🌱 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!

Good post @Roysnewshirt. I’d say many people i know completely rely on their friends to be a comfort and support system to make up for a crappy family, rather than the other way round. It all feels very Tory party conference when they start whinging about family. My family are lovely (I’m lucky) but that doesn’t mean everyone’s/most people’s are even half decent.

Kenton is Ambridge’s original cocklodger, isn’t he?

@EdmontinaDonsAutumnalHues

“Nice old boy …”

Ha! That explains it - this week’s writer, Nick Warburton, was born in 1947 and is clearly so well established in his occupation that he doesn’t need to know or converse with anyone of Fallon’s age - 36.*

Fortunately at least half my colleagues are in their thirties - and I (not in my thirties) can confidently state that not a single one of them is aware of the phrase ‘old boy’ as a way of referring to an elderly man.

*I have no reason to believe other people born in 1947 would make this mistake …

I'd agree with that. My father (born that decade) wouldn't refer to his peers as 'old boys'.

I think 'old boy' is a rather outdated term? Hmm...

The only person I know who would say “nice old boy” is an alcoholic with a SW accent who describes some of his older drinking buddies from the pub like that. Always sounds weird in real life too! Wondering if it’s a pub thing and trying to picture whether Jolene would say it. I think possibly she would.

@FoxgloveSummers

Kenton is Ambridge’s original cocklodger, isn’t he?

I was just about to say that!

Wow, so little happened in last night’s episode that no one has commented on it? Maybe I don’t need to go to Sounds to catch up!
(Only joking, Every Episode HAS to be en dured joyed!)

It wasn’t exactly memorable.

But I do recall thinking that Brian gets all the best lines!

However - Tamsin Greig is about to be in this:

Meet Me at the Museum

at 12.00 on R4, with Paul Ritter. May or may not be worth a listen.

I did laugh at Jenny commenting that Adam always sounds tired, maybe she’s been listening to John Finnemore as well. (For those who don’t know... www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p02mlwdp)

The trim on Eddie's beetroot failed to impress the judge.

' More vinegar ballast in the starboard tank, Mid!'

I’m always playing catch up with the thread these days. DH has decided to start listening, so we listen to the film together now. Anyhoo, one thing that has been bugging me for a very long time but came to a head last week was how lazily stereotypically ‘husband and wife’ Adam and Ian are. Adam the hardworking man with a Proper Big job (and bits on the side!), and Ian the nagging shrew at home with the baby and unfulfilled dreams of burger vans, jumping to conclusions about business meetings and shrieking about knives. The relationship as written is somehow lacking in both imagination and realism!

@EdmontinaDonsAutumnalHues

However - Tamsin Greig is about to be in this:

Meet Me at the Museum

at 12.00 on R4, with Paul Ritter. May or may not be worth a listen.

That was on about a year ago and I remember it being lovely.

@EdmontinaDonsAutumnalHues

However - Tamsin Greig is about to be in this:

Meet Me at the Museum

at 12.00 on R4, with Paul Ritter. May or may not be worth a listen.

It's absolutely wonderful. Especially poignant as the brilliant Paul Ritter recorded it while dying of a brain tumour.

I must have missed it first time around, but listened this afternoon.

Wonderfully witty writing, but it was definitely the acting that held my attention.

Ian is back at Grey Gables, and by the sound of it, is working unrealistic hours. And you can hardly ask for compressed hours if you are a head chef (has his rival gone?)

Amy and Chris is definitely happening!

KNOB'S BACK!!!

So …

Who do we think it is hanging around Helen’s house?

Rob is back in town then!

@BeardieWeirdie

Rob is back in town then!

I hope he's done the required quarantine and testing.

Look who's back, back again, Rob is back, tell your friends.

With thanks to that M&M fella.

So that was the point of Joy. Someone new to the village, but integrated enough to be able to raise the alarm, without being able to say “no it wasn’t Rob”.

It’s either Rob with all that entails, or it’s not Rob, but will cause all sorts of angst and will demonstrate how not over it Helen is. I think the latter. DH is happily constructing a scenario where Rob attempts to kidnap Myson, Helen tries to stop him, followed by Henwee, and as Rob tries to make a getaway he runs them both over

Well Helen isn't really allowed to be happy so it was almost inevitable HE would apparently reappear just as she finally settled down with Lee. I agree that it will turn out to be a false alarm though.

It won't be long before eagle eyed Susan spots Amy frequently popping in to see Chris at the Nest, hanging around his workplace etc. How long is her career 'break' supposed to last and why doesn't she have any other friends apart from Chris and Alice (although I don't remember her being particularly friendly with him before this storyline)?

She was Alice’s “friend” as teenagers. If you count being a discussing racist as the basis of a solid friendship, that is. I don’t.