🎲 Archers thread #134: Ambridge as human board game. We’ve had Pandemic. What now - Game of Life or Trivial Pursuit? Go! 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 warm to Hazel Woolley, or other unusual views.

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 @LiterallyKnowsBest for the thread title idea. I also liked @LillianGish's suggestion which was Conversions abound and it’s not just Harrison - Lily’s kitchens, Hazel’s flat, Jazzer’s finances, Bert’s bungalow...come and discuss The Archers - are you a convert or could you be converted? and that seems like a good place to kick off this thread.

Who'll get the bungalow? Pip, Josh or A. N. Other?

Will Lily leave the cold calling behind and launch a bid to run LL when Elizabeth hangs up her clipboard?

Will Jazzer become a financial whiz after mastering Tracy's state of the art budgeting techniques, viz, writing it all down in a little notebook with a kitten on the front?

Over to you!

As an expat Scot, I am grateful that Phoebe didn't mangle a tricky place-name like Milngavie, Ecclefechan, Auchenshugle, Achnasheen etc.

Kate will make this all about Kate, as per usual, but this is a long overdue move for Phoebe. I hadn't thought of Adam but perhaps Rex will leave too and Adam and Kirsty can run the rewilding between them. Or they can all work part-time and cover the whole week between them. This may be why the SWs slipped in that mention of his work in Africa.

Kate has literally no interest in what is good for Phoebe, just what is good for Kate.

Yes, Kirsty and Adam to take over on the rewilding. There will have to be at least one Archer involved to keep the money in the family.

Two birds, one stone:

treesforlife.org.uk/ - In the Highlands. (Bit disappointed Phoebe didn’t find a way to forge some sort of reciprocal agreement between algae and rewilding …)

@KimikosNightmare, she was mentally ill with an addiction. This SL has some connection to something in my life, so I am asking you to not be so blunt.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g,
a tricky place-name like Milngavie, Ecclefechan, Auchenshugle, Achnasheen etc.

Enlighten me, please. Milngavie is Mil-gahy, I think, but I am not sure of the others,. Ecclefechan looks similar to Eglwysfechan, and I imagine they mean the same.

The Jeremy Bowen programme on welshness was interesting. Someone on it said that all non-speaking Welsh are familiar with place names - I have to disagree with that one. Ffîbî would not have been sent t'other side of Offa's Dyke as only moustache twirling comedy baddies come from there to Ambridge

The 🔮 is in no doubt that the Job Fairy will use Feeble's departure to Kirsty's advantage. Possibly also with a side-order of True Lurve blossoming between Kirsty and Rex.

Kate went through a phase of wanting to move Spiritual Home to the re-wilding site, didn't she?

If she moved, the Aldridges could sell the land and buy back Home Farm (or at least somewhere with enough space for two tagines).

I don't like Peggy, but I would enjoy listening to her express her disappointment in Pip and Phoebes.

I really hope Kate can be happy for Phoebe, but I find Phoebe very annoying, whingey and entitled. (Who could she take after I wonder?) I must confess I do enjoy Kate, but I think it's because I have a friend who sounds exactly like her so I always picture them.

I really want Kirsty to take over rewilding, I'd never thought of Adam either but that would be fine so long as Kirsty is there too.

I find so ridiculously annoying no one's thought to give Alice a stables job. Even if she'd rather go straight back into engineering (fair play) why has no one suggested it?

Lots of new mums have feelings of failure, belated boop for Jenny understanding what was a relatively normal reaction to a stressful situation and knowing when to push.

@TheSilveryTinsellyPussycat

Wouldn't Pheobe say the place name of where the job is, thensay it's in the Highlands?

The intern’s on holiday. There was no-one to google a map of Scotland

TheSilveryTinsellyPussycat

Wouldn't Pheobe say the place name of where the job is, thensay it's in the Highlands?

But no body would say that in real life. That would mean it's somewhere in any of the counties of Argyll, Caithness, Inverness, Nairn, Ross and Cromarty and Sutherland.

It's a pity they didn't send her to Craigellachie or Aberchirder.

Just catching up with this weeks episodes - was infuriated by Jennifer and Alice’s discussion on Salils ‘prospects’ as ‘after all he has a degree from Oxford’ so does Phoebe!!! 😡😡😡
Run Phoebe! Spread your wings and fly to Scotland and don’t give Ambridge a second thought.
It completely spoiled an otherwise great storyline with Jennifer supporting Alice

@Chemenger

The Highlands start at the Highland Boundary Fault. That runs through Loch Lomond, which is just north of Glasgow. The Highlands cover more than just Highland Council does. There’s lots is sea coast in the Highlands not very far north of Glasgow as well. Somewhere like Arrochar, which is on the sea (with a stinky, seaweed covered beach) and the Arrochar Alps mountains is only about 40 miles from Glasgow and definitely the Highlands.

I would think of Loch Lomond being the Trossachs, I grew up in the area (in a town “north of Glasgow”) and would absolutely not think of it being in the Highlands. But to be fair my family was spectacularly uninterested in exploring Scotland and our standard holiday was drive to Glasgow airport and fly to Spain, so I probably know less about it than many English people. I remember being utterly bemused when I went to University and all these posh students went on about going to Scotland for their holidays .

That’s fascinating, HaveringWavering. Were your family actually ancestrally Scottish? Were there tangible historic reasons for the rejection of Scotland as a place worthy of interest?

(I was brought up by non-English parents who could not on any level grasp the attraction of flying to somewhere hot in Europe to sit on a crowded beach filled with English people. We spent a lot of time in Wales. And now, as an adult, I’d pick Scotland over most places for a holiday.)

