💥 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!

Yes, her daughter dealt with Helen's case.

I believe she is still living in Jill's bungalow, but we haven't heard her speak for a very long time, and as we haven't heard Jill speak since lockdown, (nor much of anyone at Broomfield in lockdown after the first week,) we haven't heard of her, either.

As far as we know, Carol rents Glebe Cottage from Jill, but since nobody ever refers to her, who knows? She went from being an almost forgotten character who'd been sent to Bristol when she fell silent, to omnipresent for a time when she moved back to Ambridge, and now back to oblivion even though she lives right in the heart of the village. Most odd.

I listened to Feedback. The newish controller of R4 defended the monologues (well, he would, wouldn't he) and said the decision to do them was not down to cost . Anyway, he also said he believed they were back in the studio this week, so that's good news. Proper dialogue soon, I hope, but I'll be gutted if we don't hear from any of the older actors for months and months.

This is one of the things that I find so irritating about TA for all that I love it; so many unnecessary loose ends. It wouldn't be so hard to have a character occasionally remark ' I hear Carol's gone to stay with her daughter for a while' or 'fancy Jamie moving to Canada' or ' I hear the Gills are having a lot of work done to Home Farm'. People in villages gossip so much about the little goings on. And why isnt the pub raking it in doing 'Eat Out to Help Out'?

Yes IRL, if your neighbour or cousin moves away, you probably get the odd phonecall or email or mention on social media. I think it does happen rarely, like Phoebe saying she facetimed Nolly or something, but it is rare. I know it might be confusing to new listeners, and the scriptwriters
or editor probably say they don't have time mention them if they're not in current stories. But I'm sure it's possible to we've in mentions. We probably hear more about the Thwaites and the Buttons than Carol or Kathy or Jamie, so it's not impossible.

@PerditaProvokesEnmity

CheetasOnFajitas you omitted a photo of said sinks.

Weirdly, when I was in my twenties, my then boyfriend and I spent endless blissful hours pottering around garden centres - browsing plants (before we had a garden), buying gifts and fully appreciating the pots of tea for two and "home made" coffee and walnut cake.

Now, in deep middle age, I'd hesitate to set foot in one without an elderly person in tow to provide an excuse.

Oh I hadn’t seen it hadn’t uploaded. Here you go, the glorious Dobbies’ sinks.

Maybe the tat is the main seller during the winter months, especially in the run up to Christmas. That and the cafe probably keep many garden centres afloat.

I'm sure you are right, and the tat is a lot less perishable than living plants. I used to enjoy a mooch around the local garden centre and never left empty handed. But the actual garden part is so diminished I rarely go now, almost the entire place is non gardening stuff.

If I ever need a million different flower mugs, ceramic plates with "funny quotes" about pets, novelty books about said pets, bath cubes from the 1950s or artificial bunches of flowers in lurid colours I'll be right back there!

It hadn't occurred to me that she might have been dumped - just assumed she was too busy and expensive

And was acting the rest of the cast off the pitch

I suspect Eleanor Bron being 82 might be relevant. In recent months TA has used mostly younger actors for the monologues. Apart from Carol Boyd and Robert’s actor who are still younger than 82, I think.

In other news I like the scones in Dobbie’s though in truth I’ve not been there for a few years now. There’s one with a nice cafe on the outskirts of Perth so might be handy for me once the whole apocalypse thing has settled.

I've always thought Adam was definitely his mothers son with his "I'm so much more busy and stressed all the time than you" grating voice and personality.

Being older actors explains us not hearing their voices. It doesn't excuse us not hearing anything about them.

Charles Collingwood is 77, and he has been able to record monologues. He didn't even own a laptop, but he still managed to learn how to use one for recording once it was provided. Carole Boyd was born in 1941, so a couple of years older. Graham Blockley is younger: was 61 when he retired from being a GP in 2017, so he was born in 1956.

Tim Bentinck was born in 1953, and David Troughton in 1950. And I don't suppose Sunny Ormonde, Simon Williams, Charlotte Martin, Buffy Davis or Jackie Lye is particularly young either.

We haven't heard from Phoebe or Roy or various others, either. If it's because they don't want to have to hide under a duvet or have crap home broadband, or a million other reasons, that's fine, but that doesn't excuse us never hearing about them.

I think Roy has a major part in uncovering Philip but with the new format they just haven't written for him.
And yes June Spence used to fly over to record her scenes but then I know she was in her 90s (and still living in the UK) when she was on a picket line protesting against an incinerator.

@CheetasOnFajitas those sinks are amazing. Unfortunately my local Dobbies doesn't have them. Also, their toilets are badly ventilated and always smell.

Did anyone notice the lags in the poorly spliced together dialogue between Fallon and Emma? If that’s the producers’ sop to our complaints about the monologues, then I’m really fed up. I’m not holding my breath that Feedback will succeed in holding them to account, as someone said up thread.

I want to hear Philip getting his comeuppance, though the tea shop storyline was quite reasonably covered this week. Thank goodness that Emma has been allowed some self-assurance at last.

[quote CaptainMyCaptain]@CheetasOnFajitas those sinks are amazing. Unfortunately my local Dobbies doesn't have them. Also, their toilets are badly ventilated and always smell.[/quote]
I’ve only been to one (in Glasgow) so I wasn’t sure if they were standard in all branches!

The sinks boggled my mind momentarily. The photo has rotated so they look like splashbacks, not sinks!
We don't have a Dobbies in Borsetshire.

@R4

The sinks boggled my mind momentarily. The photo has rotated so they look like splashbacks, not sinks! We don't have a Dobbies in Borsetshire.

Yes, it was the right way round when I pressed “preview” then spun around inexplicably when I posted!

They are completely amazing!

Trying to think where in Ambridge might possess such beauty.

Thank goodness that Emma has been allowed some self-assurance at last

I think the person who comes off worst from the tea room story is Fallon. Emma has had more ideas and enthusiasm, Gnasher did nothing worse than assuming Fallon was keeping her friend and employee informed. Fallon has made the classic mistake of a small business not using the inputs around her and going straight from "I can't solve it" to "sack the employee".

We don't know the reason why Bridge Farm can't keep the rent reduction so I'm suspending judgement on that.

... Of course - The Orangery @ Lower Loxley!

Those sinks are amazing!

Sorry to barge in, usually more of a lurker. Is anyone aware of any way I can catch up on past episodes on line? - I am keen on hearing how Emma and Ed got back together, but of course it is no longer on bbc sounds, I have tried googling but got nowhere. Thanks

I’ve got a feeling that most old episodes aren’t readily available online, @UltimateIrritant. But hopefully someone else will know for sure.

www.adrianbeal.com/archers-2020/ used to be a place where you could easily catch up with the omnibuses, but I think it is rather more complicated now.

("Click here to find out more" for more information takes you to a funeral parlour.)