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!

Perhaps Joy will reveal all (figuratively) to Mick in due course. I’ve don’t think I’ve heard her showing anyone pictures of Rochelle or her grandchildren so I’m not sure they exist.

There was the incident when she told Pat a letter she wrote to Rochelle was destroyed after George set the post box alight and she was very upset. I can’t remember the details but I think she said she wrote a letter because they had fallen out. Other than that she has revealed very little about her past (lots of random anecdotes but nothing about her personal life) and deflects whenever she is asked. It’s all very odd.

Joy is surely here to replace Lynda eventually? Succession planning in action.

Going to show this post to Kirsty and Fallon. They’ll throw Joy off a bridge and have a stand-up fight for the position themselves …

I think Rochelle exists but is not in contact with Joy much. Joy told Tony, quite early on, that Rochelle was not going to visit her and she never saw her grandchildren.

Lowfield, Thursday 12th December, 2019
Tony is dropping off polish to Joy who manages to tell him about Rochelle. She has just been Skyping about plans for Christmas. Joy is thrilled it will be a full house this year.
...
Joy unexpectedly begins to cry because she has lied. Rochelle and the kids aren't coming for Christmas; she wasn't Skyping with them all afternoon as she said. Rochelle texted to say they are all too busy to come for the holidays even though Joy has moved to a bigger place. She won't see them until the new year at the earliest. Tony asks why Joy told him otherwise and she sniffles that she didn't want him to feel sorry for her.
...
Joy sniffs that Rochelle always was a daddy's girl. Can Tony imagine sending a text to a mother for Christmas? Tony tries to comfort Joy and she asks him not to say anything to anyone, even at home.

And then on Wednesday 29th July, 2020
Lonely Joy is delighted to find the green busy with children playing. She wishes Rochelle would contact her more often

Monday 30th November, 2020
(about Helen moving in with Lee) But Joy is sure it will be a wrench for Pat and Tony, and goes into easy sympathy mode: it's been so hard for her not seeing Rochelle and the kiddies.

There is also the conversation with Lee about Mick on Tuesday 18th October, 2022
... says that Mick is a lovely man, then asks if Rochelle approves; Joy hasn't told her about Mick because she always disapproves of everything Joy does.

Oh my - Erik is lush. 😍😍😍

even the most dedicated listeners among us are confused about why Joy is in Ambridge.

ah, thank you @LillianGish

I think he was just a tiny bit too agreeable to Kate; smacks of con-man. I didn't like how he wriggled his way out of each potential awkwardness, and I didn't like how he was quite happy to mock about his brother to total strangers.

Erik is as mysteriously un-Swedish as Jakob has become. Remember when Jakob first arrived, he had perfect English with a rather well-performed slight Scandi accent which mysteriously vanished? Erik sounds as though he comes from Guildford or Sevenoaks.

It’s odd because I don’t find Steven Hartley (Erik actor) at all interesting, but he made Erik so much fun.

Agree, the brothers’ disparate accents do strain credibility. But I hope he won’t be around long enough to be uncovered as any sort of crook - Ambridge has had enough skulduggery for now.

"I hope he won’t be around long enough to be uncovered as any sort of crook..."

I do hope he'll be around just long enough to run off with Kate! I mean, she hasn't abandoned any responsibilities for ages now. And I think Jakob - the real Jakob as he used to be - would just shrug it off.

Absolutely shocked that Joy has been around for more than 3 years! Covid really did make time disappear didn’t it?

And Kate and Jakob temporarily and a half years.

Two, autocorrect, two. How did you make that temporarily, you useless piece of code?

Here’s Charlotte Higgins in The Guardian - somewhat average:

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jan/10/charlotte-higgins-on-the-archers-logging-and-dogging-as-ambridge-gets-x-rated?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

It's a bit out of date too. We've moved on.

Talking of moving on, new thread needed within the week, I reckon! Any title suggestions? We might know a touch more about Erik by then. I wonder if there is any possibility that he might decide to settle down in Ambridge. The production team may feel you can never have too many squabbling siblings.

• David and Kenton
• Tony and Lilian
• Tony and Jennifer
• Lilian and Jennifer
• Elizabeth and all the others at different times
• Pip and Josh
• Susan and Tracy, fairly often
• Helen and Tom at times
• Kate and all the others, most of the time
• Alice and Ruairi
• Adam and Debbie at times
• Ed and Will

Chelsea and Brad seem to have a good relationship at bottom, although they do bicker. Chris and Emma seem to be on good terms most of the time. I don't recall any tension between Roy and Brenda but it's been so long since Brenda left or was even mentioned I may just have blanked it out. Any others I've forgotten? I have high hopes of internecine warfare between Henry and Jack some years in the future. I wonder how the Button sisters get on.

The Button sisters are fighting over Gowurjus Geowurge Grahndy, aren't they.
The Gleeson twins are probably fighting over cricket

To go up a river, you go against the flow of the water in it: up the Thames from Reading to Oxford, up the Tamar from Plymouth to Launceston, up the Tyne from South Shields to Hexham. Yes indeed, because if I wasn’t going against the flow, it would mean the river was flowing up too. And that’s what you implied in the bit I quoted - the “it” was clearly the Am itself, not someone travelling along it. It amused me in the light of your previous comments about the changing direction of the flow.

The river itself does the same: the Thames goes up from Southend to Coates/Kemble (Thameshead). There I wouldn’t agree with you, the course of the river may do (though I don’t think I’d say that) but the river itself doesn’t

That was never mentioned on air; which road would be used? It's presumably moored on the towpath (why is there a towpath? Surely there isn't any navigation on this one-mile stretch of river, no need to tow anything, ford in one direction and weir but no lock in the other) but the way to get to it from Ambridge is along a footpath past the church. And a narrowboat is big; it would have needed to be transported on a hefty lorry. Built in situ? But why??

Rochelle was not going to visit her and she never saw her grandchildren. Rochelle is serving life for the murder of a police officer - the fact that it was a police officer on duty, and that she refuses to reveal what she did with the body, means she was give a high tariff and it is extremely unlikely she will ever leave prison.

But that theory is blown out of the water by the interaction between Joy and Tony that asking quoted

In his dreams!

Well, it becomes the Isis at some point round Oxford-way...

(You couldn't say that a river went down to its source, so it clearly has to go up to it.)

I really enjoyed that episode - good acting and writing.

I too hope Erik isn't a bad 'un.

I'm shipping Erik and Alice.

My Archers wish for 2023 is that we hear from Jenny again and she and Brian get Home Farm back.