Archers thread #155: Cold Comfort Farms! The rural sagas continue. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

FILL THE OLD THREAD UP FIRST! https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4902507-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?page=10

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 like to hear more scenes in the 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 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.)

Lots of lively discussion about Brad's university aspirations and the Open Day on the last thread. Do you want him to end up at Felpersham or do you want him to spread his wings and go further afield? Where will Mia go?

Will this thread see the end of Rob, or do we have many weeks more before his long overdue demise?

What's going on at Grey Gables? Are they running into financial trouble? Will we hear from Roy, who I had forgotten was working there until he was mentioned the other day? Who are the mysterious 'Owners'? Will the locum GP turn out to be Adil's sister, as we have been surmising since she first spoke? Why's she been conjured up?

Talking of the GP, I'm hoping against hope we're not in for bad news about Jim's mole.

Praying that we're going to get a long and much-needed break from hearing P*p. Not praying that we hear Rob being christened. Who would be his sponsor, as someone commented on the last thread? Harrison? Surely that would be a conflict of interest. Can't see who else would do it locally.

I wonder how Ben is getting on now he's back on his nursing degree? Will we ever hear anything about Lily's course, or how Freddie's getting on at the abattoir?

So many questions! Over to you for some answers and boundless speculation.

Modern Foreign Languages

Kathy resurfaced only for a final goodbye and isn't coming back.

That was my (clearly poorly expressed!) point, @Passepartoute - I’m slightly worried that Usha has only reappeared because she’s being written out.

It does get quite dull for the teacher, and quite often for the class. Because they don't study them in any greater depth than you would for English A Level, so you spend over a year studying just two texts (not every lesson, thank goodness), of which a substantial chunk is just checking that the students are actually able to read and understand the surface level meaning of the book. It doesn't even have to be two texts, there are various options to do one text and one something else (film or historical topic). As a newly-qualified teacher I made the mistake of trying to read the whole text out loud in class, because they just didn't understand when reading alone. Never again. It took until Christmas to get about 50 pages in.

It's to distinguish him from Augustine of Canterbury. His Latin name is Augustinus Hipponensis, which is even funnier. Sadly it's hardly ever used because he's much more famous and so just Augustine by itself would be understood to refer to him. The actual place is called Royal Hippo (Hippo Regius), again because there was more than one town called Hippo. I like to think of it being the equivalent of Royal Tunbridge Wells, whose residents do often like to insist on the Royal!

I'm certainly not patronising Emma. I'm sure she's as capable as the next (fictional) woman of reading more than one book at a time. I'm more bemused by the SWs deciding to throw all etablished practice of how GCSE English lit is taught out of the window by having her study three texts at once (and she definitely did say 'we' for Dickens, so it is three, not two), presumably for some necessity to keep the SW moving fast(ish). I am eager to see whether her course is ever mentioned again after this term, given that she won't have any new texts to discuss for the rest of the year. I mean, in one respect it would be quite realistic for any teachers or parents of teens to hear the texts repeatedly come back during revision season, ad nauseam, and perhaps the SWs could have fun with increasingly outlandish interpretations ... but I can't see it making the best radio!

I don't know what happened there - my post marked at 16.05 was actually posted at 14.15, but it's now appearing out of sequence and the thread has clearly moved on since then. Apologies, I'm not trying to rehash settled points! Maybe my internet connection dropped out on the phone.

Sorry @Fink no offence meant

x-post!

Maybe Pat will shoot him but it'll be masked by the noise of the fireworks...

(Seems a little far fetched, I suppose...)

I don’t think I could bear it if we end up with another trial

Me too. They've changed her character. She's not that dim/gullible and I find the storyline literally unbelievable.

My theory is that Emma is literally giddy with joy at no longer living in close proximity with the gruesome George and she's set up a whole new life with lots of white wine and novels and who knows what else, lovely candles maybe. In other words she's just going through a phase of sheer relief and it's making her sound a bit enthusiastic/silly (depending on your feeling).

I'm just really happy to hear her doing anything that isn't worrying about a male member of her family or money.

Maybe we could have something similar to what happened with Nic's deathbed confession. Rob is found dead and or he simply disappears and only we and the killer and probably one other Ambridge resident know that Pat shot him and rolled the body into the poo lagoon.

Or fed him to the pigs

I’m hoping he goes for someone maybe Usha, and she outwits him, calls the police .

The darkness of these threads knows no bounds...

I think they're unmatched for the combination of specialist knowledge (churches, linguistics, cows) and dark imaginings.

I think the most realistic is that he causes a bit of turmoil and then dies and then miles and Bruce make a fuss and then we forget all about

i detested the nic death scene and the stupid Matt Crawford hit and run. Really couldn’t care less who had done it

The odd thing is that I really don't like The Wicker Man film. Haven't seen the remake. Only watched the original because I really like Edward Woodward, but that's because of Callan. It's a preposterous film. I just want an end to Rob.

I really want to go to an Academic Archers conference. I've never plucked up the courage but maybe next year is the time. They really do seem (from the pov of someone who's never been!) to be a place of properly specialist knowledge and fun. Probably dark imaginings too.

Me too @Fink

Oh I hope not @TottersBlanklyIntoBimboCore
its lovely to hear her voice of reason after so much drivel from Pip etc & Emmers voice is really grating on me lately. Oh dear I’m beginning to sound like one of those moany, dreary characters myself 🤐

I'm so glad someone else feels that way about The Wicker Man! I saw it many, many years ago, in what was for some reason a double bill with something else. Back in the day, the second film in a double bill was usually crap so my friends expected that to be the case and felt that it duly lived down to its billing. Years later when I realised that it was actually quite highly rated I tried watching again but my views didn't really change.

I'm unreasonably irritated by the way Emma talks about "Minnie" when she means money, and sadly she talks about money rather a lot.

I'll still keep her in preference to Pip any day, though.

I’ll take Emma over pip hounds down