Archers thread #163: Too much aggro, not enough agri! 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, 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 @LikeTalkingToLassie for the thread title idea! She and @LillianGish had fun with this theme on the last thread:

More farmer, less drama
More ploughing, less rowing
There's mileage in silage.
More sheds, fewer beds.

All good points. Fair to say nobody on the last thread was delighted to see the return of Harry. I think we all agree that Alice is a blithering idiot to get involved with him again. Most of us also think that Miranda is up to no good. Other storylines in play at the moment:

Alistair and Denise, with the massive complication of John and Paul
Ed and Emma - another doomed Grundy enterprise? Does Will still have the will to wang them some wonga?
Whither George - YouTube sensation or Borchester Magistrates' Court?
Will Markie cause mayhem at The Bull?
Will Harrison haul him in to Borchester nick?
Will Hannah get off with Chris?
Will we ever get used to the new Robert?
Will there ever be a new Roy?
Why do we hear so little from Brookfield now? (Although if we never heard Pip again, I for one would be delighted)
Will Stella dump Pip?

There are probably others I've missed. Over to you!

Either they confused the Sheriff of Nottingham with Robin Hood (sheer ignorance) or it's a seriously weird role-play.

Brad being stupid boy Pike again. Didnt he think Lily fancied him before?

Yes, there was a brief mention of it a few months ago. I don't remember why it came up, though.

Yesterday the radio 4 afternoon drama was about the Zombie Apocalypse. It was written by Katie Hims. She writes for TA and it occurred to me that would be a brilliant episode. The undead of Ambridge are abroad! Clearly she is a brilliant writer so why can’t she contribute more to the plots to give more credibility? At the moment TA seems more like a scrapbook of different snapshots than a coherent story.

I would love the Ambridge Undead. The revenge of Nigel. Jennifer has risen.

Clearly the archers is against workers earning more than minimum wage and thinks it’s funny to even try

Yes I find it a bit odd

two businesses are desperately recruiting in a low supply employment market. Should they collude to ensure the workers only get minimum wage or should they recognise that they will have to pay more to attract staff? If they put the wage up they may well find they get more candidates

if they can’t afford to pay more they need to reassess their business

Both jobs are to replace Emma, so she should be able to manage both, though don't blame her for trying to raise the rate.

But she also works at LL and does the hairdressing so I guess she can’t do both

I agree, @Bruisername - two employers, each with the surname Archer, colluding to do down a young working woman with the surname Horrobin … It doesn’t sit well to my ears. Disgust seems such an old fashioned emotion - but yes … I wonder if that’s the reaction the SW wanted to provoke?

Of course this is one of the problems with having a minimum wage - employers get the impression that because it is a menial job they shouldn’t have to pay more.

Perhaps a little bit to HMRC should be made to encourage them to undertake a minimum wage audit of ambridge businesses!!

I don't understand why they're both so horrified at Chelsea - she has got two job offers! So she can hold out for more money.

That's how the job market works, unless you're an Archer...

Even the episode description’Chelsea plays the system’ - what? the capitalist system that exploits workers?

really poor taste

I know I’ve said this before but the whole ‘Lily fancies me’ sl is gross too - girls are mean to you when they fancy you? Really Brad?

It just feels as though Natasha and Kenton are gloating at being so clever in outwitting Chelsea and deciding to take her down a peg or two. Isn’t Natasha supposed to be some great business hotshot? Surely she ought to be applauding Chelsea's sparky attitude? Surely she, as a young woman, experienced her fair share of struggling to establish herself/make money/be taken seriously? Instead they snigger over keeping her on tenterhooks.

I'm cross (again)

When he first got the job at Grey Gables back in January, leaving The Orangery, Lily (at GG to tout for a job experience placement) tried to persuade him not to leave LL. Her means of doing so was, let's say, open to misinterpretation; apart from anything else she told him he was fit and didn't need the use of the Grey Gables gym, one of the perks of his new job, and that she was sure she could persuade him not to leave LL if she gave him a lift home in her car... Honestly, she sounded not unlike a poor imitation female Terry Thomas. In some anxiety Brad approached Adil for advice about this, and Adil (once he understood what Brad was on about) did two things: advised Brad to tell Mia what had happened in case it got back to Mia in garbled form, and told Brad that he would ensure that Brad was not left alone with Lily. This latter of course ceased when Adil left Grey Gables.

