💥 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!

debbies emotions are very feasible - just how many expats felt in uk since the referendum. many had to reconsider their lifes and decide if they want to stay.
very clever writing I thought.

Nah ... TASWAMA.

In the space of four days, two intelligent, capable, highly experienced professional women reduced to trembling wrecks dependent on wine and daddies to prop them up? Sure, in the entire European population of working age women there will be a proportion suffering these ills at any time - but amongst women of Archer heritage on the radio right now two is a disproportionately high number.

It's almost as if they've been waiting breathlessly to sweep aside the curtain -

"Ta daa! Look! You didn't really believe women could hold down big, responsible jobs did you? First sign of trouble, they're outta there!"

Doesn’t Roger have Covid? I think Debbie’s reaction is based on the fact that she’s realised he might die (it didn’t particularly sound as if he would from her conversation, but I think it’s the intimation of mortality that has set her off). It’s that moment when you suddenly realise someone isn’t going to be around forever - I’ve seen this with people who have never bothered much with going to see parents who then suddenly die. In my experience very much more distressing and hard to com ego terms with than for those who have had a close relationship - the idea that it’s over and now it’s too late. I think Debbie is doubly affected by having no children of her own - those with children are able to project forward (the worst thing they can imagine is outliving their own children). For those without there’s the very sobering realisation that the line stops with them (although admittedly Debbie does have an enormous extended family). The whole situation is exacerbated for Debbie by the fact that she lives abroad - I so identified with her when she said she probably wouldn’t have gone back in the previous six months, but it’s the thought that she can’t that makes her long for home. It’s making her question all her life choices - and then the admission that she doesn’t really think about what she needs because she’s supposed to be the strong capable one who everyone can rely on to support them.
Excellent new title by the way PPE (both for the thread and yourself 😂)

*come to terms with (why isn’t there an edit option - or why don’t I preview?)

Lil'G I wish I could take the credit, but Gasp0de's title is a lot better!

I do see what you mean about Debbie and family connections. It just seems a shame they take this rarest of opportunities to hear from her - and use it to portray a moment of comparative weakness and loss of confidence rather than strength and triumph.

There's so much foreshadowing of Debbie coming home that I'm beginning to wonder if Tamsin Greig has had a really significant amount of work cancelled ... Was she in or about to be in any major stage work at the start of the pandemic? No idea how film/TV schedules are impacting individual actors.

Re. all the over-exposition, I do think you kind of need it with all this navel gazing. While the plot is tonking along in the usual way you can generally follow and stay engaged with a few gaps in your knowledge, but some of these monologues would have been incomprehensible to those who are not long-time listeners. I actually think it’s a good opportunity to have a bit of a re-cap (obviously we have AskingQuestions for all that sort of thing, but not all listeners are on here 😂). My feeling is that, as with all things Covid, it is what it is and we just have to keep bumbling on until we get through. I’m just back from ten days away and listened back to back while doing the ironing - it passed the time.

There's so much foreshadowing of Debbie coming home that I'm beginning to wonder if Tamsin Greig has had a really significant amount of work cancelled I also wondered this. Great to hear her though - she’s a great actress and she does actually have something to ponder and no one to talk to so she’s perfect for the monologues.

I don't mind too much when there is reminiscence which is related in some way to what was actually broadcast. What I find hard to stomach is complete fabrication being presented as if it were factual. Debbie has never given a tuppenny stuff for Roger Travers-Macy, and despised him totally for screwing Jennifer as he did; so why pretend otherwise, oh editorial team? Is she supposed to be a fantasist, now?

God, listening to Adam was painful. The actor is so over dramatic in his delivery.

Debbie has never given a tuppenny stuff for Roger Travers-Macy true, but that might change if she thought he was going to die. He is her father whether she likes it or not.

My mother accidentally FaceTimed me a couple of minutes ago, then rang off. I was just about to text her to say "Not now, it's The Arch ... ..."

It's Friday. I listened or rather not really listened to yesterday's.

LillianGish
He is her father whether she likes it or not.

Well, he provided some sperm that went into making her. (There are plenty like him around.) On the occasion she actually met him, he behaved very badly and she told him to go away.

I doubt she'd even have noticed that he had died, if she had not been specifically notified; what I would like to know is how her step-mother came to be able to get in touch with her. I can't off-hand credit that she would have given the woman her telephone number, nor Travers-Macy neither.

Was anyone else discombobulated by Debbie walking and talking? The clip-clopping of her shoes sounded detached from her.

In the space of four days, two intelligent, capable, highly experienced professional women reduced to trembling wrecks dependent on wine and daddies to prop them up?

Completely agree. Women have massively disproportionately suffered in the pandemic but instead we have a tired old line of two of the fewe professional women in TA "not coping".

Never mind: men are more likely to get cv19 than women, and more likely to die of it. That Roger Travers-Macy has so far been its only Archers-related victim is therefore at least plausible.

Just clocking in - have finally returned to listening to the monologues (yawn)

Not sure if I missed anything important in June?

@Icantstandpip

Was anyone else discombobulated by Debbie walking and talking? The clip-clopping of her shoes sounded detached from her.

The sounds effects - particularly walking - have been iffy for some months. I don’t know if they’ve got a new foley artist for shoes!

It will all turn out to have been because of lockdown, won't it.

New dramatisation of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market on R4 at 3pm today. Adapted and directed by Jessica Dromgoole -

Created and recorded in lockdown, with the actors and singers all in separate acoustically protected rooms, and the interviewees all recording themselves, the programme is testament to the skills of the sound engineer, and the enduring truth that anything is possible in audio drama.

Will be an interesting comparison with TA ...

I don't interpret either Debbie or Alice as being trembling wrecks. Debbie is understandably a bit thrown by her father being ill, and being stuck in a politically shaky country miles away from her family, but she is still doing her job. Alice is being her father's daughter and doing her best to close her eyes to the seriousness of her situation, so she's toughing it out, at least publicly and vis a vis her husband.

Just listened to this week's lot.

I think Debbie is using alcohol to gently unwind.

Alice has got to the point of her use of it impacting her work and also needing it.

I did smile at the fact that although Adam was looking after Xander all day, Ian had still set up all the activities (doing the 'wife work' part).

I also liked the fact that Ian was consciously setting up activities for all areas of child development. When we adopted, I had a list of ideas under each topic I could refer to...

I thought Ian had set up loads of messy activities as a cheeky wind up for Adam.

The new versions of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads are a cruelly-timed reminder of just how good monologues can be...

Yes, we've been slowly working our way through the Talking Heads series. Alan Bennett is such a brilliant storyteller.