👑 Archers thread #139: Who’s the Daddy? No ceremonial required to join us – 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 like the sound of Lilian’s Cinnamon Chicken, 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.)

I'm often struck by the time a thread ends how irrelevant the previous title has become to what's currently going on in The Archers. The Queen's death has only been mentioned very briefly in TA, of course, but I suppose that was to be expected in a time of budget constraints. In a few weeks when this thread fills up I wonder if we will still be thinking that, and about Chelsea and her pregnancy. That depends on what she decides to do, which at the time of writing is still up in the air.

As usual, I asked for title ideas and for various reasons then didn't use them. Sorry. Lillian Gish's was very witty - Will Chelsea stay mum about dad? Muddler made a more controversial one - Horrobins thread #139. As a new Great House of Ambridge emerges, come swear your allegiance here.

That's about all I can face saying about TA at the moment. I am expecting to have to travel north soon as my Dad is in hospital and I have to be with my Mum. (They're the same sort of age as Jill Archer, and up to now have been like her and Peggy, very active, managing very well with no help, but this may all be about to change ). So apologies if I'm more absent than present for a while. Will pop in when I can.

YUP

And y.....

Has Peggy definitely gone then?

amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/aug/08/the-archers-actor-june-spencer-103-retires-after-more-than-70-years

You must have missed the last thread?!

I did @MuddlerInLaw - I stopped listening for ages and only started again about a month ago :)

these threads are a major incentive not to stop listening, I do enjoy reading them :)

You have to listen to appreciate the full horror.

I mainly listen on iPlayer catch up so can fast forward all the Dopeys, including Jill, Bethly Bore, Lilian, Justin and Shula.

Decades ago when I was an accountant I learned about sunk costs. As far as I can recall, this is the common sense but emotionally difficult idea that just because you've spent a lot of time, effort and money on a project, it doesn't mean you have to keep on with it, because you may be throwing good money after bad. Cut your losses and move on. I haven't quite reached that point with The Archers, but I'm closer than I ever have been before.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but could it be that the BBC secretly wants to get rid of it? Are the current abysmal storylines and new actors not there to pull in the mythical potential younger listeners who don't even recognise what a radio set is, but to put off the devoted older ones, so they can then point to plummeting listener figures and budget problems and cancel it?

(Equivalent to the transport company tactic of slashing services on a route they want to get rid of and then saying nobody uses it any more.)

Hasn't Beth had a complete reversal in terms of character? What I recall of her and Steph's introduction was that they represented a TOWIE style of frivolous nouveaux riches with hot tubs, the need for constant treats, and glamour etc. It was actually a nice contrast to Pip, especially when Vince turned out to be knowledgeable about art, haute cuisine, and generally cultured. The fact that Beth could bake a cake to outshine Jill's was astonishing! The family was a challenge to Brookfield's snobbish cultural assumptions that someone in acrylic nails wouldn't know how to bake, let alone deliver a lamb.

Now by contrast Beth is downbeat, dull, definitely wears a fleece, enjoys a day out at the mart with Ruth, enjoys sausages with Jill, is burdened by the sense of family duty embodied in the horrible pendant/ collar of servitude. I feel disappointed!

It does seem a bit weird giving special jewellery to a relatively new girlfriend but maybe Jill wants to see them settled together before she pops her clogs. She can imagine them carrying on the family line after she is gone.
My DS met his GF at 18 and apart from a year apart when he decided he wanted to be single then regretted it (!) they have been together for 9 years now. They are very well suited and building a life together. If you meet “the one” when you are very young it is quite hard to convince family you don’t need to play the field.

Prediction on the window: Alan keeps resisting until Peggy shuffles off this mortal coil (off stage) causing him to relent and allow the window as she wished.

I suspect all Alan’s fluster over the thing presages Peggy’s death - when a window will be dedicated to her, rather than her great grandchildren.

Was there any point to tonight's episode?

No.

I'm really fed up with all the dirty pants 'jokes' and Pip phoning Chelsea and bullying her into doing a hair cut for Rosie. Absolute rubbish.

Incandescent Rather annoyed at Chelsea starting to ask Pip something, and Pip talking right over her

Are you sure? Maybe a story down the line hinges on Chelsea and Pip having got acquainted.

Or maybe it’s so Chelsea can see what it’s like to be a single mother, which will help her decide it’s not what she wants.

Pip is even more dreadful, having not heard her in a while.

I hope everyone realises that this time next year Shula will return, played be a different actor - because of course we won’t remember what she sounds like and won’t be able to tell the difference.

Did Shula have to ditch her husband and start vicaring, purely so her actor could retire?

As if Chelsea is “great with kids” - she is a massive Kevin with everyone and the least personable character on TA! It will be bloody typical if Pip has convinced Chelsea to proceed with a pregnancy she doesn’t want.

What are their contracts like? A long term “come back and do some episodes whenever we want you no matter your life stage”? Doubt it. So how do they provide for intermittent appearance yet not having to change actors frequently?

I vaguely thought the penny might drop that (a) even for someone with the support and financial safety net Pip has, that it will be difficult to be a single parent and (b)Chelsea's child isn't really going to be part of the Brookfield family.

Or alternatively it was indeed utterly pointless.

Or maybe it’s so Chelsea can see what it’s like to be a single mother, which will help her decide it’s not what she wants

Thats what I concluded too, MereDint. After briefly flirting with, and just as quickly discarding, a thought that Pip and Chelsea might somehow find common ground over their shared experience of surprise pregnancy. Then I remembered….well, Pip.

Doesn't her second husband already have a window in the church she stopped going to in a strop about Allen?

It was Janet the woman vicar she stopped going to St Stephen's over.

Pip is soo entitled! Dreadful person bullying Chelsea like that! Couldn’t she just put FatRosie’s hair into bunches for the photo? Surprise surprise - Chelsea is a proven natural with kids. Rather than putting her off motherhood, I am worried last night’s encounter with P and FR will push
her in the opposite direction.

I’m grateful we didn’t have a three month run-up to the F and P show this year.

Bert Fry/Joe Grundy rivalry continues beyond the grave.