🎄Archers thread #122: Deck the Hall with Eddie, Freddie 🎵 'Tis the Season to be jolly (but orange juice for you, Alice)

[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 love Bert Fry’s poetry (as I do), 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 @C8H10N4O2 for requesting an annoyingly cheerful thread title which might take us up to Christmas and to @Prestissimo for the title suggestion. I was strongly tempted by @LillianGish’s suggestion: Eddie’s turkeys, Freddie’s show, village green with lights aglow, Stir Up Sunday, Deck the Hall, Merry Christmas one and all - with apologies to Bert Fry and @R4’s suggestion Wassail to the Ambridge Not-A-Panto where Freddie gets nine LESSONS in directing from CAROLe Lynda. Top work, all!

Three days to go until we can return to Ambridge.

My list for Father Christmas

In the next few weeks I’d like:

• Freddie’s show to be a huge success

• Philip and Gavin to be driven out of the village with pitchforks into the waiting arms of the police, and the three ‘horses’ rescued and taken in by kind people who will help them turn their lives around

• Pip to take a perpetual vow of silence and leave for a nunnery

• a terrific Grundy Christmas (although the travails of Alice and Chris will overshadow things)

• Alice to lose the baby, as this seems the least grim option for us listeners; she leaves Chris and makes a fresh start of some kind

What do you all want for Christmas from The Archers?

@SabrinaThwaite

There is a theory that you tend to lose an accent more easily if you move before puberty. My own DCs show no sign of losing theirs (which I’m glad about).

Gasp0de seems to disprove that theory! What accent do you and your DC have @SabrinaThwaite?

I suppose that turning the Billy Connolly up to eleven for effect probably does fit with Jazzer’s character, come to think of it.

The young Ruairi was acted by someone from I think it was Solihull who in spite of having been in England for most of his life had a distinctly Irish accent.

Some people pick up accents really easily and some don't. Being scottish is a big part of Jazzer's identity so would have deliberately retained his accent.

I wonder what Will Gundy sounds like IRL.

He probably sounds like all the other youngish-male identiclones of Ambridge.

@MikeUniformMike

Some people pick up accents really easily and some don't. Being scottish is a big part of Jazzer's identity so would have deliberately retained his accent.

I wonder what Will Gundy sounds like IRL.

Probably sounds like Prince Charles!

Re Jazzer I’ve never had a problem with him sounding very Scottish despite moving to Borsetshire before he finished school because I imagined the backstory would have him moving as a young teen/tween (not sure it’s ever been specified) when a strong personality might well resist changing it.

Ryan Kelly moving at age 3 and keeping his is a very different phenomenon.

I'm possibly a bit odd, to be fair. My brother was extremely keen to fit in at our new school, but I was much more concerned with keeping my accent as best I could.

There must be a whole psycho-linguistic /sociolinguistic thesis out there (either done or ripe to be done) about how and when accents “fix” in people who move away from the area where it is native. Age must be one factor but I guess it also must depend to some extent on how much confidence an individual has, societal pressure to fit in, social perceptions of the accent (eg “Northeners sound thick”), family circumstances, accents of those considered to be role models etc.
Yes. Loads written on it. Look at stuff on dialect levelling, language acquisition and so on. Can't remember any names off hand, though. (Helpful.)

I always find accents fascinating. Often enquire about strangers' accents as an opener. They often end up telling you their life stories.

I know the Scots enclave in Corby, definitely a thing. The big ASDA there has a Scots section within its World Foods aisle.

My DCs both have NE Scots accents, I’m English, DH is mostly English but with bits of his Scottish and Irish parents.

“Dialect levelling”- I like that expression @EBearhug! I wonder how the fictional Mummerset/Borsetshire dialect has levelled over the years.
Did anyone see the clip of Paddy Greene on Woman’s Hour being played an early recording of herself as Jill, and almost refusing to accept she was hearing herself, with her clipped Celia Johnson tones? Her face was a picture. She also said that they always wore a hat and gloves to the studio and the Doris actress often turned up in furs.

Oh and mentioning Celia Johnson there also reminds me that Sandi Toksvig is a great case study for dialect levelling. She is half Danish half English but first lived in Denmark (her Mum learned Danish) and then had her early education the US when her father worked there. She was bullied badly at English boarding school for sounding American and consciously decided to copy Celia Johnson. That’s now of course more or less her natural accent in English.

Cursedy will never escape Ambridge.

Alice hasn't been at the clinic, has she?

I'm surprised that there wasn't more of a handover from the clinic to Chris in how to support Alice. Maybe they don't do that in real life but I would hope they do (at least some leaflets on warning signs and support).

Did you notice Alice's comment 'he was a PROPER alcoholic' which means she hasn't really accepted her alcoholism.

I think she's either going straight back to secret drinking or they'll let her make it through pregnancy and then she'll be back on the bottle shortly after the birth.

I am afraid I think Chris and Alice are doomed.

of course she has, Phoenix the sober side kick texted her.

I don't think it would be easy to dodge the clinic when they were expecting her; they'd want to know where she'd got to, wouldn't they?

Nothing to stop her signing herself out though. I think she dried out and then left for Bath. She thinks she's ok but it will all end in tears.

YY cameo, the "PROPER alcoholic" was a giveaway.

What did Eddie say about empty vodka bottles...

Alice was hyper.

What did Eddie say about empty vodka bottles...

I missed that bit Mike

@OhLittleBoreOfWhabylon

What did Eddie say about empty vodka bottles...

I missed that bit Mike

He found a stash by the river. Clearly dumped by Alice over a number of weeks and months.

I was surprised at no clinic handover either. I think she was there, and the physical detox may have worked for a while, but she is not staying in that wagon for long.

Chris’ comment about how easily and convincingly she lied was sad, and spot on. I noticed it too.

Whatever she's been up to, am pretty sure she'll be off to the off license tmrw (altho telling Chris she'll be at work all day)

Thanks Cheetas

Well, she's not a proper alcoholic so a little drinkie every now and then won't do any harm...