🐴 Archers thread 124: And they're off! Pip on a high horse, Kirsty champing at the bit to find the lost ‘horses’, Alice on the wagon (or is she riding for a fall?). Discuss The Archers 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 Shula would make a brilliant vicar, 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 @PoulePouletteEternellement for the equine theme to the new thread title. I wanted to work in Rex being a dark horse and lots of others too, but (you may feel fortunately) there's a character limit for the title.

I wonder if this thread will see us through to the end of February. The last one filled up in under a month, which was like old times. All depends on what delights are in store for us in the coming weeks, I suppose. I'm hoping that Gavin has spilled the beans on Victoria, she's also arrested, and the lads are found. Having said that, I'm not confident that in the real world they would get the support and care they need to turn their lives around and get proper jobs. It was good to hear on the last thread from @Trickyboy, who has professional experience of investigating this vile crime. Any comments on how things turn out in the long run for those rescued?

Oh the tedium of Shula’s ordination...How many years is it likely to take?

I’d love to have heard Susan in that role but I was 16 in 2002 and I’d never listened to Radio 4!

Oh the tedium of Shula’s ordination...How many years is it likely to take?

Honest to gods I couldn't believe that YET AGAIN she manages to make someone else's worries all about her. Just once can she not support someone without doing that? One of the defining skills of priest types IME is they simply don't do this.

Yes, that scene with him and justin was the exact sort of content i listen to the archers for

Yes the making of the mundane something recognisable and engaging.

Anyone else getting really irritated by the whole pretence that Covid isn't happening? Peggy and Emma expressing surprise at not seeing a non resident family member since Xmas when in real world we saw precious little of family or friends even at Xmas.

Anyone else getting really irritated by the whole pretence that Covid isn't happening?

Yes, when shula said to neil ‘let’s go inside for a proper chat’ i actually gasped out loud (and not just because i knew we were in for some good solid navel gazing)

So Neil is telling Shula about how distressed he is to the extent of resigning from something he cares about, and she keeps dragging the conversation round to herself? Surely anyone with any knowledge of pastoral care would know how inappropriate that is?

You could hear it coming though, couldn’t you? With her melodramatic sigh of “I know exactly how you feel” I thought oh, here we go, and then Neil’s “do you?” And we were off...

I rather liked Emma and Peggy both on the brink of blurting out 'Alice is an alcoholic, that's why I'm worried about Chris'.

I rather liked Emma and Peggy both on the brink of blurting out 'Alice is an alcoholic, that's why I'm worried about Chris'.

Yes, that was quite a nice ‘does she know what I’m talking about?’ moment

I was just about to come on here and say that for once Shula was being supportive but then there it was WHAT ABOUT MEEEEEE, tell meeeee how lovely I am, I’m the one suffering here because of my superior sensitivity.

I can’t work it out- is Shula intentionally being portrayed as self-obsessed and a total pain to be around, who the listeners are meant to find tiresome? Or do the SLs really see her as a tortured soul simply trying to do good in the world, who we are intended to like and sympathise with?

If the former, then they are doing it very effectively; if the later then they are missing the spot entirely.

Shula is only tortured by the fact that the world doesn’t revolve round her. Her piety is a means of drawing attention to herself and endlessly exploring her inner being with anyone unfortunate enough to make eye contact.

I expect the SWs don’t see it this way. They’re probably filling some tick box on religious content for the BBC.

Shula’s heavy sighs were probably even heavier than normal (are this woman’s sighs made of dark matter????) because she was wondering why Neil hadn’t told the Echo that the real victim of the slave ring was Shula.

I was just about to come on here and say that for once Shula was being supportive but then there it was WHAT ABOUT MEEEEEE, tell meeeee how lovely I am, I’m the one suffering here because of my superior sensitivity.
But wasn't that the source of the conversation? - Neil saying to the journo that he was suffering because of the horses ... and then the interweb not being understanding.
The whole of Ambridge has been feeling sorry for itself. Even Kirsty thinks that her WHAT ABOUT MEEEE is so important that it is worth jeopardising the trial for.

Shula's attempts at empathy always turn into revelations about her own suffering. She has a "glass half full" approach to life.

I am not sure what possessed the editor to decide that Shula would be suited to ministry (I remember comments on here noting that she would normally be considered too old). In a decade or two she could have followed Aunty Chris into the Laurels, funded by the sale of the stables.

In a decade or two she could have followed Aunty Chris into the Laurels, funded by the sale of the stables

I always vaguely assumed that the stables would eventually provide a handy local job for whichever Archer is short of local work at the time. Perhaps Alice will end up running the local stables as the LSWs have decided with her, as with Phoebe, that the early promise of a decent career is replaced with a local job of whatever is available.

@R4

I was just about to come on here and say that for once Shula was being supportive but then there it was WHAT ABOUT MEEEEEE, tell meeeee how lovely I am, I’m the one suffering here because of my superior sensitivity. But wasn't that the source of the conversation? - Neil saying to the journo that he was suffering because of the horses ... and then the interweb not being understanding. The whole of Ambridge has been feeling sorry for itself. Even Kirsty thinks that her WHAT ABOUT MEEEE is so important that it is worth jeopardising the trial for.

What Neil said was not that he was the victim -- that was the headline but it was clear that he had not actually said that. As he explained to Brian, what he had said was that the whole village was suffering because of what had happened, and they were all of them victims of Philip Moss's lies and deceit. Not at all the same thing as "it's all about Me."

maybe lockdown's getting to me but I am really looking forward to tonight's episode. I feel like it'll be an absolute banger.

(and yes I realised that with those words I've just condemned us to a solemn two-hander that's just Pip and Shula talking to each other about how hard their lives are and how cows/horses are their only real friends in the world or something but oh well)

I don't get the Shula-hatred on here at all.

I think you must be listening to a different programme to the rest of us, @ILoveShula

FWIW ILoveShula I'm not a Shula hater either.
Her chat with Neil was confidential. It's allowed. I thought they were mutually empathising and helping each other to consider another way forward.

She's not ordained so is under no 'priestly' obligations and, anyway, I've known far worse among some clergy. Hair curlingly so!

a solemn two-hander that's just Pip and Shula talking to each other about how hard their lives are

I'm not sure whether my reaction to that is "kill me now" or "pass the popcorn"

it would be like the four yorkshiremen

'well I got divorced because I was bored and my mum kind of tutted at me instead of being supportive, and now ex h is sometimes weirdly emotionally unavailable to me'

'well I had an unplanned baby with my on again off again shag buddy and was aghast, shook, and taken aback when he turned out not to be all that dependable for childcare'

'well I had an affair with my friend's dp and she's still acting all butthurt about it years later'

'I once let some cows escape and they got ill and I can't help blaming myself, mainly because it was entirely my fault'

'yes but do you feel as bad about the consequences of your own actions as I what do about mine'

'I feel loads worse than you do, no one could possibly understand'

'but no internet people ever started a massive long running thread where they burnt you in a wicker man on lakey hill did they'

'I'm sure they will one day auntie shula'

I enjoyed hearing Emma and Peggy tiptoeing around the subject of Alice / Chris and why they were worried.