🌱 Archers thread #131: A time to plant, a time to reap. 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 also have a few millions lying around you're not sure how to invest, or other unusual things.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the week night 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 @Roysnewshirt and @Edmontine for title suggestions, and apologies to anyone I’ve missed or forgotten. In the end, inspired by Edmontine's idea and a brief discussion at the end of the last thread, I remembered that it's autumn now and the Ambridge farmers are presumably sowing barley, winter wheat, potatoes etc, so I found myself recollecting Ecclesiastes 3 (King James version) - my Church of Scotland upbringing has a lot to answer for. This led me back to one of my favourite numbers by The Byrds (written by Pete Seeger):

Roysnewshirt suggested Prayer cards, rehab, a glass of scotch, a bowl of chilli or even a dish of lasagne…we offer a range of solutions here to help you solve any Ambridge problem - large or small etc etc, which is as good a point as any to start this thread. Do we think Neil and Susan are solid again? Will Alice relapse? Will Shula confess all to the Bishop?

Reflecting on last night's offering, Edmontine said I’m musing on Baby steps … - but we need the culmination of Alice’s story this week. We have a new nurse in training, a possibly resigning midwife settling in Ambridge, Xander, Martha, Alice somewhere trying to find her feet sans grog, Shula trying to find her saintly feet sans Neil …B(ill)eth & Ben. Lots and lots of newness. Stir in Three’s blood and jam …

The blood and jam made me laugh. A lot. Just as well, as the storyline that line inspired is pants.

Over to you!

I really like Jazzer and Tracey, they're the only ones behaving like grown ups at the moment. Nice that he's putting up shelves! And that he understands Jim's love of books. And that he told her he'd rather have her than any nurse.

I thought Stella was a refreshing dose of common sense, telling Brian not to get ahead of himself with the divorce. And I disagree that it's none of her business, it is! You wouldn't take on a general manager for any other business without being open with them about upcoming challenges/plans, or how can they manage them?

You wouldn't take on a general manager for any other business without being open with them about upcoming challenges/plans, or how can they manage them?

But it is VERY early days. Brian has literally only just voiced the suggestion out loud to his intimates. He hasn’t discussed it with his children ie the partners so why on earth would he be confiding in someone who has worked for him for less than 2 months. Family businesses simply don’t work like that. It would be like Pat confiding that she wants to sell before even discussing it with Helen and Tom. Impossible.

Sorry..meant to say it would be like Pat confiding in Susan or Clarrie…

Stella reminded me of Hannah. She seemed to forget that Brian was her employer, and he sounded a bit cowed by her. Not like Brian!

She probably wouldn't have admitted it was Justin anyway, as it would shut down an information source.

@Roysnewshirt

You wouldn't take on a general manager for any other business without being open with them about upcoming challenges/plans, or how can they manage them?

But it is VERY early days. Brian has literally only just voiced the suggestion out loud to his intimates. He hasn’t discussed it with his children ie the partners so why on earth would he be confiding in someone who has worked for him for less than 2 months. Family businesses simply don’t work like that. It would be like Pat confiding that she wants to sell before even discussing it with Helen and Tom. Impossible.

It is absolutely incredible that Brian would disclose all that personal and sensitive business information to a new employee he knows almost nothing about.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
Nice of Jazzer to put shelves for the Prof. I've forgotten now who broke the Prof's mug. Is this perhaps recompense?

Mousse the redundant terrier broke Jim's mug, so Alistair is the one to blame really, not Jazzer. Jazzer may have let her into the house, though.

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The land-selling is absurd; the most Chris could claim from Alice would be one-twenty-sixth of Home Farm, which is quite a lot less than a hundred acres out of the 1,585 acres the BBC say that farm is. And that's only if his business isn't in the settlement at all, because half of that is hers: she put a lot of money into it using her house (as The Nest was then) to guarantee the loan.

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KimikosNightmare
Brian making that stupid comment about it must have been Susan who told Stella the farm was being sold rather than asking Stella who told her? Ridiculous. Of course asking her would mean he finds out that Justin is an interfering blabbermouth and Stella is in cahoots with him.

