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!

Interesting that Miles acknowledges that his father was abusive but doesn't apparently think it's possible that Rob might have inherited any abusive traits, let alone that it's possible that Helen could have been abused. I wonder what he thought was happening to his mother?

isnt that what happens though? I don’t think he doesn’t believe that Rob is abusive. He just thinks it can be excused because he was abused by his father. he probably also considers that by stabbing him Helen was just as bad (I always hated that they decided to take the coercive control sl that way)

I hope the university visit with Tracy's over enthusiasm and Brad's cool response isn't leading up to him going to Felpersham - on the basis that he'd feel much more at home there and think of all the money he's save on accommodation? I thought he'd be a be a bit more worldly - didn't he do a residential maths course at a university in the school holidays (where he met another maths geek and later went on a date in Oxford)?
I'm finding the Knob finds God stuff excruciating. It's just not believable on any level - Miles' intervention, Alan's reaction - it all feels totally contrived (even more so than the conversion of Harrison Burns) and it doesn't chime with what we already know about his family and background, Bruce's objection to all things religious being chucked in for good measure in the hope that we'd all forgotten (as if!). It feels like the SWs are trying to shoehorn Knob back into Ambridge at a point where he should surely be at death's door so Alan could maybe do a bedside ministration at most or at any rate perform the said baptism in a far-flung church of the parish so no-one in in Ambridge need even know much less be witnesses to the whole pantomime. I'd rather have had Knob lurking outside the school in disguise with a cute puppy to lure Jack over - it would have been no less preposterous.

Sorry crossposted with @EmmasBirthdayEarrings there.

It drives me mad when MC writers of, typically BBC, dramas make sure the working class kids know they won’t fit in at the top institutions. How are we ever going to encourage social mobility with that message constantly being rammed down people’s throats

Lily's A-levels were Biology, German and English Literature.
@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime But she studied English IIRC, if she'd decided to study a biology subject, she'd be struggling for not having Chemistry A-level.

@EmmasBirthdayEarrings , courses for adults with limited education aren't really suitable for being done online. The courses are things like 'Functional English, Writing, Reading and Listening' or 'Computer literacy'. There are people with no access to a computer unless they go to find one.

I have done recent uni visits with dc. It very much struck a chord! We see it as a fun day out and an exciting new chapter. They are absolutely bricking it.

Delurking to express how cross the university stuff made me. Perhaps they don’t think there is an public service element for the Archers listening demographic in mentioning open day bursaries available for most universities, and living cost bursaries offered at many, but as they do exist, why torture a liked character by not letting him find out about them? Clearly his school would have mentioned this in their UCAS presentation.

And one look at a league table would have shown him that locallish Warwick is far higher rated for maths and would probably seem less alien too. Plus Coventry is fairly cheap to live in. And agree with pps - if he stays at Felperhsam and throws away his chance to caterpult himself into academia or a high paid job then I will sulk.

Sorry - a rather dyspeptic post.

SequentialAnalyst’s anecdote a few posts above yours

I doubt Rob knows that he’s abusive. He sees himself as a strong man guiding a young misguided woman. Educating her dress sense so she no longer dresses “like a tramp”, discouraging her contact with friends and family who are such a bad influence, etc.

Rob won’t consider himself abusive. I meant Miles.

Scots from all parts of the country wear kilts. My brother wore one in the family tartan to Dad's funeral and he's never lived north of Edinburgh.

I liked the fact that Jazzer and Tracy dressed up for the Open Day and are so openly excited and proud of Brad. I am hoping against hope that we are going to hear (or at a minimum, hear of) a conversation with the Prof where Brad can have his confidence boosted. I thought we were hearing more very strong hints that he's on the spectrum in last night's episode. Struggling to read a map while under stress leapt out at me.

(Also agree that the student guide's delivery was very actorish.)

I'd rather have had Knob lurking outside the school in disguise with a cute puppy to lure Jack over

I just misread that as 'in disguise as a cute puppy', Lillian 😅The notion of Rob joining the ranks of the furries on top of everything else is just too horrific to contemplate.

Sadly, I too am resigned to Brad enrolling at the world-renowned Uni of Felpersham.

I just don’t think the signposting of Brad being ND is being done well. Tbh I don’t believe it

(on the subject - I just read an excellent book with a character who is ND but we’re never told and I found it a very interesting read)

And why do we believe Miles that there father was abusive?

We heard Bruce. We also heard Ursula. Both absolutely vile. It would have been more surprising if Rob and Miles had turned out OK.

Perhaps in Archerworld Felpersham is meant to be Warwick? <clutches at straws>

I don’t see why we shouldn’t - it’s not unusual and I thought in the previous incarnation of the SL we were given that strong impression

i Also don’t see why we should dismiss miles completely - he clearly has issues and his position is complex. He doesn’t strike me as having the self confidence or narcissism as rob

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g Wearing a kilt to a wedding or funeral is normal as it is formal attire, I don't believe there are many Glaswegian parents who would wear a kilt to a University Open day.

I should have said for Glaswegians it is formal attire, obviously they are worn more generally in other parts of Scotland.

The psycho Rob can't be lying, because his possibly psycho brother says so.

The Glasgow Highlandmen are the real deal!

@Revengeofthepangolins - perhaps Brad will confess that he knows about their relative rankings but is hoping for Durham precisely because it’s further away, so there’d be less chance of his lovable but loud family inserting themselves into the picture?

@Teddleshon, have a heart! You may know this, but Tracy and Jazzer don't. All they care about is making sure they support Brad, and making sure they don't show him up! Of course, they want to look their best And it's not as if Tracy was wearing a long white dress. My own wedding dress was a lovely "ordinary" blue dress, and I've still got it. It also served as a maternity dress at times, during my two pregnancies.

The people at Durham University would not bat an eyelid at someone in a kilt. Why would they?

Sadly, I too am resigned to Brad enrolling at the world-renowned Uni of Felpersham.

I'm beginning to worry that he won't even do that - he'll either decide he must be wherever Mere is, or that it's his duty to go out and get a job because the family needs the money, or something equally daft.