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.

Cursedy

Doesn’t she still have intermittent possession of Jakob’s elusive brother?

Yea, but I suspect it's an arrangement of mutual convenience rather exclusivity.

Yes John would be a better addition than Denise

thought the open relationship conversation was a little obvious given what we know. Really going for the compare and contrast!!

@Cantsleepdontsleep Reading supermarket food reviews, there’s a big group with the opposite tendency, who take great pleasure in finishing their adverse review with “it went straight in the bin!” No wonder we have a food waste problem.

Delurking to share this that I just happened to come across. I’m sure the actress reading the lines of Emily is Mia from TA. I appreciate this may only be of interest to me 😆www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0020qjn?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

I liked the "us" moment in the car. Looking forward to hearing that unravel through rehab.

@ColonelOfTruth , it sounds like her but there are no credits.

Also delurking to say I thought the same when I heard 'Emily'!

Do we know why Paul and Denise have different surnames?

Did we see a cast listing for John? Is he Mack or Metcalfe or something else?

Editing to say: I know some listeners can access these magical things call cast lists. I have no idea where to find them! I prefer to avoid spoilers before the broadcast, but even afterwards I don't know how to access them. The BBC Sounds description sometimes has one at the top of an episode, other times not.

It's in the spoilers thread @Fink . Not sure if it's a spoiler or not but Paul has his father's surname.

Can we all have a moment to mourn Lily’s hot girl summer?

Thanks. But I'd prefer not to see the spoilers. I presume it's posted in the spoilers thread from some published source (and not that the spoilers thread is actually full of inside intel from the SWs?), but I can't find it on the BBC website or Sounds.

In this case, I assume that if Paul and John are both Mack, it's just a case of Denise keeping her own name when she married.

@Fink - if you really don’t want to go to the Spoilers thread, go to the BBC Archers site, click on Episodes and go to 5th July, or 12th July for the next cast list. There’s a tiny, entirely worthless teaser from which you can avert your eyes if you must. Just click ‘more’ …

I will say there is rarely anything more than just the weekly BBC teasers, cast lists and the odd vague press release on the Spoilers thread. Plus all our speculation. It’s absolutely thrilling if anyone arrives with any Real News - but it does happen occasionally!

You can also roll your eyes at the literacy level in the BBC teasers: I see that tomorrow (edited so as to avoid any hint of a spoiler) someone is "in a quandry".

Ok, saw on the cast list John shares Paul’s surname. I know some women retain their surname after marriage, I just wondered if there was some other back story with Denise using her maiden name. I find her relationship with John (or the relationship she describes) all a bit odd. The marriage is allegedly on its last legs but he nursed her through her recent stomach bug and it seems as if they then went on holiday together. Anyway I hope he sticks around.

I suppose, if you'll excuse my terminology, that (given his enthusiastic/incessant cycling) there might be an absence of shaggage going on, as well as a general absence of his presence at home. As far as he's concerned, everything is just fine and the holiday (no bike) may have been an opportunity to reconnect.

On the other hand, I don't hear Denise as the sort of woman who wouldn't have mentioned this to her husband before it got to the desperate stage of making a play for (or responding to a play from) Alistair, of all people.

"AmBridgertons"= appropriate, since the actor playing John played the Duke's (awful) father in Bridgerton series 1.

Repeating something I’ve said before here, I do envy all the young adults of Ambridge and the frank, open conversations they’re able to have with their parents / grandparents about relationships. Maybe if the opportunity had presented itself when I was in my teens or twenties I’d have swerved it, but looking back I do feel I missed out.

Or are the SWs inventing something that doesn’t actually happen much in real life?

Sorry to barge in, but I’ve had to turn the omnibus off for tree-drama cringe, but yet I must know whether Emma has fallen out of a tree.

Not yet, @YoureRockingTheBoat , not yet.

My daughter and grandsons speak very freely about such things.

Amongst my family members there’s free flowing conversation around sex, consent, sexual politics and gender issues. But we’re all much more circumspect regarding the nitty gritty details of individual relationships while they’re happening. I just cannot imagine the sort of conversation Paul and his dad had in the pub.

Perhaps John and Alastair will become bffs when they discover Denise has been playing them both