Archers thread #154: Cider with Fat Rosie, Meadow Rise to Candleford or The Darling Horrobins of September? Get your rural saga fix – 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 be euphoric about getting a job in an abattoir, 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 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4888492-the-archers-spoilers-thread-8-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 for the thread title suggestions. @HumanWetWipe came up with Cider with Fat Rosie and @BeardieWeirdie thought up Meadow Rise to Candleford. I wish I could have put in the Line of Duty mashups from the end of the last thread. Another time.

Heading for a ferry shortly, so nothing more from me for now. Over to you!

An excellent, sensible, plausible suggestion, which I confidently expect to be very different indeed from the SWs' chosen course for this storyline, unfortunately.

I guess it could be either. But I think we would have heard a lot more whinging from George if she were hanging out with him and his mates at Borchester College, or even with the others in Felpersham. And English GCSE, even English literature (which Emma appears to be mistakenly believing will help her up the career ladder) would be a lot more popular with adults than Art A Level, so I would think there would be enough interest to run an adults' only class.

TBF @fink all entry level jobs now appear to need 5 GCSE's to include maths and english - eldest DSD flunked maths twice and we were pulling out hair out because the lack of it shuts so much. Happily she got it third time lucky and is just about to start training for her dream job so all's well that ends well! But maybe Emma is working up to getting a full set of "core" GCSEs if that makes sense, hence the English Lit...

I don't think we'll see an AIBU? over name stealing but you never know

I am definitely NOT volunteering to post this one @HumanWetWipe I've learnt my lesson... 👀

sets up throwaway email account, spoof posts with abandon, runs away cackling like Eddie's witch

Possibly. But if she's going to resit GCSEs one at a time until she's got 5 that's a very long process and doesn't sound like it would be the most efficient way for her to improve her job prospects. She should really have spoken to someone professional who could actually guide her as to what would work for her rather than just deciding that she'd always liked reading when she was younger so English Lit was going to be her route out of dead-end jobs.

So FE colleges/job centres not have career advisors who can help with basic questions like ‘what do I need to improve my career prospects?’

Are any other than Maths and English Lang. compulsory at GCSE? A science would be useful. Food Technology and Computer Science might help with job prospects.

@Bruisername , in my day they did, but the advisors were not very good.
My college days are a distant memory but job centres are there to get you any job not a career.

From my school/college experience, the advisors were people who had been through the education system and into a role in education, so had only a limited knowledge of what was actually involved. Still, I'd have expected Emma to have been guided towards a foundation or access course not a GCSE.

Emmur probably didn't seek guidance from a careers adviser though. Regarding jobs, she has experience but she needs business experience.

That sounds like a design flaw at the job centre - encouraging the right very basic qualifications is surely the way to help employment

agree career counsellors can be rubbish - the one at my school certainly was!! But I would have thought an FE college has an incentive to get you in and doing the ‘right’ courses. It doesn’t feel like they are very professional places!

Sorry to jump into the discussion and sorry if it's been mentioned but is that a new Toby?!

Also how old is Stella and Pip meant to be?

I haven't been to a job centre in decades, but I did the job club. It was useful and positive but the idea was to get a job without delay. They won't have the resource to look into careers, they're there to get you off benefits. It would be great if they could do what career consultants do, but many of their clients will not be looking at careers.

Schools careers advice was worse than useless. I think that they should have been discussing careers long before we were filling in UCCA forms.

@PronounsBaby , Stella is about 45, Pip is 30. Toby is the same Toby actor.

You can find more information on the characters here BBC Radio 4 - The Archers - Who's who. The cast list for each week is on the Spoilers thread, which is linked in the OP.

@HumanWetWipe thank you!

You're welcome. It was discussed either upthread or in previous threads how old Stella is, but I don't think her actual age was established. Sometimes actors are not recorded in the studio, which might explain them sounding slightly different. Someone else explained it better.

Business studies might have been more useful than English Literature.

She really enjoyed it and was a bit of a celebrity in the class. She passed and a few years later she started a part time degree in botanical illustration but the onset of Alzheimers sapped her confidence (we didn't realise that's what it was at the time) and she dropped it.

Have we had any indication as to what the other 5 of Susan's 6 At 60 will be? Sky-diving? Becoming a life drawing model a la Joy's efforts a few years ago? Burlesque performance?

I think Toby the other day was recorded somewhere else. Either that or a really weird placement in the studio! He and Pip sounded like they weren't in the same place.

It's amazing how brilliantly our ears can pick up subtle differences.

I reckon it'll be shag 5 of the neighbours.

Brian, Harrison, Alan, Ruairi, Rob?

I'm sorry to hear the end of that story. What a shame.

Somebody said
So I would expect the tutor to have chosen, from the texts available, the ones best suited to adult learners without many qualifications. And to teach the texts in an order which maybe starts with the most accessible.

If you want to teach Shakespeare - and IMHO everyone should know some Shakespeare - then MacBeth is about as accessible as they come. A few good parts for women, as well.

Much better (and fewer cliches from popular culture to contend with) to start with MacBeth that rather than A Midsummer Night's Dream, or Romeo and Juliet.

Well, I finally got round to listening to Lark Rise to Ambridge. I really enjoyed it. Far better than TA at the moment. I look forward to the second part. It may or may not help that I haven't read the book, and I've never seen or heard any adaptation of it before.

I enjoyed it too @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - a nice light listen while I was cooking dinner.

I think it makes sense for Emma to do English lit. It's the subject she's most comfortable with, and it will give her experience of planning study, revision and exam technique. If she passes she'll be in a good place to tackle a more career orientated qualification.