Archers thread #166: Choppy waters in Ambridge! Look out for the red flags and 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'd love to be married to Harrison, 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.)

Another thread started in great haste, mid-packing! Over to you.

Quite. You'd think as a minimum she'd have signed the tea room up to To Good To Go or Karma, there's no way she wouldn't be trying to minimise lost profits. I could also see her trying to force the staff in their 'free' time when the place isn't as busy to come up with innovative new ways to reuse old ingredients. Like at Gail's where they turn yesterday's unsold croissants into ham and cheese croissants and charge £5 each for them (they are tasty though!).

Nuala McGovern on Woman's Hour is childless by choice so should be able to make a useful contribution to the discussion tomorrow. I say "should" but I doubt she will as unfortunately her interviewing skills are lamentably poor. She has a list of (often inane) questions to ask, doesn't listen to or appear to understand the replies, and just ploughs on with her questions regardless, oblivious to anything interesting or nuanced. I used to listen to Woman's Hour for high quality journalism, but not any more.

One of the other presenters (Anita?) was interviewing someone who was answering quite naturally but Anita was just going through her prepared question a so it went

so you were born in London?
yes, I was actually born at home in19xx
oh wow and what year were you born?

it was so painful and the interviewee was getting increasingly flummoxed

Whatever is eventually revealed about Rochelle, one of two things must be true: either Joy is lying when she says she has a relationship with Rochelle and her grandchildren or Joy is deluded and genuinely believes she has a relationship with them. Neither scenario sounds good. I'm guessing myself that she is lying given her sharpness with Mick when he tried to get in touch with Rochelle.

Joy has always struck me as far too relentlessly cheerful to not have a deep dark secret or side

Exactly. Gone are the days of Jenni Murray or Sue McGregor.

Absolutely

Nuala McGovern on Woman's Hour is childless by choice so should be able to make a useful contribution to the discussion tomorrow.
She's a presenter/journalist. She shouldn't really be contributing. to the discussion.

Is it the Woman's Hour style though. I wish someone would tell Emma Barnett that it is not the Today style. She keeps throwing little personal comments in and it's just not the place.

I heard Emma Barnett’s first Today appearance (about a week ago?) and did wonder if I’d somehow missed a memo about a new style of news interviewing …

But yes, WH tomorrow is sure to be disappointing - everything is nowadays.

Although - this will be on in a few minutes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000wcyr?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Yes agree that I was a bit surprised by the personal tone when Emma presented today. No one really cares that she likes playlists and has to get up super early etc. I just want to hear the news!

although we used to get Martha Kearney going on about her hobbies and Nick Robinson mentions Man U a bit too often!!

The beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!

I remember my friend asking what today’s soup was an receiving a reply like “pea, spinach and broccoli” The waiter was barely out of earshot when she said to me “that sounds last week’s leftovers”

Tbf to Natasha she may have been thinking about free PR

I've never been bothered about Nick R being a Man U supporter, Martha K's bee-keeping or Emma B's playlist.

Mishal H, Justin W and Amol R mention their DC sometimes.
It seems quite harmless but irrelevant.
Isn't it up to the editor or producer?

It doesn’t bother me as a passing comment or as a brief intro to the sport/next story but it’s when they drag it out to more than 10 seconds it’s not needed!! And be hey did a whole piece on playlists that she invited her mates to make rather dull comments about and that was 3 mins of my life I’m not getting back (although tbf I feel the same about thought for the day)

I like Thought for the Day. I find it spurs me to crack on with my day i.e do something else. I think I tuned out for the EB playlist bit too.

Re. Joy's sudden personality-change - I’ve always found her voice and manner oppressively and unconvincingly gushing. The snarl sounded much closer to a real persona.

I am a greedy person. If I'd bought a cheese scone nothing on earth would persuade me to use it for bowling practice instead of eating it. The very idea affronts me!

I've got a separate thread going about JFSP, Totters. It was all about village life, and as I've already said over there I feel the TA SWs could pick up a few tips from JF.

@Bruisername is it Anita Rani who also does Woman’s Hour? If so, and I’m right in thinking she also does Any Questions sometimes, her presenting style makes me want to throw flapjacks at the radio. The couple of times I’ve happened to hear it, I end up feeling really anxious, because she seems really anxious about having to move on to the next caller, and really annoyed because the way she seems to move people on and try to achieve balance is to sort of tell them off. It comes off as school-ma’amish (and not good school-ma’smish!!) Rarely listen to WH but I might look out the episode discussing TA.

That's Anita Anand, @UnintentionalArcher .
I'm popular today .

Mmm....cheese scone.

I thought they were the same Anita! I don’t really listen to either show as the interviewing style irritates. Listened to any answers the other day and the presenter was just so slow and long winded

No, they just have the same name. Their style is quite different. I like Anita Anand on Any Answers, but I can see that some might not.

Are either of them on tv? I’m terrible for conflating people with the same first name when on the radio but not if I’ve seen them!

just listening to PM and any answers Anita is presenting

Ah ok - have googled. So woman’s hour Anita was on strictly and is often on celeb pages and any answers Anita is a news journalist. I think I should remember now!