Archers thread #143: In the Bleak Midwinter, Ambridge Folk Make Moan. Best Christmas ever? Probably not! 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 you'd love to be in Jolene's choir , 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, we made it through Stir Up Sunday without bloodshed, but poor Ben is now in the grip of psychotic depression. Not going to be a happy Christmas at Brookfield, sadly. When will Jill swallow her pride and go and give him the abject apology he deserves? Would it be a good idea anyway for Ben to see his gran at the moment?

Will Jazzer say yes? I hope so. We could do with a Horrobin wedding to look forward to.

Will Emma and Ed end up in court if they go ahead with this idiotic scheme to nick the logs from Peggy's Folly?

Will the two choirs put on a joint concert at Christmas? I assume so, and also that the BBC will continue to fool nobody by using recordings of what is clearly a really good well-rehearsed established choir, not a scratch choir of half a dozen novices.

Over to you!

Nice and uneventful Christmas episode. Looks like we're in for a fair amount of will he won't he and will she won't she around the Trazzer proposal. At least they're unlikely to be interrupted at the vital moment because of a child being sick, as happened in another BBC Christmas special tonight.

Merry Christmas to all MN Archers fans! I started another thread earlier which not surprisingly attracted no attention at all but if anyone's on Twitter someone is running a knockout competition called World Cup of The Archers where you have to pick one character out of each group of four to progress to the next round, and so on. I like this kind of pointless nonsense so did some voting earlier. Round 1 ends some time tomorrow.

Master Jack Archer
@TitchenerBaby
·
23 Dec
World Cup of The Archers Characters (Living) #WCOTAC #Thearchers First round, 16 polls, top 2 from each go through. 1/16

That's my thinking too, but the 🔮is, as usual, hedging its bets being somewhat opaque.

I thought being opaque was what the 🔮 did when it was seeing things with clarity plinky plonky woo music fades, swirly mists clear from 🔮

I don't think things more than twenty-five years old can exactly be spoilers, can they? Is 1996 more than 25 years ago? Gosh, I feel old

Ooh thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g , some shocking results there

I mean, I like Brad, but who’d vote for him over Brine?

Opaque in its prognostications. Gnomic, even.

Question not the ways of the 🔮

Thinking about it, gnomic may not be the right word

So is it just "favourite character" votes? I don't know about such things!

Nope. No it isn’t. Maximum 15 years ago. Definitely.

Is that actually Pat? She sounds different.

And Debbie came for Christmas - but we didn’t hear it?!

It was the usual actor for Pat.

I think Debbie is always going to be "in the other room" now.

I'm vaguely puzzled that David's childish handwriting (it was David, I think - please correct me if I'm wrong) would be mistaken for his cousin Tony's, to the point that Lillian was so very confident. Are the Archer handwriting genes so strong, or (more likely) did they just go to the same primary school?

I assume both Debbie and Ruairi have better things to do than traipse up to Birmingham for a 10 minute recording session.

And why can't Tracy's children just butt out? Pardon the Americanism, perfectly ghastly I know but it's short and sweet.

I don't think it was David who wanted a guitar: he wouldn't have been asking Santa to stop his parents quarrelling all the time because it was horrible in his house, which the note in the bottle did.

It wasn't that long ago that it was cleared up, but I can't remember the details. It definitely wasn't Tony. Bearing in mind that Jill has borne a grudge against Grace's family for 60-odd years, I do wonder if there wasn't a certain amount of quarrelling in that "perfect" marriage.

God, the machinations by the mini-Horrobins are tiresome. Like a Wooster plot without the good writing.

Like a Wooster plot without the good writing.

Arf - or the humour. The trouble is, both Chelsea (apart from the car-keying incident and the general harrumphing) and Brad are potential success stories for "social mobility" - or whatever you want to call it. That's an awful expression! So it's a shame to paint them as so thick.

I hope that when I reach 71, I don't want to stop learning new things.

I dunno about that. I have never had any particular desire to learn Albanian, the bassoon, or macramé.

I don't mind learning new things. But I would want them to be things I've chosen, not someone else.

Tony said he'd never wanted to learn a musical instrument in all his adult life. He could still have written the letter as a child and it was just a passing whim. The Horrobin stuff was excruciating.

Did we find out the author of the note? I don’t remember.

And I agree, Pat sounded different.

At least we got a full update on everyone’s Christmas Day. Are Brian and Jenny’s expensive gifts relevant 🤔

On the previous thread (November 30) I wrote that it sounded like David was the person who asked for and received a guitar for Christmas as a child and I wondered if anyone recalled any miserable Christmases at Brookfield or if this was yet another rewriting of history. I’m still unclear where this less than gripping story is going. So far it has spawned Lynda’s rather dull Christmas Chronicles, now Tony’sbaffling gift.

I thought there was initial doubt cast on whether the letter was from Tony but that that hadn't led to any alt auteurs....

Thanks, @LillianGish! The guitar/miserable Christmas past story was here, on 29th November, 10 minutes in:

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001fmjb

Christ how thick is Chelsea!