Archers thread #168: Near to the Maddening Crowd? 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 like to hear more of Harrison's strange little moaning noises, 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 @OverArmour for the title suggestion!

Over to you.

The Sunday omnibus would have the usual weekday Barwick Green. Oh, Ilove the Sunday version!

Harrison has a Lancashire accent, whereas Alan and Johnny have Yorkshire accents. That they might get confused amazes me as the accents are distinct But Yorkshire is a big place! It doesn’t have one accent, any more than all Lancashire people speak with a Liverpool accent. And I disagree that Harrison and Alan are that distinct, although Johnny certainly is.

What puzzles me is the range of accents in the Grundy family. Will to my ear is more Hereford/Worcester border.

I had the misfortune of catching a bit of a radio show presented by Paddy McGuiness recently and realised that must be who Harrison is modelling his accent on. Having seen that clip of the actor talking, his real accent is nothing like as exaggerated. If I could bear to, I’d go back and listen to the episodes where PC Stalker Burns first appears to see if his accent has become stronger over time. It certainly seems to have, or maybe it’s just the ‘maaaate’s and ‘cocker’s that have increased in frequency.

I can’t always tell Alastair from Jakob.

I do have hearing loss, but I don’t think it’s that. I’m just grateful for the age-old device of the cast always greeting each other by name.

People from Lancashire do not speak with a Liverpool accent. Liverpool hasn't been part of Lancashire since 1974. Neither has Manchester.

I said “It doesn’t have one accent, any more than all Lancashire people speak with a Liverpool accent.”. How did you interpret that as “all Lancashire people speak with a Liverpool accent”? Or were you trying to explain my comment to those of little understanding?

Or are you saying that Liverpool isn’t in Lancashire therefore it’s not a Lancashire accent?

If I could bear to, I’d go back and listen to the episodes where PC Stalker Burns first appears to see if his accent has become stronger over time I think this is definitely case - where IRL you'd think living in Ambridge his accent would have diminished. I wonder if he does this to distinguish himself from Alan - especially because since his conversion they're appearing in more scenes together.

Sometimes being somewhere you have a minority accent makes it stronger

You implied it @MereDintofPandiculation .

The only place in Lancashire that I can think of where the accent is liverpudlian is Skem, but that's because it was a New Town.

don't a lot of Liverpudlians still consider themselves Lancastrian as well?

I did not even begin to imply it! I said "It (ie Yorkshire) doesn’t have one accent, any more than all Lancashire people speak with a Liverpool accent." Or to put it in another way, "Liverpool, which is geographically Lancashire even though the modern administrative boundaries have separated it out, has a different accent from other places in Lancashire and in the same way, not all the places in Yorkshire have the same accent". I chose Liverpool because it would be clear to people that live in other parts of the country that the Liverpool accent is very different from other accents in Lancashire, So if I'm choosing an accent that is well known to be different, how can that be implying that it's the same? And if I'm choosing an accent that is well known to be different to illustrate my comment that not all Yorkshire speaks with the same accent, how can that be implying that the Liverpool accent is the same?

Or were you trying to explain my comment to those of little understanding?
Did you mean to be so rude?

Changing the subject slightly, why do we call people from Liverpool, LiverPUDlians? I've never heard of Blackpudlians or Pontypudlians.

But we so should!

People from Blackpool are blackpudlians. People from Pontypool are pontypoolians.

I went to school there, and at the time Pontyphooligans would have suited very well.

. I can't think of anywhere else ending in pool other than Ullapool.

Are those from Borchester Borcastrians?

Since it's Borchester rather than Borcaster, I would think it would be more likely to follow Chester, Colchester, Leicester, Winchester etc. than Lancaster, which would give Borcestrian. But then you have exceptions like Manchester - Mancunian, so I guess it could go either way.

There's a reason you don't hear Cirencestrian, Worcestrian, or Gloucestrian too often (because they're a bloody mouthful!). I would like to think their neighbours in Borsetshire took a leaf out of their books.

I once lived in a town in France where the adjective (ALL French citizens know their town, departmental, and village adjective!) bore only the slightest ressemblance to the name, because it came from the Latin. Maybe we could find out what Borcester was called in Roman times and back-engineer an adjective from that. 😆

I like the notion of Hartlepudlians.

The posh ones. Mainly for cricket 🏏

Apologies to the monkey hangers. Well spotted @Fink , Borcestrians it is.

There doesn't seem to be much logic to these demonyms. The internet tells me that people from Winchester are called Wintonians but pupils and alumni of Winchester College are Wykehamists.

Boston - Bostonian
London - Londoner
Leeds - Leodensian or Loiner
Manchester - Mancunian

Etc etc. Madness!

Ambridgeite or Ambridger?

My GP were Liverpool born and far from posh (or cricket supporting) bur identified as Lancastrian too. Maybe an age thing

While we're on the topic, I think Borchester should be pronounced to rhyme with Worcester and Gloucester (even though there's the pesky h).

I might be biased though. We grew up pronouncing nearby (or possibly the same place) Tewkesbury as Tweek-sa-bee because of my sister's inablity to say it when she was young and we holidayed in the area.

It’s complicated. Parts of the North-West are indubitably in Lancashire but boundary changes/local government renaming created Merseyside. On top of that you have the local authority of Sefton, into which places which are both in Lancashire and now Merseyside can also fall. There are very heated feelings around all this and some people and places want to be returned to Lancashire. No signs of it happening, though.

A Lancashire accent, aside from all this, is completely distinct from a Yorkshire one and is instantly recognisable.

PS just throwing into the mix natives of Southport - who are Sandgrounders.