🎭 Archers thread 125: Ambridge Mysteries! The Case Of The Missing Pandemic. Where Is Pat? What Is Lynda Snell's Kompromat? Follow the clues and 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’d love to be in the Mysteries, 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 for thread title ideas to @Roysnewshirt and @Witchwife. Apologies if I’ve forgotten anyone else.

Do we think the Mysteries replace the usual fun storylines around giving things up for Lent? Light relief while we wait to see if the SWs go for realism and tragedy when Alice’s baby is born, or bottle out (as it were) and go for everything being fine? Will Jazzer and Tracy get back together again? (No bookie in the land would take money for that, of course they will.)

Over to you!

I wouldn’t call pork belly an unfashionable cut of meat these days. It has been on every gastro-pub menu I have seen for the past decade.

It was even on Masterchef tonight!

I actually wondered if Adam used a credit card to pay for the rewiring. Adam is now on a job share and Ian - I assume - is on furlough following on from paternity leave so they have both had a drop in income. Both of them have been used to a very comfortable lifestyle up until now.

I also thought Adam's reaction to Brian's offer of money seemed a bit strange but I can't remember if he bought Honeysuckle Cottage entirely by himself or if Jenny and Brian helped.

I'm probably over thinking it. I've been on reduced hours for over a year. I've got enough to pay my bills but it's very different from how it was so I could be over thinking this. Adam always sounds so wooden that it's hard to know what is going on with him.

I wonder what's building with the Honeysuckle finances. Pretty sure Adam lied to Ian about the rewiring money.

And my goodness, was that years of pent-up fury against Brian+Ruairi? Or the result of whatever's going on with the money situation. Either way, it escalated quickly. Adam needs to be much smarter if he wants to defend his position on the farm.

And - are the SWs (I mean the producers / BBC / etc) gearing up to a time when Ben and Ruairi will respectively be running Brookfield and Home Farm? Why else make them best friends and partially unrecognised heirs?

(Actually not the BBC - they've sold their soul to podcasts ...)

I used to think Phoebe was alright but now she's being a parasite off her family and sounding more and more like Pip I wonder why they keep creating default brats in the Archers scriptroom

TASWAMA

No woman can be intelligent and successful in Ambridge. They must fail in some way or otherwise become an object of ridicule.

The reality is IRL both Phoebe and Alice would likely have followed Brenda and fled to the city, revisiting commensurate with theiir family relationships.

What I find depressing is enforced vegan cake

Its just cake isn't it? Why would you even know or care the ingredients of cake offered unless you had an allergy/restriction?

Mia has offered to cook for them, she hasn't marched in and demanded they feed her vegan delights. The odd reaction to me was Clarrie who is always described as a very good cook. Most of the good home cooks I've known find the challenge of doing something different for a while quite interesting (even if they never eat the dishes again after the experiment).

I would have epected Clarrie to raise eyebrows a bit, make a comment about the fads of yoof today a la Socrates and the talk about dishes whiich can be cooked in different ways or split part way through cooking (which was pretty much Jenny's reaction and I've always thought of Jenny/Clarrie as similiar on the kitchen front).

I've always thought of Jenny/Clarrie as similiar on the kitchen front

I wouldn't. Jenny has been Lady of the Manor and at the top of the local social hierarchy for decades, with an entire county's worth of sophisticated - or at least wealthy, well travelled friends. (And though I cant remember all her own holidays she's certainly more travelled than Clarrie.) So one would expect her to be more aware of diverse tastes and more open minded in trying new things. She has also always given the impression of being a reader (albeit middle brow) and I'd imagine has countless cookbooks.

Clarrie would be teased to death if she bought a new recipe book. She has much less exposure to newness, in anything.

Clarrie would be teased to death if she bought a new recipe book. She has much less exposure to newness, in anything

I don't think she would. I've often heard her talking about special recipes for special occasions and practical good cooking.

Jenny may cook with lobster to Clarrie's scrag end of neck but both have the same interest in cooking meals people enjoy and cooking for its own sake when they have the time. That is really what I'm thinking of when I put them in the same cooking bucket.

Also - sorry (!) theres the difference in their children. Jenny's children race towards novel ideas; Clarrie's children cling, with every fibre of their being, to the past. So they're not really pulling her forward at all.

Yes ... I agree they share an enjoyment in producing good food and feeding people well. But they experience it differently.

Jennifer has for decades had the luxury of having plenty of time and money to spend on being a foodie. She can buy cookery books and subscribe to broadsheet newspapers with lots of foodie articles without a second thought. She can spend any amount of time reading about food, heading off for the best place to buy something she decides she wants without the worry of what it will cost, and then on cooking in her well-equipped kitchen.

Clarrie's experience has been more like most people's - she fits it all in around her work, at the end of a long day she's knackered and has limited energy and time for cooking, and she is on a tight budget. A quick dash to Ambridge Organics in her lunch hour, where I hope she gets a staff discount, is about as adventurous as she would be likely to get, and her purchases there would be limited to very occasionally buying a little jar of a slightly unusual spice, perhaps, or a heavily reduced pack of Puy lentils.

Interesting times ahead at Home Farm, I hope. Consistently the source of the best storylines. Bridge Farm and Grange Farm also much, much better than Brookfield. This has been the case for years and years. I wonder if it might change with the next generation (but only if they re-cast Pip or send her off to Brazil).

