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!

She's well-acted, and has a pleasant voice and accent. There's something inconsistent about her though

I was about to post the same thing. There's no consistency in characterisation.

My opinion of Vince has reached rock bottom. He is definitely Two Ton Ted from Teddington now.

Popping back to thank Asking for the useful summary of who wrote which dreadful diary/Christmas letter episode. They are all as bad as each other!*
*
If the intern is bored with being an intern, there must be a great opportunity to write a comedy about having to play tag-team on a long- running soap (a bit W1A, without the budget).

I have seen something in which it is claimed (by Sarah Hehir) that they now have not just an archivist but archivists. All I can say it that it doesn't seem to handicap them too much in the matter of plot taking precedence over character. Or come to that of what is where; Lower Loxley Hall is not in Ambridge, it's in Lower Loxley, which is a different village, but everyone writing the programme now seems to think LLH is somewhere just on a road out of Ambridge rather than three miles away.

leslietate.com/2022/06/20/15194/

That's an interesting article @Asking because all the stuff she says they work really hard to achieve I disagree that they manage! Importance of consistency, making sure nothing slips through the net, character-led drama. Hmm.

I wasn't a great fan of the covid monologues either. Oh dear.

I’m not sure if I missed it: what happened to Natasha and the credit card spending?

We've just heard no more about it @RandomCatGenerator - presumably it's lurking ready to be deployed at an appropriate moment (or the SWs have forgotten all about it).

Vince is a horrible bully. I hope that's the last we hear from him at least until he's calmed down.

Vince was appalling. Hope Joleen is right about no one else hearing him, but I bet Leonard will end up telling Jill

Surely Elizabeth will chuck Vince when she gets to hear about this?

What a nasty man. Pure masculine toxicity.

I really hope Ben doesn’t ‘do something stupid’ following Vince’s berating.

I’m hoping that parental fightiness may be the thing that draws B&B together again.

Don’t they have tickets to New Zealand tucked in their pockets? Wouldn’t be surprised if the two of them brought forward the flights and skedaddled!

I hope that all the Caseys FOTTFSOF for good.

I am deeply suspicious of the "multiple archivists" claim. Perhaps they just provide input once a year? If i were editor I would issue all writers with family trees (with characters' ages on) and a map of the village. I will scream at the radio if Jill ends up making kilos of cake and puddings during stir up Sunday - she ought to be sat, cuddling a cup of tea in her arthritic hands!

No matter what we thought of the (awful) pregnancy storyline, this thread is almost at halfway after just a week!

I seem to recall reading that interview a while ago (did we perhaps discuss it on t’other thread?). Anyway I’m a cynic, so concluded that by archivists she meant people who maintained the store of archives and would look something up if a SW asked. Rather than people who knew what was in the archives and would proactively scupper factually incorrect writing. A SW can’t ask for guidance on something they don’t know they don’t know.

No matter what we thought of the (awful) pregnancy storyline, this thread is almost at halfway after just a week!
And has broken up Lily and Russ, Ben and Beth, and, I hope, Vince and Elizabeth.

and would look something up if a SW asked
It would help if someone could check on details that listeners spot straight away, like ages and number of bedrooms, and proximity of locations.

Or the SW have forgotten…it was quite a big deal at the time, weird it’s just gone silent.

Agree. I don’t think they add anything. Although Vince’s reference to the pork butcher visas did hearten me - an actual reference to agricultural current affairs!

Sounds like it, given his comments to the effect that everyone at Brookfield was dreadful. Did the Dopeys ever get the terms of the loan tied down in writing?

He's so enmeshed in his daughters' lives, it's really quite odd psychologically. I mean, I like anyone who has enough good taste to like my children, but I'm not going to go and offer massive loans to their parents, nor am I going to condemn their entire families if my kids break up with them.

I think it will all come out again at some point. They planted the idea of Alice drinking too much a hell at least a couple of years before it blossomed into outright alcoholism, didn't they? It's pretty clear that it's going to turn out that Natasha is bipolar like her father.

Does Vince own an abattoir? If ever there was a red flag that's one for me!

Yes Vince made his money in the abattoir business and was introduced when he bought the local one that David (and Home Farm?) used, which pantomime villain Justin wanted to redevelop as property. Somewhow he became involved in the cattle market too (which introduced us to Beth).

Does anybody know whether they still do tours of the Archers' studio?

I doubt Natasha is (unmedicated/controlled) bipolar, she seems to live a pretty steady life. People I know who are bipolar tend to repeatedly crash their lives up in some way and exhibit troubling behaviours (e.g. self harm/self sabotage) unless they are carefully taking care of themselves. If they said she had been bipolar the whole time but stays really healthy/lots of exercise + maybe meds, not drinking too much etc - that would be quite a nice storyline. But I think that's been missed now.

Worried all this santa/guitar nonsense has the makings of an Ambridge Christmas spectacular perhaps with Old Father Christmas making people's childhood wishes come true.

Good point. In a similar way, they often talk proudly of consulting experts while devising a new storyline, but I suspect they cherrypick what the expert says and don't always grasp that they've ended up with something very odd and unlikely as a result.

So I wonder how the plotting the most recent "shake Ambridge to the core" storyline went: Were they all on glue!

I've still not understood what possessed Chelsea to have a "sympathy shag" with a pissed (literally and figuratively) Archer boy.

You don’t remember being young, @Madcats ?

(But I do think they’ve squeezed enough drama out of one young woman’s middle now.)