🐴 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?

There's nothing saintly about the average clergyperson. I don't think we're expecting Shula to aspire to saintly. Just to have basic listening skills.

There is no requirement that a member of the clergy should be saintly; saints tend not to be good at administrative details. It might be better all round if a cleric is a human who recognises human frailty and aspires to do the best possible with the people and circumstances available.

My sainted (well, saintly) aunt was otherworldly to a worrying extent, though very very good and also lovable, and it led to her being conned left right and centre by charlatans who battened on to her undoubted generosity and loving-kindness. Sometimes being saintly isn't a particularly good thing in itself.

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.

She wasn't the only one. I couldn't stand his constant whining, and the fact that, whenever someone came up with a way of sorting out his problems, he always had some stupid reason for not doing it and then spent ages grovelling and apologising for being useless so the other person had to try to tell him that he wasn't. He was probably quite a good character in his way, but incredibly irritating to listen to.

I utterly loathed him!

All the things Philip referred to as reasons why Shula should listen like a friend - eg his "help" when Schula talked about his marriage - were the very reasons that she should not have gone to see him. Especially in a pastoral role.

Especially in a pastoral role. Why did she go and see him? Was she imagining herself in a pastoral role?

Guilt. The wretched woman thrives on guilt.

Yes, she said several times that it was spiritual help she was offering, and that he had got her to visit on false pretences.

@TheSilveryPussycat

Yes, she said several times that it was spiritual help she was offering, and that he had got her to visit on false pretences.

This.

He was a complete fundamental orifice. However annoying Shula is, and she is, she was performing one of the seven corporal acts of mercy: visiting the imprisoned, particularly enjoins on the clergy.

Actually she should have given him some advice: don't drop the soap.

She said several times that it was spiritual help she was offering, and that he had got her to visit on false pretences.
Yes, the scene opened with her finishing the Lord's Prayer and noting that he wasn't fully engaged with 'talking to God'.

I can't really get on board with the Shula-hate. I started listening in the 70s and Shula was OK then (unless my listening was off kilter! ) so I treat all her bad patches since then as being inflicted by the Character Transplant Fairy. It's not the real Shula. (I might be slightly biased as she is the Archer who is closest in age to me, so she is my TA alter ego. Kenton isn't because he wasn't around when I started listening; he's still an intrusion/cuckoo.)

Shula used to be fun; now she is a prosy bore.

I can't really get on board with the Shula-hate.
Neither can I. She's generally consistent, apart from when the CTF decides otherwise.
I can't get on board with the Ruth hate either.

I think Mince will put CMR in his place, in due course, and Shula will find out she isn't Ambridge's answer to Geraldine Granger.

Did anyone hear A Point of View last night?

I don't mind Shula. She can be quite sweet sometimes. She's infinitely preferable to spoilt princess Lily who is almost as awful as Pip.

"Oh I don't find my husband exciting any more; I'll divorce him for no actual reason and become a vicar instead" is fairly spewk-making.

Yes the divorce thing was quite strange.

I can't get on board with the Ruth hate either.
That one I can understand. Again, I am a similar age to her and managed to hold down a full-time job and put decent food on the table. Ruth seems to imagine that not being able to cook (beyond burnt pizza) makes her some sort of feminist. It doesn't; it just makes her a bad cook.
She seems to have no interests in life apart from cows. Where is her hinterland?

I like Lily. She is a bit of a spoilt princess, but that's due to parenting, and she last her father young.
She was 'the sensible one' and Freddie 'the silly one'. (cf. Shula and Kenton)
She and Freddie have a good relationship.

Pip on the other hand is the 'golden one' and always treated as a princess compared to her brothers, who are 'spares' to her 'heir'.
Ruth and David's fault.

I love the Shula/Freddie relationship, it's very believable

I can't cook either. Pizza is horrible but someone told me that microwaving it isn't the right way to cook it.

Ruth is married.They both do a similar job. Why is it Ruth's place to do the cooking.

Anyway, they sorted that out by having their peter-pan-meets-mary-poppins MIL moving in.

@ILoveShula

I can't really get on board with the Shula-hate. Neither can I. She's generally consistent, apart from when the CTF decides otherwise. I can't get on board with the Ruth hate either.

I think Mince will put CMR in his place, in due course, and Shula will find out she isn't Ambridge's answer to Geraldine Granger.

Did anyone hear A Point of View last night?

@iloveshula it was interesting, wasn’t it? Though I could have done without the snobbish attitude to listening to The Archers in the first place.

I feel that the Beeb is forgetting who its core audience is these days.
I've been listening for decades.

The person whose POV it was is a little older than me but IMO a typical Radio 4 listener.

ILoveShula
Ruth is married.They both do a similar job. Why is it Ruth's place to do the cooking.

Ruth and David both cook. The difference seems to be that she resents doing it, and often cooks badly; he simply does it.

I thought Shulas reasons for leaving Alistair were perfectly reasonable, I imagine that lots of marriages end for the reason that someone just doesnt want to do it anymore. It's probably a more common reason than a marriage ending because someone has shagged everything that moves and then persuaded their wife to bring up their child by their dead mistress.

Did she make the slightest effort to so much as talk with him about it?

Yes, she said several times that it was spiritual help she was offering, At what stage during the training-to-be-a-vicar process is one allowed to go around delivering spiritual help?