🎲 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!

I enjoyed tonights episode. Leonard buying everyone's favourite takeaway, Pip and Josh sharing, Alastair apologising for his choice of shite, it was all just lovely and fluffy. And Jill not giving a fuck was borderline amusing.

Not listened to tonight yet but I do remember Jill and Leonard making the most of Ben and Ruari's nookie caravan (much to their horror.)

When Jill first went to Leonard's, wasn't she relieved to be offered a separate bedroom of her own?

I’m just revisiting my post of this time on Tuesday: 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) And now it’s all conveniently tied up ready to move on to something else entirely. Just too pat and predictable for words and though Pip at least alluded to the challenges of Brexit, I have little hope this will be expanded on. I’m only grateful the SWs thought better of a Jill/Leonard/Iris love triangle.

@DoctorTwo

I enjoyed tonights episode. Leonard buying everyone's favourite takeaway, Pip and Josh sharing, Alastair apologising for his choice of shite, it was all just lovely and fluffy. And Jill not giving a fuck was borderline amusing.

I thought the takeaway buying was really nice.

There's definitely a new tone to the writing at the moment, trying to humanise the families i.e. show them at leisure, like the board games and the secret santa and the salsa, even Pip and Josh talking about Rosie like she's a real person. Not just all "plot". I like it.

I know a 91 year old who took up with a younger gentlemen friend in late widowhood. She lives alone, and frequently goes swimming and dancing. Gave up driving about 5 years ago because of sight problems

@EBearhug

When Jill first went to Leonard's, wasn't she relieved to be offered a separate bedroom of her own?

She didn't go and stay until she was sure that would be what was offered, I think.

BowerOfBramble
There's definitely a new tone to the writing at the moment

Or to put it another way, this week's scriptwriter, Sarah Hehir, started writing for The Archers in July 2020, doing half a week at a time, has now written twenty disjointed days and two five-day weeks of scripts, and knows very little about TA or any character back-stories. She writes good stand-alone plays but doesn't seem to be so splendid at co-operative or "bible" work.

She writes good stand-alone plays - excellent observation. That is exactly what this week felt like, right down to the ridiculous exposition on Sunday just to put anyone who had never listened before in the picture.

I liked Leonard’s take-away plan but the logistics have been worrying me. Donor kebabs and fish and chips are not v nice heated through though Chinese, Thai and Indian take-aways can be warmed up no problem. Visiting four or five different locations before racing back to Brookfield could have easily taken up to 2 hours. Everything would have been pretty luke-warm/cold by the time it reached people’s plates. Then there was the extra journey time between Brookfield and Pip’s place - though she and J were having Indian food which isn’t so bad when cool/heated through.

Anyway, no one actually worried about the temperature of the food - not even Jill who is of the generation that really minds about food being eaten when it’s hot. I think she handled the idea of take-away night very well. I thought she might have said it was all too expensive and instead she could heat through a pie she had made in 1954 that was lurking at the bottom of the freezer!

Roysnewshirt, I presumed that the SW forgot that they all lived in Ambridge, not central Birmingham. If not, I hope they paid the Deliveroo/Just Eat driver a handsome tip!

I can imagine that the Bull might do some special takeaway nights (but probably just fish & chips or a curry).

The man who delivered the food was Leonard. so I hope nobody tipped him; that would have been rather insulting, wouldn't it?

I honestly can't see why collecting food ordered and paid for in advance for a particular time, from three take-aways six miles from home, would take two hours.

I honestly can't see why collecting food ordered and paid for in advance for a particular time, from three take-aways six miles from home, would take two hours

There were a minimum of four different types of food (fish and chips; kebab; Chinese and Indian) and I can’t imagine the four restaurants were all next door to each other. Invariably when one picks up a take-away, even if paid for in advance, there is some waiting around while finishing touches are made. Parking also can be a problem. Perhaps 90 minutes would be a better guess - I’m not sure what kind of a driver Leonard is.

