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!

I think I'm right in saying that if you place a bookmark in a thread then it appears in your I'm on list?

Nope.

Well said indeed @TottersBlankly

No sorry I just found out it doesn't work like that!

Was there, in fact, any reason to make Chelsea have such a late termination (if indeed she does have one in the end)? especially when she'd already been switched on enough to take the MAP. It would have been more understandable if she hadn't realised she was pregnant straightaway/ had been in denial - both of which would have been believable for a 17-year-old. I think the storytelling has failed when we, as listeners, are discussing the nuts and bolts and trying to work out why the plot has taken such a bizarre twist rather than being swept along by drama. The rave felt random, Chelsea's ONS felt random, her reluctance to terminate after taking the MAP feels random. Russ has been ousted, which felt believable initially, but the subsequent 'Who's the daddy' speculation and gradual leaking of the news with Alistair revisiting the joys of adopting Dan (I mean honestly, why would Chelsea confide in Alistair of all people?), the Tracy pregnancy rumour, the random reappearance of Rex so he could drop the hint to Ruth has been too contrived for words. As a public information announcement about realities of late stage termination and the effects of an unwanted pregnancy on the reluctant father I suppose it might be said to be doing its job - as a believable storyline it lost me a long time ago.

@TheLassWiADelicateAir , "Tracey running away made no sense. Natasha bumping into Tracey was a deus ex machina."
I think you meant Chelsea.

"I mean honestly, why would Chelsea confide in Alistair of all people?"
She'd been hanging out at Jim's house. Sometimes it's easier to confide in someone who is not a friend or relative.

When I was much younger there was a fairly short period when several young men I knew from school killed themselves. All of them outwardly appeared to have everything going for them - intelligent, good-looking, popular etc. One of them was slightly older than in his 20s, and had a drink problem, but the other deaths seemed so unexpected. I didn't know them closely but I knew them enough to say hello or chat if I bumped into them.

Sorry to hear that, Whopping. I recall there was some national news coverage many years ago of an area in Wales where several young people killed themselves in quite a short period of time. Eventually the media listened to the Samaritans and academics who'd researched suicide and it became generally accepted that giving a lot of publicity to suicide increased suicidal ideation in other vulnerable people, so they apparently try to be much more responsible in their reporting now.

Changing the subject, I've been reading this thread with interest. This is the kind of thing I'd like The Archers to cover - how changes in the weather affect the grass, and thence the milk, and thence the taste and consistency of cheese, from year to year or even month to month. Also, how cheese is affected by changes in food regulations, type of packaging and so on. www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4661807-whats-going-on-with-cheese?

I'll happily dodge the late termination debate to talk about cheese.

Yes, feed (grass v silage v cake), does make a huge difference to cheese.

One of my favourite goats cheeses was only available for a few months of the year (local farmers market).

In the case of that thread it is more likely that the producer has switched to using cheaper additives or is keeping it differently/for less time.

She'd been hanging out at Jim's house. Sometimes it's easier to confide in someone who is not a friend or relative. I don't dispute this - and of course any of the gear grinding plotting has some shallow root in slight possibility. It just felt like the SWs brainstormed who Chelsea could talk to to raise the issue of adoption and shoe-horned the encounter in to advance the plot rather than asking themselves what Chelsea might actually do in this situation.

If Chelsea doesn't go through with the termination, because the mechanics of such a late termination are horrific, then she still has to go through actual labour in March.

And the actual labour will produce a baby she doesn't want, and isn't mature enough to care for. And Tracey can't give up work because the last time she was out of work, the family had to use a food bank.

And it's hard to see how Ben could take the child either. Remember that Brookfield are already so thinly stretched that Rosie gets child care from a quavery nonogenarian. Ben would have to give up nursing either to become a full time parent, or to get a job that would pay for childcare.

The rave was SO weird - and LOOK what it resulted in!

I think we'd all be less discombobulated had there been a plot build up to the rave instead of it just appearing one episode (OK with two mentions beforehand I think).

In any story something which is going to have major consequences needs at least subtle signposting.

OTOH that is not like real life. Butterfly wings etc etc.

Hmmm

This. I did -although I expect readers on here wouldn't require the correction.

Yes, characters being used out of character as pawns for goodness knows what endgame.

I find the sympathy shag completely unbelievable.

