❓ 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.

The Guardian is funded by a charity benefitting from the sale of AutoTrader. It runs at a loss, the Scott Trust has a value of around £1 billion.

Well I didn’t have to click through anything to get to Charlotte Higgins, but I’m not sure I’m pleased about it - she’s not Nancy Banks-Smith is she? I think she’s missing any genuine affection for the programme (past or present). Her columns just read full of smug disdain. Which is disappointing because although I know TAs is dreadful at the moment there’s a large part of me that wishes it weren’t and I can almost pretend that it’s the same as it’s always been when it’s just me listening as I fall asleep. Seeing it confirmed by an ‘authority’ is somehow much more depressing.

I thought the Lynda/Evangeline scenes an absolute low. Entirely ridiculous. I can only hold that something happens to stop the mysteries altogether. Although I can’t help thinking we’re probably headed for some kind of delayed but absolute triumph

Her columns just read full of smug disdain - steady on, that comment could apply to quite a few posts on here at the moment (or even the current title ) It's fair to say TA is going through a rough patch which I'm charitably putting down to Covid disruption.

Also, it it just me or did Kirsty's heartfelt "I'm so glad I'm with you Roy" contain a glimmer of something? (Possibly sparked by the announcement that he's starting a new online relationship - with someone in London so it's either fizzling out or he's being written out.)

@LillianGish

Also, it it just me or did Kirsty's heartfelt "I'm so glad I'm with you Roy" contain a glimmer of something? (Possibly sparked by the announcement that he's starting a new online relationship - with someone in London so it's either fizzling out or he's being written out.)

Not just you.

I shudder to think of Roy’s clumsy online flirtation as he tries to display his sparkling wit and get his fledgling romance with Laila, the teacher, off the ground. I love Roy dearly but his disarming charm is probably best in the flesh. Laila will drop him pretty fast. And then he will end up with Kirsty, which I used to think would be a blessing but now feels like a bit of a curse...

Kirsty and Roy disappearing to London together?

Suddenly I feel a whole new lease of life and optimism ...

Then the next excitement would be who would move into the house with Phoebe. (#NooneleftaloneinAmbridge)

Then the next excitement would be who would move into the house with Phoebe.

Poor Phoebe (although maybe she deserves it for being so entirely unambiguous with her degree) - clearly Kate would see it as a great opportunity for some mother/daughter bonding

Should be unambitious rather than unambiguous...

I think we can all agree to hate TA sometimes @lilian but you have to love it first! I’m not sure Charlotte Higgins has any affection for it other than she has to write a column about it in order to get paid

Definitely Roy and Kirsty ending up together. It feels like their being drawn together has been going on for years, orbiting around each other in ever decreasing circles. Roy as the dull, reliable friend, always there to pick up the pieces and provide undemanding comfort. Kirsty ricocheting in slow motion from one great love another, being horribly let down and eventually giving in to the dull and reliable.

Roy is basically the Bridge Farm ex-girlfriend catcher. From Hayley from John, to Kirsty from Tom. Room for a menage a trois with Tash in a few years?

@MollyButton

The Guardian's technique (despite hearing from an exec at another top rank newspaper that it wouldn't work) actually seems to work quite well - and they are more financially viable than most. But that could be because sandal wearing lefties are more likely to give voluntarily than the capitalists who read the Telegraph for example.

Keri wrote Monday and Wednesday this week.

MollyButton Keri wrote Monday and Wednesday this week.

Has he said so on Twitter, or is there some clever way to find out who wrote which two episodes every week? The credits in RT and on the website don't say.

And now for something completely different!

I've been listening to the morning serial Meet Me At The Museum with Tamsin Greig (so tenuous TA connection) and Paul Ritter. It finished today and is just lovely. Beautifully acted and made me cry in a good way.

Give yourselves a treat, if you haven't already (10 x 13 minute episodes)

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tcnr

The writing this week has been so poor. Depressingly so. Would Linda be behaving like this, really??? Firing Clarrie was weird. Kirsty even giving the mystery play the time of day was a mystery let alone act as Linda’s henchman.
The law isn’t unpredictable - odd expression. It’s very predictable.
The heavy handed “read the standing orders, read them and understand them” Jackie Weaver tribute was amusing but not delicately handled. I dunno: It’s a real low spot.

MollyButton
Keri wrote Monday and Wednesday this week.

He did say so on Twitter, quite modest as I think it was in response to someone liking something he didn't write.

With regard to Charlotte Higgins, you are only allowed to hate TA if you are in a long term relationship with it. Or intend to have a relationship with it. I would slag off TA left right and centre on here, but I remember a thread elsewhere on MN a few years ago taking the piss out of TA, I was furious and hated everyone.

Exactly @Langsdestiny

It's like your family, isn't, you can criticise them, but woe betide anyone else who does!

Long term listener here. In fact TA is my birthright as I’m named after one of the characters... long term lurker too, but I’ve abandoned TA recently after a lifetime listening. Seems I’m not the only one. Waaaah.

Welcome, @PantTwizzler! I'm guessing you were named for Eccles, The Bull's deceased peacock. Hope we can eventually lure you back into the fold, and you won't be disappointed.

Welcome @PantTwizzler or should I say Shula?

Nah, I've got PantTwizzler down as an Albertine Freda.

Sorry I’m sure you’ve covered it but utterly bizarre for Lynda to try to bluff the neighbouring impresario when she’d done no prep. Quite unlike her.

I quite like Kirsty and Roy as a couple, although can’t help thinking if she’d fancied him there were plenty of chances before. Maybe she and Phoebe can start a proper eco business together that actually employs them. Is it me or is it a bit hurtful/weird that no one has asked Kirsty to be part of rewilding? She’s the only one with any knowledge of the topic that isn’t straight off Wikipedia.

Is it me or is it a bit hurtful/weird that no one has asked Kirsty to be part of rewilding?

She ain't Royalty, or even Tenuously-Related-to-Royalty, so there was Never The Slightest Chance. Aldridge/Archer Royalty might bring her in for peasant work, whenever they need hands.

Does Kirsty actually know more about rewilding than anyone else? Whatever we might think of feeble’s poor use of her degree she should be very capable of carrying out research, thinking critically and developing an opinion. That is pretty much the whole point of a humanities degree. She did PPE so she should have some idea about negotiating public policy? Most of her classmates will be aiming to write policy, after all. What is Kirsty’s background and training? I’m happy to be corrected but I see her as a keen but noisy amateur in environmental concerns. Her wildlife trust job seemed to be pretty low skilled.