❓ 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'll raise a glass to that

So I don't normally listen but caught it today and now preoccupied with the mystery. Some guy finished with his girlfriend but has an older woman in his sights supposedly. Why is that controversial? Or does he secretly like the man he was having the heart to heart with?

@SummerHouse I think you heard yesterday's repeat. He had a tiff with his older gf, took up with someone horrible, split up with her when he realised how horrible she was and wanted to get back with the previous gf. Now listen to today's episode.

Oh captainmycaptain thank you. I could very easily get into it. My car radio got set by accident to radio 4 and it turns out this is my channel. Got home today and sat in the car for 10 mins to hear the end of another radio play about an awards ceremony. Radio plays are GRIPPING! Who knew?

@CaptainMyCaptain

Oops, she's off the wagon.

Yup.

Oh bleurgh re Jazzer and Tracey. What a crashing bore they will be as a couple.

Are we to assume baby Martha is fast asleep because Alice drank the whole bottle of rioja?

@MissBarbary

Are we to assume baby Martha is fast asleep because Alice drank the whole bottle of rioja?

That does seem likely. In that case she will sleep the night through and be floppy, and Chris will have a panic tomorrow.

@SummerHouse the play was the last episode of a series called The persuaders. You can find it on BBC Sounds.

Not listened to tonight's episode yet, but was enjoying discussion upthread of Merseyside and nearby accents. Had to read them out to DP who spent his secondary school years in the same town as AD. He has no accent from that area, but at least one of his siblings does.

@TheThermalStair

I always wonder why it’s ONLY some members of the village who develop accents other than RP. Do all the Archer etc kids go to “posher” private school? Where I come from when everyone gets lumped together in school they end up with similar accents just stronger/fainter, if only to fit in.

I could have written this, you're not the only one!

Fascinated that the editors don't think it's weird/noteworthy that a pair of best friends have both ended up with utter criminal nutters within just a few years.

I could have written this, too! It does seem rather odd...

And THIS is why Alice shouldn’t have been so obsessed with secrecy but over her alcoholism. Chris should have given her the ultimatum of her being open with her family or he’d leave. Of course to the likes of Alice, her reputation is more important than the safety/health of her baby. I hope Chris leaves her.

to the likes of Alice
Meaning what: engineers? Farmers' daughters? Farriers' wives? Women with drink problems?

If Chris goes, please can he take his brat with him? There's no need for Alice to tell anyone anything anyway; Chris is already doing a good job of making their private business common knowledge.

People who think they’re better than everyone else - see every nasty comment she’s ever made about Emma or Ed.

I don’t think she sounded drunk. I think she has may be stored the Rioja somewhere for safe-keeping...

Jazza declaring his romantic feelings for Tracey had them predictably talking at cross-purposes for a bit but thank God it wasn’t stretched out over the course of a week with endless painful encounters in the shop etc. I’m happy to see where this romance will take us.

Welcome, @SummerHouse! If you do carry on listening, you may have more questions, so feel free to ask here. The Archers has been on the air continuously since 1st January 1951 and there's still one original cast member going strong (she's a centenarian now ) so there's a lot of history to get to grips with. You can get stuck in without knowing much of that, though which is what the scriptwriters appear to be doing a lot of the time, after all.

Re criminal offences at Brookfield - Josh came close when the police questioned him after one of his vehicles was involved in something dodgy/outright criminal and his paperwork was found wanting. I think the police dropped that in the end, though.

David was definitely in court back in the 80s/90s for killing a badger and burying the body. Matt Crawford saw him and reported it to the police. David was consumed with rage against the badgers for repeatedly infecting the Brookfield dairy herd with TB (he assumed).

The Grundys are definitely known to the police. Back in the early 2000s, Ed was convicted of taking Will's car without permission and crashing it, causing serious injuries to Emma's legs (never mentioned now) - she got compensation from the Criminal Injuries Fund (if that's what it's called) and it paid for her wedding to Will.

