🎄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?

Philip wants Kirsty to think he's nice and is also subtly making Kirsty feel crap about herself for eating too much/taking food away from 'the lads'.

it would have been much more effective if there had been a slow build-up so that they were more established as characters.
True but don't forget that this is 2020, where we haven't heard from Pat for about a year. We need to cut the production team some slack on the logistics front. And we did hear a fair amount from Blake, post-explosion.

Why have the SLs only now given the horses a proper voice? I was fine with them being (virtually) silent and would have been fine with them being fully-developed characters but why give them a voice at this late stage? I think it's to try and make the point made in the BBC article I linked to for those who might not see the article. To try and explain how someone might come to be in that position and might even be made to feel grateful for being in that position and to remind us that it is not only vulnerable illegal immigrants who don't speak the language who might end up trapped in a situation like this. Considering the SW only have 13 minutes (or whatever) a day and now only have four days a week I think they have done a brilliant job of unfolding this story. No-one on here predicted this story when Philip first appeared on the scene and he and Kirsty got together and I think that's a testament to slavery being a problem that is very much hidden in plain sight. When it was first alluded to it was genuinely on of the most shocking and unexpected revelations - even more so than Knob because I think most of us were seeing hints of and recognising his controlling behaviour before it was properly revealed. We needed to hear "the horses" to fully comprehend the magnitude of what Philip and Gavin have been doing and are continuing to do in selling the boys on. The boys are clearly unaware of what is happening - it has been presented to them as a great opportunity, but we know about Victoria from Gavin. Anyone asking why would they agree, why would they stay in that situation can clearly be in no doubt now.

Sorry meant to add (as if I haven't said enough) in giving them a voice at this late stage the SWs are trying to mimic the shock and incredulity that Kirsty (and others in the village who have had contact with them) is going to feel when she learns the truth.

Thanks for that link, Lillian. How desperately sad. It reminds me (tangentially) of that awful murder case in Scotland where the victim's body was never found. She had learning disabilities and mental health issues and ended up living with an unrelated couple who went on claiming her benefits long after she had disappeared. Incredibly, they claimed when the police and social services investigated that she had left them to go and work in Europe as a gangmaster.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-51047938

I found it a bit strange that the 'horses' were going to buy a card. I might be being a bit sexist, but I wouldn't associate it as young men's behaviour.

But it might well be the behaviour of people with learning difficulties. And I think the idea came from Blake.

That link

LillianGish
Sorry meant to add (as if I haven't said enough) in giving them a voice at this late stage the SWs are trying to mimic the shock and incredulity that Kirsty (and others in the village who have had contact with them) is going to feel when she learns the truth.

A voice is right, though. I couldn't tell which was speaking any given bit of dialogue. This really didn't help me to see them as troubled individuals: they were more like fungible plot-tokens on that basis.

I am absolutely sure that should not be what the BBC wants us to gather from them about people with a learning or mental health disability. Such people are not, and should not be portrayed as if they were, interchangeable spare parts.

I couldn't tell which was speaking any given bit of dialogue no different to hearing Harrison and the vicar in a scene or the Fairbrethren with possibly Josh, Ben and basically anyone who isn’t Johnny I agree they sounded similar - I think one was Welsh. One had a single mum who shopped in the pound shop then went to live with his nan, one had a violent step dad and ran away from home at 13 one of them hates Christmas because of something that happened involving his dad. They are similar - similar backgrounds, similar ages, they live together, they are pretty interchangeable - people who have slipped through the net only to fall into the clutches of the likes of Philip and Gavin. Isn’t that kind of the point - that’s why no one notices them or sees what’s going on. One builder’s mate is pretty much like another.

I thought the one with the Welsh accent was just imitating Gavin?

I agree. I think Kenzie was the one who sounded to me like a Brummie. Blake had a London accent. Jordan - can't remember.

One of them (not Blake) sounded a bit less naive than other two.
Thanks for the article Lillian

I’m sure they were saying on the news or maybe YAY recently that turkey farmers are panicking as nobody wants a big turkey this year. Surely this was the more obvious problem for Eddie? Admittedly it’s what normally happens.

A combination of avian flu meaning that they all had to be kept indoors and people are a bit put off them by it, and big turkeys not being needed, I think.

www.gov.uk/government/news/avian-influenza-bird-flu-national-prevention-zone-declared

And another odd story line. Gallivanting off to the Maldives at the drop of a hat? Surely at least one of the SWs would realise this would be highly unlikely with a pandemic going on. It can't have been written too much in advance.

I don't think Susan would have encouraged Tracey to go. And again - how is all this to be financed?

@TheSilveryPussycat

And another odd story line. Gallivanting off to the Maldives at the drop of a hat? Surely at least one of the SWs would realise this would be highly unlikely with a pandemic going on. It can't have been written too much in advance.

I don't think Susan would have encouraged Tracey to go. And again - how is all this to be financed?

My colleague went to the Maldives last week, for a week’s holiday. (From the U.K.)

Knowing less than zero about the theatrical culture of the Maldives I couldn't say whether it's likely or not. Perhaps one of the SWs is drawing on personal experience? I can't get too worked up about the pandemic issue in TA; it must be a bugger to write around and keep up with.

But I'd assume Roman must have been offered a sufficiently attractive contract to make his invitation feasible. The only thing is, if he would be touring, it might be difficult for Tracy to establish herself there.

And then, there's Brexit ... God, if I were a SW I might consider resigning round about now ...

I am thinking that the point of the Maldives gig is that Freddie will be on his own with the LL production until Linda steps in to rescue him, and Tracey will be jilted only to be rescued by Jazzer (but not before Susan has had to look after Bert for a few weeks).

Yes, Freddie certainly. Inevitably. Leading to unprecedented success and the LL trustees falling at his feet.

I'm still hoping that, after Tracy changes her mind and decides to stay, she might finally notice Oliver. Right now it looks as if the SWs have also changed their minds about that - but I hope I'm wrong!

It is a rather bizarre storyline to drop in when so much else is going on. I can only assume it will have repercussions elsewhere as pp have said.

I wasn't listening with 100% attention, but I assumed that Roman was being offered a contract to do the in-house entertainment at resorts and clubs. Possibly cobbling together scripts for sketches to be performed with a couple of others?

That's what I assumed, too. I don't think they went into much detail - they're usually pretty vague on things like that unless it's crucial to the plot.

My immediate reaction was "poor Susie Riddell! There's not much acting work going at the moment and she's just been written out of TA for the next year or so."
It's a weird idea. Who goes on holiday to Shangri La to get a fix of Shakespeare? Is someone scamming Roman, so the pair of them will return to Ambridge fairly quickly with their tails between their legs - i.e. it is to get them out of the way for Freddie's 'Panto' triumph-against-all-odds and then they can come back.

... a contract to do the in-house entertainment at resorts and clubs.

Yes ... I kind of get that, but somehow hadn't imagined it was the sort of thing a Maldives holiday offered. (Have never been on honeymoon ...)

a contract to do the in-house entertainment at resorts and clubs

May be he’ll be reprising his Murder Mystery Party role...If Tracey really wants to hang onto Roman she’s going to have to go as I would imagine there’s a high chance of him entertaining the holidaymakers using more than just his acting skills if he’s on his own...

I’m surprised she’s not actually giving a huge sigh of relief that he’ll be leaving. I’ve been waiting for the shine to wear off the Tracey-Trench romance for a while now but I guess she was single for a long time. I liked the idea of her having an affair with (even marrying!) Oliver but may be the reality wouldn’t actually be that much fun....