Brad did as Adil advised and told Mia what was going on (from the synopses for 19th January this year):

"At The Bull, Brad tries for 150 seconds [that's two and a half minutes – I timed it. Chris] to break into Mia's monologue about her own doings (how busy she has been, the Renew show, how she felt about his new uniform, Kenton paying for their drinks because she is helping with the Renew show, her and Fallon making a mannequin out of plastic fished from the Am, Fallon helping, Clarrie, Ed and how she feels bad for him), and only manages it in the end because she asks him if he wants to say something. Even then she interrupts him three times to ask what he is going to say. In the end he gabbles, 'Lily fancies me and she's been coming on to me', at which Mia spits out some of her drink.

"Mia is having the giggles at the notion that Lily might fancy Brad, and suggests that he got the wrong end of the stick. He is clearly unhappy about her reaction, so she lays it on thick about how super-attractive he is, and how she thinks he is really gorgeous, and cycling is keeping him really fit; in conclusion, she would not be one bit surprised if Lily had the hots for him. Brad just wants her to know he 's done nothing to encourage Lily and if she says anything else he'll tell her he's flattered by her attention, she's an attractive older woman and he's sure the right person will come along for her in time, but he is spoken for and has a girlfriend, and he's not interested. This careful speech is punctuated by Mia not laughing, (no, really). She tells him that'll do it. Brad further wants Mia to know that whoever has thoughts about him like that, he only has eyes for her. No matter what or who. She is glad to hear it, and kisses him."

So he had pretty-much rehearsed what he said to Lily this time round. I don't think it ever occurred to him that she was trying to vamp him into going on working at Lower Loxley as opposed to vamp him full stop, and Mia didn't suggest that as a motive because she just thought he had misinterpreted something Lily probably hadn't really said.

What I’m hoping is that Chelsea tells them both to sod off and they realise they actually need the staff and are forced to outbid each other after all - probably in secret.

Whereas I hope both prospective employers tell the adenoidal gobshite to sod off in short order(I think we’re meant to like Chelsea, but it hasn’t taken).

I am unsure why it is admirable to lie by omission to two people in the hope of monetary gain, to be honest.

I’m not a fan of Chelsea - I don’t like the way she spoke to jazzer the other night

but there’s nothing wrong in what she’s doing. To me this smacks of the sw smacking down a wc character for having the temerity to know her worth. I’ve been in her position having two job offers - I handled it better but no way was I just going to accept the first offer without negotiating with the two interested parties.

given how desperate the bull are to recruit (look how hard it was when Kenton was off and clarrie couldn’t work out the till🙄) they should expect they may have to pay a little more to attract staff.

perhaps Justin will offer Chelsea a profit share site in the charging station for a hairdresser/cafe pop up

(this is assuming of course that Fallon decides against opening a Robin Hood themed cafe at the site)

How did she "lie by omission"? She said she had been offered another job to each of them, and she had!

I like Chelsea, although it would be nice if her manner matured a little as she gets older. Kenton and Natasha sounded positively idiotic, and unless the hilarious twist is going to be that one double-crosses the other, they seemed very sanguine about their staff crises.

Lily is so horrible. Can’t she tell that Brad is in many ways more intelligent than she is?

In the (BBC?) Robin Hood in the mid 2000s there was lots of chemistry between the sheriff and Marion. Robin had about as much sex appeal as Tony’s model train set.

Not at interview she didn't. She allowed each of them to think that she wanted the job they were offering. It was only after they had offered her the job that she said "oh well I'll have to think about it something better might turn up" or wtte.

In the real world that gets a candidate for a job dropped off the list of possibles pdq.

Not when she’s the only candidate!!

Pretty sure Natasha is planning to double cross Kenton to get Chelsea at only a marginal premium.

There are other human beings on the planet than her. She is the only candidate they have seen so far, but it might be pushing her luck to assume that nobody else is capable of, or interested in, doing either job.