🍾 Archers thread 123: Goodbye & good riddance to 2020 – to Philip too? The Archers is 70 on New Year’s Day – celebrate or vent about it 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 wish we heard more from Shula, 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.)

So! 2021 beckons. Big anniversary next Friday, 1.1.21 (and to mark that we have episodes Tuesday-Friday next week). What would we like to see happen? I may be in a minority of one, but I'd like a nice gentle character-driven episode. I don't think we'll get that, but I really, really hope they don't kill someone else off, just for the headlines.

[Title edited by MNHQ at OP'S request]

I only listened to one. It was fine but I wanted to love it, and as PPE said, it sounded scripted.

Debbie does not have grey hair! She looks after herself better than that.

The last time she came back, JD commented on it.

Oops! I missed that.

Erm it depends whether "look after yourself" means pandering to a certain section of society's ageist/misogynist expectations.....

Right on, sister! I've got noticeably a lot more grey/white in the last year. This is natural at my stage of life. Even in 2021 I feel men who dye their hair in later life are regarded as figures of fun and women who don't become invisible.

I had my first grey at 20, as did my mother. But apparently I have to do everything possible to hide this shameful fact....

Not actually sure whether Debbie would be a dyer or not.

Doesn't always go well with an older woman's skin tones, does it?

Hair dye needs to be multi-tonal and not the shade you had when it wasn't greying.
I can think of a few men who dye theirs where it is obvious because their skintone has aged, but their hair is still very dark.

Some men I know dye theirs but they are of indian heritage, and it looks fine. One of them has been dyeing his for years having started to go grey at around 30. He looked a lot older in the lockdown.

I don't dye mine but am contemplating it as it is starting to get noticeable.

Well she is Jenny's daughter. Yes I know its sexist and all that, maybe I've been unduly influenced by the actress who plays her.

Actress? Actor, surely?

Isn't TA a fly-on-the wall documentary?

Kirsty shops at outdoor stores, for fleeces and waterproofs and trousers with lots of pockets. And she's slim because she's often out walking, in the form of litter picking.

@EBearhug

Kirsty shops at outdoor stores, for fleeces and waterproofs and trousers with lots of pockets. And she's slim because she's often out walking, in the form of litter picking.

never fleeces - what about the plastic pollution?! But agree she's fit and slim, and has a very sensible attitude to food

I’m sure we’ve heard references to Kirsty’s size in the past, along the ones of her ‘liking her food’ wink wink

I bet she's at least got a work-logoed fleece from the Wildlife Trust.

Anyway, if you have plastic - is it better to reuse it as clothing (which still sheds microplastics as fibre) or just to chuck it out and cause polluanyway?

pollution anyway, that should have said.

Oh! How insufferable were Helen and Shula last week!

They weren't making it all about themselves at all, were they?

Does GG have a shop? I don't recall hearing anything about one, but may have missed it. In my imagination it would be less foody than Ambridge Organics, less artsy than LL - more lifestyle and wellbeing. So, their own label, as used in the hotel, bath salts, calendars, candles, 'nice' cushions, honey, cookbook by Ian ... All available on site and online. If they don't already have one I want paying for the suggestion ...

One thing I haven't discerned is any combined sharing of knowledge / promotion between the (many) hospitality venues in the area. Why haven't Elizabeth or Oliver organised something like this? I know there are intermittent ad hoc meetings and collaborations between various places - but if I ran GG or LL, Spiritual Home or Ambridge Hall, or any other similar, smaller scale place I'd be tremendously interested in some formal, mutual support.

GG wouldn't have a shop, but you could probably buy from Reception or Health Club.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Yes, I agree, but it's passing the time while I cook and do odds and ends this afternoon. Mind you, he could be reading the telephone directory and I'd listen.

Can you IMAGINE him reading the Shipping Forecast?!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Ooooooh! Fantastic - Jenny and Brian are obviously Ocado customers.

BOOP for topical reference!

Kirsty on the biscuits ...

Soapy cravings?

Ugh. What sanctimonious prick Brian is. Good on Jim - TA's moral compass, as ever.

Kirsty 's weight is important. For calculating the lethal dosage of aspirin: one packet just isn't going to cut it, I fear.