❓ Archers thread #126: It’s a mystery why we’re all still listening.

[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 on the Parish Council, 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/4197199--The-Archers-spoilers-thread-6-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 @LillianGish and @Taswama for thread title ideas, but I felt most in sympathy with @R4's suggestion. Is it me, or is the programme in the doldrums at the moment?

Haven't heard the 31/3 episode yet. Perhaps it's a gem.

I also wish we were better at recognising that there are lots of reasons why intelligence and having lots of educational qualifications aren't always the same thing.

Educational qualifications are a measure of academic success.
People can have different sorts of intelligence. Not having a degree is not an indication of not being intelligent.

Any ideas what Tracy's perfume is? Poison?

Fallon’s eye-rolling might have cost her the gig if she was catering an event I was holding. She is clearly a bit over-confident in her position as only-caterer-in-the-village and thinks that means she can be rude and dismissive to customers. Don’t know why she was surprised that Jenny’s cupcakes were sublime- of course they would be.

Maybe Fallon will offer Jennifer a job helping with outside catering.

Most people I know (aside from accountants, lawyers, teachers etc) who did a Masters did it out of boredom or uncertainty about their career path. or in the case of TA for plot purposes as a pretext for having them enroll in the excellent University of Felbersham to bring them back into the fold.
I also wish we were better at recognising that there are lots of reasons why intelligence and having lots of educational qualifications aren't always the same thing some of the most highly qualified people I know (in terms of degrees and post grad qualifications) have failed to convert their academic brilliance into career success of any sort (which sort of comes back to the first point - not that there is anything whatsoever wrong with education for its own sake).

It's a bit odd that there don't seem to be many professionals in Ambridge. They don't even have any teachers in the cast.

If Kate moves her yurts can Brian and Jennifer sell the land and buy a big house again?

No school in the village these days. Kathy Perks was a teacher. Jennifer did teacher training but either never finished or had to leave a job because of being pregnant with Adam.

I quite enjoyed last night's episode. Susan putting her foot in it with Tracy over Jazzer was good, as was Jim doing a Sherlock mindmapping thingy on how he knew it was Tracy. Treasure chest assembly for some sort of snack or confectionery was a nice touch.

It's a bit odd that there don't seem to be many professionals in Ambridge. They don't even have any teachers in the cast.
It's totally odd - they are the ones who can afford the price of rural property and the cost of commuting. The lack of NHS staff is weird, too, considering that it is the largest employer in Europe with 1.3m workers.
It grates how TA goes on and on about authenticity regarding farming matters but is so off the mark in almost everything else.

They don't even have admin type staff or many tradespeople, or even a postal delivery worker.
Thinking of farmer's wives who aren't farmers themselves, many of the ones from 'back home' have jobs like secretary, teaching assistant, nurse, NHS employee etc.

The postman (mine's a postwoman, but 'back home' it's a postman) tends to know a lot of gossip, but in Ambridge birthday cards are delivered by hand.

That’s a good point! Where is the postman/woman?! Didn’t Susan used to run the post office? Did she deliver everything herself? Everyone would know them. And quite right a lot of “farmers’ wives” do have jobs like classroom assistant or teaching yoga etc that are flexible or shorter hours around doing farm stuff.

Thinking about it though they have widened out the jobs in Ambridge more recently (last decade) - a policeman, exercise class teacher/PT, cafe owner etc. But notably missing healthcare workers (two vets but no nurses etc??) teachers or school related stuff (cook, caretaker, cleaner), no one who works for the council?

In fact... is Harrison the only public sector worker in the Archers???

Lee is an NHS physiotherapist. Ben had a brief fling with a junior doctor. Tim Hathaway was a GP.

@TheThermalStair

That’s a good point! Where is the postman/woman?! Didn’t Susan used to run the post office? Did she deliver everything herself? Everyone would know them. And quite right a lot of “farmers’ wives” do have jobs like classroom assistant or teaching yoga etc that are flexible or shorter hours around doing farm stuff.

Thinking about it though they have widened out the jobs in Ambridge more recently (last decade) - a policeman, exercise class teacher/PT, cafe owner etc. But notably missing healthcare workers (two vets but no nurses etc??) teachers or school related stuff (cook, caretaker, cleaner), no one who works for the council?

In fact... is Harrison the only public sector worker in the Archers???

TheThermalStair That’s a good point! Where is the postman/woman?! Didn’t Susan used to run the post office? Did she deliver everything herself?

