🌱 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!

Another one happy Stella is getting on with Ruth. I think I've posted somewhere that it's what I hoped would happen, simply because it will annoy Pip.

Loving the concept of a computerised Adam on peak tiredness setting, @Chemenger.

Oh thank you Chemenger

The Intern has excelled herself, and I for one would like to hear from the Young Person more often!

On the subject of Lexi the Incubator, can anyone remember if we were ever told whether a donor egg was used or if she is in fact Xander's biological mum?

Donor egg, definitely.

Thanks 23

I don’t think JD would have shrieked in horror at the idea of Adam picking apples. She is not so far removed from the realities of farming that she would consider it ‘degrading’ to help a relative with the harvest. She is a very realistic woman and I believe would be totally unphased by her son helping his uncle and cousin out at a busy time while earning some money himself.

JD's reaction was really bizarre. Obviously he was never going to walk straight into a management job at a day's notice, so obviously helping out the family makes much sense than sitting around at home saying apple picking is beneath him.

But to JD pickers are Eastern Europeans who live in caravans and think a barbecue is the height of their social calendar.

Adam's father was a farm labourer. Jennifer has a very convenient forgettery.

It's almost like the SWs know nothing about Ambridge history from 1951 onwards. Surely the actors know their character's history, why haven't they involved them?

Very happy to hear from the intern again.

Lilian has had a new actor since the sixties and seventies, so the actor wouldn't necessarily know that Lilian founded The Stables with three ponies in 1966.

And Thurman has only been writing for TA since late 2019, and has done two whole weeks of scripts plus I think ten two-day-weeks altogether; it has been rather obvious from things he has written that he really doesn't know about what happened in Ambridge last century or the beginning of this, nor what any of the characters has been like for decades.

Surely the actors know their character's history, why haven't they involved them?

Think about the logistics of that in terms of production cycles, and also about Thespian, indeed human, nature.
The policy of not killing off (elderly) characters if their actor wishes to continue is itself a concession too far.

Judging by some tweets I've read, I think the writers and editors meet and plan but the completed scripts get handed in and that is the end of the writers' involvement with the production.

There seems to be no opportunity for a writer to intervene and say "oh that wasn't quite how I thought you would portray this", equally there is no opportunity for the actors to say "you do realise that I used to own/promised to buy/have already done....".

I get the feeling that Nigel Pargetter and Kathy Perks used to try to talk to the editors about this sort of thing and look what happened to them!

The policy of not killing off (elderly) characters if their actor wishes to continue is itself a concession too far.

Quite. Ludicrous that no one in The Village That Time Forgot (pop: Justified and Ancient) has yet succumbed to Corona. Also the very elderly actors are unlikely to be travelling to the studio to record for the forseeable future.

The 🔮 is of the opinion that Jill will be the first to drop off the twig. Bring it on, I say.

Jill’s quavering voice and offer to make a Big Speech last night did rather suggest she’s seen the scripts for her final episodes …

Jill's Last Harvest Supper?

Listening to the bickering about the "script" by Kenton and David, where they neither of them had one, made me think it was how the real-life writers of TA cobbled it together.

One of my friend’s grandmother is the actress who plays Jill, shall I ask if she has any inside info (my friend never listens to the Archers)

One of my friend’s grandmother is the actress who plays Jill, shall I ask if she has any inside info (my friend never listens to the Archers)

I would love to know but be careful @Mumblechum0! I’ve seen people kicked off this thread for far less! You better head over to the spoilers thread with intell like that!

I’m still deeply confused about why adam and Ian were so broke in the first place- was there ever an explanation? They must both be really high earners for a rural village, and have had their house for ages. Plus they both have jobs that keep them busy all year round/in the evenings so little chance to spend money, and I imagine they’re both the type to wear the same clothes for 20 years. So what’s happened?

Paying for Xander to come into the world probably wasn’t cheap.

But yes - the varying fortunes of the residents of Ambridge is a constant and annoying mystery.

@Darker

Paying for Xander to come into the world probably wasn’t cheap.

But yes - the varying fortunes of the residents of Ambridge is a constant and annoying mystery.

For example, why have none of the Grundys ever claimed benefit.

Was curious so looked it up:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/having-a-child-through-surrogacy/the-surrogacy-pathway-surrogacy-and-the-legal-process-for-intended-parents-and-surrogates-in-england-and-wales#reasonableexpenses

‘Reasonable’ surrogacy expenses are perhaps a little wider than I’d realised - but it’s impossible to tell whether this expenditure would realistically have severely impacted a couple in Adam and Ian’s particular financial situation.

Ditto the re-wiring.

Ian took a full year's 'paternity' leave. And didn't Adam move from salary to results-based remuneration after one of his 'ideas' about soil management? I may have imagined that.

But no, overall I can't imagine they would be particularly strapped for cash.

@23minutesfromTulseHill

Ian took a full year's 'paternity' leave. And didn't Adam move from salary to results-based remuneration after one of his 'ideas' about soil management? I may have imagined that.

But no, overall I can't imagine they would be particularly strapped for cash.

Before then Adam was pulling down a salary plus one third of Home Farm's profits every year since March 2008, which he went on doing until for some unknown reason he uncomplainingly accepted a drop to two-thirteenths of Home Farm's profits in 2017.

I do not believe he had not got £5,000 available to use when he needed it.