🎲 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!

@MereDintofPandiculation

Also, if holding down two jobs, doesn't the other employer have rights? At my last school, all "other" jobs had to be declared. well, she has declared, hasn’t she? She’s told Rex about Spiritual Homes, as if he didn’t already know, and Spiritual Homes knows she’s going for this, since she is Spiritual Homes

Willow weaving classes ! Pfft. Why “Pfft”? I know a place which works on this exact business model, grow stuff, hire tutors to teach how to use it, charge punters for the whole experience, with or without accommodation. Willow weaving included.

I meant about time commitment and possible conflict of interest. The willow-weaving Pfft was about how it is not what the re-wilding project is about.

I must say, if someone I was considering for a job turned up with granny who wouldn't keep silent during the discussion and proceeded to try to strong-arm me into taking her without going through proper recruitment procedures, she's be straight off my list.

I mean, I think she is straight off his list isn’t she? (If she was ever on it). The problem for Rex is that he doesn’t yet have another candidate (having not advertised and all), and so is left wondering whether it might be Kate or nothing. Plus having to be polite to Peggy who was a real PITA.

I’m really struggling to understand last night’s faradiddle. I mean, it’s Peggy’s money - surely it could have been written into the T&Cs that she gets to sit on any selection board?

It makes no sense whatsoever for her to turn up with a candidate for the job and sit with them, while strong arming Rex into a decision. Just Weird.

I wonder how far ahead the creative team actually thought regarding the Ambridge Conservation Trust. I mean, was all this planned long ago or are they just lurching from one inconclusive plot point to another?

Kate has spent most of her life leaching off her father. The notion that she's turned overnight into a whizkid businesswoman is absolutely ludicrous.

Very odd for a divorce lawyer to compare a child to a gerbil.

If I were Rex, I would be on the brink of resignation myself. Peggy and Kate seemed to belittle everything that has been done with the project so far - while we keep being told how brilliantly successful Phoebe was.

This is where you see the weight of being Archer. It was clear last night that Kate believes she herself, by extension, pretty much owns the Trust. It’s hers to pick up, play with, throw down - whenever she likes.

Rather sickening really. (Bit too close to my experience of the misuse of power and influence irl. There was never ever any difficulty with the sons and daughters of judges and QCs getting well remunerated pupillages … )

The lawyer actress was slightly terrible. I know they're all reading scripts, but with her you really knew it - it felt like she just wasn't interested enough to make it sound as if it was in any way spontaneous.

This where you see the weight of being Archer. It was clear last night that Kate believes she herself, by extension, pretty much owns the Trust. It’s hers to pick up, play with, throw down - whenever she likes. Indeed. I was happy to see Rex seemed to be holding out fairly well - all very well Peggy wittering on about not wanting to influence him and just pretending she was not there. She is no better than Kate if Kate’s the first person she thought of as a suitable candidate. Does Kirsty even know the position is being advertised (or rather not being advertised)?

Rex and Kirsty will bump into each other. R will unburden himself about the visit from the gruesome twosome and K will realise rewilding is what she wants to do. The job/romance fairy will flap it's wings, et voila

I expect she will come up with a wizard scheme to attract visitors by turning it into a birdwatchers' paradise.

Kate will be incandescent

Where is the hide, in relation to the rewilded land?

My impression, when the Trust began, was that it would be the nexus of a village-wide movement for a more sustainable guardianship of land. Perhaps I misunderstood - it now seems to be a sequestered idea/estate that ‘belongs’ to a very limited number of people.

I don't understand why they bring in these bit-part actors to appear once and read out public information leaflets.
It would be much more interesting to hear Alice explaining the mediation thing to Amy, or Fallon, or Jenny. And saying how she wants to be so friendly and reasonable, until someone mentions what about giving Chris your house and or half your share in the farm...

Peggy acted out of character, there's no way she'd do anything other than tell Kate to speak to Rex and apply through whichever official process he deemed fit.

Roisin sounded wooden and as though she was a trainee reading from notes rather than a competent qualified solicitor. Very OTT on the 'BBC educational storyline' feel
...

I was initially confused as to why Alice was consulting thingy's daughter - the as yet silent and distant Roxanne!

Did you mean Rochelle, @JanglyBeads?

Kirsty will change her mind, of course.

Skate will get the job but Kursedy will come back after it goes wrong

So where did Bulgaria come from? Silly me. Some plot device to add tension to the Kate/re-wilding job impending debacle.

If Kirsty were to stay it would be kinder for the SWs to move TomTasha and brood to Wales. Or New Zealand. Horrid for Kirsty to be tripping over them every day for ever more.

Rochelle, yes, thank you! And I still can't remember her mum's name... oh yes, Joy!

Yeah this job plot is a bit laboured isn't it..... Kate and Kirsty cos Gran finds a bit of extra money down the back of the sofa? Hope not.

Kirsty will change her mind, of course - I hope you are right. Bulgaria does seem a bit unlikely to be honest - just because she knows one person who lives there.

Childishly, I love the name Plovdiv. I'm glad they went for there rather than Sofia. (These are the only two placenames I know in Bulgaria, I'm afraid.)

Unbelievable that Rex hadn't thought about Kirsty. He now needs to move onto Adam with great urgency. Nobody could work with Kate and not end up in the dock after shoving her into a compost toilet.

I did like Jim and Chelsea together.

I've visited Plovdiv, for a short trip. It's a nice enough place but I can't see any logic in Kirsty getting a hotel job there. Her heart has never been in hospitality, and it won't be well paid. I can certainly see why she might want to get away from Ambridge, but it would make more sense if she was looking into wildlife conservation jobs elsewhere in the UK.

I've been to Plovdiv. We went to several places in Bulgaria and this was the best. We had some of the worst food I've ever had in Bulgaria (probably just unlucky) but the hotel in Plovdiv was lovely. Personally, I wouldn't bother going again though.

I think Roisin and Amy come from the same School of Radio Acting