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!

We'll talk about cheese and cuddly ram a lambs but throw in the occasional 'Was that a new actor playing Adam/Josh or was it the Kenton/Alistair/Rex actor with a cold'/'I can't stand Alice/Pip/Hannah/Ruth/Lilian/Fallon' type comments.

Then just for fun we'll misinterpret each others comments and start throwing virtual organic flapjacks and millionaire brownies at each other.

If we want an update of TA we'll ask @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

Ding dong.

I was getting tired of listening to the Helen SL and considered stopping. Then we had a few good episodes (Brian seems to be the main common factor in those episodes) and I was feeling things were back on track. And then this nonsense. They need to sort themselves out

(ps Chorley cakes were off on the filling/pastry ratio but were appreciated nonetheless!)

I gave up listening years ago when it was all about Tom the sausage baron. Then, by chance, I heard an episode where Rob was telling Helen what to wear and I thought 'Aye. Aye' and started listening again. There are quite a few years missing.

I stopped listening in disgust over the "buy a child a dog for Christmas" storyline, which was disgusting. (And then the dog was essentially written out, and when the Grundys moved to Grange Farm we didn't even know whether she was still alive or had died of neglect, so there was no point in her having existed at all.) I forget why I started again.

It was nics death scene that stopped me listening for a few years

I complained to the BBC about the Puppy from Santa storyline, and was fobbed off.

DKitten was for sale in December and the number of people who contacted me asking if they could collect on Christmas Eve was astonishing.

I've never given up. Like Bore, I think I'm listening less attentively now, though.

I don't think I'll ever give up - especially now I can catch up whenever and wherever I like. It also helps that it's only about 12 minutes out of my day. TV soaps would require much more dedication. I do enjoy The Archers much more now I can come and huff and puff on here - sometimes I think I enjoy this thread more than the programme itself.

I'm probably bothering to listen to <30% of the episodes these days. I want to hear about snowdrops and daffodils, and prepping for lambing, not Peaky Blinders menace.

Asking can correct me, but I don't think Jolene has ventured beyond the bypass for a decade? And where is Wayne: Is there a cereal cupboard at The Bull?

Thank you to the dedicated listeners.

Didn't she and Kenton go off to New Zealand together in 2025?

Harry sounds like iphone's Siri.

Current story lines may bring the end to decades of listening. In particular Kenton getting bitten, Jolene being harassed by a gangster from decades ago, Harry (if I was Chris I think I'd have punched him just to put him out of our misery), Vince driving Shula to the hospital (why? what?) . I'm just almost continually rolling my eyes as I listen.

Harry is unbearable

The actors sounded very stilted.

And Harry has been possessed by Ron, who has moved on to a new victim.

I think (this has not been said on air, mind) that Shula was going to stay with Elizabeth as she did last time she was in Ambridge, and Vince was at Lower Loxley because he had been there overnight. Elizabeth wanted to get to Kenton, so she deployed Vince to fetch Shula from the station and take her to the hospital, where the pair of them looked for Kenton in the ward Elizabeth had seen him in and where she had told Vince he would be, only he'd been moved so the other patients could get some sleep.

That would tie in all those loose ends.

I was thinking that the station and the hospital must be reasonably close/short taxi ride so it seemed odd Vince didn’t just collect her from the hospital

I think I agree with most of this - except I would give up, for a period, but not because of a SL, but because of Life.

So what did happen last night? Was she simply warned to keep her trap shut? Why such a strong reaction to Fallon and Harrison moving in?

@Brefugee no! That would be too Archers presumably.

I won't stop listening. It is shit.

Why do the things have to have a (laughable) connection to Jolene.
Why couldn't have just been that they are thugs and Jolene so clearly clocked him the week before and she needs warning off in terms of telling the Police.

That Harry fella creeps me out.Theres something about his voice

The way he was speaking to Chris seemed threatening somehow

There are stations at either Hollerton Junction or Felpersham, and the hospital is in Borchester, which is not on the railway, so station and hospital must be at least ten miles apart.

Me too, I listen and then someone posts something on hear which I have totally missed. I think I carry on as it is sort of a link back to England??

This about sums me up, too.

Yes, drawling underlying menace. Like the adult version of television school bullies in private school.

absolutely, something very creepy about him
what's his game eh?