🎲 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!

Oh! I appear to be alone in my sympathy for Chris. People in tricky and stressful situations are often rude. They were extremely insensitive. Poor delicate Amy now is it?

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - that makes Hazel's whinging about "dear daddy" all the more idiotic.

I did feel a bit sorry for Chris - having two unexpected visitors drop in when you're sick is NOT what you want. And if people do come over they should be offering to make you a drink not just sitting awkwardly or commenting on your flat being a mess. A few days without your baby due to illness would be acknowledged to be very hard by most first time mums, why not dads?

I do feel the battle over Marthurrr will run and run.

My favourite scene was the Fallon/Alice/Amy one - enjoying the scriptwriters new thing of showing the characters hanging out and having fun, especially the women. Makes me realise how little we've seen of it in recent years (obvs Covid didn't help). Kate was majestic but I can't STAND Phoebe whining on like a paralel-Pip-overlarge-teenager. Even when she's right her tone is intensely off-pissing and reminds me how stage school identikit most of the younger Ambridgeites are.

I’m sorry for Christopher! Which pains me because he was 99% oaf before all his troubles began. (Recently oaf-ish I mean - all that Moi Woife business. Vaguely remember him as quite sweet and biddable when he and Alice first got together.)

@stilldumdedumming

Oh! I appear to be alone in my sympathy for Chris. People in tricky and stressful situations are often rude. They were extremely insensitive. Poor delicate Amy now is it?

You are not alone. I wouldn't be all that happy if people turned up when I was ill and the place was a mess and started telling me about what I was missing. I've never understood why people on here hate Chris so much.

I feel like a lot of the younger men in Ambridge are basically the same. Chris, Lee and Harrison - all "ordinary" i.e. no obvious interests or characteristics, none of them seem extra bright or like readers (although all their wives/partners probably have at least a few shelves), all got something "macho" about them (blacksmithing, martial arts, police), all reportedly quite good looking, do fine at work (i.e. enough money, not too much, no obvious ambitions), never seem to get up to much, all seem fairly content with their lot. Rural middle class and bland.

I actually welcome Harrison's discovery of The Lord as it least it gives him a distinguishing feature.

Ed Grundy is quite similar but with a sort of sickly air about him from his previous addiction and behaviour which makes him stand out. Jazzer who is quite weird, has distinct interests and manages to be quite funny is a blessed relief. They're both more precariously employed (usually) too. Both much more interesting.

Meant to add those three are all pretty even tempered with the occasional "flare up", and all quite domestically focused. LOVE their partner/kids etc.

Not dissing that obviously but it's another point of similarity.

My sympathy was with Chris too. He’s been an arse at times, but he’s been through a lot. Two do-gooders turning up unannounced was very insensitive. Can’t bear Amy - all clichés, no depth of characterisation.

The Highland are technically all the area north of the Highland Boundary Fault which runs from about Helensburgh near Glasgow to Stonehaven just south of Aberdeen according to first year Geology. However people living in Aberdeen would be lowlanders as would people in much of the east coast and central belt. Basically Highlands = anywhere hilly north of central belt or the council area - but much of western Highlands are in other local authority areas like Argyll and Bute.

I’m largely indifferent to Chris I think, but he was really rude to Amy. Any and Fallon are not mums themselves, and so probably don’t understand the guilt/sadness that did parents feel at missing their offsprings’ ‘firsts’. Chris has had all those firsts so far, and I thought it was a bit of a shame he couldn’t be at least civil to his friends who were trying to share a video they’d taken specifically so that he could see it. I guess we can put that down to his being ill, maybe.

But what really irritates me is that it’s just not realistic that he’s this unwell, probably two weeks into having shingles. Maybe I should blame the SWs for that but it is bothering me. Granted he’s had a dreadful year, and maybe this is just a general collapse, but as I said before shingles generally makes you ill before the rash appears, and he must have had the rash for a while to have rubbed Martha on it to give her chicken pox. So why, when he was then looking after Martha and going to work and moving into the flat, is he now so unwell that he can’t utter a friendly sentence to his (admittedly uninvited and quite possibly unwelcome) visitors?

I await events…

It is quite funny that the scriptwriters seem to have decided that professional healthcare workers (Ben - soon - and Amy) are also ministering angels at home. Plays into that idea that people in those jobs are underpaid partly because the patriarchy powers that be think that they're just "doing what comes naturally".

