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

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.)

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!

She wrote the episode with the raid on the village shop.

!! she would !!

Clive Horrobin as dry run for Tommy Lee Royce!

Aha! I knew she’d written for TA but hadn’t thought to investigate which episodes.

Would be lovely to hear them again …

I've actually just embarked on Last Tango in Halifax, which I didn't watch when it was first broadcast, and when Sarah Lancashire's useless husband comes back she goes mad when she finds him in the garden on Sunday morning smoking, drinking and 'listening to the bloody Archers!'

Not sure Clive quite has the wow factor.

That's interesting, because According to the BBC Genome project, which gives casts along with writer, director and editor, Sally Wainwright's first week started on Monday 18th December 1989.

She is credited with that one week in 1989, four weeks in 1990, five weeks in 1991, three weeks in 1992 and three weeks in 1993, with her
last scripts being broadcast in the week ending Friday 23rd April 1993. Which since the village shop was raided at gunpoint in 1993, and if she'd stopped writing for TA in 1988 she couldn't have written that episode.

The Wikipedia article says she was born in 1963 and started to write for TA when she was 24, which doesn't quite fit with either set of dates.

Thanks, Asking, that makes a lot more sense. I wonder where the Wikipedia editor got that information. I did think it left a large gap before she started working on Coronation Street. She was a bus driver after graduating, apparently. I expect you see life that way! Excellent grounding for a writer.

I don't know exactly how the scripting work but is it maybe possible that they have other staff who are technically "writers" on the Archers, maybe editing, shortening, adding bits, who aren't credited as "the writer". A different job, could be a production job rather than writing but amounts to helping with the writing, if that makes sense - like a script editor?

Not unknown, though, for TA to employ very young people. As I may have mentioned before, one of the shortest-lived Archers Editors ever was in my year at school, and she was in her late 20s at the time. (Possibly an acting appointment after Liz Rigby left?)

I think that might be the combined role of the Editor and the Senior Producer. The Agricultural Editor provides information, but I don't know if she reviews scripts. The Archivist used to do similar, but as far as we know there isn't one now, I believe.

@TherapistInATabard Wow! I don't suppose you know which shop sells them? I'd be quite interested in buying some to bring back schoolday memories!!

Fairly sure they've got orange creams in my local corner shop
.

So … That’s how it’s going to happen.

Counting down the hours until Stella resigns … (Followed by Adam ‘nobly’ stepping in, and Kate calling a family meeting to appoint herself Head of the Farm.)

Kate kating.... fab

Haven't listened to tonight's episode yet, but just wanted to add that I think Stella was grumpy because she's having to put up with what Adam had to put up with for years ie not really being in charge while ostensibly being in charge. Yes Jenny has died, but the farm won't run itself and not just being able to get on with it without running everything past and arguing the toss with Brian must be a pain (not least because Brian is not even there at the moment to argue the toss with). Kate wiffling on about how she now feels an affinity with the land she grew up on and trying to stick her oar in about what should be planted was the last thing she needed - Adam could have just batted Kate away and told her it was none of her business, but Stella had to put up with the lady of the manor act. I can't see her staying the course.

I expect Kate will have forgotten about it by the end of next week. In the meantime, take this opportunity to run away, Jakob!

One of the scriptwriters in an interview has spoken of archivists and agricultural advisors, in the plural, quite recently.

leslietate.com/2022/06/20/15194/

"The whole team works hard for consistency. Often the four writers in a particular month will email back and forth, sending scenes and updates to make sure nothing odd slips through. The main powerhouse of consistency is the vast archive and our brilliant archivists and agricultural advisors."

(Warning: contains picture taken up Sarah Hehir's nose.)

As soon as Kate barged in using her familiar honking voice I smelled trouble. I agree that Stella might not last under the double locking of horns with Kate and Brian.

Waiting for the scene when she asks Kate for results of the hedge survey. If Kate's interest lasts that long.

It's a mystery to me how Kate has survived this far. She's one of the most annoying characters I've ever encountered.

I hope Stella stays. I wouldn't blame her for walking, though.

Thanks for that info, Asking! My Mum watches Doctors, so I occasionally see it. It's a very mixed bag, to put it mildly. Bears very little relation to what I know about the NHS.

How would the precociously bright Xander not have noticed that his Grandma, who lives round the corner, has not been around for over a fortnight and that grandad and all his aunts and uncles are acting weirdly.

I like to think that he is busy working on a design for a new church window!

Corned beef and pemmican are different things.

I always imagined pemmican was like Jerky but I'm probably wrong.

Not in Swallows and Amazons. Pemmican is the name they gave to corned beef. Rio was the name of the village on the lake. The Amazon was the river by the Blackett's house, Beckfoot. And so on.

Ian!