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!

Jennifer using Park & Ride?

Don't get started on whether or not Oxford is a car-friendly city, it is a point of much contention at the moment over the plan to force '15 minute neighbourhoods' on the different areas.

I actually think the Oxford P&R is pretty crap compared to other cities'. It's overpriced (you have to pay for BOTH the parking and the bus, which isn't the case in lots of other places) and too far out of town to be convenient. They could easily have put the P&R sites another mile closer into town. And then you could have had the option of walking in as well as taking the bus. It's also pretty confusing, particularly for tourists who don't speak English as a first language - there are way too many bus stops and different bus companies running the services, and it's not made clear enough that the tickets you buy on one are not valid for return on another.

I think JD would have taken the train. But if she drove she would have paid the £££ to park in the city centre.

That P&R sounds complicated!
I used the Winchester one for the first time last month.
One fee covered a car and 6 passengers.
One company, bus route runs from the North P&R via town to South P&R and then back again. Easy.

Poor Brad, but it's for the best since he and Mia are destined to be together anyway.

I haven't been on the Oxford Park and Ride for decades, the train is much easier.
I have parked in Winchester. I'd forgotten that it's a city.
I've parked in Oxford too, but only when staying overnight.

Poor Brad, indeed. What has he done to deserve that?

Feel a bit sorry for Brad but at least he knows nice and quickly.

Making me feel quite guilty for the boys I gave the brush off to, but honestly you can't fancy everyone can you.

I have been known to buy wine from the corner shop.

My rule of thumb is the most expensive bottle with a screw top.

Exactly. I hope Brad sticks with his sister for advice and learns that not everyone fancies you and that's ok. Suck it up and move on. If he ends up talking to George (it's soapland, so who knows), he'll probably get brainwashed with all the incel spiel that women owe men a shag and should be grateful for the attention, feminism has made them all needlessly picky and so on.

Speaking of George, I'm ery glad we haven't (yet) heard anymore about his crush on Fallon and seen him trying to take revenge for the humiliation of being called out on it. That's one SL I'd like the writers to forget about (along with his entire character).

Quite.

I’d like George to bog off and join the Foreign Legion or if that is too adventurous a story line, to be a silent character.

Re Oxford, am I right in thinking the railway station is not all that central? My son was a student there and we (non-drivers, no car) used to get the Oxford Tube from London (coach service) to help him with his luggage at start and end of term. Cheap, frequent, no need to book, bus station was near where he lived, gave me the chance to gawp at red kites (i.e. birds of prey) circling above the M40.

(Interesting diversion. Probably now irrelevant given last night's development. Poor Brad.)

It depends, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g . If you need to fall into a pub or chain restaurant as soon as you leave the station - you’ll find places within five minutes walk. But if you’re transporting half your worldly goods to St Catherine’s or racing from a delayed train to a conference at Wolfson, you’re going to need a bus or a cab. Though those are perfectly acceptable walks unencumbered or at leisure. Even easier by bike. Walking from the station to, say, Magdalen or anywhere else in the main shopping area is fine.

I recall a brief period of commuting on the Oxford Tube! (Those were not the best days.)

It wouldn't be stocked if nobody bought it.

Team Lee here. How on earth does he put up with Helen's patronising voice??

We haven't heard Lee's girls mentioned since when? And had we even heard that they were visiting for Christmas? They seem to have fobbed them off on Pat, too, which explains her silence: I expect they'd duct-taped her mouth shut.

I think Lee & Helen should move to California, where they could write their memoirs and Rob could sneak over the border and kidnap Giddy-Jack.

In the real world, there’s a London to Felpersham train which stops at Oxford.

Borchester = Evesham and Felpersham = Worcester as I understand it. The Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill train stops at Oxford.

Well, that scuppers the idea that Borchester is Evesham

I’m really cross that as soon as the SWs produce a likeable character (Ben, Brad) they crap on him. I was really upset last night.

I too think the “by mistake” text is deliberate. And if so, he’s well rid of her. But it will take a long time before he realises.

I think I may have been thinking of Cambridge. It's a long, long time since I was last there, but I seem to recall it's a route march from the railway station to the centre.

#TeamLee too. We could all hear the cogs turning in Helen's mind, I expect. 'OMG, Lee's going to want the girls to come and live here, isn't he.'

I think Lee & Helen should move to California, where they could write their memoirs

I hid the RF topic for a reason ...

I think I may have been thinking of Cambridge.

Ah, well that’s a much shorter answer! Definitely too far to walk. (AKA I don’t recall ever not taking a bus or a cab from the station.)

What is this rubbish with the shop? Is it supposed to be funny?

Now Jim is doing it?!? Going to the village shop is going to be like a trip to WH Smith’s at the station (Oxford- ironically!) when they used to ask you, without fail, if you wanted a large bar of Galaxy and a family pack of Wine Gums with your newspaper at 7:05am.

Well, I enjoyed the shop stuff, and good to see Jim outdoing Justin in upselling style, with the plus of getting the goss out of Erik. And I was glad the SWs didn't have Justin misapplying his technique to one of the customers for comic effect, and did have Justin state that he knew when and when not to do it.

It's not going to work very often on folk though, is it? Probably only the once on any given customer...