Archers thread #160: Ram a lamb a ding dong! To rate the mass wisteria in Ambridge, tap the feedback tablet here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

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Thanks to @MerryChristmasToYou, @OverArmour and @LillianGish for the thread title ideas.

This week is a bit better than last week, but the Brad/Adil/Lily stuff is very odd. Coming up to the anniversary of Jennifer's death (22nd January last year). We need a new matriarch - could that be Natasha? I find her quite an interesting character. Sometimes she's awful and then she has moments as last night where she utterly redeems herself.

Over to you!

[HairScratcher]

Thanks!!

on Natasha, she has shown that she values Fallon and Emma before - I think she can just be a bit clueless sometimes

[LillianGish]

Thanks for the new thread - I see I manage to cross post so will repost here.
The whole point about Brad and Lily - and why he confided in Adil - is to thwart the inevitably of Adil and Lily getting together, in a series of amusing misunderstandings that will have us all rolling in the aisles this my thought. I think that's confirmed that Lily's surprise/disappointment when Oliver told her Adil was leaving was because she fancies him. Adil now has Lily marked as a sexual predator.
Last night felt like the remodelling of the tearoom is a metaphor for the remodelling of TA - the wisteria arch and the unfamiliar music standing in for the the disfigurement and disappearance of various familiar landmarks (and characters!). And the paid for publicity to "talk up" the changes with Natasha's acceptance that the staff (or the listeners) would grumble (so that's OK!)

[Alwaysdieting]

I wonder if Brad tells Mia about Lily will Mia start throwing firework bangers at her like she did out side The Bull. I think Mia is a bit dangerous like that.

[EBearhug]

@Alwaysdieting

I wonder if Brad tells Mia about Lily will Mia start throwing firework bangers at her like she did out side The Bull. I think Mia is a bit dangerous like that.

And then Lily will be utterly confused about why Mia is doing it, having only approached Brad to try and get info on why people are leaving LL. Mia will probably respond with, "you know why!"

[leftshark]

@LillianGish

Thanks for the new thread - I see I manage to cross post so will repost here.
The whole point about Brad and Lily - and why he confided in Adil - is to thwart the inevitably of Adil and Lily getting together, in a series of amusing misunderstandings that will have us all rolling in the aisles this my thought. I think that's confirmed that Lily's surprise/disappointment when Oliver told her Adil was leaving was because she fancies him. Adil now has Lily marked as a sexual predator.
Last night felt like the remodelling of the tearoom is a metaphor for the remodelling of TA - the wisteria arch and the unfamiliar music standing in for the the disfigurement and disappearance of various familiar landmarks (and characters!). And the paid for publicity to "talk up" the changes with Natasha's acceptance that the staff (or the listeners) would grumble (so that's OK!)

Edited

@LillianGish i was about to c&p this from the old thread - I love this analysis 👏
ATM I can’t say I credit the sw with that much depth of thought so I’m not sure it’s true, but it really struck me as a great analogy!

[JayAlfredPrufrock]

Yes what was Adil calling his sister?

[TherapistInATabard]

Hasn’t Lily donated some clothes to the ‘fashion show’? You know, the fashion show Mia is helping to arrange 🙄

[BoreOfWhabylon]

Outstanding thread title @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g et al.
On the subject of matriarchs, I wonder if they'll try to turn Ruth into one?

I really don't think there is anyone of the right age and "matriarchiness" in the current cast though.

[Fink]

Thanks for the new thread.

I really don't buy any of the Adil story so far. The idea that he messed up to the tune of £750k, ran away and hid from what he'd done, and then was welcomed back with pretty much open arms (bar a tiny bit of grumbling) is just stretching credulity too far. Add that to the insult to the listeners' intelligence that was the explanation of why he calls his fiancée his wife; his stilted conversations with his sister which really do sound like the painful experience of inadvertently having picked a weak reader to read aloud in class (I now always ask for volunteers instead!); and the bizarre notion that someone on a decent salary with a need to be permanently housed would put up with the lack of space and privacy in Lynda's B&B (not to mention Lynda herself, who is lovely in small doses, but would you really pay money to live with her?!) rather than rent a flat ... the whole character is irredeemable for me.

It's a shame, because he could have been an interesting addition to the Ambridge scene if he hadn't been so badly done.

