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Archers thread #145: The glue that held the Aldridges together is gone. Will they fall apart? Discuss The Archers here.

978 replies

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/01/2023 22:36

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

Archers All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it.

Archers 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!

Archers 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.)

Lillian and I both made the glue observation, so I thought that would be as good a way as any to kick off this new thread. We raced through the last one, for obvious reasons. This one may last until the funeral. Will Tamsin Greig find time to attend? I do hope so.

The poem Jennifer quoted in her journal is here: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43775/rabbi-ben-ezra It's doubtful whether the last of Jennifer's life was the best, but she had plenty to contend with all the way through.

Over to you!

OP posts:
WhoppingBigBackside · 04/02/2023 16:41

Me neither @OverArmour, I just hear Tom saying a Welsh word correctly, so it doesn't grate. The Starlets' names are irritating anyway, because they seem a bit like they were named to suit an improbable stained glass window SL.

I'm hoping that Tash will blow a fortune on the portfolio.

At least TA is always there, 6 days a week, to dip into no matter what else is going on in life.

iratepirate · 04/02/2023 16:43

OverArmour · 04/02/2023 16:20

I’ve got no interest in any kind of fight, if that’s ok. I have enough upset in my life at the moment, like most of us do. Talking about The Archers is my happy place.

For what it’s worth, it’s how he uses a fake welsh accent for the name, not how he pronounces it specifically. Ok, do your worst.

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The over-exaggerated pronunciation he seems to do for Seren annoys me too. I imagine Natasha has drummed into Tom Thumb-print that he has to say it like that..

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 04/02/2023 17:18

LadyAddle · 03/02/2023 23:49

@Catnary Mustardland definitely still exists, and I waste as much time there as I do here .... I feel better about you mentioning CG elsewhere on MN, I had a sudden panic about privacy and personal names. No idea of whether CG is a woman or a man, I've never been able to guess; I have a feeling there was a name change a very long time ago, and cannot remember the previous one.

For what it's worth, Chris Ghoti started to write the synopses at ambridgereporter.org.uk/synopses/ when Lowfield's website had died and after the Lowfield ones stopped appearing in Peet's Mustardland, which they had for a while. So that is a resource I refer to when I need to check when things happened in TA during the past three years.

Chris has always as far as I know refused to give a sex, and occasionally remarks on being amused by how sure some people seem to be that the Fish is one or the other, and the reasons they give for their choice. (We were told the joke was of long standing and also extended I seem to remember to Eddie Mair having been unsure how to pronounce the name when reading out a letter, saying "Goaty" and having to be corrected about that.)

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 04/02/2023 17:30

Catnary · 04/02/2023 11:06

I think they toyed with that for Dan, but perhaps it was too much of a cliché given it was his father’s firm originally. Dan will be a difficult one to ever bring back.

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Unless he gets his promotion to Major, he will almost certainly be leaving the Army fairly soon; if you haven't been promoted beyond Captain when you have been in for ten years, they are going to be easing you out. He went to Sandhurst in May 2014, so he's cutting it fine; eight years seems to be more usual for that promotion that ten.

On 19th September, 2022, we have "Lilian wants to know when Dan will become a Major, but he says not for a while, though he is Organisation Officer." Sounds to me as if he isn't all that special as far as the Army is concerned.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 04/02/2023 17:40

OverArmour
For what it’s worth, it’s how he uses a fake welsh accent for the name, not how he pronounces it specifically.

It's possible that he is desperately trying not to be castigated by (Welsh) Natasha for getting it wrong, I suppose. And therefore getting it wrong! (Tee, as they say, hee.)

ILoveShula · 04/02/2023 17:42

Dan may well come back.
Alice was never particularly interested in animals other than horses, so I never thought of her as having been a potential vet.

LillianGish · 04/02/2023 21:07

Tom’s affected Welsh pronunciation grates on me in the same way that Lynda’s affectations do in the pronunciation of all things French. It should be admirable but it’s just irritating.

Hercisback · 04/02/2023 22:15

Didn't we discuss the Seren pronunciation when they were born?

It grates on me too, it doesn't fit with the rest of his accent. Like when people over pronounce French words.

OverArmour · 05/02/2023 00:09

LillianGish · 04/02/2023 21:07

Tom’s affected Welsh pronunciation grates on me in the same way that Lynda’s affectations do in the pronunciation of all things French. It should be admirable but it’s just irritating.

