🐴 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?

Like it!

Self made man vs inherited livelihood? I’m into it. Me too. Which made it all the more unusual to hear Vince telling CMR that he was onto a good thing with Lily. I'm another who thinks Vince is much more Jick than Tiger (as I wrote at some length when he and Elizabeth first got together). I'm hoping he'll cotton on to CMR as weeks go by and he possibly finds out how he and Lily met. Perhaps when Stephanie goes over to LL for tea (and decides she'd rather have her wedding there than in the Brookfield slave-labour-built barn) she could ask how Lily and CMR got together and we could hear some tea being spat out.

Do we know roughly how old Stephanie is? She could be an ex pupil of CMR. There must be some reason for getting them face to face, even if it’s just a compare and contrast with poor lil and the pickle her daddy issues have landed her in vs princess Stephanie and her doting dad and fairytale wedding and happy ever after. I think Vince is going to be hugely unimpressed when he fonds out how CMR and lily got together.

He wasn't to know it, but his what have you ever done for the homeless comments were wrongly directed at Shula who I was pleased to see resisted bringing up HWMNBN (possibly out of respect to Pseudo).

Perhaps you're being a bit too kind there? The SWs probably didn't mention him because they weren't listening to TA back then so didn't know they needed to look it up in the (pointless Archivist-job-stealing) database ...

But I'd be surprised if Lower Loxley was not built partially on profits from slavery - in another era.

Err, relative newcomer to this thread: who is HWMNBN?? Can't imagine!

Start here JanuaryChill - BBC Archers website. ('Ware actor photo!)

Shula took Darrell in when he was homeless but her particular blend of sanctimony and nervousness at having him in her home set us all on edge. Eventually the Grundys rescued him and put him up in maybe a caravan (?). And then he found work and moved out of Ambridge.

PseudoBadger - who began this illustrious series of threads - couldn't stand the sound of him, so in deference to her he became He Who Must Not Be Named.

(If you click More on the linked page you'll find a full character list with biogs.)

Oh Darrell, yes, had forgotten about him. That was sad.

Thanks btw

I feel the need to point out that I've listened to TA for 30 years, but am new to these threads!

@Darker

Does anyone know the artist Vince was referencing?

Basquiat. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Michel_Basquiat

@Langsdestiny

I think people may have some sort of weird high opinion of vicars. I dont mind Shula and she is certainly as capable as some vicars I have known.

Yes quite. There's nothing saintly about the average clergyperson. Shula's as fallible as anyone else and a great deal more honest than some. That she has doubts about the whole thing is not a bad place to start.

I don't really 'get' Basquiat, but I was pleased to hear Mince mention him.

It was the cream cardigan; the ecru one is the special one for going out.

I dont think Alan is particularly impressive for example.

I had the impression Alan was supposed to be impressive when he arrived - but the creative team seem to have gradually lost interest in making him interesting.

I don't really 'get' Basquiat
I think that you are missing that he died young (at the very rock&roll age of 27). His oeuvre is therefore a small, finite quantity and hence extremely marketable.[cynic]

I'm very sad that the majority have such low expectations of clergy. I know this is the church's fault.

CMR is awful, but the kind of awful I enjoy listening to

Same here- he's far more interesting than Princess Lily. If they oust CMR I hope she flounces off in a huff never to be seen or heard of again.

Basquiat is very rock and roll. I really don't like his stuff and agree with Vince it's the sort of work which, if you like that sort of thing, is shocking and exciting as an original work but very easy to copy.

Just switched on to listen again and heard the news reader mispronounce Ruthin. Grrr!

It's RITH-in not Ruth-in!

I've just LA and, definitely, they didn't put HWMNBN into Shula's head at the crucial point - there was no subtext of her remembering and deciding not to mention him.

Philip, surprisingly, actually summed Shula up pretty succinctly, didn't he? 😉

Its not that I have a low view of clergy in particular, I just see them as human beings. I dont see them as better or less likely to make mistakes or be flawed. But I am an atheist

The thing is, apart from the last Bishop but about two, clergy in Ambridge seem to be there to be not a lot of use at their jobs, with Shula being just that little more hopeless even than they generally seem to be.

I have known some remarkably empathic and sensible vicars at one time and another, and plenty of splendid Quaker elders, but such people are not entertaining enough for the editorial teams; they just get on with their job of praising God and helping people.

@MereDintofPandiculation

Given that CMR has inveigled himself into LL and is sponging off Elizabeth, I though the way he was talking to her was intolerably rude. One thing to point out that her and Vince's reaction wasn't helpful, quite another to berate her in the way he did. I would not tolerate my DC's partners speaking to me in that way.

Shula's behaviour to Philip was not what I would expect of an aspiring vicar. She's going to find it very difficult to be a non-judgemental listener, isn't she?

I couldn’t agree more, @MereDintofPandiculation. I was so disappointed that Vince didn’t appear at that moment to cut the slimy creep down to size.

He will, give him time.

Fingers crossed, @KirstenBlest. I can only hope he’s biding his time, or as pp have said, the scales are yet to fall from his eyes.