🌱 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!

That really was tripe tonight.

Although it did achieve the remarkable feat of making me side with Ruth. Lighthouse Lil is deeply unpleasant.

Lilian is giving up smoking, and has been practising her cookery of the dessert she plans to provide. Ruth was fairly insulting about Lilian's baking skills, and the not-smoking has shortened Lilian's temper.

This is probably the worst prediction ever, and I'm only halfway through Sunday's omnibus so I'm quite behind, but does anyone else think that Stella might be in some way related to Justin? The way he was talking to her I wondered if she might be a daughter or niece or something?

Why think 'daughter or niece' when it was made perfectly clear on àir what their professional contact had been?

Is it wrong that my first thought on Amy doing a personality test was “and did you find one?”

Enjoyed Chelsea referring to Lily as Downton Abbey

@theThreeofWeevils

Why think 'daughter or niece' when it was made perfectly clear on àir what their professional contact had been?

Oh lord, I've totally missed something then! I thought it was implied that they'd worked together before, but the tone between them just sounded more closely related than that.

I do listen to the podcast last thing at night so I'm assuming I nodded off at a salient point

I preferred the 'shagging her teacher' comment

Ruth in charge of the food seems weird

Whoever thought to give Chelsea a voice/place in the cast deserves to be congratulated! She gets some great lines.

So we reckon that she'll start dating Johnnie? She could have the most delightful conversations with Natasha and Helen.

I am always surprised how many adults defend the Lily/Russ relationship. Well done Chelsea.

Amy, and her Myers Briggs test, on the other hand.... can they please give her some better lines/cheer her up or send her off to study something somewhere distant.

Is Amy’s dead delivery meant to be because she’s depressed? I thought Pip had no idea how to deliver a line but she is Judi Dench compared to Amy. Does she just come in to the studio and read the words for the first time for the recording?

I don’t think Johnnie and Chelsea will happen now - he thinks she’s a silly child. It’s always possible in the future - though I can imagine Pat’s face if he took up with a Horrobin.

Would be John & Sharon all over again …

I'm assuming I nodded off at a salient point grin
And who could blame you, noodlez
Agree with Foxglove about the personality test .
Have already had a bellyful of Chelsea, though I will admit the actor does a good job of sounding plausible as Tracy's daughter.
Too many new young people: Beth, Blake, Chelsea... Is the intern perhaps signalling to us for help?

Ha! On the plus side they do sound different, unlike a few years ago where we had the Toby rex Josh tom Freddie posh-off

My question is which of the “peasant” kids are going to do amazingly brilliantly and outshine the archer spawn etc. It has to be one of them. Chelsea, George, Mia, Kiera? Chelsea’s brother silent whatsit?

I thought Chelsea would be made of tougher stuff than she seemed last night. One reference to Helmet Head and you couldn’t see her for dust. No way would she be put off that easily!

She’d dressed up. She’s a teenager. Her mortification seemed entirely normal.

@EdmontinaDonsAutumnalHues

I don’t think Johnnie and Chelsea will happen now - he thinks she’s a silly child. It’s always possible in the future - though I can imagine Pat’s face if he took up with a Horrobin.

Would be John & Sharon all over again …

I didn't get the impression Johnny fancied Chelsea, he was just trying to help as he has experience of dyslexia. I thought her reaction quite plausible, though.

Given that Chelsea is only just 17, and Johnny is what, 23? I don't see them getting together. That's a very big age gap at those ages.
I'm surprised Lily and Russ are still together, it's been over 3 years now, I would have hoped Lily would have seen sense by now.

Didn't Jazzer and Tracey start off by teasing/being rude to each other?

It just prompted me to wonder what the plans are for all the key sites in Ambridge in the next decade (most of the likely successors are singletons):

Lower Loxley - presumably Freddie (singleton) though he shows no signs of doing anything more than odd jobs?
Home Farm - after a lot of faffing, probably Adam (he's 54)? Xander would be barely out of agricultural college when Adam is in his mid-70's, so will they end up having Phoebe (single, no boyfriend for years) in charge?
Bridge Farm - Johnny (singleton, hasn't had a girlfriend for yonks)
Bridge Farm Dairy - Helen (at least she has children and Lee and a panto villain ex husband in the wings)
So what happens to Tom (childless)?
Brookfield - Pip (well there IS Rosie and at least Ben now has a girlfriend)?
The Stables - Alice (seems happy enough to disown Martha for now and give up on marriage)?
Grey Gables - Oliver is surely mid-70's and his daughter has shown zero interest in moving to Ambridge?
The Bull - Fallon (keen not to have a child)?

If the older cast members decide to retire/die the Editor is a bit stuffed.

Tom will not just give Bridge Farm to Johnny, not when Natasha is standing behind him demanding his rights.

Nor do I see Helen not assuming that she and then her sons will inherit the place.

I would suggest that Daniel has a better claim on The Stables than Alice does, as soon as he comes out of the army -- which he is likely to do fairly soon if he hasn't made Major by now, and we have not been told that he has.

Succession planning is a really long game if you are a SW. Pat and Tony could live another 20 years minimum; Ruth and David easily another 30; and Elizabeth will be the same. We can assume Peggy won’t last much longer but that’s just an assumption. May be something will happen to her over Christmas, perhaps? I wonder if they might kill her off with Covid? No one else has succumbed yet and in order to fight off allegations that the SWs ignored the global pandemic in years to come, it is quite possible one of their most high-profile characters will catch it and become a statistic.

Oh well done Russ and Chelsea ! Boop.

That was fun!

It was? Oh.

It was better than most recent episodes.

I like Russ. He's 99% awful but occasionally shows rare moments of kindness and insight and like Kate he's always amusing.

Really? Im finding it dire at the moment. But then I’m in the age group that no-one is trying to attract