Ha, yes, the twins are also indeed treated as ‘la crème de la crème!’

Patineur · 05/02/2023 00:55

We all know that the reality is that any child named Seren will grow up being called Serun when she isn't being called Sarah. It'll be interesting to see whether TA acknowledges that.

Welshwabbit · 05/02/2023 11:29

Dropping in after a loooong absence to get a bit of fellow feeling over how sad I genuinely felt when JD died - and to wave to all of the old MLers coming out of the woodwork. I was Claribel over there and I know I have connected with @EBearhug before. Nice to see some others too. I remember La Sharpissima and Redbookish. Good to hear people are still in touch.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 05/02/2023 12:27

Welshwabbit · 05/02/2023 11:29

Dropping in after a loooong absence to get a bit of fellow feeling over how sad I genuinely felt when JD died - and to wave to all of the old MLers coming out of the woodwork. I was Claribel over there and I know I have connected with @EBearhug before. Nice to see some others too. I remember La Sharpissima and Redbookish. Good to hear people are still in touch.

And who could forget irene? Or Dusty Substances? Mister Legs? Country Squire? Lady MacBeth? Basia?

FelixDoublyDelicious · 05/02/2023 12:50

TeenDivided · 03/02/2023 20:30

I knew I'd missed a game out.
We also play our 1970s London Game though DH complains if we send him to Drayton Park.

I used to love this game, also cemented my love of transport and knowing which line station are on

TottersBlankly · 05/02/2023 18:31

I’m listening to Pick of the Week. Who should pop up, doing something fun on 6 Music, but Tamsin Greig. Here’s the 6 Music link from last Sunday:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hbpc

🤔 No excuse will hold water if she doesn’t show up to the funeral …

ILoveShula · 05/02/2023 19:21

I love Alice

Gonners · 05/02/2023 19:27

I heard that clip of Tamsin Greig too - when she's in something "as herself", she always sounds like an absolutely lovely person.

I also enjoyed the 7 o'clock newsreader, Neil Nunes I think, losing his grip and having to smother laughter when reporting what Grant Shapps had said about La Truss's master plan.

suzyscat · 05/02/2023 20:44

ILoveShula · 05/02/2023 19:21

I love Alice

I do too now. I certainly never used to.

Feel for Kate too. Isn't there an expression about not making big changes/ decisions whilst grieving?

Feel sorry for Ruairi, but that was all pretty inevitable and very cringey. He should have taken that internship she was jealous of, whilst he had the chance.

Gonners · 05/02/2023 20:50

I do miss what I think of as "real Jakob", though. This quietly affectionate, empathetic version is all wrong. But I suppose living in Ambridge erases your personality.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 05/02/2023 21:14

Ruairi dislikes and mistrusts Alice, for good reason.

Why on earth did he ring her?

Gonners · 05/02/2023 21:28

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 05/02/2023 21:14

Ruairi dislikes and mistrusts Alice, for good reason.

Why on earth did he ring her?

Because they have to move this plot along somehow? It seems that everyone has undergone a personality transplant ... move along, listeners! Kate is now Really Serious about re-wilding and has completely abandoned woo; Jakob is morphing into Lee; Alice (one moment after being ratty with her grumpy child) is suddenly Santa Alicia della Simpatia ... and so on.

I look forward to the transformation of Alistair into a serial killer.

TopOfTheCliff · 05/02/2023 21:30

I can understand Ruairi ringing Alice. She has been consistent in showing she cares about him and in trying to contact him. Frankly who else could he call apart from maybe Ben and Ruth? None of his own family seem to bother much with him except the late JD.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 05/02/2023 21:37

TopOfTheCliff · 05/02/2023 21:30

I can understand Ruairi ringing Alice. She has been consistent in showing she cares about him and in trying to contact him. Frankly who else could he call apart from maybe Ben and Ruth? None of his own family seem to bother much with him except the late JD.

Short answer: Adam. The man who with his aprtner put Ruairi up when Alice caused him to be thrown out of his home in the middle of his A-levels.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 05/02/2023 21:37

partner

TopOfTheCliff · 05/02/2023 21:58

I guess we’ll see who offers him a bed if he comes back to Ambridge. Is Brian back at Willow Cottage yet as he was staying with Adam last week I thought? Couldn’t be left alone or something

suzyscat · 05/02/2023 22:01

I'm assuming eventually that will be Paul?

Or was he just a device to rub Julianne in our faces some more?

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