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!

Not to mention that Gnasher is about 20 years older than Chelsea.

We used to keep Christmas cards when I was a child - the fronts would be chopped up the next year to use as present labels. With Mum's pinking shears, which is odd, as her usual sewing scissors were very definitely never to be allowed near paper or card. Same generation as Lynda, though, so seemed likely.

Presumably Tony was very young when he wrote to Father Christmas requesting a guitar (about 6 maybe?) I think it is unlikely that his adult handwriting would still be the same.

I think he could easily have been 9 or 10 or 11 or possibly 12. Kids grew up more slowly in those days. I can imagine letter formation not changing massively. (I have to imagine reasonably hard, but it is possible)

Handwriting can be set from quite young. The issue is more that Pat would have written their Christmas cards, not Tony, as one of the "witches" pointed out.

I don't think children grew up more slowly. I'm in my late 60s, so older than Tony I think, I worked out FC wasn't real when I was 5 or 6. I don't think I was far ahead of my peers in that respect and you would have been ridiculed at the age of 12. Also, I don't even remember writing letters to FC - the late 50s was still in post war austerity so we wouldn't have been encouraged to ask for things.

There are parents on MN whose children definitely still believe in y6, and teachers who say some y7s still believe. I honestly believe my not at all questioning, young for her age DD would have still believed at 11 if we hadn't told her.

We've had Kenton's Diary, now Tony's Letter to Santa. What next?

Perhaps Peggy will find a cache of thank you letters from her grandchildren in a drawer and give the ones written by John to Johnny?

Somebody's old New Year's Resolutions list?

An autograph book, with dozens of names from the sixties, triggering reminiscences of Doris and Dan etc etc?

This. I turn the volume down when she speaks as I can’t bear the constant sniffing.

There are parents on MN who still feel they have to tell their offspring what to do when they are 18, 19 20 ... which is why I disagree with the idea that children grew up more slowly in the 50s and 60s. You could leave school and get a job at 15, marry at 16. Going back even further my Dad left school and started work at 14. I think people encourage their children to stay children for longer now. Not a judgement but true.

We've had Kenton's Diary, now Tony's Letter to Santa. What next?

Isn’t it a standard trope (and a good idea) in any decent storytelling to be grappling with the past, present and future all at once? It’s true they’re sometimes a bit clumsy and shoehorned in to no great effect in TA, (didn’t we have Justin’s childhood home at one point?) but I like the fact that they make the effort.

So much more fuss is made about Christmas ‘these days’ though isn’t it? Elves, reindeer hoof prints etc. I wasn’t mean enough to tell her at a young age but I couldn’t wait for DD to know the truth about Santa. I just couldn’t be arsed with the whole thing.

Why was the letter to Santa in a bottle FGS?

I was born in the 50s, we used to write similar letters (but addressed to Father Christmas) and send them up the chimney when the fire was lit - the updraft took them.

Bottles are for if you are on a desert island.

Yup why in a bottle

Oh no that means Tony's going to end up telling us the hilarious/sad/ poignant story of why he wrote that and had to put it in a bottle.... 😑

@CaptainMyCaptain , Tony is 71. Why would a little child send a letter to Father Christmas in a bottle?

Ridiculous. Tony’s letter would have gone up the chimney, at a push, the post box. WTF would he put it in a bottle for? This is Ambridge not a bloody desert island.

Hahaha yes! Letter to Santa in a bottle, what a load of twaddle

Oh, I dunno … Tony might just have been going through a desert island phase - and insisted on the message in a bottle despite faces from Peggy and his sisters. (Perhaps he was trying to send it in secret but lost it somewhere?)

It’s rather sweet to think of him as a stubborn little boy …

The bottle would have been put in the Am and floated downstream.
I agree with @CaptainMyCaptain that children would have grown up more quickly then.

Well, he wouldn't have got his guitar, sending it does the Am. That's not where FC lives. He should have sent it up the chimney like everyone else, especially in a rural village where they would have all had open fires.

I don't think he would. The whole idea is ridiculous.

I mean I agree with you.

@EBearhug tell us, where does FC live??

In the attic at Underwoods?