Archers thread #142: Kill Jill? Is Ambridge heading for a Tarantino-style bloodbath on Stir Up Sunday? 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, 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 , 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.)

Well, things have taken a turn for the better in the last few days! The SWs have re-discovered their form and the actors and directors have risen to the challenge. I won't say much more than that for fear of jinxing things. Over to you!

(Thanks to @JanglyBeads for the thread title idea!)

Really? I'm 68 and all my friends communicate via WhatsApp.

On a separate note, the teachers told me I couldn't be an angel in the nativity play because angel's don't have dark hair. Still pretty annoyed about that one 40 years later
That's terrible. In my nativity plays anyone who wanted to be an angel could be one whatever their colouring or sex. My mixed race daughter was told off for colouring angels in brown. She was at the school where I worked and I went straight to the Head to complain.

**MereDintofPandiculation · Today 15:15

I am always taken aback by men who don’t cook all year round and then step forward to do Christmas lunch for 12. I suppose it’s a good showing off opportunity which is why it appeals. DH is one of those. I don’t think it’s showing off, more that his taste for cooking is doing every little detail to perfection, whereas my forte is producing an edible meal in 20mins flat from whatever needs eating up in fridge or larder.**

Funny how his forte is required one a year, whereas yours is needed 2 or 3 times a day for the other 364.25 days.

I love bread sauce, I could just eat that and potatoes and gravy til I explode and never mind the rest of the dinner.

The thought of eating bread sauce makes me heave
The sight of it is enough for me. I don't particularly like bread so the thought of bread sauce is just weird.
The bread & butter pudding I have eaten was delicious, but any egg custard type flan or pudding has a really weird texture that I can't handle. I don't like sweet spicy things much - parkin & gingerbread are fine- but anything like cinnamon, nutmeg or vanilla, again yuk.
Porridge made with milk is just wrong.
I'm not picky, honest.

I happened to be at Tate Liverpool recently and stumbled upon some 1960s’ prints by the Nigerian artist Bruce Onobrakpeya, representing the Fourteen Stations of the Cross. They are quite breathtakingly beautiful in the flesh (the photo is a very rough indication) - but they caused great controversy when he first made them because the people portrayed looked Nigerian. (Rather than like proper Christians, who as we all know resemble Italian aesthetes from the Renaissance.) They made me very happy.

I’m afraid I do understand Pip’s animosity towards her daughter’s thespian rival, even though the Archers possess a ridiculous sense of entitlement!

Now, I can kind of understand the bread and butter pudding issue, but bread sauce is really nothing like that. It's not bread and milk, it's creamy milk infused with bayleaf, onion, nutmeg and clove, with melted butter added, and then thickened with breadcrumbs. To my mind it's very like bechamel sauce, which I love.

@CaptainMyCaptain , that's outrageous!

It was mid 80s. I hope things have changed.

To my mind, it's very like wet bread. I suspect that if it had been presented to me ready-made as "Spiced white sauce" I might like it. I had never had it before I made it for DH (my mother didn't like it so we never had it), so I knew what it was and that scunnered me. It's similar to my not being able to eat tongue, which I happily did as a child until the horrible realisation hit me of what it is (ie I saw a whole tongue in a butcher's shop window).

My mixed race daughter was told off for colouring angels in brown.
I hope so too. It wasn't acceptable in the 1980s.
There was a hymn with the words "Rhosyn Saron yw ei enw,
Gwyn a gwridog, teg o bryd;" we sang to Cwm Rhondda - Bread of Heaven tune (see what I did there?). The words translate as 'Rose of Saron, pale and blushing, fair of face'.
We thought it was outrageous as children. Wonder if it's still sung.

Oops sorry, I missed out this It was mid 80s. I hope things have changed.

The translation is slightly wrong too, it's nearer 'Rose of Saron is his name, pale and blushing, fair of face'. It's slightly different in the english version.
It was written in the 18th century.

No Christmas rows at Brookfield that I recall, not even the year Elizabeth came back from school a sudden vegetarian and demanded they all ought to be like her and not eat meat.

David, played by Alexander Baxter, did speak aged 12, in December 1971 but not during Christmas week.

Then he was silent until August 1977 when he spoke again aged almost 18, this time played by Gordon Gardner; that casting lasted until April 1978. After that he was played by Nigel Carrivick, from July 1980 until the part was taken over by Tim Bentinck in August 1982.

So no, he had no adolescent Christmas rows with his father that we ever heard.

(Nor did Kenton, who was being played very occasionally by Judy Bennett until Simon Gipps-Kent took the part in August 1975, which would have been after the diary's date by two years or so. And they were not living at Brookfield when Elizabeth was born in April 1967: the family was still at Hollowtree until 1970. So that "we crept out of our rooms at Brookfield to listen to what was going on when Elizabeth was born" reminiscence scene with David and Shula was a crock, too. I do wish they wouldn't rewrite history so much.)

Proper bread sauce (like I make <smug look>) is excellent. Packet bread sauce is... not.

Bread sauce (not too sloppy) and sausage stuffing (served separately, not cooked in the bird) are the best part of Christmas dinner. As we don't "do" the turkey thing, we have them at random times of the year.

I still remember the Year of The Great Falling Out between my mother and my sister over her living with her boyfriend (now her husband of 40 years). I went to their place in solidarity. She was only about 20 but produced a proper Christmas dinner, including 3 Brussels sprouts: one each. We all hate Brussels sprouts, but she said they were compulsory at Christmas and were just there to be left on the plate.

Ben sounds like he’s on pills.

Ben is killing me. My heart …

Or just manic

What the HECK is going on?

<goes back to lurking>

Am I going to have to hate Jazzer for ever more?

Really? I'm 68 and all my friends communicate via WhatsApp. Just shows what a variety of experiences different people have.

Funny how his forte is required one a year, whereas yours is needed 2 or 3 times a day for the other 364.25 days. Only once a day. He does breakfast. And clears up after all the meals, and does all sorts of other stuff I’d rather not do.

I'm not picky, honest.

Bread sauce - I’ve realised Portuguese cooking does the same thing of using bread for thickening, eg migas which is in effect thick bread sauce flavoured with coriander. @Chemenger - I’m with you on tongue. Yes, if you’re going to eat an animal, you should eat all of it, and I’m OK with liver, kidney, heart, sweetbreads, (not tripe, but that’s a taste thing not a disgust thing) but I can’t get rid of the idea that the cow is still walking around somewhere. I’ve read about too many medieval punishments I suppose.

That’s what Chelsea said

Now I'm really worried about Ben.

Me too. But Chelsea is probably the sort of person who can get something done about getting him help.