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!

We haven't been to St Stephen's because it's cold in there because the window got broken by the flying vicar

frankly i don't miss the stupidly naive Alan, but i miss Usha.

If Vince is staying then I think Beth will be back

please god no. I don't mind if Vince stays, and even if he does insist on the money, that will create some nice family tension. But Beth. She is has zero self awareness. She only needed to say to her father that they had already broken up and it would have been much less dramatic.
She's just. Selfish, egotistical (despite the lack of self-awareness) and drippy.

I keep meaning to ask. Does anyone listen to any of the Archers podcasts?

Sometimes dumteedum but not particularly regularly. Are there any you’d recommend?

I listen to the Cider Shed, but it took a while to get into it, and i usually listen with half an ear. I didn't like dumteedum (for the same reasons i initially stopped listening to Cider Shed - it's mostly about themselves, in jokes, and not really that interesting). There's another one about on the couch or sofa? similar thing, too many in-jokes and rambling.

I'm used to the cider shed now but i wouldn't miss it if it suddenly disappeared

So, no death at all over the festive season in spite of the prescient warning signs re Jenny, Jill etc.

I am surprised at Susan last night. I could see her being initially put out at being the last to know about the proposal but would have thought the Prosecco would have quickly won her round. I enjoyed the hoovering.

Despite her not being deaded at Xmas, I've still got an uneasy feeling about Jenny. I wonder if concerns about her is the reason for Brian's behaviour towards Stella (though I do think he had a pont about her running things past him. She's farm manager not the owner). And Brian was very anxious to take the phone call which, presumably, was from Jenny.

Is there more to it with Susan? She's normally quick to come round with Tracey. She sounded uneasy despite the Prosecco offering. Unless she thinks Jazzer is not good enough.

I'm sure they are now signalling something being wrong with Jenny - hence Stella highlighting that it was odd for Brian to make such a fuss about her being away for a couple of days, and Brian insisting on interrupting quite an important conversation to answer a call from Jenny.

I suspect it's building up to a storyline where Ruairi has some sort of massive conflict with the sugar mummy insisting he stay with her when he wants to support Jenny.

Hmm … Might we retrospectively learn that was the reason for Debbie’s flying Christmas visit - that her mother was unwell?

I think Susan is just getting the hump because Tracey and Jazzer's relationship (and proposal) is nothing she likes. Not posh, not refined, not "romantic" (as in, red roses and a lovely candlelit dinner cliche), not likely to raise the family - quite the opposite as was dinned into us re the McCrearies. And she was the LAST to know, the humiliation! She'll get over it, apologise and offer to lend Tracey either her strong right arm to make the sandwiches for the inevitable wedding in the tearoom, or some dreadful item from her own wedding.

I loved the proposal and the way the "kids" work together is really sweet and siblinglike.

Brian is just going back to his old control freak ways.

Tell me about the tearoom - I always think it's supposed to be somewhere like Bridge Farm, is that right? It's not conveniently in the village is it? I'm always surprised it keeps going.

yes I thought Brian was being unreasonable and short tempered, surely the reason you have a manager is so you don't get everything run by you? didn't she say that she would normally go to such events?
Maybe Jenny is off sleuthing and will discover the truth about Ruari, which Brian has suspected, and they will together ambush him and whatshername at a swanky wine bar and she will be mortified and cut him off without a penny, he will be mucho embarassed by the fuss but then in the cold light of day realise that actually he has been missing out on the normal fun with mates etc, he returns to Ambridge for the rest of the vacation and falls for a simple country lass (have not cast that part yet).

I think Susan wants Tracy to end up with someone like Neil, although not quite as good as Neil, and she doesn't see Jazzer like that, despite him being a good pig man (like Neil) etc. She wants them to be able to go out as a foursome, not as good as with the Aldridges, but definitely more respectable than Jazzer. She just remembers the Meadow Rise years, and that's a bit too Horrobin. Plus her nose is out of joint because she's about the last to know.

Maybe Brian and Stella will end up going together - is he too old to try to get his leg over? It's incredible that he's not commented on her appearance (that I remember) as Brians are incapable of seeing a woman without doing so in my experience.

Alternatively might he go and he/they bump into Ruairi in the hotel?

Brian was being insufferable, but i really imagine that's just the SW being useless and not realising that he and Stella probably have regular "check the calendar" meetings, despite Brian being retired.
Am also assuming other staff,since Stella can't run the entire operation alone.

I really really want the ridiculous Rauri/Julieanne story to come to a massive, explosive end. It is too irritating (as is Rauri). I miss Jenny though.

Also we never find out what was going on between Stella and Justin. Are they ever going to address that?

I don't think anything was going on, they just happened to know each other. People in large scale farming do know each other, don't they.

If he was Steve the farm manager I doubt anyone would have given it a second thought. It was a little cloak and dagger but I assumed that just meant Stella didn't want Brian to know she knew Justin (since they have a strange relationship).

There seemed an element of cloak and dagger about it. They didn't meet openly and, as I remember it, he was asking her for information.

SnowlayRoundabout
Brian insisting on interrupting quite an important conversation to answer a call from Jenny.

I am not at all sure Brian thought that being lectured by an employee as if he were a naught fifteen year old was all that important to him.

naughty

Yes maybe you are all right about Susan. I'm trying to get over a buggy thing so I'll LA in a moment. It was something in her tone of voice like she was leaving something unsaid. But I have a light fever and I may have dreamt this!

@EBearhug I love that she wanted a Neil but not as good as Neil. That sounds spot on!

Nope! I've listened again to the last minute. Fever or no, there is something in Susan's tone and the pauses. She's not angry. She's sad and distant.

Or maybe it's just a feud and there'll be loads of stupid calling the wedding off because Tracey can't get married without her sister's blessing. And then at the last minute it will be on again, or they'll decide they don't need no piece of paper from the city hall etc.

Did I hear right, a comment in passing that Ruari had not made it home for Christmas? I was listening live, unusually, and my DH thinks that all he has to do is bark “Alexa pause!” when he wants to interrupt the Archers to ask me something utterly mundane, grr.

I guess that was meant to suggest Julianne controlling him? Seems odd we only heard it second hand.

To the pp who said he would fall in love with a simple local lass when the Julianne affair finally blows up, haven’t they already got Paul the vet nurse lines up for him?

Love the idea of Paul as "simple country lass" and also @stilldumdedumming doing her Joni Mitchell/Ambridge crossover. More of that please.

I am not at all sure Brian thought that being lectured by an employee as if he were a naught fifteen year old was all that important to him.

they were having a discussion about the workplace, where Stella is the manager and Brian has retired
it was hugely rude of him to do that.