🎲 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!

Kirsty was doing fine about the miscarriage, not particularly devastated and trying to get on with her life without making a ten-ring circus of it, until a lot of people started bullying her about not grieving properly, and talking at her in hushed tones, which drove her into having a minor breakdown

Sorry @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime but actually recollections may vary.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

We may already have covered this, but if Phoebe finally looks for a demanding job with prospects suitable for an Oxford PPE graduate, Kirsty must surely be in pole position to take over management of the rewilding and camp site.

Yes I said why wasn't she working there when it was clearly the perfect job for her - she barely seemed interested til she popped round the other week.

@Roysnewshirt

Kirsty was doing fine about the miscarriage, not particularly devastated and trying to get on with her life without making a ten-ring circus of it, until a lot of people started bullying her about not grieving properly, and talking at her in hushed tones, which drove her into having a minor breakdown

Sorry @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime but actually recollections may vary.

I'll go with Lowfield at the time; when she was finally allowed by her various keepers to go back to work, "Glad to be back at work, Kirsty throws herself into it, but is furious when Lynda suggests she put herself first. After all, she needs time to grieve. Kirsty tells Lynda firmly that she is fine. It wasn't a sad event, it was a miscarriage. It happened, it was awful. she has dealt with it. Now Kirsty just wants to get on with her life if other people will let her."

And then she had to deal with Tom's vicarious glooming: "Tom brings biscuits and camomile tea to Kirsty. Having asked her how she is, he then goes into misery mode, and tells her he has decided to withdraw completely from the Nuffield scheme. Kirsty points out that this will make her feel responsible, but Tom is adamant. The Brazil trip would have made him think about babies and baby food, and he has no heart for a different project. His mind is made up. That door is definitely closed. "

Not her misery, note; entirely his. And no, he couldn't not-share it with her; him going on about how unhappy he was would make her feel better, right?

So help me, I would have swung for people who'd tried to "comfort" me after one of my five miscarriages the way the crass Ambridge ghouls did the unfortunate Kirsty.

Thanks for the thread @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0gGasp.

I'm not surprised that the flat is so popular. Steep stairs aside, it has the magically expanding rooms.

@WhoppingBigBackside

Thanks for the thread *@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0gGasp*.

I'm not surprised that the flat is so popular. Steep stairs aside, it has the magically expanding rooms.

When mad Helen lived there it had 2 bedrooms?

OMG!!!
They have stolen my Strictly idea

God, this episode is depressing …

🥺

And they must have all those photos backed up somewhere, anyway.

@TheHoptimist, It originally had one bedroom and a boxroom. When Hellin lived there the boxroom became a nursery that took Ian an age to decorate.

This was after it had been a very cramped for A Net, barely big enough for a camp bed.

When Tomtasha moved in the flat was big enough for a couple, with lots of stuff and they held a party complete with cocktail bar and IIRC a DJ.

The flat was a highly desirable pied-a-terre for Hazel, until the stairs defeated her.

Now the flat is desirable as a flat for a single father and his toddler but even more desirable for a couple with twins on the way.

It's been a while since I pushed a buggy, but two shallow steps were a complere PITA with a double buggy.

Kenton and Jolene seem to be turning down some quite good suggestions for Valentine's Day. I very much doubt that Jazzer and Tracey's game would lead to couples rowing in a crowded pub. And Jim's seems to have been turned down because Dancing Can Be Dangerous.

As for Jolene and Kenton, all I can say is that at least they weren't in the shower, like she and Sid were. Yuuuuukk!

Harrison and the christening is odd. He doesn't seem to see it as a religious ceremony, more like a secular ritual without which he can't be a proper adult. And it doesn't seem as if he thinks being christened has anything to do with being a Christian, or believing in God. Do you think he goes to church? I don't.

Yes I agree @TheSilveryTinsellyPussycat - Harrison is very small c conservative (probably big C as well) and seems to think it’s just the done thing. But he’ll have to go along to some pre baptism classes where he’ll get to chat more about God and before we know it he’s archbishop of Borchester.

Anyone else find themselves wondering about a Harrison/Alice future?

Harrison’s interactions with ‘marriageable’ Ambridge females can be confusing. Either it’s the writing or his demeanour but whether talking to Kirsty or Alice or I can’t think who else, he always sounds as if they’re about to begin a meaningful relationship. And now Fallon seems to have cooled towards him on account of his crucifixion craze.

Oh @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime!
Re Kirsty, I wasn’t convinced by Kirsty saying she was over the miscarriage at the time, and I’m still not convinced she is now. It’s a tiny point and I don’t wish to labour it but, occasionally, I wonder if it might be worth stopping for a moment and wondering if others might be allowed to voice a slightly different interpretation of events to you! I know you won’t like it but I’d be really grateful- and it might make others, including me, feel a slightly less judged.

Hang on … Where is Christopher’s forge and workspace located? (I don’t think it’s crossed my mind for years.)