Susan is still the postmistress in Ambridge, and runs the part-time post office counter; but the people who sell stamps and accept parcels don't generally make deliveries. Letters posted in Ambridge are collected in bags and taken away to be sorted, same as from every other post office and pillar-box in the country, and incoming mail is not given to Susan to distribute.

In Ambridge everyone delivers birthday cards themselves anyway, and I don't think we have heard of anyone receiving a letter from outside the village during this century.

The most recent postman (ie man who delivers they letters from furrin parts On The Other Side Of The Bypass) was invited into 6, The Green for coffee by Tracy before she left the village in about 2000, and never heard of again.

Gasp0de I notice you're silent on the subject of the silent Richard Locke ...

Did he move away again without my noticing? It really was the strangest thing, to have him return, divorced and available, to briefly involve his daughter, and then ... nothing. A whole flippin' pandemic and no word from the SWs on the very possibly still resident in Ambridge Doc Locke?

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Lee is an NHS physiotherapist. Ben had a brief fling with a junior doctor. Tim Hathaway was a GP.

Clutching at straws there! You realise that Ruari is 18 years old? Tim Hathaway was a looong time ago. Is Lee NHS or freelance?

Clarrie occasionally got a letter from her sister Rosie, who lived in Great Yarmouth.

And I suppose the various legal things (such as the decree absolute for Helen, which appeared to have been delivered on a Sunday) must have come by post.

It just doesn't seem to be something that is expected.

There used to be a policeman in Ambridge, long before Harrison. Dave Barry had an affair with Kathy, before Sid or Kenton, back when she was z home ec teacher at Borchester Green. (Am guessing she went to teacher training college, rather than doing a PGCE.) Can't have been long before Sid, though, because it was being Lucy's teacher after Polly died that got her and Sid together. Can't remember all the timelines, though (I'd have been at school myself, being about the same age as Lucy.)

Anyway, after Dave Barry, the police House was sold, to George and Christine, till it was burnt down by Clive Horrobin, I think.

I am always so impressed by the knowledge on here. I know there have been doctors, but Richard sort of mooched past a couple of years ago and otherwise doesn't seem to exist.

I don't think we have heard of anyone receiving a letter from outside the village during this century this made my chuckle, maybe the Archers is actually set in a distant future when they are the last people left alive?

I think Lee is NHS. He does a stint at The Laurels. Maybe he's a community physio (do they exist?).

18 years ago! Blimey. Something gone wrong with the space time continuum there.

Had truly forgotten about Doc Locke. Two words to explain his brief reappearance and almost immediate re-disappearance: New Editor.

There always used to be a doctor, a vicar and a vet in the village. All those practices have merged into mega-practices whose employees may or may not be based in Ambridge. So Alan now covers three or four parishes. Alistair's sold out to the big vet firm. There isn't a village doctor's surgery anymore, they go to a bigger one nearby, which is where Doc Locke supposedly works in silence.

Usha was 'the commuter' as well as the token brown person, for years. Did Robert work from home in his IT days, or commute? Jess Titchener was a social worker, for a touch of public sector.

There will be commuters in the newer houses. What does Richard Thwaite do for example? We just don't talk to those people, they're not really 'one of us', are they!

Sorry just remember we do have a teacher! CMR! [vom]

Alan's daughter and Alice's friend, Amy, was a midwife. I honestly think they must have forgotten this when they developed the Martha/Alice/Chris storyline.

Did Hayley work in a nursery before becoming the twins' nanny? It's a shame Abbie and Hayley don't put in an appearance every so often. I'd quite forgotten that Abbie was born 10 weeks early.

Yes, Hayley was a nursery worker.

Amy was there for Helen's pregnancy wasn't she, then flitted away, no longer needed.

I realised that Henry turned ten at the start of 2021. Wouldn't Helen have been a better choice for godmother to Martha than Pip, given her difficult birth experience (followed by years of hidden familial trauma!)? I realise I don't know what Alice's relationship with Helen, or Pip, is though.

I think that Richard Thwaite is an accountant.An accountant isn't necessarily a graduate though. It's a bit like the term engineer - it can mean different sots of engineering.

FWIW, most of the accountants I know are FCIMA nor FCA.

Alan's daughter and Alice's friend, Amy, was a midwife. I honestly think they must have forgotten this when they developed the Martha/Alice/Chris storyline.

Actually, Alan mentioned Amy to ... either one or both of Chris /Alice a couple of weeks ago, IIRC. Which of course made me hope she must be coming back as the local midwife. 🙏🏽