💥 Archers thread #118: Back in time for The Archers - catch up with the catch up until the scriptwriters catch up! 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 think Philip Moss is in line for Employer of the Year, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: OK, there aren't likely to be many for the foreseeable future, but when we do have some, 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/3853783--The-Archers-spoilers-thread-5-Cant-wait-for-7-02pm-Join-us-here, 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 title! This thread starts at a very odd time for The Archers, longest-running soap opera in the world. No new episodes expected till late May , and when we do get them they're not going to sound like normal, as the actors are recording separately at home and the BBC is attempting to cobble it all together. Tough times for the sound effects team!

The BBC is filling the gap by repeating key episodes from the last 20 years. Some of us here will have heard them before, but not all, by any means, so if you want background on what you hear this is the place to ask.

Over to you! I must try to catch up with the repeats at some point today.

I don't see that skating just inside the letter of the law while driving a truck through its spirit is unique to DomC, to be fair.

@WheresThatCatGoneNow they're like some weeks on normal TA, very gentle storylines which some find boring and too twee. Depends whether you're in the mood for those or not. Little refs to Coronavirus but not much really.

just listened to wedn archers debacle these musings from josh and tracey and david are gonna get a bit thin soon hopefully better on the way

I take it they've decided to put off the Kirsty/Phil drama till they can do a full-blown dramatic recording. The trouble is, time can't have stood still in other respects - what is happening to his unfortunate workers if he can't carry on with his work? Presumably the police investigations will be ongoing?

why didnt bbc ask us to vote for our 10 most fave episodes
i would have voted for Brians affair cos i havent heard it and ruth and david getting together also grace and jill (not being a fan long enough) anyone know if i can find them ?

I wouldn’t bother with Monday’s, @WheresThatCatGoneNow. David droning on certainly wasn’t comforting or cheering. But I found Tues and Wed quite entertaining. Josh and Harrison were surprisingly good, and I always enjoy Tracey. (Yes, I agree with a PP, her character is a bit stereotyped but she does it well.) for you.

I suspect the original plan was to have a light relief story lasting right through the summer focussed on the cricket team led by Tracy. It must be quite annoying for them that they can't pursue it now - I fear it'll be inflicted on us next year instead.

I found Monday’s episode ok, Tuesday’s better and Wednesday’s best so far. Hearing Harrison skiving off work to make cricket phone calls was quite amusing. I also liked Tracy phoning everyone to get their vote.

Thanks so much, everyone, for being so kind.

I'll have a listen on Sunday morning.

You are all stars 🎇🎇❤

ednclouda
i would have voted for Brians affair cos i havent heard it and ruth and david getting together also grace and jill (not being a fan long enough) anyone know if i can find them ?

Brian's affair with Siobhán lasted from December 2001 until December 2002, so one episode wouldn't have been enough -- and we got one of them, the New Year's Eve Ball where she set out to underline her seduction of him earlier in the month.

Ruth an David getting together went on from June to December 1987, and they were repeating no episodes before this century.

Jill never met Grace, who was dead before Jill ever came anywhere near Ambridge. The "I am so jealous I can't bear to hear her name spoken" stuff was an invention of Sean O'Connor's.

I don't think any specific episode before 2009 is easy to find on the net, though there are a fair number on YouTube. I looked for "the archers old episodes". (Just "The Archers" gets you some pop group.)

Dear god! Tim B is not cut out for this. And neither are the SWs. Twaddle.

These hens of Josh's: he never kept hens at Brookfield, that was Jill.

Josh had a share in the free-range-and-organic-egg business Neil and Hayley had at Willow Farm, and then a share in the free-range-but-not-organic-egg business at Hollowtree, but he never had his hens at Brookfield as far as I remember, and I do not for a solitary instant believe that David would have allowed him to. He has never allowed Josh even a millimetre of leeway about anything.

he never had his hens at Brookfield as far as I remember
Despite what his publicity photos of Jill's hens implied.

Yes! That incident was why I was sure he didn't keep them there! Thank you.

Whose hens are the Hollowtree ones? I thought Josh had a share in them? I sort of lost track when Rex refused to be in business with Josh any more, whose they ended up being.

Gosh. The first David/Josh one I gave the benefit of the doubt. Tracy/Harrison was quite fun (I particularly enjoyed imagining what Jolene might have said when Harrison tried to play the family card with her).

