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!

Brian and Miranda in bed

I thought I would be able to listen to Brian in anything but I would rather have not listened to tonight. too much Justin. And him recognising the perfume of his ex 🙄. I really don’t need to hear Justin and Miranda in scenes without main characters tbh. I don’t understand why she is back after so long after the divorce. Really bizarre sl

Emma is an idiot, quitting like that. So nothing new there.

not sure why Robert is turning into poirot

Haven’t listened for a week or so and wondering why I bothered tonight

I just don't buy it with Brian and Miranda
I know men 'move on' quicker than women but at his age, after such a long marriage and such a sudden death it doesn't seem credible. Its not like he needs someone to raise his children is it.
Maybe she'll scarper once she realises the money really is gone.
And what is Justin alluding to???

The idea that there was ever a tent and that one was now needed was so absurd I couldn’t really focus on what they were saying. I know they were making him come up with a stupid reason to visit her but come on

OMG - oh god - I can't wipe that from my mind - just turned on to catch up to listens to tonight's episode and it opened to THAT !!!- there should have been a government health warning or something before it started - I have aged

I am surprised that Brian took so long. When Jenny died I gave him 6 months to be co-habiting again.
I used to live in 'ambridge' - well a very similar village
Most male widowers were shacked up within 6 months - regardless of age.

The thing is, it's Lothario Brian - we just haven't heard that for about ?15-20 years

It's the way his naturally deep voice gets a more gravelly timbre when he's all loved-up. Bleurgh. And at nearly 70 my self, I'm not disparaging senior sexuality.

I liked Justin's outrage, his delivery was almost Wodehousian, the to-and fro questioning to spin it out, just like Bertie Wooster, though he of course would never speak ill of a woman in such a way, unless she a fearsome aunt.

In other matters, Jolene's pointless delay on further beans-spilling is to enable some if-only event to occur to make things worse.

I am surprised that Brian took so long. When Jenny died I gave him 6 months to be co-habiting again

Yes, I agree. I expected six months of mourning tops. No time to lose when you are 80! And everything seems to be in good working order…

Yes, a tent is such an odd choice! There are lots of co-owned items that could have been left with one or the other on separation. There are probably no less likely to camp than Justin, Miranda and Lil.

Is Miranda up to no good. Brian's kids are going to hate this.

why "disgust" though. For sure, it's not good having affairs etc, but is it disgusting? were we disgusted about Brine's affair that produced a son? just because Ed and Will are brothers it doesn't make it disgusting.

Am still not listening. Happy with that decision.

Bath, again?? Is it just a particular SW who’s obsessed with the place? (It is obvs very lovely.)

In truth I can’t quite see why it would be the first choice of Kate and Jakob. Silbury Hill would be more Kate’s thing - why aren’t they staying in Marlborough?

I wish everything didn't have to be so heavily signalled - Miranda is sure to be bad news from everything we heard yesterday, but it would be a better story if it were more subtly done (I've already commented on her attending an egg hunt!). Justin's intervention yesterday, both at Brian's and then by going round to see Miranda was completely unbelievable. I don't object to the idea in principle, but I would prefer it to be played out more subtly. While I can just about accept Brian might be happy to rub Justin's nose in it, I think he'd have more care for Lillian, Jenny's sister. In other circumstances I'm sure Lillian would have no objection to Brian finding a new partner - or even having a bit of fun - but I can fully understand why she might not be too happy with Miranda. Miranda herself is being painted with as much subtlety as her ex-husband (a cross between Julianne and Hazel Woolley as others have already noted) - she just doesn't sound particularly nice.
Meanwhile the SWs are tying themselves in knots trying to make events at The Bull into something. Why has Robert turned into Poirot? Answer: to try and a bring this tortuous tale to some sort of climax! That also seems to be the reason for Emma somewhat unrealistically jacking in her job.
There's an excellent article in The Guardian today about what's gone wrong with Coronation Street https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/apr/02/people-are-getting-murdered-in-knicker-factories-how-coronation-street-lost-the-plot?utm_term=660b82c4e515cd36410138bb5036d004&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email] I long since stopped watching any TV soaps, but it makes some interesting points that could be equally applicable to The Archers for anyone who is interested.