Anyway, I’m not sure he’s thought things through properly. Why go and live right on top of your nosy mother’s work? When he starts a new relationship Susan will know about it before he does …

It’s sounded to me as if a joint baptism of Harrison and Martha was being hinted at there. And also intimations about things having to get worse before they get better and Chris hanging onto the fragment of wedding photo that made me think maybe it’s not all over for Alice and Chris (even though it should be). I think Harrison’s tone is connected to his job (rather like Amy when talking Alice down) - I don’t see him as the faithless type (though his C of E obsession might drive Fallon away). I think the fact that Tom is now expecting twins is bound to be difficult for Kirsty - however well she seemed to cope with the miscarriage. It’s just so illustrative of the inequality between men and women (which no amount of legislation can overcome) that while she is now getting beyond the age where she can conceive naturally, there is no such barrier for Tom - the person who squandered her prime childbearing years letting her think he was going to marry her. Watching him now go on to play happy families with Natasha won’t be easy.

@LiterallyKnowsBest @LillianGish totally agree with both of you about Harrison.

I did feel there was something a bit ominous about chris one day being glad he kept the bit of photo - it was nicely written, but I wondered what it ...portended? is that a word?

I'm easily confused about the "flat over the shop", expanding or otherwise.

Admittedly I wasn't the most diligent of listeners in the days after Greg topped himself, but didn't Helen and Annette live above Ambridge Organics(?) in Felpersham?

I fell confident that Asking will correct me.

I'm always surprised that Helen never tried to persuade Kirsty to go down the "turkey baster" route.

Hellin and A Net lived above the Village Shop @Madcats

@WhoppingBigBackside

Hellin and A Net lived above the Village Shop *@Madcats*

Yes, and Annette used to slip down to the shop in her jimjams to sort out the newspaper deliveries first thing as soon as they were delivered, which apparently scandalised the paperboy (a silent) or something. She and Susan were Radio 1 and Radio 2 for a while, broadcasting inaccurate village gossip.

LiterallyKnowsBest, I don't think we ever found out where the forge was supposed to be; there is no sign of it on any village map, but that's because they hadn't invented it when the maps were published. In any case, Chris always goes where the horses are with his mobile forge, so the premises are only useful when he's being a blacksmith rather than a farrier.

IIRC, umpteen years ago when Peggy first talked of letting the flat, Susan wanted Chris to have it but Peggy agreed to give it to her granddaughter Helen, and Susan was extremely put out. She'll be delighted now that on this occasion she got in first and Helen's brother lost out.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

IIRC, umpteen years ago when Peggy first talked of letting the flat, Susan wanted Chris to have it but Peggy agreed to give it to her granddaughter Helen, and Susan was extremely put out. She'll be delighted now that on this occasion she got in first and Helen's brother lost out.

Didnt Chris help his Dad to renovate it and then didnt get to live in it?

Back in 2008 Fallon, Helen and Chris all wanted the flat, so their parents had a draw in the pub (Mike drew beermats) and Chris won; but later he got back to Ambridge View drunk, and Susan vetoed the idea of him being allowed to live on his own (he was only 20!) Meanwhile Helen had been seriously horrible to Tony about having agreed to the draw and then lost it, and demanded that he had to tell Neil the deal was off.

Since Chris had not been told he'd won, Neil and Tony agreed between them the next day to let Helen have it, and when she found out, Fallon was absolutely furious about having been ignored. Jolene suggested that they have the draw again, between Helen and Fallon, but by then Peggy had been asked to let Helen have it and had agreed. So that was that.

And now all three of them will have lived in it. How tidy.

@LiterallyKnowsBest

Hang on … Where is Christopher’s forge and workspace located? (I don’t think it’s crossed my mind for years.)

Anyway, I’m not sure he’s thought things through properly. Why go and live right on top of your nosy mother’s work? When he starts a new relationship Susan will know about it before he does …

But then she'll be on hand to clean and cook for him in her lunch break at the shop (i assume she'll have a spare key) cant have Chris doing any of the womes work now

Just checking in.

Ooh here you are.

Thanks for the new thread!

I definitely thought the Kirsty wasn't coping her miscarriage. It sounded to me like she was trying to squish all her feelings down and not feel them and was having outbursts. Something about towels, something about the privilege of the GG members etc.

I also think it's entirely believable that a few characters would drift along in boring jobs. People do get stuck in a rut. (It's just ludicrous that's always Ambridge women.)

Most of close circle are very driven and focussed by I have some very dear friends who either life has gotten in the way so far of achieving their potential, the years have slipped by. Also those who have suddenly found success and acclaim in their late 30s, despite it not looking all that promising. What's that saying? Life is what happens when you're busy making plans. (Although I know I the lack of plans is the irksome thing here.)

One final thing, I know Phoebe isn't fulfilled and that's all terrible, but I think her role is exciting. "I run a trust committed to realising, increasing biodiversity etc" if she made it sound dull that's on her. I think it's far more interesting than the civil service or finance etc. she doesn't have to bang on about composting toilets and running a campsite. You'd think she'd have picked up the skills to sell a bit better at uni.