Archers thread #161: Kenton seems to be getting better, but the storylines aren’t. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

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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 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.)

Well, here we are. I was strongly tempted to go for the dog's dinner, dog/human bullies etc suggestions for the title, but Mere asked if we could not have anything graphic in the thread title, so I've held back. In a couple of weeks when this thead is nearing its end the attack may all be a distant memory, anyway.

Goodness knows what's in store for us now. Kenton seems likely to have PTSD, not surprisingly. Surely we must soon find out why HARRY talks so. Unconvincingly. Alice! Hello. CHRIS. CHRIS. etc, and also whether he is (as many of us suspect) addicted to opiates and/or up to no good. Too much to hope why nobody in Ambridge horsey circles had ever heard of him until recent weeks.

Over to you!

I’m a civil servant in Whitehall. My department isn’t one of the historic buildings that has an office cat, unfortunately (?!) but I do like that they have rescue mousers in some of the prominent departments. Battersea was inundated with interest after Larry’s arrival in No10, and it’s nice that he isn’t exactly a fluffy lap moggy.

That said - the Foreign Office cat (Palmerston I think?) got so fat from treats that they had to put signs up around the office to stop feeding him. He also stopped mousing entirely. I think he was eventually retired to a private secretary’s house…

Clarrie could clearly have done something non till related. And how much does David know about tills? Why would David need to manage the cellar and Ordering. And why would he know to fill the dishwasher without having been told. and Fallon was off work - surely she’d be pitching in to help her mum. Stupid and seems inefficient.

Perhaps Derek didn’t fall and they’ve sawn a leg on each stool and then blue tacked them together so they are unpredictable

I had a friend who always gave his address as either "Cheshire (allegedly)" or "Occupied territories of Lancashire".

That's a relief! I've posted too much in elderly parents, I really don't want someone to recognise me!

And why would he know to fill the dishwasher without having been told. He was offered to be shown the ropes, but he refused, saying he knew it all from being a bar tender at his wedding dos.

That's a thought. I never use the county name just
TOWN
Postcode

But I could put
No. Streetname
Village
Old-county
Postcode

Some areas with a postcode starting with the same letters are mine object to being associated with the town and want a different postcode. Parents are furious because their children have Town as their birthplace. There was a big fuss when a small maternity unit in a naice nearby town closed.

Why do they always refer to Derek Fletcher as Derek Fletcher, even multiple times in the same conversation? Odd.

Maybe there are a few Derek’s in the village! It is odd

Lillian was bloody rude to Dr Dave (as Kenton called him!)

Is it me or has the Bull got really really busy at the moment 🤷‍♀️

Yes. @Alwaysdieting I thought that, too. It’s astounding when they’re so often worrying about trade.

Yes I was thinking about all the young people who would welcome casual work- not least Ben and Josh rather than David...

Yes I remember Tiddles well. I was a regular commuter into Paddington in the late 1980's. You could pop in and give him a stroke or just hang around in those cosy toilets.

Ah Leeds. Its much nicer now ! I remember miserable Christmas shopping trips in the 1960's. Back to back terraced housing, Quarry Hill flats, always raining and cold in the winter. The high point of our visit was to stop at the Skyliner chippy on the way home.

The lack of workers available to help at the unrealistically rammed pub is absurd. Fallon would have helped out as a bare minimum

and if you are understaffed you have less tables for food on offer.

i don’t like plot driven SL

The Skyliner chippy is just round the corner from the house where I was born! I've long since left Leeds, but share your memories - I found Quarry Hill Flats fascinating as a child, it has left me with an interest in Brutalist architecture. This thread is providing a surprising blast from the past at the moment - including cosy public toilets at Paddington Station (who would ever have thought I could be nostalgic for those!). The Archers has always been rural escapism for me - the more farming the better as far as I am concerned which is why I'm not too keen on all the EE style drama. I don't actually want to live in the countryside, but with TA I can pretend I do for 13 minutes a day.

https://www.instagram.com/strangelyfamiliar.co.uk?igsh=MXh1YXBrang2YnloMg==

This guy posts old photos of Leeds including Quarry Hill flats. I've never lived in Leeds but find them fascinating.

I believe the residents of Ilkley (very expensive town which flourished as a spa in Victorian towns) are not happy at having a Bradford postcode. (Or Bradford council services come to that).

Still has back-to-backs. Not the awful back to backs which were lean-tos in the old yards, but Victorian terraces. If you don’t want a large garden they have lot going for them, often double fronted with stairs in the middle, rather than the stairs at the side, kitchen at the back model of terraced housing. And having only one outside wall has its advantages when you think of heating bills.

Ah, Leeds nostalgia. Yes I was there last year to visit family and I think there are still a lot of B2B's in Harehills and Armley. I love wandering round the indoor market too. Beautiful ironwork and great bread, cakes, veg.

Now wondering if I was at school with any of you! Huge hint - wooden mice in the library.

@FortunataTagnips , not to me. It was quite normal to do that where I grew up. In TA, some characters always use both names. Joe Grundy used to do it.

@MereDintofPandiculation , it is something like that. 'Town' is in a different county and is a 'shithole', the surrounding villages in 'Old-county' are desirable and expensive. The hospital is in 'Old-county' but the address is 'Village, Town'.

I suppose it compares to the PoW having her birthplace as Reading but her parents lived somewhere much nicer.

We had an example of something similar in TA years ago. James Bellamy, Lillian's son, was investing in a property scheme in 'West Greenwich', i.e. Deptford. Deptford has come up in the world since because of a plethora of such schemes, but back then it was actually plausible that developers wouldn't want to use the name. A friend of ours looked at a flat which overlooked Deptford Creek, an ancient historic waterway at the point where the River Ravensbourne joins the Thames, but the estate agent had described it as overlooking Greenwich Creek, which doesn't exist. Idiotic.

Same here @Shambridge. You’ve jolted a memory there, of people in the village I lived in who were always known by both names, or always themselves used both names when talking to others. Or both. Usually older country folk.

Where I'm from. many names were duplicated, so something like Thomas Edward Smith might be known as Tom Edward and Thomas George Smith as Tom George. A third Thomas Smith might be Tom Brookfield (his farm's name) etc.

I'd address them like that, e.g. 'Hello Uncle Tom Brookfield' unless they were related to me.