💥 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!

Ha ... Clearly I'd blanked it from my mind.

Horrendous decision making by the producers.

Jacob will have a degree.

I was thinking "Who's Jacob?"

Yes he will.

Jakob? Yes, vets do tend to.

Robert could certainly have taken a degree in computing. Such a course definitely ran in my university when I was a student, and I am not much younger than him. There were computers in universities - they were enormous.

Every so often the computer system would be hacked by the computing students - which, if you think about it, shows the course was a good one

you didn't have to get a degree for teacher training when she was doing it. At my grammar school, teacher training was the destination of those girls who were unlikely to get into university. All though all OUR teachers, of course, were graduates (apart from the games teachers and the drama teacher). Lovely world it was - grammar school children were taught by graduates, but for secondary modern children, non graduates were good enough, even those who didn't even want to be a teacher and had trained only because they couldn't get into uni.

Someone with a degree awarded in the 1980s or earlier are unlikely to have a 2:1 or above. Indeed. In my degree class only the top 3 or 4, got a first, then about 15% got a 2:1, the usual degree was a 2:2, and then there was a similar tail of thirds and pass degrees. My son has a better degree than I have, despite my being better than him at the subject.

There were computers in universities - they were enormous Remember going on a 6th visit to Bath Uni and us all, including maths teacher, doing a "computer aptitude" test. Teacher's nose well and truly out of joint when two of us outscored her by a considerable margin.

Remember my first job and being introduced to the computer - about the size of a double wardrobe, in a HUGE room which was designed to fit the previous generation of computers. I seem to remember it have 32k memory. Can that really be true?

Lovely world it was - grammar school children were taught by graduates, but for secondary modern children, non graduates were good enough, even those who didn't even want to be a teacher and had trained only because they couldn't get into uni.

@MereDintofPandiculation

There were computers in universities - they were enormous Remember going on a 6th visit to Bath Uni and us all, including maths teacher, doing a "computer aptitude" test. Teacher's nose well and truly out of joint when two of us outscored her by a considerable margin.

Remember my first job and being introduced to the computer - about the size of a double wardrobe, in a HUGE room which was designed to fit the previous generation of computers. I seem to remember it have 32k memory. Can that really be true?

I worked at Honeywell in the mid 70s, the computer took up a whole floor of the building.

It was common, at least in the early 70's, for graduates to take a one year PGCE to carry on for another year as a student with a grant to qualify as a teacher.

Captain You had a better computer than us. We had this wardrobe-sized "mini" computer and 2 other wardrobes full of reels of magnetic tapes. And filing cabinets full of paper tape.

Robert is in his mid-seventies (Lynda is younger than him, and she was born in 1947) so he would have been born a couple of years before that, and starting his degree before 1963, chances are. I really am not sure how many computers there were in British universities in 1963, let alone degree courses in computing. The one at Reading a few years later was mostly used by the maths department, as was the one at the LSE useful tools for number-crunching, not an end in themselves, at that point, I thought. Oh, and engineering departments competed for time on them and students, if they were lucky were allowed in at night with their cards all punched out beforehand. ASCII was published in 1963, I think, for teleprinters.

I should know by now but what does TASWAMA mean please?

TASWAMA - The Archers Scriptwriters Are Misogynistic A...holes

My maths teacher was Sir Tim Berners Lee’s mother and she herself was a computing pioneer based at Manchester in the 40s. A kind and inspirational woman, she encouraged me to do maths and physics A levels.

What a fabulous thing to have for your memoirs, MrsSS.

I'm fairly sure BertrandRussell wrote "The Archers Script Writers Are Misogynist Arseholes" when she coined the term, btw.

I am more and more annoyed about Lily, now that I'm reminded of her. I just do not see how the SWs (/Producers) can think it's fair to keep her at a call centre, with no post A'Level qualifications at all.

Freddie is mostly lovely - but Lily won't inherit the house, and Scumbag is hardly a grand match who'll transport her to another stately home. Why have they deprived her of anything on which to base a reliable future? (I know a degree doesn't automatically do that, but it's a start.)

@MrsSlipSlop

TASWAMA - The Archers Scriptwriters Are Misogynistic A...holes

My maths teacher was Sir Tim Berners Lee’s mother and she herself was a computing pioneer based at Manchester in the 40s. A kind and inspirational woman, she encouraged me to do maths and physics A levels.

Thank you

I'm glad Ed told Emma about Alice's drinking as that might finally mean this story develops a bit. Not going to end well, though.

Good for Tracy. I hope she takes Philip to the cleaners. Is Gavin going to do some cackhanded intimidation stuff and end up giving the game away?

Oh, I forgot the solicitor's letter!

Surely this is another Tracy-prank? Unless Roman has put her up to it or she's been railroaded by some no win no fee outfit I find it hard to believe she would do this for real.

On the other hand I can't recall the current Grey Gables' position regarding Philip. (Nor any conclusion we reached on the thread.)

Good for Tracy. I hope she takes Philip to the cleaners

But I couldn’t work out what would be the basis of her claim. What is she seeking damages for? I thought Oliver seemed to still be paying the staff when they were having staff meetings in the tearoom so presumably not loss of earnings. And it can’t be a Personal Injury claim as it was only Roy, Lynda, Freddie and the long-suffering Blake who were injured. Unless she is claiming she was traumatised which is possible I suppose but a bit tenuous. May be she has found an ambulance-chasing PI lawyer online...

I think the claim would need to be more robust than it appears to stand a chance but it was good to see P and G rattled by the thought of litigation of any kind. Presumably Roy and Lynda’s claims are in the post...Usha is going to be very busy..

I know nothing of the law but would the Grey Gables insurers not be pursuing Phillip to recoup their money?

Sadly knowledge of the law is no help whatsoever in predicting what the TA creators will invent ...

Tracey's claim is based on the mental anguish and trauma she suffered. But as Philip pointed out, she's been putting videos up about the cricket team all summer, so I don't know how successful she'll be. She probably got a cold call from an ambulance chaser, and decided to give it a go.

Either the SWs have no knowledge of how solicitors actually write, or that letter is a scam by Tracy. There is no way they would describe themselves as "legal solicitors"; it's tautology and it's not as if anyone would claim to be an illegal solicitor. Also all that stuff like "we are henceforth instructed" and "we hereby give due notice of serious legal action" is a nonsense. Even ambulance chasers know enough to follow the personal injury pre-action protocol.

Yeah ... I think it's a joke. Tracy's bored. The prank she played on Susan introduced the theme ...

Sadly knowledge of the law is no help whatsoever in predicting what the TA creators will invent
Indeed. Even a passing knowledge of the law (or any subject, actually) is a hindrance. The SW don't follow character (because they change at the drop of a hat to suit the plot) and don't follow any logic (how business works, how law works, how employment works, how many bedrooms a house has, etc etc).
I find it harder and harder to suspend disbelief.