💥 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!

But Alan is from Yorkshire and Harrison has a Lancashire accent, R4.

PerditaProvokesEnmity
I had a brief 🔮 moment when I wondered if we're leading up to Harrison being (probably accidentally) killed by Scumbag Oatey. He's already had his Clap for Our Copper moment, we've heard the declarations of marital adoration, he's made the big romantic gesture. It's Time. And the SWs had him tell us what a nasty piece of work Oatey has been forever ...

Oooh, ooh, please Miss, you left out a bit, Miss -- we also got Fallon saying that whenever he was late she was afraid he might not come home.

Indeed ...

But Alan is from Yorkshire and Harrison has a Lancashire accent, R4.
To my ears it sounds like "somewhere northern" accent. I know other people say that they can't tell the difference between some of the "middle-class middle-age bloke" voices, whereas I can.
I can't be doing with the Mummerset accents, though; Fallon was particularly excruciating last night.

I can tell Alan and Harrison apart, but then I am from the northern end of Great Britain.

Timotei can knock off Harrison as far as I'm concerned, but I agree it would be good if we got rid of Pip in the same incident. The shock might shut Ruth up for good, which would be a bonus. I'm not a bloodthirsty woman, though, so I'd be equally happy if all three became non-speaking characters.

I haven't listened for over a month! These awkward monologues just don't work for me.

I tried again last night, but Fallon and Harrison left me cold, and I switched off halfway through.

Oh, please, just get back to normal ASAP.

@MikeUniformMike

But Alan is from Yorkshire and Harrison has a Lancashire accent, R4.

I can't tell them apart either and have to work it out from context. Not as far north as the Tyne and not as far across as Liverpool - I'm not able to work out accents more closely than that. Although I really couldn't have been paying attention when i mixed up Fallon and Alice as the wife who'd be at work. Didn't she resign? Nope, wrong one. I'm not sure i can really be that bothered beyond thinking 'that's nice, dear' to all the devoted husband's plans.

it would be good if we got rid of Pip in the same incident

Oh - I would love a couple of decades of Fairbrethren bringing up the Brookfield heiress!

Have been meaning to ask (though perhaps better on t'other thread) what was revealed on the Dumteedum zoomcast. All respect to Roifield Brown and Sunny Ormonde but I only managed about twenty minutes of their epic chat ...

I haven't listened for over a month!
You have a prescient name, WheresThat Listener CatGoneNow.

It would be ironic if Harrison's one&only collar means the end of his career.

Yes, R4, prescient, as you say.

I wonder how many listeners, like me have fallen away - maybe never to return!

I think you'll probably not distinguish between any accents between North Midlands and the Borders then , and there was me picking up how 'R Kairsty's ma had the wrong accent because she had a Liverpool not Wirral accent.

Ruth's accent has had a lot of stick over the years, but it sounds fine to me apart from the way she says words that end in -er. She's not a Geordie.

I once asked someone if they were from [Lancashire town population

The monologues have been patchy. Some have been good and some not.
The Mianed ones were good.

Fallon's accent has irritated me for years, as do the other Mummersetters, but to be fair, they are probably instructed to do it.

Tony never used to be so mean.

Johnny is not going to be grateful for a train-set he knows Tony found in the attic, is he now?

Tony never used to be so mean.

I really can’t agree that Tony was being mean. He was being sentimental and nostalgic - and simply forgetting what it is like to be 22!

Jonny will love the train set when he is older - and he loves his grandfather - so hopefully will conceal his disappointment on his birthday...

I know what I think about people who regift. Mean. Johnny knows that this was found in the attic and is completely without value to him -- he has no use for it and even if he had, he lives in a house where there is no room to put it up. Nor, given his being expected to work all the hours God sends on Maggie's Farm, has he any time to play with it.

If not mean, then really more stupid than is permissible; but I would say both.

I'm with @Roysnewshirt on this. Tony should give Johnnie money and the train set, but the train set will have value and meaning to Johnnie, as it's a connection with his father. As for the hours Johnnie works, he is an employee, so is getting paid, and anyone who goes into farming or horticulture will know that during the summer it's a given that you work long hours. Johnnie chose to be a farmer, nobody forced him into it - quite the contrary.

I know what I think about people who regift. Mean. But it wasn't regifting in the sense of "oh, it's Johnny's birthday - I know, I have some unwanted tat in the cupboard I can give him, saves me buying". In Tony's eyes he was giving him a treasured possession, an heirloom.

but the train set will have value and meaning to Johnnie, as it's a connection with his father You heard what Johnny said - he understood why, but he doesn't need "baggage" to connect with his father, working on the same farm, doing the same things, is what does it for him.

Yes, I liked that, actually. Tony made an assumption, but got it wrong. I found that in character for both Tony and Johnnie.

I feel sorry for Joy but can't help feeling Fallon is going to rue the day she decided to be neighbourly. Joy is one of those people who doesn't easily pick up on signals that she is going OTT. I wonder if that's what went wrong with Rochelle.

Anybody else see the huge flashing neon sign above Woodbine Cottage saying 'We will soon be TTC'?

@PerditaProvokesEnmity

or Fallon finally getting broody

Oh yes, that was pretty clearly signalled. I assumed they think no one's left alive who remembers Shula's in the midst of bereavement pregnancy. So - toddler visit prompts conception. Scumbag kills Harrison. Fallon becomes widowed new mother. Simples.

Coupl'a days ago!

That's a crap story line. You shouldn't suggest it, not anywhere the SWs can hear.

It's an excellent SL - it gets rid of creepy, boring Harrison. With the added corollary that Fallon will then be free to requite Jazzer's attentions.

- Though I wouldn't like to think Jazzer is still hanging on to that hope - not after being such an excellent brides-man.

Oh ... That's why Joy is her NBF. So she can be a pillar of support with poor fatherless mini-Harrison.

I hadn’t listened or read the thread for a couple of weeks or more. It’s a sign of the times that it didn’t take long to catch up with either! I wondered if Fallon might already be pregnant, with all those references to how tired she is. Or poorly, perhaps. I find Alice excruciating to listen to and really don’t like the character, so I’m liking and disliking her storyline. I was seething at Ed until he did the right thing. This will rumble on though, I fear.

What are the SW doing to Jonny? He arrived as an entirely normal person, his dyslexia was completely in line with his character but the hair loss and now scratch card storylines ?🙄He seems to be manic