Archers thread #162: ‘This is like talking to Lassie’ – how right you are, Fallon! Discuss The Archers 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 think cowhide-covered walls are a great idea for a cafe with vegan and vegetarian customers, 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.)

Title comes from one of the better scripted conversations of recent weeks, when Fallon said ”Harrison, this is like talking to Lassie! Just TELL ME”. So true of so many conversations on TA where you just want to shake them and yell 'Just TELL US, and quickly, so you don't get interrupted before you can say the important bit', but of course they rarely do and days pass before the conversation resumes. @TheBell suggested putting it in the title, so thanks for that.

@OverArmour had a great if more obscure idea, paying tribute to a Peter Greenaway film: The Policeman, The Drunk, The Vet and his Lover. That will do very well as a starting point for the new thread. Will Alistair leave? Will Denise tell John she's leaving him? Will Paul learn to be less noisy? Do any of us care?

I do care a little about Harrison and Fallon. I want Harrison to get a grip and realise he needs a paying job more than the captaincy of the cricket team. I don't care at all about Harry but I think he's been brought in purely as a plot device so with any luck we can all forget about him very soon.

Over to you!

Yes, the scales dropped and Emma recognised her son for what he is. It was after he had spoken in somewhat derogatory terms of the unconventional nature of her romantic history. Yet she has eradicated all that from her memory and he’s back to doing no wrong.

I switched off halfway through tonight’s episode though. The way Joelene does an impression of a pirate who has lost his treasure whenever she speaks is too much for me these days. I did fast forward to the final line to hear the cliffhanger and wondered if may be she will die soon given all she really wants is ‘peace’. That would be a very happy outcome for us all!

he had spoken in somewhat derogatory terms of the unconventional nature of her romantic history.

George might be an odious little scrote, but on that point he’s not wrong. Neither Emma nor Ed received much in the way of disgust, opprobrium or shunning at the time. Maybe George will turn out to be payback. But that will affect Will as well; and however much one might happen to dislike him, he was blameless in that mess.

Thinking of George, he has two dads and neither of them have pulled him up on him behaviour they just leave it to Emma to sort out. Will really should give him a talking too but even his grandad encourages him to do wrong ie the egg and spoon race gum cheat. No wonder he is what he is.
His own home life is a bit sleazy though I dont know the ins and outs of the Emma, Ed and Will stuff, but if he has got teased at school when he was growing up, how must he have felt?. Im not saying I feel sorry for him now but I would have in his past.
Getting a bit fed up with the pirate moping about and I really dislike Miranda, surely Brian must know it would cause Lillian grief with her knocking about regardless how he feels about Justin, but Lillian did have an affair with her husband so swings and roundabouts I suppose.

I think George should shake the dust of Ambridge off his boots and apply to the Metropolitan Police forthwith.

even his grandad encourages him to do wrong ie the egg and spoon race gum cheat. and then they had the audacity to say it wasn't fair when they were found out.

Grundy’s have gone from wide boys always trying to make a quick buck with no effort to deeply unpleasant. The men of the family are awful (except will - he’s the only one who seems to understand you have to work hard for a living) and whilst I feel for clarrie she is in a lot of ways the author of her own misery

Yes, the scales dropped and Emma recognised her son for what he is. It was after he had spoken in somewhat derogatory terms of the unconventional nature of her romantic history. Yet she has eradicated all that from her memory and he’s back to doing no wrong.

It's not so much that it's eradicated from her memory as that she chose to believe he completely reformed overnight. Yes, he did improve but it looks like his views on women were too deeply engrained for there to be a lasting difference.

Time was that, when George was moaning about the egg and spoon race, Eddie would have said something to the effect of "You were cheating, you were caught bang to rights, you have to take it on the chin and not blame anyone else". It's pretty ridiculous that he sympathised with the git..

I don't like the way the Grundies are constantly portrayed as feckless and skint, when it's not clear why they are skint (below market rent / no crippling childcare costs / all adults working, albeit on low pay / Eddie and Clarrie both getting the Old Age pension, and still working, so wages on top of that).

But a BOOP for the gradual development of the George storyline.

Is there no way back into game keeping for Will? Surely he's not going to deliver boxes for Bridge Fresh forever?

I hate the pheasant shooting industry but at least it was linked to the country life that Archers is supposed to be about. Not my countrylife but an authentic one nonetheless.

Indeed, @BeatriceBatchelor - there seems to have been a point where the creative team unharnessed TA from everyday normal rural life. Now, apart from the odd word from Stella and a bit of performative farming weariness from her girlfriend, it’s all schemes and special events and social media. Maybe this is how farming is these days? I don’t know, but it hardly makes for convincing grown up listening.

The rhythm of gamekeeping life across a year used to be one of my absolute favourite things in Ambridge …

It also gave a good contrast between the brothers - one in steady, professional employment and the other feckless and going from scheme to scheme. One who learnt from his parents mistakes and one who saw it as a blueprint

i know people don’t like will and I was always shocked how he was made out to be the baddie in the love triangle but I’ve always thought he was boringly decent.

bit of performative farming weariness

Exactly!

