Archers thread #152: The Dog Days of Summer in Ambridge! Rabid rants, tearoom dogfight, Bully Dog George gets it all on camera. Is Lone wolf Rob waiting in the woods? 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'd love a son like George, 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.)

Starting this new thread a bit early, as we're near the end of the last thread and I'm out all day today. As last night's episode was a banger, I thought I'd better ensure discussion can continue seamlessly!

The original idea for a dog theme for this thread came from the death of poor Weaver. RIP. The Dog Days of summer are associated with storms and the silly season, so quite appropriate for The Archers at the moment! They may technically be over now, as it's all to do with the heliacal rising of the Dog Star, Sirius (no, me neither), but apparently the Anglo-Saxons considered they lasted into September (thank you, Wikipedia), so that will do for me.

So - what next for Helen, Henry and Jack? Surely even the Bridge Farm Archers will see that she needs professional help? After her outburst the other night they might finally grasp that Henry could do with some too. All very grim.

On the lighter side (perhaps), whither Pip and Stella?

Over to you!

Yes anyone who was glancing at their phone (and we all do a lot of that these days) and follows #bridgefarmambridge #borchesterblue (and Ron will be!) could have seen it - and potentially downloaded it.

All this talk of Grundy's. Yes definitely look to Joe and Eddie to blame for terrible role modelling. I can't stand Eddie always on the take and running a scam. If he put as much effort getting reliable work they would be much better off. I really don't enjoy the patronising comic relief of the rustics.

I hate the way eddie treats clarrie. She has the patience of a saint

the Neil Oliver conversation about George implied Oliver is aware of George’s limitations

Pretty sure they said it was on the "Bridge Fresh feed". He definitely said he was opening the app to look at it. Now I dunno if this is the Bridge Fresh app (think they have one?) or maybe "the app" was Instagram and he was opening the BF page on it - possibly the latter as he said they had some comments on it. But either way it wasn't George's social media he was looking at, it was the business's. George definitely will have the admin rights, but I don't know why Tom didn't delete it himself assuming he does too? Maybe only Helen does and he didn't want to tell her, or maybe he meant George to take down the video and delete it (i.e. not post it on Youtube etc) at the same time. Not sure how far it is from wherever Tom and Natasha were to George's house but not far by the sound of it.

Quick question- totally random but I saw a trailer of sheep being pulled along the motorway just now. Why do the Grundies keep the Texans? Will they eventually eat them or is it simply for fun and to keep the grass down?

Dunno but I think it's Texels? Love the idea of them in big hats though.

I'm VERY unclear on the Grundy's actual farming activities. They clearly have the room but don't seem to do much of it.

But if it was put on George’s own SM there would have been no need for the SWs to establish over several months that George was doing stuff for Bridge Farm. Surely the point is that he only had admin access to their SM because they allowed him to?

I could be wrong of course! But it seemed a very singular and deliberate SW thing to have George Grundy interacting with Bridge Farm.

Definitely a Texel, not a Texan! They originate from the island of Texel on the north eastern top of the Netherlands Pronounced either tek-suhl or tes-suhl in Dutch (both are correct, regional variation).

Square sturdy sheep so they don't get blown away in the windy flat landscape. Usually kept for meat, but yes we've not heard much about the abattoir business recently.

Thanks @Agapornis good sheep knowledge! I don't have any sheep knowledge but I do like the way the Grundies say "ramlamb".

I now have an image of a sheep sporting a ten gallon hat and a six shooter on each hip. Called JR.

Did anyone hear the actor who plays George's real accent come through when he was shouting at Helen?

I always add “a ding dong” in my head afterwards though

I've been listening to the Archers since I was about 9 & stuck in my room on a rainy family holiday in Clacton in the early 1970s. The chalet we were staying in had a radio in one of the bedrooms & I tuned in to Radio 4. I've listened almost constantly since (well a few years off during misspent teen years).
I now listen to the podcast each morning while I'm in the shower 😁.

Who is 'Ron' that some people have referred to?

Ron was my autocorrect for Rob and some (?) of us liked it as it takes away some of his scariness/ power, so we kept it.

(I think I need this as a pinned post!)

Oh I've been in the garden too long. Neil Oliver on TA? No, he does Coast! Grundeys eating texans? 🐑🐑Baa humbug!

I see your point but am pretty sure Tom would have been able to take it down if that were the case.

Was it just a slightly clumsy way for the SWs to show that he had the tech know how, maybe?

When I was 11 I spent a week on a farm somewhere in Kent. The trip was arranged as part of a scheme to allow schoolchildren from East London to gain some knowledge of the countryside. I remember we attended some kind of country show and some members of the Archers cast were in attendance. I got an autograph from someone but unfortunately have no idea who it was - I didn’t listen to the show back then and only asked for an autograph because I noticed people were! Anyway whoever it was (I remember a woman with a very hearty laugh so I’ve decided it was Lilian) made me promise I’d listen in the future. It was another 10 years before I became an avid listener but I’ve never forgotten that country show!

😉

Thank you for the Texan/Texel correction! Lovely picture! I just imagined they were big fat pedigree American sheep that Ed liked for a slightly quirky reason. Funny how the brain fills in the gaps on its own. I will still call them the Texans though…

We are literally romping through this thread! It’s a rattling good read at the moment - blink and you end up three pages behind!

On the subject of the Grundy clan, I saw this picture in the Guardian...

😂
Thought I'd missed a whole other baddie!

Now I have images of lots of Shauns having shoot outs at dawn! 🤣🤣🤣

I had assumed George had posted it on his own Instagram or TikTok and perhaps tagged Bridge farm in someway (although less likely TikTok as can't image Tom being on that one 😆). Perhaps he has settings on insta to auto share to FB as well so quite likely he may have added Tom to his friends list on one of of those. So wouldn't even necessarily need any hashtags, Tom could have just seen it whilst absent mindedly scrolling newsfeed as you do.

If he'd posted it actually on Bridge Farm own site or Instagram page that just seems so unbelievably stupid! My feeling after the episode was that all the Bridge farm promo stuff was just to demonstrate that he knows a bit about making and editing social media type videos so it follows on that his first reaction to Helen's showdown in the tea room was to get his phone out and start filming. Then within no time, he's knocked up a heavily edited reel mocking her and posted it to get his revenge on being publicly told off by a woman.