Archers thread #144: Window pains again! Light relief or dark times ahead for Ambridge in 2023? 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 volunteer in the shop with Susan, 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.)

New year, new thread. Many thanks to @LillianGish for the window pains pun! Hoping to hear a lot less from the Caseys this year and a good deal more about farming and how Ambridge is coping with Brexit, cost of living crisis, ageing population and all sorts of credible character-based storylines. Yes, I know, but one can only hope.

Over to you!

I feel slightly ashamed that I would not be able to pluck a favourite and utterly apt poem out of my mental library if I had to write down my thoughts about impending death.

(I might possibly resort to Google and then try to pass one off as one I had always loved)

Something about this week being in honour of Angela Piper who has retired and best wishes to Ange from all the cast and her friends at the BBC.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1n2qtSlXx9qQH6nz0j43fXN/a-light-goes-out-in-ambridge BBC tribute finally up on website.

It's been obvious for some time that something was up with Jenny - not just her absence, but the fact that Brian would interrupt important discussions whenever she called, and the concern he showed for her each time.

Fair enough! I must just be a bit dim, I never noticed this.

I really hate how they've done this SL. It's so artificial, notwithstanding some excellent individual acting, like Brian.

Just on this, if it's really the case, and not some revisionist, 'oh when I look back now I can see' stuff, it still should have been made clearer, if it was an intentional plot device.

Unless I'm the only oblivious one!

He interrupted several calls and spoke to her in a very concerned way. It did happen.

Yes, I think it was actually quite cleverly done. Just happened enough for me to notice and wonder a little bit about it, but not laid on with a trowel so the storyline was obvious weeks in advance.

It did happen, although The Archers often have red herrings, orphaned storylines, false starts etc, so it’s hard to know what does and does have any portent.

Yes, exactly that. I wondered what was going on, wondered whether some sort of row had happened between them off-air and made Brian nervous, rejected that as being not the way TA works, and just waited to see what, if anything, it was about. It could just have turned into one of the many plots that mysteriously got forgotten.

No, it's not revisionist. Scoot across to the spoilers thread if you don't believe it, you'll see the possibility of demise was being discussed in pretty definite terms before it happened.

It’s not so much that it’s revisionist, it’s just there’s so many loose ends and false starts that when some are genuine foreshadowing it doesn’t always feel authentic. I think the problem is too that as listeners we know a number of other actors have also passed away / retired / moved on to other things and so there’s a almost a ghostly silent chorus somehow, at the same time.

I wonder if there has been any other time in the history of The Archers where this has been so much the case, all at one time.

I also wondered if it was a little overdone... but I think it was just the surprise of hearing such emotion from someone who doesn't usually express (that kind of) emotion. Brian reminds me of my father (although thankfully to the best of my knowledge my father is not the philandering type 🤣) and it was quite a shock when I experienced him crying for the first time when my grandfather died, it seemed very surreal as it was so unlike him. So on balance I think it was actually very well acted and realistic.

If the synopsis on the cookbook website is to be believed (I'm thinking I should take it with a pinch of salt, pun intended), Angela Piper had a decent crystal ball! There's a reference to 'Rosie's rock cakes' but the book was written in 2009! 😁

@Poppins2016 she might have been referring to Clarrie’s sister Rosie Larkin who went to live in Lowestoft I think. I used to have that book.

Rosie lived (lives?) in Great Yarmouth.

I used to have, and may still have, Doris Archer's Cookcook - it was one of those early 70s paperbacks with glue that ceased to work after a few years, reducing the book to a collection of pages, so I'm not sure whether it's all still there (it isn't alone in that). Will check.

There’s a almost a ghostly silent chorus somehow - I agree with this. Certainly in the case of Peggy - Robert is a more peripheral character so his silence is less grating. I do think that in RL Debbie would return, but frankly I'll be astonished if we hear her. Phoebe too. At least in their case and now likewise with Shula they have been parked at a distance so their silence is understandable. I think Jenny's situation had been subtly hinted at with the phone calls, but not so much that we didn't share the shock of her own family when it actually happened. I love that they've now found the perfect funeral reading and it is entirely realistic that Jenny would have kept a journal and doesn't feel like a convenient dramatic construct. Adam is the first child and has been on the whole journey with his mum (before Brian was on the scene) so it feels right that he is the one pushing on with the funeral arrangements. It must be a nightmare for the SWs having so many characters in a holding pattern waiting to be written out.

It must be a nightmare for the SWs having so many characters in a holding pattern waiting to be written out

I feel like this and I'm not sure if its because the upcoming generation are so uninteresting by comparison or if its just my age. It isn't that I particularly liked the mid and older characters more but I just don't care about a lot of the rising generation

It isn't that I particularly liked the mid and older characters more but I just don't care about a lot of the rising generation

I think that’s probably just because we don’t really know the youngsters yet. In decades to come, people on this thread will reminisce about the time Ben and Chels had a ONS at a rave, marvel at Chris and Alice ever being married and remember when Mere turned vegan.

As we start to grow old with the characters I expect we will become fond of them in the same way people who have been listening for decades affectionately remember Shula and the cornfield and Brian chasing Betty round the kitchen (events I didn’t witness but know of from this thread and other long-term listeners…)

Jennifer has been a major character for so long, and an Archer. She had a strong character with subtleties, and was consistent. It was like she was family.

She and Brian, and Peggy, got good lines.

I don't care about the younger characters as much because they haven't always been there. Some of them aren't particularly credible.

You’re not alone, @EarringsandLipstick . I didn’t notice a thing either

It was indeed clarrie's sister rosie! Here we are, with a lovely depiction of Grange Farm's aga:

"I think that’s probably just because we don’t really know the youngsters yet. In decades to come, people on this thread will reminisce about the time Ben and Chels had a ONS at a rave, marvel at Chris and Alice ever being married and remember when Mere turned vegan."
@FallonsNewCoat - is Mere a character whose existence I've forgotten (highly likely), or does it refer to @MereDintofPandiculation, or is it some sort of strange MN autocorrect for Kate, who I assume is vegan? Otherwise, I remember when Elizabeth became vegetarian (though perhaps not vegan) for a while in her teens, could it be her?

Mia Grundy - the phonetic version!

Thanks, @OverArmour - I had indeed forgotten her very existence!