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Original poster

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.

988 replies

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 01/08/2023 14:34

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. 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. Grin

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.)

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!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
19
Abra1t · 04/08/2023 19:49

I thought I’d have to switch off too but it was well done. Poor Stella.

SequentialAnalyst · 04/08/2023 19:50

Sorry, but I needed a good cry, and I thought it was a great episode.

Very pleased that they addressed ASD in a non-stereotypical way. As a sufferer myself, I detest being wound up. And I am too gullible, so am easily wound up.

I can spot it now, and I did spot Eddie in his first scene with Brad, but when I was Brad's age, I too was a timid rule-following geek Grin

DeanElderberry · 04/08/2023 19:56

omg I hadn't read the thread for several days (or listened to TA obv), and decided to check (here thank god not the radio) and you're telling me they've murdered a DOG!?

I still haven't really got over Joe Grundy and the ferrets. Hooray for the off switch.

PedantScorner · 04/08/2023 19:58

It turns out that Mr Starmer senior didn't own the business.

Poor Brad, poor Stella and poor Weaver.

PedantScorner · 04/08/2023 19:58

@DeanElderberry , not murdered, dedded.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 04/08/2023 20:05

PedantScorner · 04/08/2023 19:58

@DeanElderberry , not murdered, dedded.

Yes, it's very unfair: murder is defined as the unlawful killing of a human by another human, without justification or excuse, so you can't be said to have murdered a dog.

Slaughtered might be a suitably bad word for the bad thing they have done...

DeanElderberry · 04/08/2023 20:19

Jolly well can say murder. Just did. So there.

SequentialAnalyst · 04/08/2023 20:43

Dog slaughter by negligence - Stella and Ruth
Easing Weaver gently towards the Rainbow Bridge - Stella, Alastair, and Paul.

TheSausageRollWrapper · 04/08/2023 20:51

Oh that was awful. It was all a bit too realistic for me. So sad. I know that’s real life but The Archers is meant to provide a distraction. It was well-acted but I could have done without Stella’s pain tonight.

SequentialAnalyst · 04/08/2023 21:13

Does nobody else agree with me about Brad and Eddie?

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 04/08/2023 21:23

SequentialAnalyst · 04/08/2023 21:13

Does nobody else agree with me about Brad and Eddie?

I'm afraid I get the same feeling about Brad as I did about the mania of Torquil in Cousin Kate: that was as if Heyer thought "this is a symptom of violent madness, and this is another, and this is another" and put them all in even if they were not particularly compatible. Brad has the same problem: someone is saying "this can signal ASD and so can this and so can this" and putting in everything any of the scriptwriters has ever heard of someone with ASD displaying. I'm not putting it terribly well, but it just feels artificial – especially given Brad not having shown any of it at all that we could hear until about the last month or maybe six weeks. He squabbled with his sister, he got drunk, he worried when his sister went missing, he faced down his father, he made friends with a stranger at a maths course that he went on without apparently any worry at all, he got a customer-facing job all on his own account, he helped Mia try to sabotage the Hunt Ball ...

and now suddenly he is reduced to gibbering because he is going to be in the same room as four people he has probably known since he was five. It feels forced.

SequentialAnalyst · 04/08/2023 21:57

All I can say is that it rings true to me. I squabbled with my brother, I did in fact do all of those things. In my case instead of a maths course, it was going to the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 on my own. I had to be brave. Because it was either go on my own or not go at all.

echt · 04/08/2023 22:28

Brad's confession made me laugh. His complete honesty in detailing every dreadful he'd said to Lynda. Priceless. I agree with the everything but the kitchen sink approach to possible ASD in Brad - not helpful in rounding out his character.

The PTS scene was well done. I took pics of our last dog when he had to be PTS and still look through them. He was scoffing a pig's ear at the end, given to distract him while his leg was shaved for the cannula.