But just a few years ago Pip and her parents were having long discussions about (can't quite remember the details) the pros and cons of investing in new machinery and trying new farming methods.

Now Pip cares more about being TWFL and her parents are always wittering on about bookings for the barn.

Really I’d give anything for an episode where Will knocks on the back door of Home Farm to discuss a bird problem with Brian, and Jenny invites him into the kitchen for coffee and home made muffins. And conversation turns to Grundy matters or other bits of Ambridge gossip … And Will shares some info (heard when he took Nic out to a non-Ambridge pub) about what a rival farmer is planning, and Brian is pleased and invites Will to accompany him on some fact finding mission, and Jenny solves an issue with one of the Grundy small - and everyone goes away happy.

Those were the days …

It does rather feel as thought gears are grinding to install Fallon (and eventually possibly Harrison) at The Bull. Meanwhile George is being groomed to be the next generation of feckless Grundy - though he is surely far more unpleasant than any Grundy (however feckless) has been in the past. Miranda's appearance at the egg hunt on the green felt very shoehorned in - is that really the sort of event she would be attending with Brian? If they must have a relationship wouldn't it more likely be conducted in The Feathers or Grey Gables - I thought perhaps one of the two of them might somehow have won the stay there.

There seems to have been a point where the creative team unharnessed TA from everyday normal rural life this is it in a nutshell @TottersBlanklyIntoBimboCore and it is all the less compelling for that.

100% agree with this. It has become completely weird and just boring.

Lillian was being supportive of Jolene - promising to cover Emma's shifts. Then wimped out when she thought she might have to serve Miranda now and again. Surely, she'd just brazen it out and be all smiles and charm and treat Miranda like just another punter at the Bull.

The way Lilian pronounces ‘J’lene’ very nearly had me throwing my brand new phone through the window.

I'm sure it's been done before, but what income do the Grundies have?

Will is living in his mortgage free house, working (part-time? full-time?) delivering veg boxes for Bridge Farm.
He has two dependants:
George, who is working full-time, but probably isn't covering his food / utilities costs.
Poppy, who is 10, and an ongoing cost.
Will is planning to raise money on his house for MeanEd, so his costs will rise once he's paying a mortgage, but presumably the plan is that MeanEd, Tree Surgeons, will cover all costs relating to the loan?

Eddie has his state pension. He has had a regular part-time job at the livestock market (one day a week?) for years. He makes more money by doing casual cash-in-hand gardening and landscaping work. There was a storyline in which Eddie bought a Rolls Royce to run a business, but I can't remember how that ended, or whether it's ongoing.
Clarrie has her state pension. She works a regular job (how many hours? ) at the Dairy and has done for years, so she'll have been paying tax / NI on that.
Eddie and Clarrie have no dependants, although they regularly have family round for meals. They're paying below-market rates for the house. They grow their own vegetables / apples etc and Clarrie is an expert at producing the sort of hearty farmhouse meals which are good value for money. Clarrie's also an expert at make-do-and-mend.

Ed gets casual work on farms, and raises Texels as a (not very profitable) business.
Emma works at the Te Rum. She's always worked at one job or another, and although all her jobs have been low paid she had childcare provided free by the family.
Ed and Emma have two dependents, George and Keira, but George is shared with Will, currently living with Will and is now earning a wage. Undoubtedly Neil and Susan contribute to Keira; I can see them helping out with school shoes, and treating Keira to occasional items of clothing etc.
We don't know about their housing costs - do they pay ground rent for Little Grange? Did they buy Little Grange for cash, or are they repaying a loan?

I don’t understand why Lilian minds serving Miranda so much. If it was the other way round then that would make sense but at the end of the day it was Lilian who got the guy so why does she object so much to Miranda visiting the Bull from time to time?

A little thankyou to @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g and the many , many others who contribute to these threads . I have not enjoyed MN very much lately and toying with the idea of leaving , but it’s this lovely thread that I’d miss too much. We disagree sometimes but it’s always polite , kind and frequently very funny. Thanks , all.

That's a jolly good summary, @Westwindworries. Some or all of them could be claiming Universal Credit, but as innumerable posters have pointed out over the years, nobody in Ambridge seems to know about the benefits system. I'm quite surprised we haven't had a story about Eddie neglecting to cancel Joe's pension.

Eddie suggesting sticking the egg on with chewing gum - [Hot cross bunnies]

I hope it turns out that George is fantasising that Molly Button would even look at him. I'd put money on the SWs having decided he's an incel.

Thanks for that, @Sidebeforeself! I must say I'm feeling a bit lukewarm about TA myself, but I'm addicted, so probably stuck listening for the foreseeable future. If I couldn't discuss it with others and hear others' thoughts, I might be a touch less addicted, though.

Finally listened to Sundays episode. Missed about 3 weeks but doesn't sound like I've missed anything interesting. Have read the thread, thank you all!

My prediction for George's Very Serious Trouble (™️ @UnintentionalArcher) is that he sexually assaults Fallon, his crush.

While I'll hate it when it happens, I wouldn't want it to happen to a silent like Molly, because it would be good to hear something that happens to so many women.

I'm still waiting for that gun to go off through the dairy window!!