[BrightYellowDaffodil]

@TherapistInATabard

Hasn’t Lily donated some clothes to the ‘fashion show’? You know, the fashion show Mia is helping to arrange 🙄

On the subject of the fashion show, what’s the betting Kate’s clothes will turn up in some way? Tony took them to the tip, someone has found them and puts them into the fashion show as recycled garb.

Excellent thread title @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g !

[AskingQuestionsAllTheTime]

@JayAlfredPrufrock

Yes what was Adil calling his sister?

خور (barachi) probably, which I am told means "sister" or "big sister" in Pashto.

[Anisette]

@BoreOfWhabylon

Outstanding thread title @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g et al.
On the subject of matriarchs, I wonder if they'll try to turn Ruth into one?

I really don't think there is anyone of the right age and "matriarchiness" in the current cast though.

Sort of Lynda, I guess, even though she's not mother of anyone in the programme?

[AngryBirdsNoMore]

I heard Adil saying what sounded like ‘baj’. ‘Baji’ is older sister in Urdu, it’s a respectful and affectionate term for an older female. That would make sense in the context although he sounded a bit different saying it compared to Pakistani friends I’ve heard say it - but maybe accent. Maybe another option from @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime’s - but same meaning, it sounds like!

Disclaimer: not an Urdu speaker, just for a few words and phrases from Pakistani friends and from crossovers with North Indian spoken Hindi.

[BoreOfWhabylon]

I was really thinking of a matriarch for the next generation.

[Anisette]

Another repost:-

I'm a little puzzled about what the SWs' intentions are with Natasha. Sometimes she charges ahead with whatever ahe wants whilst being deaf to all the arguments against it - e.g. the café, the twins modelling - at other times she's ultra sensible and empathetic - like last night, or when she went off with Kirsty to look for the horses. Is it meant to have something to do with being bipolar like her father?

[HairScratcher]

Given what a mess the hotel was when he rushed off this all seems quite ludicrous

I wonder what Adils ‘freebies for family’ budget is

i hope they don’t do something bad to Roy so adil can have his job

Eddie really does have a chip. And no doubt will manage to mess things up for Ed

I wonder what akrams story is. Guessing adils going to find another woman with him when he turns up

[AskingQuestionsAllTheTime]

@AngryBirdsNoMore

I heard Adil saying what sounded like ‘baj’. ‘Baji’ is older sister in Urdu, it’s a respectful and affectionate term for an older female. That would make sense in the context although he sounded a bit different saying it compared to Pakistani friends I’ve heard say it - but maybe accent. Maybe another option from @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime’s - but same meaning, it sounds like!

Disclaimer: not an Urdu speaker, just for a few words and phrases from Pakistani friends and from crossovers with North Indian spoken Hindi.

Edited

This sounds more likely, especially after careful listening tonight. Thanks!

(In effect, Adil is Kenton, but in Urdu.)

[TottersBlanklyIntoBimboCore]

Thanks, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - excellent title!

So Adil really has gone? For the time being, at least. (Unless the producers are proposing an ambitious sister broadcast? Wasn’t Ruth engaged in something similar several years ago?)

Could have done without the Grange Farm doldrums tonight. Surely, after all the years they’ve been in Ambridge, some other farm could have offered them a bit of dry land - out of sheer kindness?

[AskingQuestionsAllTheTime]

Offer land to a Grundy on a temporary basis and they will still be using it twenty years later.

In any case, what's wrong with Grundys Field? That's ten acres, and it is up by the road so presumably it's dry.

[RegimentalSturgeon]

Ed is such a drama queen. He only had thirty-odd ewes, I think. Certainly no more than fifty. So why is he cracking on to be sooooo exhausted? That’s not serious lambing.
All they Grundys wringing their hands and contemplating doing something stupid. Can we bear the suspense? Will they do the Stupid Thing?

Of course they effing will.

[OverArmour]

Thank you @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

I wonder whether the Grey Gables storyline has seemed so disjointed and Adil’s character a little erratic because perhaps they had to reject story lines based on what happened with Roy’s actor? 😢

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Ah, that's plausible.

Too much to hope that all the talk of rain means we might finally get a sinkhole into which half the populace of Ambridge will fall, never to be heard again?

[OverArmour]

*rejig

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Do we think Adil will be back? I rather hope not. I wasn't following all the conversation between him and his sister. Her husband is abroad, then? Did we know this before? I assumed she was divorced, or just possibly widowed. Two children?