🐴 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?

I love a mystery play, we have a local cycle of three plays: the creation, the passion and the resurrection. Super fun and the original community theatre as they used to be put on by medieval guilds etc IIRC

I hardly ever accidentally catch anything anymore. Was TLP any good?

Why isn't the Archers banging on about townies walking their puppies off lead during lambing season?

Has the Agricultural Story Advisor been put on furlough?

I hope Bojo's roadmap has a timeline for the Archers to return to normality.

Still hate The Listening Project, though

Me too - I thought it was just me that hated it since the wretched thing has been going on for so long with regular plaudits.

@Taswama

I hardly ever accidentally catch anything anymore. Was TLP any good?

no

@Roysnewshirt

I’m hopeless at this but an attempt at a title as just realised we are on 894:

Everything’s so mysterious - where are the horses? What will happen to the Chrisalice? And what on Earth is a Mystery Play? Follow the clues and discuss The Archers here...

Jolly good effort, @Roysnewshirt. I'm keeping my eye on the thread count here (as I expect some MNers say in relation to cotton bedding).

I've not had full beam concentration on TA recently so if it's been mentioned when the Mysteries are to be performed, I've missed it. Surely not Easter, which is very early this year, but I suppose that would be par for the course in Ambridge.

I like TLP when it's about something of interest to me. That's the problem with it: it's like being caught in the middle of a conversation between two people where you can't get away.

Which is fine if you have something in common with them or you're interested in the topic/situation. But horrific if you're not.

Madcats
Why isn't the Archers banging on about townies walking their puppies off lead during lambing season?

Or just overflowing the footpaths and grinding the edges of fields with newly-sowed crops into a sea of mud thirty and more feet wide?

No mention of giving things up for Lent (with hilarious consequences) this year. Perhaps because so many things have had to be given up this last year.

Yes, I've missed the usual Lent shenanigans. (Though I never find the 'comedy' element terribly comical.) The rhythm of annual rituals is surely part of the point of TA.

Lynda's volunteering of the blameless Vicar for foot washing duty really doesn't count.

(Though I never find the 'comedy' element terribly comical.)

Does anyone?

Fair point!

Was just about to turn off R4 - but the next programme is about rural crime ...

Did they resist the temptation to refer to The Archers, PPE?

I admit I was wandering in and out and not really concentrating, Asking. But I don't recall any mention of TA while I was listening. The speakers seemed justifiably aggrieved - it was the opposite of bucolic bliss.

oh my goodness David is out of sorts

David understandably gets fed up with his wife deciding unilaterally what is going to happen to his family farm and telling him how it is going to be, with the support of their employee.

I didn't buy Ruth's "I'm sure I told you" to David. She'd have been able to have been more precise because she'd have said what was interesting about the farm she was going to visit with Pip. Definitely went behind his back.

Still hate The Listening Project, though I wouldn't actively seek it out, but it's an inoffensive corner of R4. Better than some of the 6.30 comedies.

David understandably gets fed up with his wife... As I listened to that I thought "Pip isn't going to be David's golden girl for much longer" and a happy glow stole over my heart.

Not sure have ever heard David and Ruth like that with each other? Well David being like that with Ruth.

"Two-thirds of the workforce is going to be away from the farm for three or four hours" isn't something you don't bother to mention to the person who is going to be left dealing with everything single-handed, I wouldn't have thought.

I suspect that a lot of Ruth's views are driven by the fact that the Golden Child is really only interested in cows, thinks they are the only product worth farming, and dearly loves to push for whatever the latest cow care fad is.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

Madcats Why isn't the Archers banging on about townies walking their puppies off lead during lambing season?

Or just overflowing the footpaths and grinding the edges of fields with newly-sowed crops into a sea of mud thirty and more feet wide?

And litter and fly tipping. And how wet the land is.

@JanFebAnyMonth

Not sure have ever heard David and Ruth like that with each other? Well David being like that with Ruth.

Agreed. It was a very unconvincing episode. And why the heck would anyone expect FRmers who are in the middle of lambing to be interested in mystery plays, or anything beyond sleep or food really?

That very much had the ring to me of the SWs thinking it's time to do a farming-focused story, but recoiling in horror from the idea of just writing some scenes where people talk through options, make a decision in a calm, consensual way and then get on with the minutiae of planning and implementing. I may be alone, but I actually really enjoy that kind of thing. I learn something new, and it's a pleasant change to hear people being nice to each other. Not all the time, obviously, but when it comes to workplaces most are not a hotbed of intrigue and opposition - not all the time, anyway, or they'd fall apart.

David understandably gets fed up with his wife... As I listened to that I thought "Pip isn't going to be David's golden girl for much longer" and a happy glow stole over my heart.

I wish the BBC would be upfront about the fact that they've now decided Ambridge is in a parallel universe where the pandemic ended some months ago. It's really jarring to hear plans for things that just can't happen in the UK at the moment, and as others have mentioned, not a single mention of vaccination! Come on.

The headline in the Echo should be Local Farmer Shocked by Discovery of Husband’s Spine. It’s time someone introduced Ruth and Pip to the word “no”. They’re pretty good at using it but not so great at hearing it.