💀 Archers thread #132: The Grim Reaper joined the cast; The Bard of Ambridge breathed his last. 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 think Shula will make an excellent vicar, or other unusual things.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight 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 many of you for title suggestions. @JanglyBeads said that this thread had to be a Bert tribute so needed a rhyming title. From an excellent field, I chose the suggestion from @BorsetshireBanality (who also has a cracking username).

Check out the last thread for the other suggestions and various poetic offerings inspired by Bert Fry's passing. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/4349822--Archers-thread-131-A-time-to-plant-a-time-to-reap-Discuss-The-Archers-here

So, who'll get the bungalow? Rex, Stella, Pip? If Rex has to move, will he doss down beside his pigs at Lower Loxley? Or will Rex be a resident at Her Majesty's pleasure, having bumped off Trevor for being the world's most boring man? Now Freddie's on the case, are Russ's days at LL numbered? Will we ever hear Jill again, or was Bert just the first of many older cast members to be dedded?

Over to you!

[quote CaptainMyCaptain]Proper Welsh cakes are lovely. One of my neighbours makes them.

Pikelets are crumpets but thinner. www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-pikelets-x6?utm_medium=cpc&catalogId=10241&productId=903890&utm_campaign=391199228&storeId=10151&gclid=1fae9d92cf9a1bb890f3fc1fefd63415&langId=44&utm_source=bing&krypto=XaPkFld2Er9%2Fu5qjEQyeTCzFtUmkY5jUOpk4Kd7Iu8xWp8LWZN37p3RyLXXT3m3EhDigscIE2CSgo6qL%2BMqc3ptRa9CFtQehBQMyYKm%2BdlZlLCdRG%2BcRGmSF46%2BCnY8LCH5I9tU0czcwJsEyuqaocG7ftCbkfVuKU0MerE8ytUuxrGomT7sOrysDExoawHF0HNdMn1Ka7R7ATB8JgIgGi8xg5981H2LyHSwFFZbU63sFpHpFn0qfs%2FkkrWrC7I2VUF5vWazGaMG91xrf0oYvK5H%2BC4cdEaHvaGYy9kvr0wtz8pID1H3KQYx%2B7%2FlcoSYGX5PHmHcv7Ap%2FFjT0y7TayEdV2b%2F5wyf6rqA4zKZbxbyStKZSisb3j5UVK8NEMjU60bI2HuUFLA52IGypjJ%2BSGqRRKH3xeNNjgf73Tfa53KqFoYy8K7Ok3G3m67MdAsdB8ttgRw5FbE6%2FwTPhtSMInUtFqp7i0kTnwXBs0C91WbjVREoRhbr%2FWEJAAg5jiB%2FU3YOORHG4E43VRnOJawFg2NypYfTfzp02yt3eE6C%2FLPOgNYoGD%2FusbkNsi14jBmY%2FyWZqO3rvSbSzHEMcNTdc8w%3D%3D&ddkey=https%3Agb%2Fgroceries%2Fsainsburys-pikelets-x6[/quote]
That’s drop scones

[quote CaptainMyCaptain]Proper Welsh cakes are lovely. One of my neighbours makes them.

Pikelets are crumpets but thinner. www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-pikelets-x6?utm_medium=cpc&catalogId=10241&productId=903890&utm_campaign=391199228&storeId=10151&gclid=1fae9d92cf9a1bb890f3fc1fefd63415&langId=44&utm_source=bing&krypto=XaPkFld2Er9%2Fu5qjEQyeTCzFtUmkY5jUOpk4Kd7Iu8xWp8LWZN37p3RyLXXT3m3EhDigscIE2CSgo6qL%2BMqc3ptRa9CFtQehBQMyYKm%2BdlZlLCdRG%2BcRGmSF46%2BCnY8LCH5I9tU0czcwJsEyuqaocG7ftCbkfVuKU0MerE8ytUuxrGomT7sOrysDExoawHF0HNdMn1Ka7R7ATB8JgIgGi8xg5981H2LyHSwFFZbU63sFpHpFn0qfs%2FkkrWrC7I2VUF5vWazGaMG91xrf0oYvK5H%2BC4cdEaHvaGYy9kvr0wtz8pID1H3KQYx%2B7%2FlcoSYGX5PHmHcv7Ap%2FFjT0y7TayEdV2b%2F5wyf6rqA4zKZbxbyStKZSisb3j5UVK8NEMjU60bI2HuUFLA52IGypjJ%2BSGqRRKH3xeNNjgf73Tfa53KqFoYy8K7Ok3G3m67MdAsdB8ttgRw5FbE6%2FwTPhtSMInUtFqp7i0kTnwXBs0C91WbjVREoRhbr%2FWEJAAg5jiB%2FU3YOORHG4E43VRnOJawFg2NypYfTfzp02yt3eE6C%2FLPOgNYoGD%2FusbkNsi14jBmY%2FyWZqO3rvSbSzHEMcNTdc8w%3D%3D&ddkey=https%3Agb%2Fgroceries%2Fsainsburys-pikelets-x6[/quote]
Proper welsh cakes are far from lovely. They taste poisonous
If they taste lovely then they must be wrong. Strangely though they are popular in Wales but I think they have the consistency of raw scone and taste of dog piss.