But tonight’s was just DIRE. Forage harvester parts and spraying qualifications? Gazing down over the village from Lakey hill and listing the buildings? Yawnsville.

They’ve been splicing in kids’ parts recorded separately for years ( Henry and Ruari). I’m surprised that they can’t do that with 2 adults in a way that sounds lockdown- listenable.

A friend astonished me over a socially-distanced cup of tea yesterday to tell me how much she was enjoying hearing Josh’s inner-most thoughts. This revelation obviously nearly made me choke but she revealed it was because this is the first time we have been offered any real insight into how far Josh is conscious of the favouritism at Brookfield.
She said she hadn’t ever thought it was intentional on the part of the SW but is now rethinking that and wondering if the inequality between the way the siblings are treated may instead be a long-term/slow-burn plot device setting up a storyline based on years of simmering resentment further down the line...
She’s a v long-term listener (40+ years) so I usually bow to her superior knowledge on such matters. On this one, I think the theory may be giving the SWs more credit than they actually deserve but wondered if others had any thoughts...

I thought Josh was ok, the actor can act which is a start.

Josh has always been the one to "help" Gran with her hens (and I think Bees), from a child. He also bought her her new ones I think.

And actually I do credit the story editors with long term planning for resentment between siblings. In fact that is a central part of every farm on the programme except Bridge (Tom and Helen get on very well and work together pretty well on the whole).
There were issues with Shula, Kenton, Elizabeth and David. There is a long brewing inheritance thing at Home farm, and even the Grundy boys had a feud for years.

Did you happen to mention, Roysnewshirt, that you'd heard there might be a long-running Archers thread on a particular online discussion forum?

Although, of course, she might already be here. Perhaps that surprising conversation was her way of scoping out whether you also know of said forum ...

Did you happen to mention, Roysnewshirt, that you'd heard there might be a long-running Archers thread on a particular online discussion forum?

Oh Perdita! If only! She is a committed lurker and I make several attempts per week to get her to contribute! She has much insight to share...and even has thought of a potential pen-name...But she is worried she will spend too much time on here - and become over-infested - if she were to start posting...

As if that stopped anyone ever before....

@ednclouda, what a good idea. The BBC must have acres of schedule to fill and plenty of archive material from The Archers from the mid-80s on (apparently it's extremely patchy before then). I'd enjoy more archive episodes as a regular feature.

@WheresThatCatGoneNow, sorry to hear things are a bit rough at the moment. You might find this week's episodes soothing. They're not TA as we know it but there's nothing much going on. Plenty of cricket talk, which I like. I wonder if it might be best to listen to them all in one go, or catch the omnibus. I suspect it might work better that way.

The weakest point this week has been all the bits with David. We know Tim B can act, because he was good in The Thick of It where he would have stood out like a sore thumb otherwise, given the high standard of the rest of the cast. (I never saw that Civil War drama he was in 30 or 40 years ago, so no idea how he did there.) This monologue approach, however, is not working for him. I don't think it's solely because of his acting abilities. David has never been written in such a way that we'd expect him to be thinking reflectively about anything, so what we're hearing now is implausible. They'd have done a lot better to have David and Ruth or Jill or Brian talking to each other, on a phone call to cover up any sound deficiencies if they felt it necessary.

Josh is working far better. Expanding the egg business is a good idea. I have no idea where it is currently but now that Hollowtree has been mentioned that seems vaguely right. Anyway, I have no problem believing that David and Josh have just agreed off mike that henceforth it will be based at Brookfield.

It would test my addiction to its absolute limits to hear a monologue from Pip, so let's hope that doesn't happen.

Well, I don't care what most of you miserable old lot think, I'm enjoying the monologues.

I am enjoying the inner musings.
I like the way they are moving some plot points forward without adding to my stress levels
They will also be able to change characters' relationships from inner reflections.

Let's have Kirsty wondering why Philip keeps 'popping out' and then have Eddie reflecting on how he knew P was dodgy.

(And Harrison didn't want to be cricket captain originally, did he?)

I have a friend who is a keen long-term listener, so we discuss TA. I often repeat the same things I've sounded off about here. I have never dared to ask her if she's ever been on MN, although she is of an age to have had it available as a resource when her offspring were little. I'll probably never know if I've already had the same conversations with her online!