🏘️ Archers thread #129: Casey, Macy, Lily, Alice – Decent types or full of malice? Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads, which has now passed 125,000 posts! (See below for further details.)

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 lust after Russ, or other unusual things.

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.)

For the thread title I was very tempted to go with @R4's title suggestion of Come follow the exploits of Brine, Lily, Elizabeth, Usha, Ruari, George and Helen. Know collectively as bleurgh. because on the last thread @DadDadDad, our invaluable statistician, identified a post from @ILoveShula as the 125,000th. Many of us felt it was fitting that the post simply said Bleurgh!.

However, feeling that was a bit niche for the casual listener, I adapted @MayIDestroyYou's title suggestion in the end. Thanks, MIDY!

Back to Ambridge this week, after our enjoyable sojourn at Lower Loxley last week! Will we go with Alice to rehab? (Hope not.) Will the petulant Adam make good his threat to leave Home Farm? (Hope so.) What will Jennifer say? (Lots, I hope, and preferably to Brian.) Will the fete be a triumph? (Of course it will.) Will we ever return to Brookfield, or have they all fallen unnoticed into the slurry pit? (Let's hope Pip did, anyway.) WHERE IS PAT? (Can't answer this one.)

Over to you!

@Edmontine

Was that a SW auditioning for TV sitcom?

It reminded me of a Brian Rix Farce. That's not a compliment.

That's an insult to Brian Rix farces (which I do not like either)

You'd have thought that Roy would have learned from the Lizard experience to avoid campsite sex.

Klaxon: 5 episodes/week from 15 August

So that'll be a Sunday one.

First week is by Keri D

Apologies if this is regarded as a spoiler.

Let's hope the fete has happened by then.

Haven't we suffered enough, Madcats?

Ooh I haven't heard tonight's yet. Sounds as if I'm in for a treat !

@ILoveShula

I really enjoyed tonight's episode.

So did I.

So was Layla pretending she didn't know how to complain on her restaurant date with Roy? She sure did a good job tonight!

Going against the grain here (apart from ILoveShula) but I enjoyed Roy, Kate and Phoebe's set piece.

Roy and Kate have settled into an easy going friendliness- I like hearing them together.

I’ve just started to listen to Tuesday’s- it starts with Joy and Lynda sniffing roses in the garden. Isn’t Lynda supposed to suffer from raging hay fever, mentioned every ear to (not very) comedy effect?

Oh, that would be the easy-going friendship evidenced by Kate assuming (and saying to his daughter) that Roy was having "a sordid little liaison"?

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

Oh, that would be the easy-going friendship evidenced by Kate assuming (and saying to his daughter) that Roy was having "a sordid little liaison"?

True, but they get on well together when it's just the 2 of them.

Except that Roy finds it difficult top be civil to her, and tries to avoid contact when he can; she just barges in regardless of his feelings, because she has the hide of an elephant and cannot take a hint administered with anything less than an elephant gun.

"I'm busy. I'm working."
"Let me tell you all about a lot of things of interest to me and not to you."
"I told you I'm working."
"Why are you so hostile? Your chakras must be unaligned."

Oh dear! I think that’s what’s known as a low point…The attempt at light relief to off-set the drama, seems to be getting worse but may be that’s just my impression.

@KimikosNightmare, you're going against the flow not against the grain, but I enjoyed Kate, Roy and Feebs too.

@HaveringWavering, I wondered about the hypoallergenic scented roses too.

I’d like to think that there was a point to that in advancing the plot, but it felt like a deliberately engineered ‘comedy’ interlude. Roy taught her to complain which she then did beautifully only to be laughed at by Phoebe. Now Kate’s suggested he trawl the Internet for a casual hook up - more hilarity will no doubt ensue until eventually he settles down into contented singledom or gets together with Kirsty (or some other firm fixture in the cast) There must be so many more interesting avenues for the SWs to explore than Roy’s love life. It’s never felt realistic since his marriage to Hayley imploded (in another tent-related incident). Truly this current storyline feels like a lame avoidance of following up anything more interesting - why for instance have the SWs never followed up on the fall out of the Aldridge’s downsizing from Home Farm in order not to displace Kate’s yurts? Has their lovely old farmhouse been swallowed by the sink hole - another strand left dangling? How is Grey Gables coping after the fire and then the pandemic - wouldn’t that be a more interesting storyline to explore with Roy?

Reluctant as I am to defend the perpetrators of last night's heinous bilge, not every pollen affects every hayfever-haver.

Last night's episode seemed sordid.

How is Grey Gables coping after the fire and then the pandemic - wouldn’t that be a more interesting storyline to explore with Roy?

Definitely. It's amazing that it survived, given that it was teetering on the brink after the fire. They could at least include a mention of Oliver's amazingly well-timed lottery win or something similar by way of an explanation.

@theThreeofWeevils

Reluctant as I am to defend the perpetrators of last night's heinous bilge, not every pollen affects every hayfever-haver.

Lynda has always had all-purpose all-pollen hayfever for the entire summer except when the editorial team forgot about it -- hence her creation of the hypoallergenic Shakespearean garden, about which we all wondered when she first suggested it.

She has on a previous occasion complained particularly about not being able to have roses ("so beautiful") in the house because they set off her hay-fever.

Mind you, she's also grown Peace (eaten by llamas) and trellised roses (source of silly row with Robert) during the past few years, so I think they may have decided her hay-fever has improved as she got older, or something. How many acres of garden does she have, again, with all these roses to accommodate?

Does Phoebe have to sound so annoyingly arch all the time?

It's horrible!

Oh crikey!

Slapstick comedy and Friends With Benefits.

What is happening to The Archers?

The Archers now really should be renamed Carry on Farming.

I'm sticking to my guns about Wednesday's episode but tonight's was dire.

Lynda has completely lost touch with reality.

@WheresThatCatGoneNow

Does Phoebe have to sound so annoyingly arch all the time?

It's horrible!

Agreed, it is a very annoying vocal inflection