Archers thread #147: Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder how old Ambridge is. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Many thanks to @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. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to have the general public watching you work and asking questions, or other unusual views.

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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.)

Title comes from this poem, with which I drive my family to distraction at this time of year.

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz
I wonder where the birdies is.
The bird is on the wing.
But that’s absurd, the wing is on the bird.
Or so I’ve heard.

Ogden Nash

Apologies to @TeenDivided for ignoring her good ideas for the thread title. Here they are to kickstart our ruminations:
'window on the world of cheesemaking'
'how long until the intercom is fatal'
'will Brian settle in new pastures'
'Springing towards Easter with Widowers, Windows, and wails'

Over to you!

Tamsin out acts every single one of them.

She certainly out-acts Adam actor, but I really don't think it's true to say she out-acts them all. She's on at least equal terms with Brian, for instance, and it would be interesting to hear her with some of the other good actors like Alice and Kate.

Clarrie, Eddie, Will, Poppy, George (some of the time he is in Little Grange, the caravan) all live in Grange Farmhouse; Holly-the-dog and Will's dog Kai also live there. Oliver as far as we know is also living there; he has recently been heard having breakfast in Clarrie's kitchen, for instance, and helping Eddie replace a broken wing-mirror, and he was said to have helped Eddie prepare the ground for the pergola.

Repeating myself, but the episode a few years ago when Debbie visited and went riding with Kate and Alice was a treasure. They sounded so incredibly like sisters, each with a different experience of the world but so lovingly empathetic towards each other. (So perhaps TG encourages other actors to raise their game, or perhaps they were just well chosen for their roles as members of a family and sound best in that context.)

So lovely to hear Debbie.

I realised the other day who Adam is in my head and it's an older version of Tim from
The Brittas Empire to the life. Salt and peppered when I first came to Ambridge but distinctly more salt than pepper now. (The ginger gene was news to me, clearly.)

Ah a new thread!

I did wonder whether there would be another massive house swap in the offing, so that Alice and Martha moved into the stables (to be joined later by Brian) and Josh moved into the nest. Presumably Brian will find some mementos of Jenny at Blossom Hill Cottage (though please make this less painful than Tony's Santa letter or Kenton's diaries).

That said, I do like Paul and there might be some interesting scenes at The Stables in future. I don't recall Denise ever venturing out as a vet's assistant, but I am happy to imagine that Paul might become a trainee vet in due course.

I wonder how long Debbie will be around. IRL, I often wonder if the occasional cast get written back in for a few episodes because the cast/writing team have arranged a leaving do/reunion.

IRL, I often wonder if the occasional cast get written back in for a few episodes because the cast/writing team have arranged a leaving do/reunion.

That's genius, I'd love it if you were right - albeit it would be a lot more pricey than just inviting someone and paying for their hotel!

Lovely to have Debbie back! Funnily enough I was just thinking how Kate was starting to sound more like her. I love a Debbie/Brian two way chat so hoping for that.

Laughed at the (understandable but so clunky) way Adam called her "sis". Does anyone's brother call them "sis"? Mine did it once and I just scowled at him...

Kenton frequently calls his sisters "sis"; maybe the editorial team got the characters mixed up. I don't remember it as one of Adam's usual forms of address to Debbie, Kate or Alice.

She certainly out-acts Adam actor, but I really don't think it's true to say she out-acts them all.

It’s absolute heresy to say anything negative about Tamsin/Debbie on this thread so I have held back but I’m afraid I do agree with you @Rosula I find TG’s delivery very jerky and she is guilty of over-acting a bit at times…But she is much-revered on here so I will put my tin hat on and retire….

I think she said she is staying with Adam til Friday.

And Brian moving just far enough that we'll know he's nearby but understand that he won't necessarily be speaking (sob) I was coming on to say just this. Bloody Hell Cottage - out of sight and out of mind.

Surely this is not the Jim Lloyd we know and love?

Won't the dairy window increase the air conditioning/refrigeration bill, apart from everything else?

This business with the EV charging station is very silly. In real life a character like Jim Lloyd would be supporting it and be the voice of reason against all the NIMBYs.
But in real life no-one would think of putting a massive EV charging station in a small village like Ambridge nowhere near a major road.