Yes the heavy signalling is very tiresome. The SW seem to have decided that we are all a bit dim.

i think they've decided they need to flag up that it is cool! exciting! not just farming! sexy! Interesting! and think that's what listeners want.

From what i see on Twix and here, it is the opposite. I'd look up the listening figures but i can't be bothered.

Fabulous reading, @LillianGish.

It’s not a Netflix crime series or Line of Duty. They’ve substituted character and heart for endless drama, and sometimes it feels like issue on top of issue, written and produced by people who have never watched Coronation Street before.

I had no idea Corrie had switched to three one hour long episodes per week. Whoever thought that could be a good idea? It must be like being held prisoner for viewers.

I assume the tenor of Corrie has been reshaped by the southern influx to Media City and its environs - has there been a similar shift in TA? It’s definitely now being written by people with no understanding of its mythology or meaning. (Though I gather plenty of newer listeners and posters couldn’t care less about ‘the land’.)

I’m quite happy to have ‘issues’ woven into the ongoing story - I don’t think that’s the problem here, but the (clearly now former) billionaire Justin using a shared tent as an excuse to visit his ex … (Original Justin would just have bought the desert and the village and all the catering companies in the relevant region …)

Soaps have never been the same since Beckindale was annihilated by a plane crash and Emmerdale Farm (interestingly, modelled to be very similar to TA) morphed into the increasingly sensationalist Emmerdale, complete with all the dramatic tropes we now know and love hate. Brookside even had a variety of plague at one point and had to be locked down, prefiguring Covid.

So I suppose I ought to be grateful that Justin can still ask Miranda for his tent back, but on the contrary, I find myself in despair at the crappy writing that asks us to believe that this multi-millionaire Master of the Universe ever possessed such an item or, even more unbelievably, used it (TLDR - what Totters and Lillian said👆)

It’s the idea that the more sensational the SL the more listeners will tune in. Shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the listener.

I can’t understand what audience they are trying to attract though? The young side of the market aren’t going to want to hear about Brianda or Markie. I don’t think they’ll care about Harrison or whatever is going on with Harry. The Ben/chelsea stuff maybe, and perhaps George and twfl may have been inserted to attract younger listeners. Would be interested to know if they’ve done any listener research

Leonard!

I can't remember when I last saw Corrie.
If you don't like TA, don't listen.

Leonard! I had forgotten about him. Great character, great actor - more of him please.

Yes this is my point. It feels as though the SWs have never listened to TA, don't understand it and despise it's listeners.

I am 3 years younger than TA and have literally listened to it all my life (although I will admit that I probably didn't follow it that closely before I was weaned onto solids). I grew up in a village just like Ambridge and my mother still lives there. She's never thanked me for comparing her to Jenny though - she says my father would have been out on his ear if he had shown any Brian-like behaviour. My friends mocked me for my devotion when I was at university and my DCs started to complain when they heard the theme tune even before they could speak because they knew I would ignore them for 15 minutes. Everyone knew not to ring me during the Omnibus on a Sunday.

So I am very sad that there are now so many days when I no longer enjoy it and, like the SWs, I am starting to despise myself for listening. I am hanging on to see what happens at The B at Ambridge though. Perhaps the SWs are right and loyal listeners will put up with any old rubbish.

that's not the point though. The current SW have taken what used to be a good programme and turned it into a parody of itself. And i HAVE stopped listening.

I have lost about an hour's worth of entertainment a week and I'm Very Cross Indeed about it.

I’ve been away from home for a couple of months and I’m surprised to find that in the absence of my physical radio sitting beside me all day, I quite often forget to turn on BBC Sounds at 7pm. It’s a little worrying! I do want TA to continue to be worth listening to - but assuredly, it’s not nice to feel the producers think listeners are worthless fools who can be fed any old crap.

@Brefugee yes! And it was a little hiatus in the day, a little ritual of checking in with Ambridge.

yep, i listen via Spotify on the train on the way to work, a way of moving into the day. I haven't found a nice short alternative yet.