Why on earth would you rush to a vote on renting out land to Brookfield without first finding out whether they're actually interested?

Adam's reaction to Brian's offer of money seemed a bit strange
There again, Brian's offer was strange. If he has so much cash that he can afford to splash a few thousand pounds without having to stop and double-check finances first, then why are they still living in cramped quarters at Willow Farm?

Jenny's children race towards novel ideas; Clarrie's children cling, with every fibre of their being, to the past.

Oh I agree entirely with that. Will and Ed are both ghastly 1950s throwbacks in their attitudes and expectations of women (as is Eddie).

Jennifer has for decades had the luxury of having plenty of time and money to spend on being a foodie

I've never seen Jennifer as an idle "housewife". She has always run parts of the business, provided all the coporate entertainment and the catering for all the shoots (which I assume she has now given up). She has also been both parents to five children because Brian never had much time for them. Even his Beloved Son was been parented more by Jenny than Brian himself.

I've always seen her more akin to a company wife who additionally runs parts of the "husband's business".

@Nith

Why on earth would you rush to a vote on renting out land to Brookfield without first finding out whether they're actually interested?

You might want to get general agreement on taking an idea further before making an approach. That way nobody acts as a loose cannon. Although loose cannons do seem to be a staple of soap plots.

Adam is now on a job share and Ian - I assume - is on furlough following on from paternity leave so they have both had a drop in income. Both of them have been used to a very comfortable lifestyle up until now.

If I was Adam I'd be pissed off with taking a pay cut whilst effectively still working full time because my job share couldn't do their time.

Brian has never particularly liked Adam but his favourable treatment of Alice and Myson to Adam's detriment has been more marked recently.

I wondered if Adam/Ian are being set up to leave Ambridge with Adam taking a farm management job on a differrent estate and Ian setting up yet another "Trad British with a twist of offal" gastropub. Adam worked in land and farm management before he returned to Ambridge and if I were him watching Brian positioning Debbie, Alice and Myson for active roles on the farm I'd be looking elsewhere.

If I was Adam I'd be pissed off with taking a pay cut whilst effectively still working full time because my job share couldn't do their time.
Nah, Adam likes to feel indispensable. And he loves playing the martyr.

And he loves playing the martyr

Yes he does, but does Brian have to give him so many opportunities? I don't think you need a martyr tendency to be tired of a boss who persistantly puts his own children in front of you, even when they have zero experience for the job.

Glad I'm not the only one wondering about Honeysuckle finances, although TheThreeofWeevils is right that Adam always resents Brian when it comes to plans for the farm. (Disagree with that descriptor for Adam, even though I assume it was made in the sponging sense of the word. It's just too hard to separate from its other meaning.)

I agree with C8H10N402 that Clarrie is meant to be a good cook. She often helps Emmur making cakes for the shop/cafe/orchard and so would be up for trying vegan cake. In fact, I'd have thought she might even have tried something with Emmur as no self respecting cafe would only have dairy based cakes these days.

It's interesting seeing how the Ben/Ruari friendship might affect relations between Home Farm and Brookfield. Definite contrast with Phoebe/Pip, thanks to TASWAMA. Real life Phoebes and Alices would definitely have moved from Ambridge. That reminds me. Have we had any references to Brenda? Or indeed to Mike, Vicky and Bethany? Debbie is always mentioned, even though we rarely hear her. As well as Linda's Kompromat, we've got Soviet style air brushing from history!

@C8H10N4O2

Jennifer has for decades had the luxury of having plenty of time and money to spend on being a foodie

I've never seen Jennifer as an idle "housewife". She has always run parts of the business, provided all the coporate entertainment and the catering for all the shoots (which I assume she has now given up). She has also been both parents to five children because Brian never had much time for them. Even his Beloved Son was been parented more by Jenny than Brian himself.

I've always seen her more akin to a company wife who additionally runs parts of the "husband's business".

Yes, good point, but I was actually thinking vaguely about that too. Jennifer was astute enough to persuade Brian that she could do the shoot catering, and effectively turned a hobby into a useful part-time job. She could tell him honestly that she would enjoy it, she already had the skills, equipment and space, there would be no worries about reliability or standards, it would be a nice marketing gimmick and it would keep money in the family and make the business more profitable.

The Grundys are entrepreneurial but have no capital, so everything they do is on a shoestring or borderline dodgy, and that limits how successful they can be. If they'd ever set up a shoot on Grange Farm land the catering would have been good but basic, especially in the presentation.

And also, if Phoebe is earning a full time wage from it It hasn't generated any income for anyone to "earn" a full time wage from. If anyone's getting any wage from it, it must be coming out of Peggy's money.

But what was that your-half / my-half business all about? - they're married so it should be a joint finances. Yes that was weird. Even if you're not married, you look after the parent of your child. I know there are plenty of real life examples on MN of people not doing that, but neither Adam nor Ian are being portrayed as baddies, so I wouldn't expect one person to be watching the other struggle with a bill and wait till such a late stage to offer money ... and then to present it as a generous gift and expect gratitude.

Have I misunderstood? My understanding was that Peggy's Conservation Trust Grant was to pay for the project - not to pay salaries to the grantees.

(But perhaps things work differently in the agricultural world?)