Archers thread #153: Total & absolute rubbish, but we keep on listening hoping for better things. It’s the hope that kills you! 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 a modern country house hotel really would employ an AmDram director to arrange a high profile Gala Ball, 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! (New thread imminent, by the way. I'll put the link to the new thread at the end of the old one.)

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 @FiveShelties and @TherapistInATabard for their comments on the last thread, which just screamed New Thread Title! at me. I was also strongly tempted to reuse one of the best titles ever:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/2611087-The-Archers-We-Listen-So-You-Dont-Have-To

Anyway. I suppose it's not all dross. We were discussing on the last thread what Brad and Mia might be planning to do next, given they're both moving into their A level years, and the education nerds amongst us are hoping they don't both end up at the University of Felpersham. They are rather sweet together, whereas most of us have been unable to observe any sort of spark between Pip and Stella.

Still waiting for Rob, or Ron as many on this thread have decided to name him. Will he next be in Ambridge before or after Lee? Will anyone have noticed by then that Helen is running instead of eating again? Will Pat's shotgun make another appearance?

And there's always the hope that Grey Gables will go bust before it re-opens, and we will finally discover who The Owners are. Some optimists on the last thread had decided maybe Matt Crawford might be involved, which I concede would be good. Might see stuffy Justin off and get Pusscat back with Tiger where she belongs.

Over to you!

Oh blimey Gaspode, That's a bleak thread title!

Lololol - great thread title!

Good title

Not so much bleak as resigned and self-mocking, I'd say! On the odd occasion Mr Gasp has an episode inflicted on him, I do find myself wondering why on earth I have this 40+ year addiction, but I do. Can't see myself ever kicking the habit.

Just wanted to thank everyone again for all your kind posts on the last thread. Don't want to make this all about me, but by the time this thread is over*, we'll have had the funeral, which isn't till the end of next week. We're chugging along all right here, for the most part.

*Barring some Rob-related shenanigans or another outburst from George, I suppose.

Hope you're doing OK @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g I found the in between bit really odd - slightly lost track of the days, all very discombobulating...

Mine is also a 40 year addiction, and I also wonder Why? Comfy habit I think, plus it doesn't demand much effort or time from me. And from time to time it delivers.

I have fallen by the wayside somewhat with The Archers but used to listen avidly. Now I tune in if I can and don't bother to catch up on iplayer. Is it weird that I've gotten less addicted as I age?!

I remember a Radio 4 comedy programme years ago where one of the panellists said they still keep a rose by the radio for Grace Archer. He got a huge laugh so I think a lot of the audience recognised themselves!

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

On the odd occasion Mr Gasp has an episode inflicted on him, I do find myself wondering why on earth I have this 40+ year addiction, but I do.

My mother would give me A Look if she chanced to overhear me listening, as it were. One does see her point

Thank you for the new thread. Glad to hear you and your mother are chugging along

Thanks for the thread and glad you are bearing up. Good luck for the coming weeks

Thank you, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g; heroic effort on your part. I’m glad to hear you’re bearing up - and hope you have this wondrous weather where you are.

I guess poor Helen will have to be reiterating all the warnings to the school staff as Henry and Jack start the new school year. That’ll be fun …

Amazing to be starting another new thread already! Thanks so much @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Thanks Gasp. So sorry you’re going through such a horrid time, I hope you’re able to get out and feel the breeze (if any) in your face. That always helps me anyway.

I found the post coital chat between Brad and Mia utterly excruciating.

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
Hope the threads are providing some distraction from this awful in- between time. X

Well! Thank you for this great honour, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g . This is the second time I’ve inspired a thread title, the first being ‘Soak Ambridge to the core’ after the Great Flood. I impressed myself with that one, but this one is just bleak 😩😂

Thanks, gaspode! Thinking of you.

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

I do hope that Tom is going to hear from Natasha about the rejected casserole and the obsessive running and put two and two together. And indeed that Natasha gets involved - when she puts her mind to helping she can be very practical and sensible.

Won’t pat twig when Natasha returns the dish?

On the noblesse oblige idea which we started to consider at the end of the last thread: why does Oliver always seem to want to financially support the Grundys? I can’t see what’s in it for him - not even respect or kindness half the time?

@LardoBurrows, ref your last, I’m so sorry for what you and your family went through, I can’t imagine how awful that must have been. I bristled a bit at the resilience comment for my own reasons and wondered if I was being oversensitive, but your apology was elegant and thoughtful. Thank you.

Oliver may be overcompensating for feeling guilty (with no reason at all) about buying Grange Farm after Eddie and Joe were evicted for failing to pay the rent. Eddie blamed Oliver, which was totally illogical, as it was Simon Pemberton, the landowner, who made the decision. Oliver bought the farm with no idea about the background. Eddie and Joe made a great deal of the long, long history of the Grundy family at Grange Farm and Oliver appears to have fallen for it. Numpty.

the whole Stella Pip thing is really badly written. The compare and contrast with Mia and Brad and then Mia ‘convincing’ Stella. And the fact Stella doesn’t sound 20 years older than pip. And the whole thanking conversation. It’s such poor writing.

Is it beyond bens imagination to go and visit sykesy regularly?

Thanks for the thread @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

The 'post coital chat' was possibly excruciating because we've all been there and it was pretty accurate (at least ime). Whoever is writing for the teens is doing a better job than a couple of years ago when they sounded a bit like a dad trying to be cool.

OTOH the Pip and Stella storyline is getting more and more ridiculous.

Thanks Gaspode for the thread.

I started my teaching career in a working class town in the North East of England with a fair number of pupils from Brad's kind of background. I was very upset by the experience I had with a hugely intelligent and inquisitive pupil whom I saw through GCSEs and A Levels, and I was also her form tutor for sixth form. As a recent Oxford graduate from a state school myself, and having volunteered at several widening access summer schools, I knew she would be an ideal Oxbridge candidate. But she and her family flatly refused to consider it. She would only look at universities where she could stay living at home. And she ended up doing a vocational course leading to one particular career and way below her abilities. It wasn't a bad course, but she could have gone into the same profession, if she had her heart set on it, with a postgraduate diploma after a more academic first degree. But the only way she was ever going to go to university at all was if she were training for a job for life, not to fanny around reading for the love of it and earning nothing. She wasn't the only one, but she was the most pronounced case.

Over the years, the thing that has struck me is that many families have no idea about the differences between universities, none at all. And it goes both ways: they sometimes encourage people with absolutely no chance to apply for Oxbridge, like kids who had 5s at GCSE (with no mitigating circumstances other than general life background). It was weird for me because I was almost the first generation of my family to go to university (one person had in the generation above, not a direct relative), but it was still in the air and just part of my upbringing that certain courses and universities were more prestigious than others, and more or less which they were.

Long way of saying: I don't think Brad applying for Oxbridge is realistic, although I would love to see it happen. The sixth form college might be the most supportive in the world, but if the aspiration isn't there from the family then it's very unlikely. Tracy wouldn't be openly hostile to it, in fact she'd be very proud of him, but I don't think she would suggest it to him or be in any way equipped to help him through the process.

Plus, if he were going to apply, we surely would have heard something about it by now, with all the airtime he's had recently. The college would have been advising him to get his application ready over the summer; with the October deadline it's not the sort of thing that should be decided on after the school year starts (although it frequently seems to be last minute with some pupils).