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!)

😂

Herbert Von Crum with a Very Long Tum Schnitzel von Krumm with a Very Low Tum (pedant alert - if only my other literary knowledge was instant!).
Changing the subject, does anyone else think that the New Zealand destination of the wasted air tickets is significant? Might someone one take them to visit Meriel?

I came in the next day with a headscarf, apron and a basket of toys like the illustration in the book. They asked why I hadn't dressed up

Fair enough. I have been retired for 7 years 😄

Glad you said that so I didn't have to!

Muffin McClay like a bundle of hay
Bottomley Potts, covered in spots
Hercules Morse and big as a Horse
and not forgetting Scarface Claw the toughest tom in town.

Maybe they'll go to visit the Hairy Maclary up at Donaldsons Dairy. It was only relatively recently that I found out that dairy is the New Zealand word for a corner shop, he doesn't live on a farm. Also never knew that Lynley Dodd was a woman. There's a lot I don't know about New Zealand and its books!

Ben was really weird, or should that be wired, when he called round last night. What on earth was he finkin anyway - doesn't he know that I'm listening to Radio 4 at that time? D'uh!
Sniff.

They're set in New Zealand ? I'll have to reread them!

Ben's manic behaviour last night was alarmingly similar to an ex-colleague of mine who eventually had a breakdown and left work, never to return. So I’m not looking forward to where this is going.

This thread keeps crashing for me - anyone else?

There's no explicit mention of the setting, and not much to show where it is. But the author is a Kiwi and there are occasional words (Dairy being the most obvious) that are specific vocabulary.

Loving the Hairy Maclary/Slinky Malinki talk. We loved those in our house. In fact I once did a HM pumpkin with all the dogs carved around the pumpkin 😂

In some of the books it's not obvious where they're set but in others it definitely looks like New Zealand. And Stickybeak Sid (in Slinky Malinki Open the Door - one of my favourites) is a Lorikeet, which would be unusual over here.

When I was a kid in sarff london the corner shops were called The Dairy I knew of 2 and they were both owned by Welsh familys. Never heard of Slinky Malinki though.

Another Lynley Dodd fan here (had no idea they were set in NZ, though the buildings did remind me a bit of rural Oz, now I think about it). Slinky was a thin black cat, with Kleptomaniac tendencies. Our siamese always seem to have kinks in their tails when they are cuffed about something, so DD was a big fan of the book in her pre-school years.

Ben sounded worryingly odd; do students still consume boxes of Pro Plus to get through revision? Elizabeth needs to give him the name of her super therapist who cured her in under a month.

The Archers / Slinky Malinky Venn diagram must be huge! I used to know Slinky Malinky off by heart 😂.

Oooh another Hairy Maclary and Slinki Malinki fan here! My best friend emigrated to New Zealand and she turned me on to the books as her kids are a little bit older than mine. DS has done WBD as Hairy Maclary before and we were talking about Stickybeak Sid only last night- he's 6 now and into chapter books but I can still convince him to go back to Lynley Dodd every now and again. The books are a pleasure to read, the rhythms and rhymes are sublime. I'm Scottish and I think that Kiwi intonation works well with Scottish accents.

What a shemozzle!

@LillianGish

Muffin McClay like a bundle of hay
Bottomley Potts, covered in spots
Hercules Morse and big as a Horse

You forgot Bitzer Maloney, all skinny and bony!

Hello, Chelsea, welcome to the thread. You listen to Radio 4 at 7.02pm? I wonder what you hear.

@GoldenCupidon, since the so called upgrade, I find threads get very sluggish as they get bigger. It may have to do with the setting I picked a long time ago (it was withdrawn later) to see all 1000 posts as one page. I much prefer not having to faff around with pages and it used to be great. Now it isn't. Has anyone noticed any improvements at all from the upgrade?

Malinki 🥴

Thé only way I'll forgive a Ben/mental health storyline is if they use it to highlight the near impossibility of getting support on the NHS.

Poor Ben. I found that so painful to listen to. I kept thinking my phone had gone onto 1.5 speed.

someone close to me had a breakdown (the same age as Ben) and they’ve got the portrayal exactly right.

It was awful trying to get him help - though with lots of pushing we managed it - but he was sectioned for some time while the drugs etc had to work. Hopefully Ben’s problems will be caught in time.

I hope they somehow bring Vince in to see the damage his actions have caused. Horrible nasty man.

Scarydinosaurs
I hope they somehow bring Vince in to see the damage his actions have caused. Horrible nasty man.

Ben had already worked himself up into self-loathing well before Vince reacted in the way he did to Ben's behaviour, though, so we can't really blame Vince for Ben being in a state: he already was. This is not to say Vince was right rather than horrible and nasty to tell a lot of lies very much in public, because he wasn't, but he isn't what caused Ben's disintegration any more than Jill is.

Ben seeming to be unable to do anything that Chelsea asked him to sounded fairly strange of him while it was happening: saying "I'll support you whatever you decide" and then absolutely not supporting her by going ahead and doing the thing she had told him to his face would only cause trouble for both of them was iffy to say the least.

Even before that, when he was told that Chelsea was pregnant as a result of their ONS he seems to have taken to his bed weeping for two days (as far as we could tell) which I don't think is really all that stable as a reaction either.

And if Ben had not thrown Beth out for being too good for him, Vince would have had no reason to have a go at him over his treatment of Beth. And his treatment of Beth sounded pretty deranged.

I still get 1000 posts per page, and usually it works perfectly.

I fear Ben’s storyline will be one of self-harm and possibly a suicide attempt, but I'm hopeful he will recover. Meanwhile I am dreading hearing Chelsea as Cassandra, trying to explain to the “adults” that Ben isn’t well and being ignored.

I can’t believe Jazzer tried to talk Chelsea out of speaking to David and Ruth Seemed uncharacteristically selfish. Especially if he suspected Ben was taking drugs as he knows the harm they can cause.

Vince isn’t responsible Ben’s condition but he’ll be blamed entirely anyway. I expect David will disown Elizabeth if Ben tries to harm himself and she continues her relationship with “the man who almost killed my son”.

*there should have been a full stop after Ruth