If you say so. God forbid that anyone might differ from your opinion; you might feel the urge to pick a quarrel about it.

Where I live the Chinese and Indian takeaways and the chip shop, which has pizza, pasta and kebabs as well are all within 30 yards of each other. It’s a small town/large village and the takeaways are all on the Main Street. You could easily pick up orders from them all in minutes and you can always park.

It's not something I've ever attempted or would attempt. I live in inner London so in the unlikely eventuality that we did want deliveries from four different takeaways in one evening I'd subcontract it to Deliveroo. But then I don't drive, so would have no real alternative.

Can we agree to disagree about this? We've mostly managed to have a goodnatured thread over the years. It would be a shame to lose that.

Can we agree to disagree about this? We've mostly managed to have a goodnatured thread over the years. It would be a shame to lose that

I totally agree. Who knew take-away delivery times could be such a contentious issue?!? Huge apologies to all for creating ripples..

Did anyone notice Pip saying she wanted to find a man but didn't think there was much chance in Ambridge.

If we all confined our search for a partner in life to the village where we live the population would die out!

The village I am from you didn't stray far from the village. Not unusual to be related on both sides of the family.

I can think of a lot of people who married someone from maybe two or three villages away.

I thought the different takeaways was a plot device to allow Leonard to do something nice for everyone, but for individual groups (Ben and Beth, Josh and Pip) to be able to eat together away from the group which would have seemed a bit odd if someone had just cooked a big meal or if they were all having the same thing where there might be an expectation of sharing (I recall a famous scene in Gavin and Stacey where ). I think in real life if you were going to do that from four different locations you'd get it delivered - especially since delivery is so ubiquitous now (no matter how close the shops were together). It is a small point, but when something which in reality should be so straightforward has everyone scratching their heads it's another case of seeing the nuts and bolts holding the story together rather than feeling as if you are peeking through the window on a slice of real life.

I felt that episode had a valedictory tone to it. If TA were just about Brookfield, and if that were the last episode ever, that is what it would sound like. “And they all lived happily ever after. The End”

@WhoppingBigBackside

The village I am from you didn't stray far from the village. Not unusual to be related on both sides of the family.

I can think of a lot of people who married someone from maybe two or three villages away.

You're not from Aldworth then, are you?

(When people there wanted to marry "out" they mostly seemed to go further afield than Hempstead Norreys, against which they were still fighting the battle of Senlac Hill every Friday night after the pubs shut. You could tell which village someone came from: one lot tended to be large, blond, flat of face and slow to act, the other lot small, dark, swift-moving and with prominent noses. Real tearaways would go down the hill all the way to Streatley, or Goring, or if they were complete iconoclasts and didn't mind breaking their mothers' hearts, down the river to Caversham or even Reading. It's almost certainly all changed now, but that was how it was in the fifties.)

From Ambridge, people who didn't marry Local have gone as far afield as New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa to find their spouses. Also London, Northumberland and Wales. We often think of the Archer family as "a bit inbred", but in fact they are as exogamous as can be; until Alice married Chris, none of them has married another Ambridge resident since Dan and Doris, and I can think of only two who have married anyone from within a ten mile radius of the place: Jill was brought up in a local village and Nigel lived two miles away. Have I missed anyone?

@MereDintofPandiculation

I felt that episode had a valedictory tone to it. If TA were just about Brookfield, and if that were the last episode ever, that is what it would sound like. “And they all lived happily ever after. The End”

I think I'll skip this one- although if valedictory tone means we'll never see or hear from any of the Brookfield Bores ever again, I'm fine with that.

Bloody hell rip Dan and Doris. Remember when both died. Can’t believe Ive spent my whole life listening (well since about 6).

@HeronLanyon

Bloody hell rip Dan and Doris. Remember when both died. Can’t believe Ive spent my whole life listening (well since about 6).

Worrying, isn't it.