There was also a storyline involving selling dodgy meat a while back. Eddie was the one in the sights of Borsetshire Police then. Can't remember if it got to court. He may have dobbed someone else in to get off the hook himself.

Ed must have come close to prosecution again over that business of dumping chemicals, but I can't remember how it all ended.

In days of yore when Joe and Eddie were running Grange Farm as a proper farm, they were always skating close to the wind on matters of agricultural regulations over sheep dipping and so on. Whether any of those breaches ended up in prosecution I can't remember now. The SWs used them as the 'bad farmer' example to compare and contrast with the 'good farmers' at Brookfield, Bridge Farm and Home Farm (also Mike Tucker and Neil Carter). There used to always be one bad farmer to help with slotting in the Min of Ag propaganda. It was Walter Gabriel originally, but they turned him into a comic character instead as he got older.

Was Clarrie prosecuted for the E Coli incident, or was that just Bridge Farm? She lost her job for a bit after being identified as the cause of the contaminated ice cream.

I don’t think she sounded drunk. I think she has may be stored the Rioja somewhere for safe-keeping

But presumably she didn't sound drunk during all those weeks when she was successfully hiding her alcoholism.

On prosecutions, thank you! Yes, I remember Ed crashing the car, injuring Emma. I'd thought that was too big to be covered up and must have resulted in a criminal record but couldn't remember the detail. With Tim and the chemicals, I think Ed got out and reported Tim anonymously, lost his job but wasn't prosecuted himself.

What I was wondering was whether, despite always being well-known as 'dodgy' and sailing close to the wind, the Grundys might have been the only family in Ambridge not to have been prosecuted. Given Brian and the waste disposal, David and the badger (I didn't know about this one, or realise Matt Crawford had been around so long), Bridge Farm and the ice cream (although I think that was dealt with through regulation, not prosecution, as the affected girl lived), could it be that they are the only ones not to have prosecuted for a farming misdemeanour?

I was thinking about the good farmer / bad farmer parable and Walter Gabriel. Was Nelson his only child? What happened to his wife? It just occurred to me that all the main 'good' farm families have always been 'good' at breeding children too; Jill 4, Jenny 4 (+1), Pat 3, Ruth 3 and they're all doing pretty well at producing GCs too. Even the black sheep and early-deceased reproduce (Kenton, John). I realise this is mostly to keep the plot going (and from that point of view, Nelson not reproducing doesn't matter as there is no Gabriel land). But back in the 50s, was human fecundity being used as a metaphor for successful, fertile farming?

But presumably she didn't sound drunk during all those weeks when she was successfully hiding her alcoholism.

Hmmm....Yes, you could be right @Nith! I was giving her the benefit of the doubt. She did sound unusually bright and interested in Chris’ day. I would probably need to drink a bottle of Rioja to drum up that level of interest. Not that I would find a day-in-the-life of a typical handsome farrier boring, only this one...

Hope this works and is legible. Info on Walter Gabriel from The Archers Encyclopedia.

@BeardieWeirdie

People who think they’re better than everyone else - see every nasty comment she’s ever made about Emma or Ed.

I imagine it would be quite difficult not to make the occasional nasty remark about Emma if she were one's sister-in-law. Not that Emma has any scruples about nasty remarks herse that I've noticed. Why did Alice marry into that family? I mean you just wouldn't, would you, not knowing what Susan and Emma are like.

When Chris gained a yokel accent, did he lose his sense of smell? Fairly sure A had necked the Rioja because she wasn't Anxious...

Insert comma between Rioja and anxious, and lf after herse

He's got the coronavirus?

@Nith

I don’t think she sounded drunk. I think she has may be stored the Rioja somewhere for safe-keeping

But presumably she didn't sound drunk during all those weeks when she was successfully hiding her alcoholism.

This. I thought she sounded uncharacteristically happy. She had definitely drunk it, she wouldn't have the self-control to store it for another day.