💥 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.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

TA has been moved to 8pm tonight, to make room for a PM Special ...Please don't tell me we have a whole hour of Boris?

[TheSparklyPussycat]

baggies You iron duvet covers?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

I'm hoping it's a few minutes of Boris followed by hours and hours of some analysis from pundits. I want to get dinner on the table before 7.30.

[LillianGish]

Loving the old episodes - though I think Joe Grundy's wake is too recent to count as delving into the archives. Totally agree re comments about Chris Carter's accent - I believe I commented at the time when he was recast as yokel (I would go back and find it if I could remember the date). So unnecessary to try and exaggerate the differences in their backgrounds. It is all there in that episode - just perfect. I agree with PPE (just for a change ) it was a stroke of genius uniting the two families through marriage.

[LillianGish]

Found it: Jan 18 2019 Has Chris always been such a yokel? His performance reminded me of Heatherpet’s latterday professional northerner accent (How satisfactory that the Advanced Search function works so well and I was able to locate this in a matter of moments).

[MikeUniformMike]

Weren't there two Heatherpets?

[LillianGish]

Quite possibly MUM - she was another one who gradually morphed into a caricature of herself (totally unnecessarily imo).

[AskingQuestionsAllTheTime]

Heather was played by Joyce Gibbs first, until March 2013, and then by Margaret Jackman from March 2014 onwards.

Goodness, didn't Jill sound young this evening!

[Welshwabbit]

Just popping in to say I think the Chris and Alice return from Vegas episode may be my favourite ever. Howling (not in a Kirsty way).

[nettie434]

At the time I thought Heather sounded different but there were often long gaps between her appearances so I wasn’t sure and lazily never checked.

And yes, didn't Jill sound younger? Bert Fry sounded exactly the same though. It was also odd hearing references to Phil. Another good choice of episode.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Yes, Chris and Alice was great, the continual counterpoint between "welcome to the family' "get out the wine we've been saving" "we must have a party", and starter marriage, divorce in Remo, "Adam and Ian had a proper wedding". Brian being wonderfully what Sir Humphrey would have termed "unhelpful".

[PerditaProvokesEnmity]

Had forgotten the Othello clue!

[Taswama]

I enjoyed listening to yesterday's Brookfield episode. I was trying to work out how Pip was, but not quite enough to bother to work it out.

[PerditaProvokesEnmity]

She was born on 17th February 1993, so in March 2001 when Brookfield was in lockdown she would have been 8 years old. (Or so the BBC site indicates.)

Tonight's was outstanding.

[Roysnewshirt]

What an absolute treat tonight’s episode was! Poor poor Jenny...How she must have suffered over the years- no wonder so many are quietly fond of her.

I have only known Brian as a genial, though flawed, semi-retired farmer/grandfather. How I wish I had been there during the glory days - the affair with Siobhan must have electrified supper tables across the nation...

[AskingQuestionsAllTheTime]

A bit like Jennifer having her affair and sex with her ex-husband in 1991 did. She's not blameless either.

[EBearhug]

I hope the scriptwriters and editor are being reminded at just how good TA can be.

Though to be fair, they will struggle to surpass, "I'm related to a Horrobin!"

[EBearhug]

the affair with Siobhan must have electrified supper tables across the nation.

I don't remember it being electrifying. Perhaps we were inured to Brian's philandering ways. Siobhan was far from the first.

[campion]

I've got to disagree there, EBearhug
It was a whole other level of philandering,even for Brian, and I think many people were gripped.
I remember sitting in my car outside the dry cleaner's one wet,dark night in November when Siobhan gave birth. I had to hear every second of it. The drama!

Listening last night reminded me once again how good the acting always has been from both Jennifer and Brian.

[nettie434]

Agree about the quality of acting from Brian and Jenny. Was the writing better then too? Wondered that after reading EBearhug's comments. Of course these episodes have been selected so perhaps it's unfair to make comparisons.

I suppose the difference with Siobhan was that listeners felt their passion. I always felt he did not have that emotional connection to Caroline or Betty. I think there were others whom I've now forgotten. Brian is another one who would make a good subject for a Mumsnet thread, although as Asking said, Jenny had her moments too. There was a reminder of her friendship with John Tregorran (I think it was just that but may be wrong) when Carol Tregorran reappeared temporarily.

Here's a link to an article in which the former director of BBC radio, Helen Boaden, tells how the Brian/Siobhan storyline was introduced after she forbade Vanessa Whitburn from having Ed carted off to prison mistakenly accused of murdering Greg:

www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/14/bbc-radio-boss-archers-murder-storyline

[WheresThatCatGoneNow]

Jennifer's anguish was quite hard to listen to last night - but it was a cracking episode.

Nice to hear Tamsin Grieg too

Was it the same Jennifer? She sounded... different?

[WheresThatCatGoneNow]

Obviously I meant Greig!

My predictive text actually got it wrong

[PerditaProvokesEnmity]

I've been complaining about how they were broadcasting the archive out of chronology - and still don't find it very satisfactory. It would have been brilliant to have four/five days of significant moments in Jenny's life - even jumbled up and back to front the juxtaposition of her being brought down to her lowest point, last night, with her dowager duchess intonations on Horrobin in-laws was exceptionally powerful.

The SWs have done well with her - an interesting life that feels like a life, rather than a soap invention. Million BOOPS.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Same Jennifer. Angela Piper has been Jennifer for decades now. It was an excellent episode, but tough listening.

The Brian/Siobhan storyline is the best The Archers ever did, for me. I was disappointed in how it ended, though. I would have enjoyed a juicy divorce battle. I always felt Jennifer made the wrong choice and so did Brian. Then the melodramatic decision to kill the Scarlet Woman off as punishment for her wicked ways, and get her to force Brian into a deathbed promise to look after their son, followed by the ridiculously implausible commitment from Jennifer to spend her twilight years bringing up Siobhan's child! Ridiculous.

What a contrast to the Brookfield lockdown. I just can't care about the Brookfield Archers in the way I do about the Home Farm family.

[campion]

I just can't care about the Brookfield Archers in the way I do about the Home Farm family
Sums it up for me.
I skipped Sunday's offering: that, on top of BJ, was not likely to enhance my evening.