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!

have you ever used their system for reclaiming?

Several times in the last year. Today was my worst journey ever on this route. Nuff said! Tomorrow is another day.

<skips off in nauseating Pollyannaish mode, fuelled by two large glasses of wine in my unexpected hotel>

Yes it felt similar to the Helen and Rob consultation wasn't it?

*didn't it?

Hus Fed rep was there - we just didn't hear them speak. But before the y went in, Harrison said something about his rep having some questions and he went to talk to them without taking Fallon and Alice along (which was probably very wise.)

how old is he supposed to be? I understood cirrhosis happened after quite some time

He had his eventing career he was retired from by having an accident. I assume similar age to Alice. I reckon late 30s, possibly early 40s.

Welcome @newwidowtobe. Several of us are a similar generation of listener!

I’m away from home so can’t consult my vast (two volume) library of Ambridge lore. This is amongst the oddments on Google - and is about as much as I remember too:

https://pauseliveaction.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/walter-and-nelson/

I was musing today, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g, that hotels gathered around the ferry port must do astonishingly well from all the people who don’t manage to catch the ferry … (Or whose ferry is delayed.)

Bad luck. As you say - tomorrow’s another day. Hope it will be easier for you.

The one nearest the port only has five bedrooms, so more of a B&B. This one has a restaurant, spa and a roaring trade in weddings, which is probably more significant, but as well as stranded travellers lots of people feel they have to be come over to the mainland the night before catching a flight, or to be on the spot before an important medical appointment. If I had Nicola Sturgeon to hand in conjunction with a large wet fish ...

There is a vague TA connection, as it's unrealistic that we never hear anyone from Ambridge moaning about the abysmal train service to the West Midlands. Every single time I go to Euston about half the trains to Brum seem to be cancelled. Today it was almost all of them. No mention of HS2 either, or levelling up. I'd much rather hear about all of this, and as mentioned many times, FARMING, than idiotic nonsense about elderly villains from Wolverhampton.

Does Kenton need renaming to 'KentonMyDarrrrlin?'

Out of interest for the long term listeners - I know we're going through a bit of a... dissatisfied stage.. has there been a time when people were generally really enjoying it / in general agreement that it was being written well? I'm just curious on golden times!

Also agree that the Alice and Harry thing was reminiscent of Helen and Rob at the consultant, down to the classic Archers female medical professional calmy and empathetically explaining a situation vs rushing you through at a rate of knots after you hurriedly explain the single allowed symptom.

Yes so weird to have the rather unusual “hassled into attending medical appointment with manipulative ex” situation cropping up again!

Alice is a plonker but I still reckon she and Harrison may end up together, he refused to blame her for anything when Fallon was reminding him.

Enjoyed the entirely predictable George being jealous of his handsome uncle earlier in the week 😂

So was Harry drunk when he had his accident, do we think? If he’s got cirrhosis he’s been drinking a looong time.

For me the golden period was the early 00s when Brian was having his affair with Siobhan, Debbie was a regular character and Pip was silent. Other than that, I did enjoy it in the 80s when many of the current middle-aged and older characters were in their prime. Nelson Gabriel was my all-time favourite character. His wine bar was used to great effect. Nigel was a good character too.

Agree that the Siobhan affair years were golden! More farming too

Has there ever been a postie as a recurring character? I don’t recall one and I think they’re missing a trick, especially in these days of 3rd party providers of exposition. A postie could do that and be like a Greek chorus; in the village but not of it.

But we’d have to be interested in him / her, @ArtG - which would mean they’d have to live in the village. So it would probably be someone who already lives there - as I can’t see a postie or courier being able to afford a Grade 2 listed cottage or Beechwood new build property in chocolate-box-land.

Was Harry Booker a postman? He was good character, back in the day when Archers characters didn't seem to be as rigidly class segregated into deserving and undeserving as they have been in recent decades. See also Mary Pound.

Ancient Golden Age - when Phil was a magistrate, and used to go home worrying about the cases that had come before him.

Then the era of the bright young things - Shula, Caroline, Elizabeth, Nigel … And how they grew up.

Obviously John’s death. Was like the Earth stopped turning.

Kathy confessing to Sid about her affair with the policeman. Staggering episode.

Mark’s death. How I cried. Caroline deciding she couldn’t marry her vicar fiancé Robin.

Caroline and Guy.

Jenny and Debbie both discovering their husbands had been unfaithful. That was epic. Combined with Tuckers showing Ambridge how to be a family when Betty died.

Pusscat and Tiger.

Maurice.

HWMNBN

Lily and Russ and how he ruined Freddie’s life. And Elizabeth being too stressed to ask about Lily’s A Level results. And the bailiff at LL.

I could go on, @OverArmour!

But I’m sure in years to come we’ll look back on the Horrobin household with Tracy, Jazzer, Brad and Chelsea all together as another golden age.

Helen and Rob was next level, obviously - until the SWs ventured into Criminal Law.

That’s true - I look back on the HelRob SL with hate but it actually started really well. It was just when they chose to end it in the most overly dramatic way - felt like any woman in a coercive relationship would give up completely as the only way out is violence.

Kate trying to run away with baby Phoebe, and Roy flexing his brain and preventing it.

Ed and Emma. Always and forever. Completely brilliant storytelling and acting.

Meadow Rise …

In fact:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/10ZtzfdwrwRVvHTPcR5tvMK/the-10-archers-storylines-that-have-made-you-cry-the-most

https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jan/28/readers-suggest-the-10-best-archers-storylines

https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jan/22/the-10-best-archers-storylines-rob-helen

(Though I don’t fully endorse any of those lists.)

I had stopped listening for a while (it seemed to be all about sausages) but accidentally heard an episode where Rob was telling Helen what to wear and thought 'this sounds interesting' and started again. There should have been a much better ending to that story.

Mark's death. Everything with Debbie. Yes Siobhan. Sid and Cathy at The Bull. Nigel, and Julia.
Rob and Helen.
Even look back fondly on the Great Ambridge Flood now, but that must have been ?8 years ago.

Concur with PPs' lists above, to which I would add the tribulations of Kirsty. I also remember finding David's proposal to Ruth in the cow shed touching.

Loved Nelson Gabriel. Jack May was a noted Shakespearean actor. Every village needs its benign rogue!

When did it all go wrong? The over-concentration on the RobHelen SL? The Covid changes?

It once was a credible community - with depth and diversity of characters and an interconnectedness. Now it seems to be a random hotch-potch of short-lived SLs that are unlikely and/or boring. Such a pity.

And no farming! I might have missed it, but I think the only reference to the wet conditions has been via Ed's Texels' soggy pasture. And this when a significant percentage of the UK harvest will be impacted. Have the SWs not noticed that it's been raining a bit??!!

A low point for me was the Matt hit and run and nics death. Stopped listening for a while and didn’t bother listening around Helen’s trial and the covid episodes.

I always liked Phil and Jill and their kids interactions on the whole and the aldridges have always been good value. My concern at the moment is that we’ve not really seen that type of relationship filter down to the next generation and we are overly reliant on the older characters (agree with pp that the characters post retirement age are surprisingly fit and active)

Yes, this is what I’m still wondering. A normal disciplinary, you’d take your union rep with you. But Harrison seemed to have a barrister, as did the “prosecution”. Are police disciplinaries different?