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!

In my small, slightly down at heel, market town we have 4 independent cafes each with a unique character (and a Costa). They all seem to do quite well and appeal to different crowds.
My favourite is the one with tatty antique furniture for sale, really good cakes and reasonably priced lunches. If it was re-branded into a Daylesford-type place I'd stop going there.

Tom Hanks has just said he listens to The Archers when he's in the UK and it's fantastic! Goodness me. What exalted company we keep.

The suspicion Is that it has to do with the fact that her father is bipolar - i.e. it may be that Natasha is also but undiagnosed, and that her extravagance comes out when she is in an elevated or hypomanic phase. In fact, thinking about it, that could explain quite a lot - her sudden determination to dash around buying wallpaper, interview staff, produce contracts and get them signed etc all within the space of a few days might well be down to something like that.

Tearoom story is idiotic. I too want Fallon and perhaps Emma as well to go off and re-start in The Bull. They'd attract a steady flow of villagers and through traffic. There must be lots of silent residents who work from home nowadays rather then commuting to Brum or Felpersham or even London, which they may have done pre-pandemic. Give them a reliable wifi connection, quiet or no background music, decent clean loos, comfortable temperature and seating, clean non-wobbly table, convenient sockets, good, affordable coffee, tea and some decent simple food options, and you'd have guaranteed customers, surely. Put in place a sensible policy about requiring people to buy something every couple of hours or an all-day pass scheme (something like pay £x per day for unlimited refills, pastry first thing, soup/sandwich/fruit at lunchtime), and not allowing people to hog a table with a laptop at evenings and weekends when you'd be looking for the leisure trade.

Jolene and Kenton are getting on a bit now. Surely they might want to slow down and think about succession? We might even get a mention of Jamie Perks, who was at one point stated to have inherited a share in The Bull from his Dad, Jolene's previous husband Sid Perks, the landlord for decades. Jamie has been silent and totally unmentioned for years and years, however, and his mum Kathy, Sid's ex (displaced by Jolene after the antics in the shower) has left Ambridge, so this is a loose end the SWs will either have forgotten or decided to ignore, I should think.

It annoys me immensely that Kenton behaves as if he is the joint owner of The Bull simply by dint of being Jolene's partner, now husband. If she agreed to put his name on the deeds, why was it never mentioned on air? Did he put any money into the business? Answer, almost certainly no, as he's never had any money.

Natasha is deluded if she thinks she's going to make a lot of money out of a cafe in an out of the way spot charging well above the odds on the grounds of decor alone. Hasn't she heard we're in the middle of a cost of living crisis? The shop will suffer badly if footfall from the cafe drops off. Why don't the SWs take proper advice on stuff like this from experts?

I read somewhere that in today’s conditions, the level of food outlets (cafes, all day bars) should be around 25%.

try to keep both Fallon and Emma on (so her offering to Fallon to keep Emma as though it were an afterthought was completely bizarre) Isn’t that just sensible negotiating? Give away something of little value to yourself (because you were going to do it anyway) but is of large value to the other side?

Also, Lucy Perks - Sid's daughter by his deceased first wife Polly - did she get a share in The Bull as well? Can't remember.

I always felt terribly for Kathy. Where did she go?

Travelling? I don't know the backstory. Was the actress unwell or not keen on acting any more, given she was running Archers Addicts, or did one of the many Editors post Vanessa Whitburn just decide to sideline her? It was so odd during the Rob storyline that Pat's best friend Kathy was not only never there, but hardly even mentioned. Grey Gables was destroyed by explosion and its general manager, Kathy Perks, is not allowed on air to comment. Etc etc.

Another John Finnemore Archers sketch. Start at 16:08.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b088fg48

Thank you for the new thread, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g. Hope you’re doing ok?

Your tea room thoughts are gold. The SWs would be wise to take notice.

For once I had almost a whole week to catch up on - really wish I’d skipped the awkward drinks at the Bull …

Also, anyone following my link above - make sure to skip then to the very end of the episode for an extra little treat ...

Thanks, Totters - yes, I'm OK. Mum on better form by the time I finally came home.

She planned to put the deposit for a (n "aspirational") house on her credit card....

Thanks @Passepartoute and @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime - my memory was sketchy on that.

I don't think Lucy Perks has shares, IIRC, but Lilian is a major shareholder (50%?).

Kathy was mentioned during the sale of Grey Gables, she was re-introduced to the listener via the brilliant/awful mysterious Easter bunny that became some kind of pop-up social media star, (as you do). And we were all guessing who the silly mysterious Easter bunny was, and then it was revealed as Kathy. I've been listening for decades and honestly didn't have a clue who she was! Then I realised that whole storyline had been about re-introducing her in order to have her leave GG to go travelling....

