Archers thread #141: The nights are drawing in. Can we turn the clocks back to a time when The Archers was fun? Cackle or carp about 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, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you're hoping Ambridge has a pantomime again this year, 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/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-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.)

Many thanks to @TottersBlankly and @GoldenCupidon for the title suggestions.

Too much to hope, I suppose, that by the time we get to the end of this thread Chelsea's pregnancy is a distant memory and the Horrobins can gear up for a cheap and cheerful Christmas. I really, really hope she doesn't change her mind about the termination. It's a horrible and unrealistic storyline, as most of us have agreed over the past few weeks, but now I just want it to end and be forgotten about.

I do like the idea of Lilian taking on the role of witch in the woods. Much more fun to listen to than Mia sabotaging the Hunt Ball, which is surely bound to go horribly wrong, or the odd wrangling over the stained glass window which we know Peggy won't be contributing to on air , given June Spencer's retirement.

Not a peep out of anybody in Ambridge about all the recent political shenanigans, but that's hardly surprising. Nobody fretting about fuel bills or rampant inflation either.

Also, where's Jenny? I hope Angela Piper's OK.

Over to you!

It's been an interesting exploration of fatherhood all round recently hasn't it.

The not quite "stepdad" - Jazzer
The absent dad - Brad and Chelsea's dad
The adoptive dad - Alastair
The probably-not-going-to-be-a-dad-right-now - Ben
The frustrated dad - David
And Will/Ed sharing "dad"hood of the awful George

and the semi-detached dad - Toby

pezzn
Lillian also brought up Asking, seemingly unaware that she left for spoilers [thread] after apologising for something she did here (a long time ago now).

Er, no; I was being used as the ball in a pile on, and did not apologise; I simply left a thread where people were applauded for attacking me.

Sorry to spoil a good story, but apologising for being repeatedly attacked is not my style.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime
Please stay. I for one miss your encyclopedic knowledge of all things Ambridge.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime
Please stay. I also miss your encyclopedic knowledge of all things Ambridge.

Good grief! I don't have encyclopedic knowledge!

It's all in the books and in Lowfield; I simply know where to look, I don't know the things themselves until I've checked the archives.

But yes, ok, I will undertake to answer questions; it's what I do. Only, if someone doesn't like what I say about something, and starts whipping up personal attacks, I shall take myself off again. I may not be suffering clinical depression any more at the moment (praise be!), but I am not going to go courting it.

My sincere apologies @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime I didn't recall the details as I stayed firmly out of whatever was going on. I (wrongly) got the impression you'd made apologies and decided you'd had enough.

I'm in awe of your encyclopaedic knowledge (it rivals my mothers!) and you've been missed here. Obviously you're still on spoilers, but glad to have you back here!

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime welcome back. Please stay. I particularly love the fact that while your username is all about asking questions, what you truly excel at is answering them.

It is interesting how some listeners hear characters in a completely different way. I'm very much with @TottersBlankly that Ben is Archers royalty and Chelsea, as Horrobin, knows she is lower down in the Ambridge pecking order. I don't hear her as glam, gorgeous, sorted and out of Ben's league, but clearly some listeners do. I just think of Alice and Chris getting together - Jenny and Brian's horror and Susan's obvious glee that her son was marrying "up" - as she saw it. Now I'm trying to picture Chelsea as more glamorous (she is a hairdresser after all), but I can't get beyond her voice, that sniff (and her name if I'm honest). I still can't quite believe she's going to go through with the termination. I'm fully expecting a last minute change of heart - especially hearing David's reaction last night and Ruth's phone call to Tracy. It feels like the Archers are getting ready to welcome the Horrobins into the fold.

I would also like to ask @Chemenger whether she has heard anything from The Intern lately? Surely the SWs would have turned to their very own resident Young Person when planning storylines involving the sex lives of young persons in Ambridge?

I also dont think of Chelsea as glamorous.

She is probably skinny though, has hair of an unnatural hue, and wears too much makeup with those painted-on eyebrows.

That's strange.
I think of Chelsea as slightly overweight, but as nicely presented as her family's funds allow for, but definitely wearing obvious makeup and something done to her hair.
Outer veneer of bravado, inside not so much.

I find the Young Uns of Ambridge so tedious to listen to. The exceptions were Ruiari (I don't care if I've spelt it wrong or wrongly) before he fell out with Alice and improbably became a prostitute. And Ben before Beth. And Josh who they don't utilise enough.

But the Horribin and Grundy young uns leave me cold.

I think she does her hair every day (except when going through a crisis/holed up in her room) probably using a hot tongs, wears a full face of makeup for events but probably none at home. I reckon she wears matching (as expensive as she can afford, so possibly currently Primark) athleisure/trackies at home, obviously has a lot of nice fashionable dresses (as shared with Denise). Generally well presented. I think she's prettyish, quite ordinary looking, slim (she doesn't worry about her weight and eats quite a lot of junk, like most slim teens) - and if given the chance to grow up and fulfil her potential she'll one day be quite impressively together looking.

Right now she's a miserable just turned 18 year old with no money and an unwanted pregnancy, no wonder she's snuffling.

I think I already mentioned on a previous thread that my mental image of Chelsea is Tilly Ramsay, as seen on Strictly last year. I had the impression last time I said this that I was alone!

Welcome back to the main thread, Asking!

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g That’s so funny as the girl in that picture is my exact mental image of Beth! I didn’t think I’d ever seen her before but I must have as they really are identical.

Chelsea also shops in charity shops. Wasn't that where Denise's dress was from?

The photo is definitely more Beth than Chelsea to me. I'd pictured Chelsea and Tracy as dark haired, but they are both blonde. I had no idea who the woman in the photo was but a quick search and she's Matilda daughter of chef.

I imagine Tracey and Chelsea as tallish and slimish, and managing to look presentable on a minimal budget.

Molly and Tilly (and isn't there a bother Billy?) Button appear to live in some elastic time warp. Molly was possibly born around 2000, and Tilly is a year or two younger, so they should be early 20s, very late teens at youngest. A bit younger than Josh and Johnny, but not by much.

George has just turned 17? I can imagine him trying it on with them, and them each giving him short shrift.

Yes, I loved Leonard feeding Jill Shakshuka!

The other thing I can't fathom about this story atm is that C is apparently not showing at all?

I know some first time mums don't - but that's quite rare. There's been no comment from her mum about it, and no talk of wearing baggy tops and her (probably skin-tight) jeans not fitting her now.

Also v little mention of morning sickness (was there just one clue immediately before we discovered the pregnancy?) or any other symptom.

It still feels like she's 7 weeks or something, not 20.

We were told in August 2012 (at least, that's the date that is written beside my note about it) that Molly Button was 11 with a birthday later in the year. Tilly I seem to remember was said at the time to be two years younger, but I can't prove that!

So, it being later than August in 2022, I would guess that Molly is by now 21 and Tilly 19, and why either of them would be in the least interested in having sex with 17-year-old George Grundy I can't imagine. I think he's a fantasist. (Or a normal adolescent boy talking to a younger adolescent boy.)

I really hope that whatever Meerrre does that it doesn’t cause trouble for Alice. We’ve literally just left that storyline behind somewhat and it’s nice to hear her doing well.

Poor Chelsea

Poor Ben too