JanglyBeads · 04/08/2023 23:05

Is that the first time we've had an animal
PTS on TA. I think possibly there's been farm animals but not pets, not "on air".

RegimentalSturgeon · 04/08/2023 23:44

It doesn’t feel forced, @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime , so much as cheap and nasty. This has been a particularly poorly written week. But then Grundy japes leave me cold, and so do repellent teenage girls. I was a bit surprised at Weaver meeting his Waterloo (Cup), because I don’t yet see any point in it. Whereas if it had been the ubiquitous bloody Bess, well…. Dear ickle fragile Ben would have been carted off to the nearest bin for good. Bring. That. On.

Poppins2016 · 05/08/2023 01:13

Oh Weaver. I'm feeling pretty hormonal at the moment and that completely tipped me over the edge earlier. They did that part of the episode well.

I disliked Eddie and Brad. I'm also not enjoying Brad's unsubtle personality change.

SequentialAnalyst · 05/08/2023 02:05

It seems I am not believed.

BeatriceBatchelor · 05/08/2023 07:36

Well, that was cruel and unnecessary

Agreed. I adore greyhounds and wish Weaver could have had many happy years after being rescued.

AlexCabot · 05/08/2023 07:36

I had to turn off as the PTS scene was a little too close to home for me right now.

Did I miss anything important?

BeatriceBatchelor · 05/08/2023 07:39

And I'm so sick of the word "racist" being thrown around. If Tom were a racist he wouldn't have wanted Adil on the team. He would've actively shunned him. Tom's just a prat.

Original poster
Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 05/08/2023 07:53

SequentialAnalyst · 05/08/2023 02:05

It seems I am not believed.

I believe you, @SequentialAnalyst, and I value your input on this storyline. I've thought from Brad's first appearance that they were probably building up to an autism storyline. I have a close family member on the spectrum and Brad has always rung true to me.

Weaver Sad. I can't keep up with who's posting here and who's retreated to Spoilers only, but this is from @Gonners on Spoilers (not a spoiler) and made me laugh.

Poor Weaver. I think I must have got something in my eye when Stella opened the photos. But I did recover quickly enough when Ruth piped up. Why didn't she hang on to the lead? Then she could have been dragged under too.

@AlexCabot, did you miss anything important? Well, there was a shocker in the closing seconds where Rob let himself down on a rope from a helicopter hovering above Bridge Farm and snatched both Jack and Henry, making off to the accompaniment of all the Bridge Farm Archers aiming at him with their shotguns, cheeses, new season potatoes etc.. Odd that no one else has commented on it ... Grin

OP posts:
Chemenger · 05/08/2023 08:43

That was harrowing. Unfortunately I had just read a text from a family member to say their dog had died and was listening to TA for light relief. I’d forgotten all about Weaver. Run free at the Rainbow Bridge both of them.

BerylBillings · 05/08/2023 08:55

@AlexCabot, did you miss anything important? Well, there was a shocker in the closing seconds where Rob let himself down on a rope from a helicopter hovering above Bridge Farm and snatched both Jack and Henry, making off to the accompaniment of all the Bridge Farm Archers aiming at him with their shotguns, cheeses, new season potatoes etc.. Odd that no one else has commented on it ... 😆

Brilliant, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g !

Very poignant scenes re Weaver. I'm sure he was also a WonderDog like your good self.

Ginmonkeyagain · 05/08/2023 08:56

On the cheese branding It can be common for small breweries to provide generic ish lager or ale to pubs or shops to be branded - eg Ye Olde Kings Head pub ale. But that tends to be done in collaboration with the buyer not sold to them as an exclusive and the kabelli g has to be clear. .

You also get "specially made for" beers - recently we were on the Eurostar and they were selling cans of beer that had been brewed for them by a local Kings X based brewery.

BerylBillings · 05/08/2023 09:13

I seem to remember ASC speculation re Jakob the vet, when he arrived on the scene several years ago.

But I then had a long hiatus in regular listening, so never learned any more.