🎲 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!

They would never be able to fill your place!

How disappointing. I was hoping the thud was them hitting Pip. So what did “run out”?

I am really, really hoping that Pip proves to be useless in this crisis, and Josh is the one who holds the farm together. David and Ruth may never know, or may not believe it, but we the listeners will and will be able to gloat gently.

Agreed re Josh.

It was a deer, apparently. Job half done, Mr/s Deer! Try harder next time.

Is Leonard younger than Jill? My parents are a few years younger than Jill and I am starting to fret slightly about my Dad driving, although he's a very good, safe driver and has his eyesight checked regularly. I would fret a lot more about sending him off with a 3yo in the back of the car, but maybe that's just me.

Pip has very little concern about her child, unless she can use something that he did with her as a stick to beat Toby with.

@Choccyp1g

Damn, nobody is dead.

Yet...

The Archers progeny aren't good at parenting are they.
Adam is ok, I suppose, but the others aren't

Maybe they have a PND SL, and Tom will be a wonderful hands-on dad to Pinky & Perky

FWR = feminism & women's rights

Is it just me ok, I know it's not, but I feel the need to rant or do Pip and Josh always sound like petulant teenagers? I'd expect them to behave with more maturity by now (considering one is a parent and one runs their own business). Ben puts them to shame!

Ha. Don't mind me. Somehow missed the last couple of pages before posting! 🙄🤣

Yes. Generally it doesn't happen for a first offence; for that you'll be warned that you have broken the unwritten law, which really amounts to "don't offend people, or they will report your posts for being Nasty". You get an email telling you that you are being given a First Warning for a post of yours that has been removed, and then presumably a second or third. I don't know how many strike you get before you are out; I think they stop being counted towards a total after six weeks.

During the heady days of the Brexit referendum I had a post deleted and emailed HQ to ask why. The reason was that my reply to a goady post went beyond the pale (apparently 'fuck off' is not appropriate) and I was advised to play the ball, not the man. So I ignored her instead, which led to her getting more and more irate, to the point she followed me all over MN just posting shit about me. I reported 4 or 5 posts asking if it was acceptable to troll somebody about a subject on threads that had nothing to do with that subject. Had no trouble after that.

Was tonight's episode just a lot of wittering about near misses/ so glad no-one's hurt?

Nope I think David's knee is worse than he is letting on. Maybe he won't be able to drive or at least drive a tractor again? And I could see him and Ruth needing the Bungalow. And who will be in the farmhouse?

I don't see any big move affecting the farmhouse happening until Jill joins Phil.

Adam's at a loose end at the moment, isn't he? And so is Alice, if it comes to that, although I can see the Archers having some reservations about asking for her help.

Was tonight's episode just a lot of wittering about near misses/ so glad no-one's hurt? No - it felt more like the setting up of a competition to see who will win the right to inherit the running of the farm (which was set out on Sunday in words of one syllable for those who have never listened to The Archers before). David and Ruth will be out of action just long enough for one of the siblings to prove their worth (or maybe the idea is to make it seem a much closer run thing than it has previously been where Golden Child Pip seemed destined to wear the crown). Also Jill is sounding decidedly more doddery and Leonard more sprightly.

Ben’s “I’m a nurse so going to talk in a weird authoritative tone” voice was so annoying. Especially when he read the instructions on the box of, presumably paracetamol. I hope we don’t have more of that to come. I couldn’t understand why Josh thought himself incapable of doling out the painkillers himself.

Jill was lucky to have slept through it all. I don’t want to be married to Leonard but he’s very easy company and I wouldn’t mind one of his fried breakfasts…

ruth's neck pain. more than whiplash?

bungalow for ruth and david. adapted for wheelchair & hoists.

doesn't alice need a job...

I think David's knee/Ruth's neck will eventually get better, but it will be slow - are they in their sixties?

@Poppins2016 - Pip and Josh are the worst! Kept in a neverneverland of eternal adolescence. I'm enjoying the scriptwriters new thing of having people tell off Pip though. First Mike, then Josh. the "and did you have fun with Rosie?" bit on Sunday was nice. Plus Rosie is three - surely she could come and play/"help" with sweeping out the barn or hosing it or whatever Pip was supposed to be doing.

How many "single" parents have the luck of living with not only the father of the child but also 5 other adult relatives, most of whom are based at home? You'd think she was stuck up living in a tower block full of rats having to commute to 3 jobs scrubbing sewers with her own toothbrush the way she goes on.

David was born in September 1959, Ruth in June 1968, so he is in his early sixties, she is in her early fifties.

I think David is 60 but Ruth is a few years younger - maybe 52?

My first thought at the end of Sunday's episode was ooohhh noooo, they can't kill Ruth!

Yesterday was at least a bit about Jill realising the 'children' are more capable than she is at her age.

Jill did sound wobbly, I hope it was just acting

David is 62 and Ruth 53

Meep?

Oh sorry. Cross-posted.
I'd forgotten that Jill was 91

@MereDintofPandiculation

I think I’ll try writing to MN and suggest they implement the possibility of being banned from selected boards. It’s one thing if someone is being all round nasty, but someone can fall foul of one board while still giving valued input to another

I did. They said no. Technical problems, which I understand. It’s one thing to prevent sign-ons from a particular address, quite a different problem to allow sign ons but restrict access to certain boards. And they stand by their policy that if you break guidelines on one board you lose access to the whole site. Their site, their rules. Fair enough.

They’re waiting for tulse hill to respond to their email.