Those 'pikelets' are not worth eating. You want to try proper ones.

The recipe that precedes the Constance Spry Parkin is Belvoir Ginger Cake
I am thinking maybe I'd have a go at it but I'm vegetarian so maybe I shouldn't

Pikelets are not drip scones. Pikelets have yeast in them.

I think I have only ever eaten half of a few welsh cakes. There seem to be two types, the packaged ones in M&S/Waity type places and pice.
The packaged ones are not right.

Now bara brith also comes in the real thing and the wrong thing. One is cake and the other is more like bread - it's the bread like one that's right and it is delicious. It's pronounced Barra Breeth not Barra Brith

All this talk of cake

hmm... treacle, ginger, beavers...

drop scones
drip scones would be tiny

Re Natasha, I assumed that she's on a bit of a wind up. After Tom and Pat unilaterally decided that her business should move she's (not so) subtlety showing that they've not thought it through regarding where exactly it would fit.

So did I, AlexCabot. Now I’m confused …

I also assumed that Natasha was generally making a nuisance of herself so that presumably next week we’ll have Tom awkwardly approaching her to say that the family don’t think her moving Summer Orchard will work after all, and her telling him that in future he shouldn’t make decisions behind her back.

whopping yes, agreed, drop scones don’t have yeast. But pikelets are thicker than that.

The Australians don’t agree with you, by the way www.recipetineats.com/pikelets/

Strewth!

Aye, pikelets are thicker than the supermarket ones. Still not the same as crumpets. Delicious. Sometimes they have fruit in them

The BBC doesn’t agree with me. It says, in effect, pikelets are crumpets cooked without the ring so they end up thinner. Which agrees with Whopping but not with my mother.

And the Australians think drop scones are pikelets

When I was a kid, toast was only toasted on one side.

Back to oats, we would often have something that I don't know the english name for. It was a slice of bread, a blob of butter, a bit of bovril (or marmite) and some oats, and i t was in a bowl of boiling water. Delicious.

Butteries.

@KimikosNightmare

Butteries.

I have completely lost track of why we’re discussing food but I just want to agree with Kimiko: the answer is always butteries.

I have completely lost track of why we’re discussing food but I just want to agree with Kimiko: the answer is always butteries

I think we are discussing food because there is no depth or substance to any of the SLs at the moment.

Pikelets, crumpets, scones and their like are, in my mind, simply useful vehicles for allowing me to consume a considerable amount of deliciously semi-melted butter quickly. I find them all irresistible…

I don’t know much about parkin though.

I think it arose from speculation about what Oliver and Eddie have for breakfast at Grange Farm and whether Clarrie cooks it.

Mmm. Butter.
Of course Clarrie cooks the breakfast

I only hope Mia will talk some sense into Clarrie so she gets the celebration she wants. otherwise what is the point of Mia

Does Mia live with Will full-time? I’m sure she will engineer it so that Eddie realises Clarrie is unhappy.

I will not hear a word said against Welsh Cakes

Mia lives with her biological father but sometimes stays with Will and Poppy.

There is nothing nice about welsh cakes. But as I haven't tried one for decades... no, not going to happen

I'd never heard of butteries other than a buttery as a room

Temporarily de-lurking to say I love The Intern, and all the other regular contributions, there is a really high standard of writing on here, better than much of what’s written for TA at the moment. I might not be listening at all post Covid if it wasn’t for this thread. I lurk because I download the omnibus and parcel it out over the following week when I’m in the kitchen, so am up to two weeks behind live listeners. For the record (there is a record right?) I began listening regularly the night Nigel Pargetter fell off the roof but there’s an echo of earlier Archers in my memory because my DF listened to it from time immemorial while he was in the kitchen - when he died, I sort of inherited being a TA listener. Also for the record I don’t dislike any particular characters but I hate some of the writing. Justin (with his bizarre alternating personality: part steely corporate titan, part silly, semi-retired fusspot) and Lillian and the time-capsule sticks out as a particularly low moment. Re-lurking now.

Come back, @BinaryDot! You know you want to carry on discussing it with us...

@KimikosNightmare

Butteries.

Butteries are tricky though as they definitely mutate and deteriorate the further you get from Aberdeen. I'm only in Fife and I had a shocking one the other week.

XYZ 'sticks out as a particularly low moment'. You're right on many points @BinaryDot

Why is XYZ so frequent vs BOOP points?

Yet still I continue to listen

Burningthetoast with butteries there is also the question of which style you prefer. Some people like crunchy ones (they are wrong) and some, sensibly, like soft ones. I do agree that there is a southern boundary of reliable butteries. Here in Edinburgh you can get either locally made ones (which are just flattened rolls with hardly a trace of fat) or Asda sometimes has ones that they import from Aberdeen.

@Chemenger

Burningthetoast with butteries there is also the question of which style you prefer. Some people like crunchy ones (they are wrong) and some, sensibly, like soft ones. I do agree that there is a southern boundary of reliable butteries. Here in Edinburgh you can get either locally made ones (which are just flattened rolls with hardly a trace of fat) or Asda sometimes has ones that they import from Aberdeen.

I've learnt something here. I'd never heard 'butteries' as a food only as a room like a pantry.