I agree that it seems odd to have a EV station like the one proposed in a small village. I can see the sowing of discord here and wonder if Justin will ever get found out. Bloody hope so.

Thinking of the window at the dairy, how can the women get on with their jobs when they're answering questions? Also, they'll hit the roof, as I would, when the public start taking photos of them at work - or has this been dealt with?

Possibly I am hormonal but I found today's episode to be so annoying almost from start to finish!
David and Ruth sold the land, they don't own it, surely there's nothing they can do about the silly charging station that would never be built by a farm in a village anyway and the reason they can't do anything about it is because they no longer own the land?! Jim is a sensible man, fair enough to protest about a development in a village but why is he targeting David and Ruth so personally?
And as for the silly window and speaker system, who has ever been to a cheese making place and thought "How wonderful for me to be able to awkwardly question the people working there through a window and a phone system, being able to directly question normal working people about rennet is what has always been missing from my rural days out"? No one, ever! The whole thing! Silly from start to finish!

I couldn't agree more @PuppyPerson

I don’t quite get the Debbie love either. Brian is totally believable , he is real.
I don’t get any actor( and a lot of them do it on the Archers) going eh eh erm..when they are hesitating about a decision ( looking at you Pip actor) although I think Debbie did it too. Very amateur imo.

I did like Ben pointing out the EVs are quiet so they wouldn't be disturbing the peace of the village, but it then occurred to me that they are very quiet and the residents might well fail to hear them and cross the road in front of them.

(I go on thinking they ought all to play tape of trotting, cantering or galloping horses as they go along, so people had due warning...)

But I want to know how any drivers on the A1992 are going to know the EV charging area is three miles off the main road along a windy lane on the far side a small village up an extremely small side-road. I mean, how will they find it or even know about its existence?

I don’t get the Debbie thing either. 🤷 also, the idea that Justin would devote hours of menial labor in the Village Shop just to get some kind of inside track on the type of scheme, he normally just ramraid through, makes zero sense whatsoever. Since when has he cared what the ‘little people’ think?

I'm not sure whether it is the billionaire Issa brothers, but I am sure I heard an R4 programme about how some rich brothers who were busy targeting the suburban/semi-rural filling stations to convert to EV charging stations (on the basis that planning permission to repurpose a forecourt and workshop with EV chargers and a cafe/convenience store would be quite easy and they could make their profits from food and drink whilst clients' vehicles were charging).

The Dopey's solicitor would need to know who the purchaser of the land was/will be (thanks to money-laundering regs). Usha could have told Ruth that, even if she had nothing to do with the whole daft affair.

Yes, you can't just buy land for any purpose it has a designation. I know designations can be changed but it's all a bit far fetched.

Quite liked the angry farmer storming round on a tractor bit. That was probably the most I've ever enjoyed David.

TBF residents bandying together to undertake local activism to preserve the village is just the level of drama I tune in for.

I was thinking most places have a tour guide don't they? I mean not dairies specifically but no reasonable employer would expect you to be able work and field questions. I just don't anticipate the window on yoghurt and cheese making to be quite the draw anyone is anticipating. Would be a good school trip though.

But I want to know how any drivers on the A1992 are going to know the EV charging area is three miles off the main road along a windy lane on the far side a small village up an extremely small side-road. I mean, how will they find it or even know about its existence?

Satnav. Google maps. And there will doubtless be a "find a charging station" app at some point.

I have to say I have always found Debbie's delivery slightly odd. It is usually a convention in [real life documentaries you hear on the radio] that the hesitations and ums and ahs are not usually present. Exceptions usually have some relevance for the eavesdropper/listener- e.g. someone taking too long to answer because lieing!

Poor David sounded near to breaking point. I feared another badger episode.
Jim is just using Brookfield for the publicity, but it isn't fair.
The charging station plot seems as loopy as the sell Brookfield and move up north one.

I think Zapmap is a charging station-finding app, tells you how many chargers at each location, how many being used, how many broken and so on.

I quite enjoyed David getting cross and (unusually) was completely on the Dopeys' side last night. Jim was being completely obnoxious.

Agree the window is stupid.

(Belated) thanks for the new thread @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Jim is being an arse, and it’s so out of character. Very annoying.