Archers thread #165: Bridge over troubled waters! 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 believe Rochelle exists, 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 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/5071889-the-archers-spoilers-thread-9-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.)

This thread may well fill up as fast as the last one, so let's just get stuck in!

And it still wasn’t up to much! Our local “village” team have a proper cooked meal. Probably explains why they play even worse after tea.

Arf! Ours used to have a 12-year-old wicket-keeper who was, frankly, the only decent player on the team. He left the team a while back and is now the size of one of the smaller sumo wrestlers, so perhaps the teas did for him?

I agree with all of this.

It feels as if we’re building up to a big ‘Alice nearly dies’ moment.

Alcoholism is awful. The portrayal is pretty good. We knew there would be an inevitable fall at some point - George needs to come clean OR the cider is going to be his downfall.

When my then fiancé captained a village team, it was suggested that I should be providing home-cooked teas every other week. I was not local and did not have contacts in the area. I was also working long hours in a stressful job for not a lot of money. I declined the offer. And was met with ongoing low-level grumbling about the shop-bought teas that my fiancé did provide. I can't remember if I had the confidence to publicly voice my thought that the men on the team had at least as much spare time, kitchen equipment, and money as I did and could therefore have whipped up a quiche, sausage rolls, and Victoria sponge if they were that bothered. They weren't even grateful that I kept score for them.

Ours has a rota of tea providers. They probably have to with teas on offer being lasagne, chili con carne etc. All, as far as I can see, wives, mothers and grandmothers of the team,but no special tea duty on the captains fiancé.

Nowadays they pay for tea. And each team has to pay for at least 10 teas. This much I gathered from a grandmother who was on the rota for the following week and who I was chatting to as a distraction from the dire goings on on the pitch.

I've just volunteered for the cake rota at the local team - just at the bottom of our driveway and we're there at least once a month so why not!

On a completely different note, Adam is one of my least favourite voices in TA. He has a weird understated and also overdramatic voice. Well
blow me! (As my dad would say) but he's only one of the narrators of my current audiobook - Jenny Eclair's 'Moving'. I will persevere as I like the writing.

How about Alice goes away and as can’t get booze inside, becomes a heroin or crack addict?

He was also Henry Crawford in a BBC radio adaptation of Austen’s Mansfield Park. His voice definitely suited the role.

Talking of The Archers relocating to London, did anyone catch the gag in this week's Dead Ringers (satire on current events on R4 if you've somehow missed it)? They had a sketch where Eddie and Clarrie have escaped to Albert Square (ie Eastenders) because the drama in Ambridge is too much - heavy reference to the car crash story.

@BrightYellowDaffodil yes. I think that's the gig here. He is playing/ narrating a 50year old reminiscing on his child hood when he was described as priggish. Jenny Eclair's observational writing is brilliant. Her plots sometimes are a bit dodgy. But so far so good on this one.

I love Adam’s voice and (mostly) love the character. I miss hearing him and Brian arguing about Home Farm and would really like to hear some conversations between him and the Bridge Farm crew about soil, veg, organics, etc.

But they wouldn’t matter, though@Sussurations - there’s absolutely no meaning in Adam’s interactions with Bridge Farm. All the tension and significance of the Adam / Brian quarrels, discussions / compromises hung on the inevitable fact of Adam’s inheritance of the top job and probably the land of the family farm. Every time they disagreed Adam had to fear both ruination of the land and having his rightful job wrenched away from him and given to Debbie, Alice, Stella, Ruairi, whoever …

It appears that the SWs have temporarily parked him in a meaningless role. He has no stake at all in Bridge Farm - beyond whatever paltry sum they pay him to turn up. So I couldn’t care less about what he does there - other than feeling annoyed when the SWs use him to undermine Clarrie and Susan.

@TottersBlanklyOnTheEdge I see where you’re coming from but I always enjoyed the conversations for the different approaches to farming. For me, Adam is in many ways the most interesting farmer in TA because he’s prepared to innovate or experiment, he’s got principles about the approach to the soil which inform his thinking, he’s keen on the slightly niche stuff like the Home Farm deer, but he is capable of working as part of a big, very profit-focused operation like Home Farm - he’s not an idealist. As a listener I enjoyed hearing how he worked with Brian and the BL board, as well as the other Ambridge farmers. Brian’s conversations with Stella are quite good but she’s not very interesting as a farmer really.

I would love to hear Adam talking to the Bridge Farm crew about how they could be more profitable, or where their approaches overlap and diverge. All the BF work is very labour-intensive.

For me, making Adam a father is what started him becoming a bit of a redundant character. It hasn’t made him or Ian the slightest bit more interesting.

I too detest him being used to undermine Clarrie and Susan.

Thanks for the Dead Ringers tip!

Harrison is so annoying. Really showing what a nasty little man he is deep down.

guessing Rochelle is going to be difficult to contact

nice to hear about the pigs!!! Would rex really let someone unqualified look after them?

We have a running joke in our household about pigs after DH made a comment about how they’re maneaters. dangerous animals!!

nice to hear Pat - even if she was there as a straight man

I'm a bit surprised Kirsty seemed to have no idea of the risks of a down with young piglets. She's spent a long time in Ambridge and hung out with the likes of Tom and Jazzer, not to mention Rex. I can't believe between them, there's never been a mention of sows and piglets.

My father's Landrover had a big dent on the roof from where he and one of the farm workers were gettinb away from an angry sow.

Am I remembering right? When John died, Kirsty helped Tom so much with the pigs that Tom drew up a 'contract' giving part of the pig business to her. (That Pat and Tony tore up saying don't be ridiculous). Or was that not Kirsty? I may well be confused.

I think that was St. Hayley with the Bridge Farm pigs.

Yes!
Thank you! I knew Kirsty didn't sound quite right.
Still don't believe Kirsty would be so uneducated re pigs.

How old is Roy’s other child?

Phoebe was born on 28th June, 1998, and Abbie on 3rd July, 2008.

Why have the scriptwriters turned Kirsty into a blithering, simpering idiot?

There was a previous incident when Mick came to the rescue (can't remember what, it was so implausible).

It's simply incredible that any member of the regular characters doesn't know female animals with young can be dangerous.

Mick knew Rylan and got him to come and MC the Ambridge Eurovision?

No it wasn't that. It was something to do with the rewilding. Kirsty was in a complete tizz. Mick sorted it out.