💥 Archers thread #119: Has the Bull reopened? Will Ambridge pull through? We’ve all dozed off and haven't a clue. Moan about the monologues 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 we should have monologues all the time from now on, 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/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 PPE on the last thread for the title suggestion, which I tweaked a bit.

As for the current state of affairs: here's how it could have been done. www.youtube.com/channel/UCvRSVdfQWAjNhNu1AtABYjw Nigel Pargetter returns, albeit in spectral form. I loved these.

I don't love the current set up. Very, very hit and miss for me - but I am too much of an addict to give it up. Looking for a silver lining, maybe the rather clunky trot through the Aldridge family tree last night was helpful to newer listeners. It is rather convoluted. In 12.5 minutes they managed to explain that Adam and Debbie are Jennifer's children by different fathers, that Debbie's father Roger Travers-Macy adopted Adam, that after he and Jenny divorced she married Brian and that he (secretly) loves Adam and not nearly so secretly adores Debbie. I don't think they explicitly stated that Kate and Alice are Brian's children with Jenny, but they did manage to squeeze in a mention of Siobhan and Ruairi, and explain that Xander is Adam's son by a surrogate and has no genetic connection to either Brian or Xander's other father Ian. Phew!

Thanks, *Gasp0de, I'm glad to see these are still going even if I have wandered away from TA a bit.

It seems I'm not the only one who's lost interest - the last thread filled up at around half our normal rate. I assume it will be some time yet before we return to a normal sort of episode.

I was hoping you'd kept tabs on the thread stats, @DadDadDad! Yes, very slow at the moment. Thread mirrors TA life.

I thought Xander did have sperm from one of Adam or Ian. Can’t remember any details, though, so could easily be wrong.

Adam's. I can't remember what device they used to ensure it was Adam, not Ian, who provided the necessary. This is clearly so that he can be described as an Archer by blood, by descent from Jennifer. Very atavistic. (It was a donor egg, though, wasn't it? Not one of Lexi's.)

Wasn't it found that Ian was infertile?

I thought they were going to use Ian's sperm but it wasn't ... erm ... up to the job - so Adam's it was. Ian was gutted.

My logic was missing - genetically Adam's, but Adam.is not genetically Brian''s, so neither is Xander.

Thanks Gasp0de

@EBearhug, yes, hence Brian's musings about still loving children when you aren't their genetic parent. He said Xander has a definite look of Jennifer.

I suppose they could get a different actress for Debbie.

I love Tamsin Greig, she is far too good and too busy I'd have thought to go back to TA regularly. She was wasted in that episode really. At least sharing an episode with Brian meant we didn't have the "one good actor showing up three naff actors" scenario.

If they kill off Roger they will have played the old trick of deaths amongst the silent characters so that everyone has a death to talk about without killing off a regular.

Great to hear Debbie again.

I was really pleased to hear Debbie again. It was good to refer to some of the Archers' history rather than the boring boring monologues that have so far failed to add anything new to the listening.

Hopefully the Pargetter Triptych has been a wake-up call to the writing team.

If we can all sit in restaurants and pubs, a metre apart, presumably the younger/healthy cast can get back to the studio to do a bit of recording (surrounded by perspex screens)?

Hmphh! Xander is a ridiculous name.

Dreadful isn't it. Alex is fine, as is Sandy, and Sascha is cute, or even just Al, but Xander (Z-AAAH-nder) is ugh and makes me think of fish.

What happened to the fishy theme?

We already have an Al though.
Thanks for the new thread @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g .

And an Alan. Thanks Gasp.

Brava, Gasp0 - your opening monologues get better and better! (Title much improved too.)

Ho hum ... I'm reluctant to jump to TASWAMA conclusions re Alice's hard won job - perhaps the SWs have grand plans for her (maybe a joint enterprise with Chris?) - but I'm not impressed with their portrayal of her decision making skills. But then, they've never treated Alice's career with even a speck of respect.

She will want to walk into a job at Home Farm, and Brian will agree but Adam will rightly reckon she will be bad at actually doing it, and sulk horribly because his unopposed rule will be being disputed.

Oh drat, posted too soon

Thanks for the new thread, Gasp0do.

But then, they've never treated Alice's career with even a speck of respect.

This is one of my big TASWAMA peeves of the Archers. Can't have an intelligent young women engineer making a success of life, lets make her a drunken emotional wreck to prove that women can't cope with a career and a relationship.

Thanks, GaspO, for the lovely new thread. I listened to last night’s episode again just before tonight’s, so that’s half an omnibus on the present scheme. It was better for continuity and I heard the bits I’d missed last night. I didn’t mind tonight’s- usually Alice annoys me but she was okay tonight and it was good hearing her and Chris monologuing. I felt a bit sorry for her - that was an unusual sensation.

I'm in two minds about forsythia, oops, I'm not Shula contemplating the church flowers and this isn't Lent Alice.

On the one hand, it did seem for a time that they'd decided to back away from making Alice have alcohol dependency problems. Judging by her frantic reaction to not getting her wine delivery first thing in the morning it looks as if that storyline is back on again. I did wonder if she'd had a drink or three before telling her MD where he could put his job.

Why doesn't Chris notice it? Maybe because his mother likes a drink too, as we've seen several times during lockdown. I don't think there's any suggestion that Susan has a dependency problem, but I raised an eyebrow when she decided to have several drinks before and during her stints on air to relax her, in spite of knowing that her tongue runs away with her when she's too 'relaxed'.

I don't recall that we've had an alcoholic in Ambridge in recent times, although there are a lot of habitual drinkers. George Barford was a recovering alcoholic, but that was decades ago. Alistair is a gambling addict attending Gamblers Anonymous. Ed had a ludicrously short bout of substance abuse problems a while back, which he seemed to put behind him effortlessly as soon as the plot moved on. Jazzer similarly moved on from his ketamine phase very rapidly indeed. Was/is Fallon's Dad Wayne an alcoholic, now in recovery? I can't remember. Does he still work at The Bull?

Anyway. Back to Alice's career. I share everybody else's disappointment that it's never been allowed to flourish in an uncomplicated way. They could have invented a specialist engineering concern near Felpersham where she gradually worked up the ladder. Far more interesting than what's happening now.

They could have invented a specialist engineering concern near Felpersham where she gradually worked up the ladder.
There is loads of engineering in Felpersham. Alice could even have commuted to Malvern - there's lots of aerospace/MOD stuff going on there, which is right up her street.

The three current people with a drink problem are Lilian, Susan and Alice. TASWAMA.

I've enjoyed the episodes I have managed to hear, which is not many.
Life has been tricky here, and listening to gentle monologues slowly moving some stories on has been great.

I do agree about Alice's job though. And Phoebe. They could have sent her to London to work for Treasury/HMRC sorting out how to pay for everything.

alice will get together with freddy to build harvesting machines.