Funnily enough no-one expects Alistair or the other vet to be particularly caring/ministering at home despite their profession.

Btw I can’t take the credit for Plot de Weiss - it was used on the old BBC Archers message board

Heavens, BowerOfBramble - we’re seeing the Ambridge Male very differently!

I agree Harrison and Lee are similar in their (lower) middle class detachment and irrelevance to The Story of Ambridge. But they’re galaxies away from An Actual Grundy. Ed is psychologically a completely different being - symbolically tied to the land but with a constantly precarious relationship to it. Bred through generations to doff his cap to Archers and a bit lost in a world where that simply doesn’t suffice to sustain life any more. (He’s pure poetry in my eyes.) Chris is kind of half-way between the two types - he does have a connection to the land, and he’s by far the most ambitious, though geographically stubborn. Jazzer just seems like pure invention - sui generis and inexplicable.

(I do still experience TA through the various relationships to land and Archers - even though bearing in mind the admonishment a few months ago that TA is not all about those things.)

I agree Harrison and Lee are similar in their (lower) middle class detachment and irrelevance to The Story of Ambridge. But they’re galaxies away from An Actual Grundy. Ed is psychologically a completely different being - symbolically tied to the land but with a constantly precarious relationship to it. Bred through generations to doff his cap to Archers and a bit lost in a world where that simply doesn’t suffice to sustain life any more. (He’s pure poetry in my eyes.) Chris is kind of half-way between the two types - he does have a connection to the land, and he’s by far the most ambitious, though geographically stubborn. Jazzer just seems like pure invention - sui generis and inexplicable. Brilliantly expressed. Completely agree.

Phew! 😅

I was meaning to say that Ed wasn’t the same as the other three, perhaps that didn’t come across. Jazzer is exactly the kind of person who pops up for no obvious reason miles from where they started, and stays forever. The random Spanish fisherman who ends up running the pub in North Wales, the former squaddie who moves hundreds of miles to set up as the local baker or get work as a picker. Spices up the local gene pool (and anecdote pool) no end.

@Prestissimo

Btw I can’t take the credit for Plot de Weiss - it was used on the old BBC Archers message board

Bloody hell, I can't believe I didn't get it. I mean, I'm brilliant at Wordle.

And I speak German.

Really warmed to Natasha this evening.

Poor Kirsty. And Tom.

@stilldumdedumming

Oh! I appear to be alone in my sympathy for Chris. People in tricky and stressful situations are often rude. They were extremely insensitive. Poor delicate Amy now is it?

I have loads of sympathy for Chris.

@Atichen

I guess we're gearing up for a nasty divorse & custody battle between then,.... I really dont like Chris... All all nice/kind when he thought Alice was sick/week & couldn't cope but as soon as shes doing ok i think he'll start sticking the knife, hope she stays strong (not that i particularly like Alice either)

I really don't like Alice. I fail to see why the parent looking after the child has to move out of the comfortable family home to a small and inconvenient flat.

Er…Isn’t Chelsea just that little bit young to be receiving messages with Xx in them from Will? It feels a bit inappropriate but I must be missing something? May be she’s just agreeing to cut his hair so he can ask Stella out. Yes. I expect it’s just that.

@Roysnewshirt

Er…Isn’t Chelsea just that little bit young to be receiving messages with Xx in them from Will? It feels a bit inappropriate but I must be missing something? May be she’s just agreeing to cut his hair so he can ask Stella out. Yes. I expect it’s just that.

I thought Mia was talking to Jake, her brother.

@JanglyBeads

Really warmed to Natasha this evening.

Poor Kirsty. And Tom.

Yes, exactly this.

It was a good reminder (sorry, wrong phrase but I can't word it better) of just how awful it was for Kirsty to lose the baby just before it can be considered for registration etc

Aye Captain she was talking to Jake. Not sure what she's got against Chelsea, she seem to be the only character who has balance in her life. Would love to hear more of her in the future, she's great.

Mia wants to tell the world how awful Chelsea is because she’s not a vegan and isn’t completely wrapped up in saving the planet. Underneath, Mia knows that Chelsea is fun, outgoing and enterprising, which makes Mia look all the more whiny and unaccomplished. She needs to get past this. The whole warring females trope is so overdone.

Mia's a bit of a snob too.