@TottersBlankly

That’s fascinating, HaveringWavering. Were your family actually ancestrally Scottish? Were there tangible historic reasons for the rejection of Scotland as a place worthy of interest?

(I was brought up by non-English parents who could not on any level grasp the attraction of flying to somewhere hot in Europe to sit on a crowded beach filled with English people. We spent a lot of time in Wales. And now, as an adult, I’d pick Scotland over most places for a holiday.)

The only bit of non-Scottish blood in my family is a tiny bit of Northern Irish about 4 generations ago.

It’s a class thing. My parents as working class kids grew up unable to afford to go further than Fife for their holidays and it was pretty dull, not to mention wet and cold. As they became middle class parents in the 70s and 80s, at the time of the boom in package travel, holidays abroad were much more appealing. It’s not that they dismissed Scotland as not interesting, they (we) just wanted to get away from it when they had precious time off work. We had a castle and bagpipes and forests and mountains literally on the doorstep, we appreciated it was nice but it was just daily life. To us, a holiday was sin, a swimming pool, unusual food and people speaking different languages (no, Gaelic would not have been exotic enough, you could get that in BBC Scotland!). And did I mention the Scottish weather?

Ha ha, sun, not sin! I’m sure my parents would have fancied a sinful holiday, but with us kids in tow it was the sun that was the draw.

Of course as peely-wally Scots we all got burnt to a crisp and it took me years to cotton on that instead of wincing as you applied after sun every evening, the thing to do was stay out of the sun in the first place. They didn’t know any better, I have a lifetime of being hyper-vigilant about skin cancer to thank them for. I still treasure those family holiday memories though!

@Iknownothing

Just catching up with this weeks episodes - was infuriated by Jennifer and Alice’s discussion on Salils ‘prospects’ as ‘after all he has a degree from Oxford’ so does Phoebe!!! 😡😡😡 Run Phoebe! Spread your wings and fly to Scotland and don’t give Ambridge a second thought. It completely spoiled an otherwise great storyline with Jennifer supporting Alice

Yes, this. As is Phoebe didn't earn her place at Oxford somehow, or isn't worthy of similar praise. Quite jarring

I interpreted that as evidencing less expectation that Female Phoebe would actually make use of her degree in a career. (Rather than that she deserved her place less.) That Jennifer might secretly feel three years at Oxford was best spent snagging a potentially rich husband is perhaps not surprising. The script sounded extremely odd coming out of Alice’s mouth, though!

Very dated attitude from the SW.

But no body would say that in real life. That would mean it's somewhere in any of the counties of Argyll, Caithness, Inverness, Nairn, Ross and Cromarty and Sutherland

Thank you for this. I am afraid I could not have named any of these counties and am left mortified by my geographical ignorance. I am digging out a map of Scotland as we speak in order to rectify this. I’m actually quite embarrassed.

I don't know if people would say it about Scotland but I can think of places where you'd say region, north/south/east/west of big city.

e.g. The Fens , south of Lincoln or the Cotswolds, west of Oxford

So interesting, @HaveringWavering. My family are also 100% Scottish and my parents simply couldn't grasp why anybody would want to holiday abroad when there were so many beautiful and interesting places to explore in the UK. Mind you, I'm older than you, and really cheap package holidays weren't around when I was growing up.

We went through a ritual every January. My parents would say it was time to decide where we would go on holiday that summer. My brother would pipe up 'Why can't we go to Spain? Everybody else goes to Spain' and my parents would repeat their above mentioned view about the UK, plus not being made of money, plus not seeing any attraction in sitting on a beach packed in like sardines.

They would write off for a brochure of self-catering places and we would end up in static caravan or chalet or tiny cottage as we had many times before. I enjoyed these holidays and my brother put up with them.

As an extremely peely wally Scot, I now feel lucky to have missed getting even worse sunburn in Spain than I had in the Highlands and North Wales. Worst of all was Norfolk in the legendary summer of 1976. My mother, who is a non-pelly wally Scot (one of the few), simply didn't grasp that sunburn was a problem and avoidable. She belongs to the generation that thinks sunshine and fresh air is essential for health and the more the merrier.

None of these dilemmas for Ambridge folk! They hardly ever go on holiday. I suppose it's tricky for farmers, but you'd think some of the non-farmers would manage it occasionally.

I didn't find it odd that Phoebe would say 'It's in the Highlands'. What did seem strange was that she added 'North of Glasgow'. Is there really anybody so geographically challenged that they don't know that the Highlands are north of Glasgow? One of those statements would have been enough. The two together just sounded jarring.

Re pronuncation of Scottish place-names - there are two main hurdles. One is that some of them sound nothing like you'd expect from the spelling. The other is the inability of most non-Scots to pronounce 'ch' properly, as in 'Loch'. Not surprising, as it's not a sound required for Standard English, but it does grate.

Milngavie - Milguy

The others I mentioned just have the 'ch' issue. Also, as with all place-names, people may put the stress in an odd place.

I didn't find it odd that Phoebe would say 'It's in the Highlands'. What did seem strange was that she added 'North of Glasgow'. Is there really anybody so geographically challenged that they don't know that the Highlands are north of Glasgow? One of those statements would have been enough. The two together just sounded jarring

The Highlands on its says almost nothing beyond it could be in any of the counties I mentioned. There is quite a lot of Scotland which is north of Glasgow and isn't in the Highlands so that says even less than the first part.

By “North of Glasgow” might she have meant “In a part of the Highlands but only the bit that’s closest to Glasgow, so I’ll still be able to come home often …”?

I might have missed it, but has anything ever been said about the Gills and the future of Home Farm? Or was that storyline just dropped?

I think the SWs have forgotten about it, @SparklingLime. Disappointing!