Archers thread #160: Ram a lamb a ding dong! To rate the mass wisteria in Ambridge, tap the feedback tablet 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 have given a home to Hilda the Hellcat, 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 @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!

That was an awful listen 😬

With Mia’s behaviour - the anxiety and way she speaks to people and doesn’t seem at all bothered about insulting them - are we perhaps heading for some kind of late neurodiversity diagnosis?

I found that quite scary! Boop for Kenton? That could be a first!

I’m talking as a parent of neurodiverse children btw - I hope my previous post hasn’t offended anyone. I’m just trying to reflect the very broad brush traits the character seems to have been given when it comes to social interactions.

While Brad stuck to his guns and didn't get manipulated. Good for him. Mia was being awful insulting people left right and centre.

That was a bit of a shock!!

I think Mia is ND. She was overwhelmed by everything going wrong at once, and had a meltdown which made her lash out. I used to be a bit like it.

I think Mia is ND. She was overwhelmed by everything going wrong at once, and had a meltdown which made her lash out

I really don’t think you need to be ND to behave like that. She was just feeling the pressure and took it out on those around her who she did not perceive to be pulling their weight/helping her. Not every line in the script needs to signpost a MH condition.

May be the SWs have had enough of K and decided to write him out along with his twin. There are too many characters as it is and K is pretty disposable. May be the bereaved pirate would then leave and someone else could take over the Bull. That would be very welcome.

If TA are doing public service announcements (as discussed on the thread a few days ago), that has to go down in the manual of how not to make a 999 call: she spent longer describing the dog than the injuries, didn't make it clear what category of injury he had ('lots of blood' doesn't really help, tell them whether he's breathing, responsive ...), and even if the pub is a recognisable landmark, a street address or postcode wouldn't go amiss - assuming the paramedics don't know the layout of every village within their duty area. I hope the call handler managed to calm her down and get some more useful information out of her.

Going by my experience over the past fifteen years or so, the paramedics in the ambulance might not even be based in the same county. The last-but-one lot who came here were from two counties over and had no idea which was the nearest hospital to blue-light me in to; they asked me which one I thought it would be best to go to!

Andrew Rossindell introduced a private member bill to introduce annual testing in pubs. This was in 2021. It got as far as its second reading but no further.

If my call handler is anything to go by, they'll ask her whether it's more than a coffee mug of blood. Not as easy a question as you might think, when blood in question is splattered all over the kitchen and soaking a couple of tea towels.

The last-but-one lot who came here were from two counties over and had no idea which was the nearest hospital to blue-light me in to; they asked me which one I thought it would be best to go to! I bet that made you feel you were in safe hands!

I was asked the same question, @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime!

I thought Mia’s reaction was in keeping for a relatively highly strung teenager in charge of a public event for the first time. Many people get overwhelmed and stressed from time to time, especially teenagers. I hope it doesn’t have to be a storyline about mental health (again) or neurodiversity. TA would benefit from allowing the characters to have personalities that are consistent (e.g. Mia is highly strung and can be tactless when she’s in pursuit of one of her causes) rather than bland inconsistent characters who occasionally get an “issue” storyline “Mia gets a diagnosis of something!”. I find it annoying when everyday colour has to turn into A Storyline, because often when The Storyline is over, the character becomes unremarkable again (Ben).

I don’t think they’re going to kill off any characters unnecessarily (Kenton) when the SWs very sadly have some puzzles to solve in terms of characters whose actors have retired or passed away.

As a ND person myself, it's often easier to gel with someone who has experienced similar themselves. I've been thinking that's why Brad and Mia get on so well. Both take everything very seriously, and are afraid of getting things wrong. But I could be projecting.

Anyway, overwhelm lashing out remains my explanation, regardless of how that arose.

I was put in mind of the BBC Sounds podcast about the stolen painting where the exchange of painting for money took place in an out of the way pub car park.

I don’t think they’re going to kill off any characters unnecessarily (Kenton) when the SWs very sadly have some puzzles to solve in terms of characters whose actors have retired or passed away.

Kenton's actor should be a similar age to Judy Bennett- maybe he's decided to retire?

I found that a pretty horrific listen. I made the mistake of wearing my headphones and the sound of Kenton was actually pretty upsetting. It sounded bad. I’m not normally easily upset by anything, but, yes… I wonder if they’re going down an XL Bully path. Anyway, it sounded life changing. Also, it’s not a Friday, god knows what’s coming then.

Mia just sounded like teenager who bit off more than she can chew. She was also really stressed about exams a while back. I think this might just have been a way to engineer Brad and Mia’s first argument though.

I agree that it’s odd timing if he is leaving, given the other unresolved stories for characters who have left. Also though, the set up for it has been somewhat odd with the power being out and Jolene acting strangely too.

We’ve had a quite recent traumatic death (Jenny) and life changing injuries (Lynda) so I wonder where they’re headed with this. Plus side - it’s not a story about Helen!

Oh gawd I'm glad I haven't listened yet! Would it be okay for somebody to give us a synopsis on here, so I don't have to?!

I don’t mind explaining it, assuming we can seeing as it’s already been broadcast.

Kenton and Jolene are finishing tidying up at the end of the night. Jolene notices out the window that there are vans and trailers parked in the car park. She says she noticed them about 10 minutes before and assumed they’d taken the wrong turn. But now that they’re still there, Jolene says she doesn’t like the look of it and is going to call the police, Kenton says it’s an overreaction and they’re lost but Jolene goes upstairs to find her phone.

Kenton goes outside and we hear him saying something like ‘Lads, Lads, you can’t park here and asking them to move and then you hear what sounds like some dogs basically savaging him for quite a few seconds and him making kind of pretty horrible sounds to be honest. Then Jolene comes outside to find him and he’s basically gurgling and whimpering and she calls the police and an ambulance in a panic. I don’t think we hear the people in the van at all and I think there was possibly the sound of them driving off.

If you want to listen to the episode, but not hear that bit, then it’s the very last scene when you hear Kenton and Jolene tidying up the glasses in the pub.

I actually didn’t expect to hear something that bad on The Archers. I suppose I wasn’t there for Nigel falling off the roof or for Helen stabbing Rob. I was there for Nic, but that was more emotional sadness, and Lynda which was more the aftermath - but this was kind of more… actually hearing the violent horror of it. Anyway, I’m overreacting I know.

I’ve seen an interesting theory on Twitter, is discussing that supposed to be on the spoiler thread or ok as it’s just guessing?

Thank you for explaining that @OverArmour, I shall remain happily ignorant of hearing it for myself. I remember how the fireworks with the horses + Stella's dog's accident made me feel, and this seems similar - well worse actually.

I’d forgotten that! Yes that was actually pretty awful too! How short my memory is!