I didn't think the outing of Russ was believable. There was never any possibility he was the father. Chelsea had several interactions with Russ after the rave and never mentioned anything. Lily had only a very short time before announced very publicly how much she was in love with him. Her believable reaction would have been to believe him, not Tracey. Russ and Lily's affair could have been ended more naturally. For the Russ haters, it got rid of him but using a pregnant Chelsea as the pawn plot device for that was nasty.

The Tracey being pregnant story is rubbish too. In real life people don't openly gossip about someone being pregnant, and don't say anything to their face until the pregnancy is announced. How is Tracey going to get out of this? A pretend miscarriage? That's nasty too.

With the benefit of hindsight the hoo- ha about Dan coming back as if he and Shula were never going to see each other again was another shuffling of the pawns.

The running away was ridiculous - although that had the saving grace of an update on Blake and the Blake and Lynda scene was lovely.

Good thing it’s fiction!

WHAT? Why did no one ever say that? That can't be true, surely??

It's all very annoying and I just want the termination to be over with now - it's been more than a week since she made the decision, why is it taking so long at this stage...

I'd like The Archers to cover - how changes in the weather affect the grass, This. All my farming neighbours were obsessed with the lack of grass for grazing sheep and cattle caused by the drought this summer.

I’m not normally heartless, but Ben’s outburst just moved me to boredom. So OTT.

I used to work in a deli/coffee shop and the (local, organic) milk would froth differently depending on whether the cows were out in the fields or houses indoors. In the spring there would be a very sudden change in the milk.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g, it was decades ago now, but I still feel for the families they left behind. In the same age group, some were killed in car accidents, but far fewer, and those included women.

Grass and cheese would make for more interesting storylines than the EE-style misery of late.

I’m truly sorry to break it to you, @TeenDivided - perhaps I should have announced this sad fact more gently?

Had forgotten I wanted to thank @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g for the cheese thread link - it’s fantastic! I’d planned a fry-up this morning but rushed to the kitchen for cheese on toast instead. And it’s true - the cheese didn’t go all brown and bubbly as it used to.

You’re right of course - food ought to be a major and continuous focus on TA. With some variety as well. At the moment cakes and scones always come from Brookfield. Pasta bakes and casseroles from the Bridge Farm clan, chilli from Ambridge View … We do intermittently hear about the vicissitudes of cheese / yoghurt production. But I think we’ve already discussed the possibilities for the new Grey Gables with the declaration that they’ll be using exclusively local produce? Ian should have been all over that already.

It’s hard to remember now whether in, say, the 60s / 70s they concentrated more on the wider issues of food production. I recall that once Phil took over from Dan they seemed to be constantly disagreeing about how and what to farm - just as Adam and Brian have done until recently. I’m certain our joining ‘the Common Market’ was a subject of village conversation. And Brookfield and Home Farm used to talk endlessly about subsidies and the choices they prompted. But having seen three Prime Ministers within a year I’m not surprised the writers generally skirt around the bigger picture at the moment.

Initially TA had a brief to introduce modern farming methods so it is no wonder they talked more about farming then.
They still had other stuff, Walter Gabriel's elephant, Nelson and his shenanigans, Jenny unmarried mother, more recently that scene with Jolene and Kenton in the shower, Nigel being Mr Snowy etc etc.

I've learned all about pig arcs, herbal lays, rotary milking parlours, etc from TA so they must include farming somewhere.

We do intermittently hear about the vicissitudes of cheese / yoghurt production

Yes! I love going to the dairy and imagining Susan and Adam in their hairnets! It’s hard to think of Borchester Blue being a top award-winning cheese though. If it was that successful, Helen would have a home of her own and not be renting a house from Kirsty on Brookside Close.

Oh no- talking of dairy products, I’m now remembering the kefir subplot. Hearing Tom drone on about the benefits of kefir was nearly as a bad as having to sit through a pantomime rehearsal with Snell directing.

@TeenDivided , it was Sid Perks in the shower. How I wish I could unremember that scene. At least we didn't hear Ben and Chelsea in a field.

I am sometimes vaguely nostalgic for the early days of Tom’s business - taste testing burgers and ready meals and force feeding them to first Kirsty and then Brenda. (IIRC …)

And God knows, I long for Maurice. 😍😍😍

Oh yes. I didn't think Kenton seemed quite right.

When do we think the rarely mentioned Meriel is going to turn up to cause havoc?