Archers thread #157: How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless clan! Discuss The Grundys here. Bicker about The Archers as well if you like.

[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, 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.)

Thanks to @OverArmour for the idea of making it clear in the title many of us are inveterate bickerers!

Now over to you, as we are about to eat and I won't hear tonight's offering till later ....

When using smartphones, however, it is now much, much easier than it used to be to render diacritic marks. So many fewer people have your excuse these days. My friend who has a ü in her name is much less tolerant of it being ignored than she used to be.

I’m sure there will be more about Ron - if it ends like this it would be very odd

@KingsleyBorder , given that I actually do use them, you saying 'your excuse' seems a bit unfair.

But that was where all this started- my point is that this is the BBC, it’s a really easy one that the character could have got right without it sounding incorrect for her level of knowledge, they could easily have checked the pronounciation and that is why it pisses me off as they have now caused a whole load more people to get it wrong!

”the excuse that you put forward on behalf of those less diligent than yourself” then?

I really can’t get my knickers in a twist about it - perhaps they are trying to make her look pretentious and tom and Emma un knowledgeable because they just copied her

pedantry around pronounciation and spelling is a sure fire way to make people stop trying and we have enough issues in this country around learning languages

I think you meant pronunciation, @Bruisername
I'm off to untwist my knickers

Not just you @ThereIbledit - it feels very unfinished IYSWIM? a total anti-climax. Perhaps there will be post-funeral will drama... Hellin will probably insist on going to his send off.

I am presuming that Lee will not return seeing he's now in Coronation Street (or another soap, I can't quite remember if Corrie is accurate). TBH, I wouldn't mind a break from Hellin for a while.

That was an auto correct and I left it as an Easter egg!

you can see I am quite lax about these things

i wouldn’t imagine Rob to be more than a passing comment but he will have had an impact on the boys which will unravel as they grow

@Bruisername , 😀

I think this episode might be a classic example of an idea going over the heads of the writer.

The "cauliflower eclair" was probably intended to be a gougère, stuffed with cauliflower cheese and the "kale croissant" a standard (wholesale) croissant stuffed with a bechamel flavoured with cheese and wilted kale and topped with cheese (there used to be a baguette/croissant shop at my London station that shifted a lot of spinach and mushroom filled ones).

I took it to mean that Tom had a glut of kale and cauliflower, and had heard of kale croissants and cauliflower in choux pastry, but the ideas had been misinterpreted by him.

Fallon should have point blank refused to attempt to make them. Croissants take an age to make, and it was pretty obvious that it wasn't going to be a success. Cauliflower and chocolate do not seem to complement each other.
She could have suggested alternatives, but I doubt that Tom would have listened.

I enjoyed it. The upshot is that Tom is clueless and overrides Fallon's expertise.

Today thanks to this thread I found out about gougère and now I want a bucket full with a glass of prosecco, please.

It’s a tricky one. They may have tasted terrible but at least they didn’t call them exclairs or croinsants.

I wonder if she sell pay no chocolates

Tom is supposed to be the owner of a high-end organic food business, married to a woman who runs a highly praised (award-winning?) boutique juice business and is some sort of hotshot, apparently. They both got onto a coveted scheme for business owners iirc. Basically, they are food professionals. They propose to run a café/tearoom and make a roaring success of it.

Yet he behaves as though he’s never done any research, never picked up a trade magazine, never looked on the internet, never watched a cookery programme on television, never noticed what his own mother, wife, or indeed his own self cooks or eats. Possibly he’s never been into a bakery or restaurant, on yesterday’s showing.

It was completely ludicrous and I can only suppose they’re gearing up to Fallon losing her rag - not unreasonably - and storming out. She really ought to.

Annoyingly, cauliflower continues to be fashionable. I can’t understand why. Maybe Tom’s twists on the classics would be snapped up in Borough Market but Gen Z on a Saturday morning but no one in Ambridge was ever going to be interested- except possibly Kate who would enjoy their point of difference. Yes, why isn’t Natasha buzzing round with a clipboard doing market research?!?

Choux buns with a savoury/cheesy centre and no chocolate would be fine but that’s not what Tom was going for…

@EmmasBirthdayEarrings they could stick in some of the surplus Borcetshire Blue for the cheesy centre!

Thing is, I could totally imagine Tom picking up that cauliflower and kale are where it's at in the trendy urban eateries. You know, the sort of shop where you're served your overpriced cold-brew slow-drip coffee by someone with a man bun and deck shoes who came to work on a vintage unicycle.

So he's tried to replicate that in Ambridge, thinking it will make them edgy and modern and him a rural Blumenthal. As opposed to someone who wouldn't know how to make pastry if you slapped him with it, and therefore wouldn't know that putting damp leaves in - as he instructed Fallon to do - would wreck the structure completely.

As ever, Tom's arrogantly self-proclaimed business-hot-shot Mr Big Boss status gets right on my tits. And even if Fallon had managed to make his ideas work, no doubt he'd have been lambasting the residents of Ambridge for not being sophisticated enough to appreciate his vision. Because who really wants a cauliflower chocolate éclair? <boak>

Also, would she really have all that dough kept out back? Is she regularly serving eclairs? I didn’t really get that vibe from the tea room

A cauliflower cheese gougere is yum

Also, would she really have all that dough kept out back? Is she regularly serving eclairs? I didn’t really get that vibe from the tea room

Fallon would have no problem quickly knocking up the choux. It’s pretty quick and easy. I wouldn’t surprised if the teashop’s eclairs err on the heavy side when Emma is making them though. Best leave her to the flapjacks and brownies.

But Tom said - I know you have the dough out back. I would expect her to make things like that fresh (as you say would be no trouble for her although irritating as she should have ingredients carefully costed so wouldn’t have spare to knock up his crap)

i always imagined the tea room being more tea cakes and loaf cakes and brownies than patisserie. And does she do her eclairs with creme patissier or whipped cream. The answer would influence whether I would go or not

Hang on - if they don’t take over until today why didn’t she just tell him, kindly, to come back tomorrow but she wasn’t jeopardising today’s profit. She should then have done a full stock take of everything that was hers and agreed a price for it all (or take it home and make stuff to sell elsewhere)

Hear hear! Or perhaps here here…