Archers thread #151: A Fête worse than death or a reverse ferret? Helen’s got the Borsetshire Blues, Tom’s talking shiitake, George is a rotten apple. 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. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you think Helen and Tom would do well on Dragons' Den, 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.)

Thanks to @OverArmour for various title ideas! I would have liked to incorporate the suggestion from @Fleetress, which was

‘Do do one Ron, Ron, do do one Ron’

(Rob is Ron for many on this thread now)

Possibly a bit obscure for newer posters, though!

Anyway: we got through that last thread in no time at all. Combined effect of Rob and George, I suspect. I wonder if Rob will have made it to Ambridge by the time we need a new thread. I'm still waiting for Pat's shotgun to feature. That can't have been mentioned for the first time ever for no reason at all.

Over to you!

It's on Sounds this morning.

Brad - the Maths Genius, Socially Awkward, Rules Follower Who Is Uncomfortable In Crowds and Needs To Be Protected by his sister and girlfriend. I see we're gearing up for an autism diagnosis full of depressing cliches. 😒

And do I recall him and Kirsty having a slight spark or have I made that up? Can't imagine he'd be Kirsty's type though and he's so dull!

No, he's professional. That's alien to many in Ambridge, though. One day, Kirsty is going to demonstrate to him all the new tricks Erik taught her...

I thought that the "he must like cricket" assumption of Tom either had some racist/prejudiced undertones to it, or Adil might (rightfully) perceive it as such.
Have we established whether Adil drinks alcohol or not? Thought it was quite funny that Adil questioned 'a pint?' and Tom thought the alcohol was the problem, rather than that Adil would have absolutely no desire to go for any sort of drink with Tom.

If Peggy dies at the event from putting contagious ferrets in her slacks, we may be able to use an unfortunate pun about a death worse than fete 🤣🤣 Might I apologise again for my churl @Glarptip - it was inexcusable.

No they had a, not very ‘professional’, interaction…

While Roy has gone to look for some photographs of Ambridge in the old days, Adil and Kirsty are playing at palmistry, which Adil knows a bit about, until they manage to spill boiling hot tea on Adil's trousers. Kirsty makes him take them off immediately to avoid being scalded, just as Roy comes back in and gets completely the wrong idea. Roy removes himself to bed abruptly, and Adil tells Kirsty that whatever Roy may have thought, he has had the best time, and has warmed to Ambridge – and that is down to her.

@AngryBirdsNoMore , I realised after my post that my pakistani colleague says Vicky for Wiki not the other way round.

@CaptainMyCaptain , I'm imagining something like Eef, Evrington or Owuff.

I think there have been comments about a fete worse than death every year.

@Agapornis , Adil doesn't drink alcohol because of his religion.

I agree that I thought that Tom was assuming that Adil would want to play cricket because he is of British Asian heritage.

@CaptainMyCaptain , I'm imagining something like Eef, Evrington or Owuff.

Not far off but even funnier.

So did I.

I didn't think Tom was asking Adil to play cricket because of his background (after all he has been there for over a year) but I did think that the assumption that he'd be good at it was based on that.

It seems Adil might have a cricketing talent, which Tom has revealed. When Tom advised Adil to keep his eyes open, not closed, he hit a six!

(At tennis, I couldn't serve for toffee. Realised years later that I had been standing in the wrong orientation to the court. PE teacher never even noticed, as I was crap at games anyway.)

had a, not very ‘professional’, interaction…

Yes, but with everyone else he is. He'd never turn up to a business meeting without costings, and he seems to polite out in company, doesn't approve of Tom lieing* - actually, it's probably just that he doesn't approve of Tom and sees through him that makes me firmly team Adil.

• Autocorrect wanted me to say he doesn't approve of Tom living.

@EBearhug , your autocorrect facility must have some sort of intelligence. Machine learning from listening to recent episodes of TA?

First time it's shown any hint of utility or intelligence. Usually it thinks up suggestions that don't exist in any known language.

I am STEALING couldn't organise two mugs on a shelf... superb!

Was just coming over to say similar

I think Adil has been to cricket matches as a spectator hasn’t he? So giving Tom the benefit of the doubt [shudder], knowing Adil enjoys watching the game he might reasonably assume he might enjoy playing it too.

I have now fully caught up and just cannot believe the entitlement of sausage and cheese. To assume that a conversation a year ago constituted any kind of promise, and rocking up assuming the application rules don’t apply to you. I thought Adil handled it perfectly.

I agree @TherapistInATabard . Different regime. In the Oliver/Caroline/Ian days Sterling Gold and Borsetshire Blue would have gone through on the nod as they were all mates. Not so now as Tom discovered in that excruciatingly embarrassing attempt of his the other day. Times change and things move on.

Great bit of authenticity from the SWs there I think.

Yeah that's a good point. This is Corporate Hotel not your mate.

Glad it wasn't just me. I think the SW did a good job of showing what it's like to move to a small majority-white British/native rural community as a foreigner/ethnic outsider through Tom talking to Adil like that. I've been treated similarly in a few small villages in the UK and mainland Europe.

Seems a bizarre idea to rebrand one of your main products just to butter up one putative buyer. If I ran, say, a supermarket stocking Sterling Gold I might think twice about renewing my order if I've to go to deal with all the faff involved with a different brand and explaining to customers that it really is the cheese they bought last week under a different name.

I think I was being naive; I assumed what Helen or possibly Pat was suggesting was changing the name just for as much of the cheese as is sold to Grey Gables, not for the entire production of the stuff. So everyone else could go right on buying Sterling Gold, while GG got an exclusive local brand.

Think they’re only rebranding the cheese they sell to GG.