🌱 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!

@thruthe

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?)

I also agree she was absolutely dreadful. Just reading the words with no expression.

Ambridge has a mega piggery owned by BL, Jazzer, Neil, Hannah and Rex looking after pigs as their day jobs. In addition Vince and Beth overseeing auctions and half the region's slaughterhouses. Has there been even a mention of the difficult conditions/labour shortages? This. Can we have some real drama please. Brian threatening to sell Home Farm and Justin's skulduggery seem to be pointing in one direction - Brian sacking Stella and Adam coming back (since his new boss sounds like an arse). It's all too reminiscent of the Great North Move - an enormous amount of unbelievable shenanigans leading precisely nowhere.

Gah, another qualified, experienced woman character gives up her job with no alternative plans in sight in favour of coming back to Ambridge and mooching around doing fuck all. You'd think after all this time Amy would at least have applied her mind to what she was going to do instead of midwifery. I fear she's going to end up like Phoebe doing something totally nebulous in the rewilding project.

Gah - with even a hundred !!! would not be enough for this peculiar TA phenomenon.

It seems the only way Usha has been allowed to keep her job is by silencing her - for years.

Poor Ben. Is this what people like to do to trainee nurses etc?!

Of course they do - endless pranks. This was very tame

@FoxgloveSummers

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?!

Me too, and a friend's DC has a sesame allergy. It was not funny.

Aimless has come back to be Dander and Marthyr's nanny.
She will probably end up with Kristiffer

Just heard a bit on Woman’s Hour about FASD, some new research apparently. I wonder if the SWs were listening…

Agree Amy sounds dreadful. Maybe we’re supposed to think she’s burnt out and depressed (might just about explain her tone and delivery) but she’s so unengaging I can’t find it in me to care very much.

I imagine the producers are banking on her improving her delivery over the next few decades …

@IShoveLula

Aimless has come back to be Dander and Marthyr's nanny. She will probably end up with Kristiffer

But as she rightly pointed out, she doesn’t do baby care!

I was also surprised that given she has been loafing around all day that she didn’t have dinner prepared for her father and Usha’s return that evening. Even worse, Alan actually offered to rustle up a baked potato for her. Such a lazy and thoughtless daughter. And I thought she was very ungracious when she declined his offer to prepare her something. Hardly a credit to him…

Let's hope Alan gets details of a voluntary service overseas project in the Amazon and Amy heads off there asap. I will be incandescent if she gives up a decent rewarding profession and spends the next few years doing minimum wage odd jobs in Ambridge. As we've all said a million times before, why are the SWs so useless when it comes to intelligent graduates/professionally qualified women in Ambridge? They're not great with their male equivalents either, but it seems worse with the women.

She could have a great time doing midwifery in the wilds of Africa somewhere. Or maybe a refugee camp. That would get her back focused on the patients and doing something really worthwhile. (And would mean we didn’t have to listen to her, as an extra bonus ). Don’t know if she’s got the gumption though. But Alan must have some relevant contacts.

To me, Amy sounds like she is struggling with an accent she can't pull off and in turn, it makes her intonation weird.

That’s the Vince we initially were shown, before he started courting Elizabeth. Not sure where he’s going to end up……

Amy doesn't seem to have considered options like District Nursing or becoming a Health Visitor, unless I've missed something. It would be good if she used her qualifications to work in a Personal Injury or Clinical Negligence legal team, but I suspect the SWs would find that too dynamic. She'll probably end up helping out in the tea room.

I suspect the SWs would find that too dynamic
And I suspect the lumpen embodiment of mediocrity that is Amy might also struggle with that.

...'A light to others', my arse.

@FoxgloveSummers, what's that got to do with it? She's female and in Ambridge, she'll be a natural.

Would anyone comment about the not preparing summer had it been Amos not Amy?

supper not summer

She’s not a Nurse though @2Two so would have to retrain to do either of those things (I think / can’t quite remember re: HV training).

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.

The 🔮 likes this very much @CaptainMyCaptain. It says it can see, through the swirling mists, a Heimlich Manoever being performed.

@Prestissimo

She’s not a Nurse though *@2Two* so would have to retrain to do either of those things (I think / can’t quite remember re: HV training).

I year FT or 2 year PT course. I think there's also a Master's.

Or she could re-train as an HGV driver (as could many of the other characters). Won't happen though - as has been predicted, she will become a glorified babysitter and set her cap at Krissfer.

Does Shula have an HGV licence for driving horses around? Perhaps she could use that to leave Ambridge for long periods of time.

Less of that @Chemenger.

I think she uses a horsebox