Ah yes, I'd forgotten those details. Kathy used to be a major character. She went through a horrible rape storyline years ago. Before that, there was a lot of focus on her relationship with Sid and Lucy, then Jamie's birth, the running of the pub, Sid's affair with Jolene, a messy divorce, a new life working at Grey Gables, taking up with Kenton (bad move), breaking up with Kenton, constantly sitting in the kitchen at Bridge Farm with Pat, pouring her heart out, to the extent that Tony got very fed up ...

Kathy Perks spoke during the sale of Grey Gables, and locked the place for the last time at the end of the episode on 5th May, 2022. She then went off on 8th May for a year-long road-trip in Canada and America, after which she planned to sell April Cottage and buy a property in Hereford near her son Jamie, who moved there several years ago. I assume she must have been eaten by bears or something, because she has not come back to reclaim her house from Tom and Natasha; I wonder to whom they now pay their rent.

Before that she had last spoken on 23rd November 2015, evicting the Grundys from their prolonged stay at Grey Gables after the flood. I think Sean O'Connor may have disliked her; or perhaps he just found her potentially giving her best friend Pat some support through the Rob saga inconvenient, and silenced her.

Neither she nor Lucy Perks has any shares in The Bull; Lilian bought a 51% share of it from Caroline, who had inherited 33% from Guy Pemberton and then, when Sid and Jolene needed money for Kathy's divorce settlement, quite reasonably insisted on an increased shareholding in exchange for bailing them out. Kathy took her share of The Bull in cash then, and was not left any later.

https://ambridgereporter.org.uk/BullHistory.html

"In November 2000 Caroline Pemberton, who had inherited Guy's share in The Bull, was asked by Sid Perks and Jolene Rogers to buy a larger share in order to pay Kathy's divorce settlement, and in exchange for the £60,000 she put in to pay off Kathy she required a majority shareholding, 51%, instead of the 50% Sid had originally offered her. The Bull was then valued at £300,000." (This seems fair, since she already owned 30%, £100,000, and added £60,000 = £160,000, which was more than half The Bull's value at the time.)

Kenton is married to the part-owner and landlady of The Bull, Jolene; this doesn't mean he is the pub's landlord, any more than being married to Justin Elliott would have meant Lilian ran Damara Capital (if Justin had married her rather than "loving her too much to marry").

IIRC I thought the actress that played Kathy was quite ill and thus became a silent resident of Ambridge.

I think her husband had cancer (and eventually died of it) and that was why she gave up doing the Archers Addicts; I'm not sure she was ill herself. And I didn't get the impression she left The Archers because of anything wrong on her side. (And if she had, would she have been able to come back for a couple of weeks seven years later?)

This story definitely makes it look as if she'd been told they no longer wanted her: "ex Archers actress" rather than what other older members of the cast are, "Archers actress" even if they haven't spoken for a while like Lesley Saweard.

https://www.stratford-herald.com/whats-on/ex-archers-actress-supports-phoenix-players-9136411/

Speaking of odd inserts - I’m just catching up with the omnibus and just googled The Straw Crows as the way they were banging on all them made me think they were a real band and this was part of their publicity! All the laborious back story about Josh’s mate and them being played on Steve Lamacq… it was quite endearing but what an odd use of on air time

So Kathy and Jolene have both been in relationships with Sid and Kenton?

That's right. Kathy got quite upset about it at one point, the way Jolene seemed to ensnare Kathy's menfolk.

Yes, successively.

Sid married Polly. Daughter Lucy. While she was still very young, Polly died.
Lucy went to secondary school. Kathy was her form tutor, or taught her, anyway. Sid and Kathy got chummy. They married. Lucy was very unhappy about it. Kathy had an affair with a policeman, Dave something, and Sid threw her out. They reconciled, to Lucy's disgust, and went on to have Jamie. Kathy was 42. It was a surprise pregnancy but worked out all right.

Sid then had an affair with Jolene and he and Kathy divorced. Sid and Jolene married. Fallon thereby became Sid's stepdaughter, but she was an adult, so it wasn't too much of an issue. Lucy was long off the scene, having emigrated to New Zealand and married a student boyfriend.

Kathy got involved with Kenton, who made an effort to be some sort of stepfather to Jamie (although he and Kathy weren't married) but he was very feckless and eventually he moved out, or was chucked out, can't remember now.

Meanwhile, Jolene and Sid had gone to NZ to see Lucy and while out there Sid had a heart attack and died. Jolene was devastated but on her return to Ambridge she very soon found solace in Kenton. Kenton moved into The Bull and eventually they married. It seems to work all right. (Feels like ages since we last heard from Kenton.)

Very odd indeed, but there we are. Ambridge is an odd place.

I’m still traumatised by Sid and jolene in the shower

Urgh. Wasn't that Kenton and Jolene though?