Brian asked more than once who had told Stella about the divorce, and Stella didn't give him an answer. It was only after she hadn't that he remarked that if it was Susan it wasn't to be taken seriously.

Dear god, Amy is voiced by what must be the worst TA actor ever - and I include both incarnations of Pip in this. Monotone, weird inflections, no light and shade.

Hope she's just passing through.

She was so bad I thought she must be meant to be like that.

Agreed Bore, but giving up her job (vocation!) makes it sound like she'll hang for a while around boring us all with her monotone pronouncements

You may be disappointed, Bore!

They managed to get her babysitting skills into the script. Who was it who said she’d become Xander’s childminder / nanny?

Then they need to re-cast. They won't though.

I suffered a total sense-of-humour failure this evening: I really don't find anything entertaining about someone faking anaphylaxis. Totally horrible thing to do.

Boop for Ben, though: he didn't up with the largest thing to hand, hit Vince over the head with it, and shout "stet that ambulance, he needs it after all."

I wonder if the script is asking a bit too much of Vince - that was shitty and stupid, panto villain behaviour, yet he’s supposed to have won Elizabeth’s heart. Doesn’t add up at all.

Thinking of Stella, her tirade at Brian, constantly interrupting him, not allowing him to give details was out of order. She's his employee.

Vince is foul. Practical jokes are rarely amusing, and often say more about the prankster. Deeply unpleasant. I wonder what Elizabeth would think of it.

Amy is dreary and mardy enough to make a plausible stand-in for Daddy Edam, but the thought of her becoming a permanent fixture is deeply depressing.git

Vince is a git

Well,, I've rather liked Vince up until now - rough diamond and all that.

But this evening's deeply unfunny fake anaphylaxis hilarity was out of character with what we know of him so far.

Can't wait for him to pretend to asphyxiate in The Orangery with Lizard. Or maybe a pretend gastric haemorrhage over the pristine table linen.

Wot larks. Not.

“But, I dunno, everything else seems to get in the way of the patients. They’re the important ones.” Mate this actor can’t carry off lines like this. Please recast or give her things to say like “that’ll be 75p please”.

Quite impressed by Beth walking out on her father after he tricked Ben. A sharp contrast to Ben and his inability (as yet) to stand up to Josh.

I didn’t actually mind the fake anaphylactic shock. It didn’t last long and didn’t go very far and as a trainee nurse Ben is fair game. A bit of eye-rolling from Beth and an explanation that Dad was always doing silly things like that when she was young would have been sufficient reaction.

What I objected to more was Ben wearing a tie to a restaurant. I know Les Soeurs is high end but it just feels such an anachronism these days. Even if older gentlemen want to wear a tie when they go out somewhere smart, it seems crazy to put 18-year-old Ben in his funeral suit and tie and expect him to have a nice time. Though Vince clearly wanted to flash the cash. I would have thought he would have known they all would have preferred a more relaxed venue. Wouldn’t have to have been in Ambridge. They could have gone to the nice gastro-pub where Justin and Stella met.

Listening to Amy is like listening to a reluctant seven year old doing reading practice. “Try it again with some expression”!

At least you can distinguish her from other actors.

@BoreOfWhabylon

Well,, I've rather liked Vince up until now - rough diamond and all that.

But this evening's deeply unfunny fake anaphylaxis hilarity was out of character with what we know of him so far.

Can't wait for him to pretend to asphyxiate in The Orangery with Lizard. Or maybe a pretend gastric haemorrhage over the pristine table linen.

Wot larks. Not.

The only point to this episode would be if he has a genuine emergency fairly soon, Beth ignores it thinking he's joking again and Ben saves his life. Otherwise it is just too stupid for words.

I see your point, Roy, but I’ve got a mate with a severe nut allergy and so if someone else said they had one I’d believe them and react instantly if they had a “reaction”. People can die in minutes. Poor Ben. Is this what people like to do to trainee nurses etc?!

Came on here only to see if others agreed that Amy’s lines were delivered by a robot. Glad to see that I’m not the only one. (Was there a different actor before?)