Cross post, AQATT!

I was going to suggest it was 30 years or so since the Snells arrived. So not a bad guess.

Where did Robert and Lynda come from?

And who owned Ambridge Hall before they did?

It must have been at least 30 years ago that the Snells moved to Ambridge from Sunningdale. I can't remember what prompted them to do so, though. I don't think they've been considered "newbies" for a good while now.
I've been listening to TA on and off since 1955, I'm guessing (from the womb). @SurpriseSparDay's "listening arc" seems similar to my own, except I particularly vividly remember Shula's miscarriage (for no particular reason except it was well done) and Kathy's pregnancy with Jamie (because I was pregnant at the same time she was and was worried about doing a Chorionic villus test myself, for fear of miscarriage), and I can remember where I was when John Archer had his Fergie accident, as well as where I was when Shula decided to finish with Dr Locke (on both occasions in the car in England (I've lived abroad nearly as long as the Snells have lived in Ambridge) with my baby daughter asleep in the back seat). I can remember Brian Aldridge's epilepsy, Mike Tucker's being blind in one eye and Daniel Archer's juvenile arthritis - all of which seemed to be conveniently forgotten after they had served their purposes as plot devices. I can remember more but I bet you're sorry you asked, now!

Sunningdale. Which is supposed to be vair posh, no? I’ve only ever known one person who’s been there - a distant colleague many years ago who resided there. She was a bit posh IMO and certainly very well off. With the Snells I can’t shake the feeling coming to Ambridge was a bit of a come down.

And neither of the Snells seems to play golf. Isn’t that what sunningdale is for? Mind you, I live in Perthshire where all they’ve got is golf courses - and fish farms of course. I don’t play golf or eat fish.