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?

Michaelahpurple
Practical question - is there any where else one can get the summaries when the catch up site doesn’t bother to post them, as seems to happen quite a lot? Annoyingly the one from 7th where Kate tells Alice her rather ludicrous news is missing, for example.

On Friday they give us the week's cast-list instead of the summary, at the BBC site. Some time during the following week they change it so we get the summary, except in about two cases in the past eighteen months.

So the summary for 7th will probably appear by next Friday, 14th. Except if it doesn't, but they usually do in the end.

I've not been getting notifications for the spoilers thread for a while. I'll have to sort that out again. So annoying when that happens randomly.

Weekend before last I suddenly started to get many, many emails telling me that threads I had voted on had been changed -- and I had never once asked for emails about anything at all. And they didn't stop coming when I clicked on the bit that said I didn't want them. I think something may have gone wrong briefly. After three days it was sorted out and I haven't had any since.

Why are Ambridge women SURROUNDED AS THEY ARE WITH FARM ANIMALS WHOSE CYCLES THEY INTIMATELY UNDERSTAND so very very very stupid about their own bodies? Someone I knew did not realise she was pregnant until about 6 months. She was a midwife.

Oh, I had that too, Asking!

I can never understand how women get so late in a pregnancy, completely unaware, especially once the baby is moving. My eldest would push hard against my bottom rib, and I could also see their heels or elbows poking my belly. It looked like something from Alien!

I know a few women who were quite a long way into their pregnancies before they found out. I can think of 3 who had surprise babies, of which at least 1 didn't know until her sudden extreme tummy ache turned out to be labour.
The ones who were late into their pregnacies were either 40+ or had irregular periods.

From my peer group, some would take the pill without the 4th week off, to avoid the monthly bleed, so wouldn't have realised they had missed a period.

Isn’t there also a lovely Ambridge online newspaper (Ambridge Observer?) which has a summing up of goings on.

Alas, Christine Michael stopped doing the Ambridge Observer last year some time, It was excellent but is no more. I'm not sure you can even see the old ones any more.

There is always Lowfield, published every day at Peet's Mustardland., stuck at the top of the forum for a day each day and then available for a few days until it falls off the end of the board.
www.paranormal.org.uk/mustardland/viewforum.php?f=1

Another one here, Madcats, who thought Alice sounded just like Kate. Are they economizing on actors as part of the BBC cut backs?

And loving your Yakult renaming

Perhaps Jakob should participate in the same naming ceremony as Xander?

The actors do several characters.
Alan,Harrison and Johnny are played by one actor, who also plays any character from north of Crewe.
Alastair, Adam and Kenton are all played by another actor.
Toby, Rex, Josh, Ruairi and Ben are all played by another actor.

The Dopeys, bar the sons, are played by actors who have easy-to-recognise voices. Pip's err atticdel iver y, Ruth's hooshed tones and glo''al stops, and David's 'I'm reading a script' manner and Jill's squawking.

Lesser Ambridgians have mummerset arksents.

Apart from Jazzer, and anyone a bit dodgy.

Do we know how far along Kate is? Wondering if I missed that, based on the discussion about only realising late on...

Awwww isn't Ben a sweetie.

i don’t much like the term “baby daddy” but I feel it’s appropriate for Jacob in this case.

Kate told Alice, "only a few weeks".

Noooo Ben!! For one moment I thought he might step out of the (cereal) closet and tell Jill he intended to leave Borsetshire and see the world next county. I’m not sure Ben has ever left England has he?

JoeGrundyWasMyRoleModel
Another one here, Madcats, who thought Alice sounded just like Kate.

At least Kate and Alice are sisters, so it is reasonable they should sound alike, just as Emma sounds like her mother. What is strange is that Christopher sounds nothing like anyone else in his family, Will and Ed don't sound alike and George sounds like no other Grundy or Carter.

what's happened with Lily and the awful bf whose name escapes me?

CallmeRuss?

CMR is also played by the Aliadamkenton actor.
Mince of Casey Joints is played by a Tiger Crawford soundalike with a fake brummie accent to indicate that he is a wide boy.

Excellent recap tips, thank you.

I share the exasperation with the plethora of women who seem incapable of controlling their fertility in Ambridge. Also with them all discussing their pregnancies left right and centre while the test stick hasn’t had turn to dry yet, but perhaps that is the way of things nowadays - my pregnancy days were a decade ago, distant archaic times when one kept schtoom for a weeks to see if it “caught”.

Let us hope that Johnny is not left with severe acne, premature balding and testicular atrophy

Let's hope the 'roids also shrink the mouth-breathing dullard's adenoids.

I’ve recently read a book called Rediscovering Birth, not a how-to-breastfeed / at-X-weeks-your-baby-is-the-size-of-pineapple book but a look at approaches to pregnancy and labour around the world and throughout history. Essentially: western women, you’re doing it all wrong, unlike those clever women elsewhere. There’s a bit where it sneers at us unenlightened Brits for relying on pregnancy tests to find out if we’re pregnant when we could be relying on feelings instead. I bet twelvty million the author never had any trouble conceiving and doesn’t appreciate that many of us test precisely because we feel too much, and that the desperate false hope is too crushing to take. Anyway.... it most definitely reminds me of Kate, so ridiculously fertile and yet woefully inadequate as a parent for the long haul. Who needs a pregnancy test when you can look at the moon and trust that belief is enough?