Archers thread #169: Denise rocks the boat in more than one way! Will Chris find a message in a cider bottle? 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 have liked to have Harrison's behbe, 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/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 and @BrightYellowDaffodil for title inspiration. Is this the end for Denise and John? It does seem odd to introduce John now if he's going to disappear. He has a lovely voice.

Over to you!

@Godesstobe - you're welcome- it's not something I often have the opportunity to share! That headmaster (a Quaker) was absolutely bloody brilliant. He also taught English Lit and takes all the credit for my enduring love for T S Eliot.

More amusingly, I still have a hardback copy of Ben Jonson's The Alchemist, with a stamp inside it saying it was "supplied to me" in September 1968, presumably as an A-Level text. You can tell from where it falls open that I've never read beyond the Prologue - maybe 20 or so lines, I haven't counted - if indeed I ever read that far. 😆Have I really spent nearly 56 years thinking "I must read that one day"?

I've just caught up - wow, Paul really is a nasty little shit isn't he?

I had no idea the 🔮 was so…expressive.

It seems unusually snippy recently, is it quite alright?

I think it was recently spurned by a snow globe that it had fallen for.
It's not been very forthcoming about it all though, and I don't like to pry.

We went to see that at the Minack theatre on the cliffs in Cornwall. Left at halftime! The hardness of the granite seating was only one factor...

Thanks. I will see if I can get hold of a copy.

I find it difficult to express how totally uninterested I am in the whole bloodless and pedestrian love affair of Alistair and Denise. I like the Denise actress's character in Outlaws but she has never come to life for me in TA and I could not care if she lives or dies. (Actually that's not true - I'd much prefer it if she died. Is it too late for secondary drowning or Weil's disease after her heroics in the mighty Am?) I hope the 🔮is right and Denise Will Not Go Through With It. (Sounds like the 🔮's own love life could make for a much more interesting SL. With the bonus of a thorough knowledge of the canon of English poetry too - what's not to like?)

Paul's badly hurt and embarrassed, he thought he and his mother were close and he's very loyal to his dad.
This is his way of standing up for himself and becoming independent from Denise at last.
I'm not keen on all three of them but I do like it when someone passionately finds their self respect.

A snow globe eh?
They can be very cold-hearted, commiserations to🔮
I know a rose gold, mystery 8 ball who's on the shelf....

a big company like SSP will have leased all the units then set them up as a Subway franchise, a Burger King franchise, etc.

I cried for a week when new neighbours put the whole of their garden through the shredder. Who cuts down a rambling rose at the height of its bloom?

I have a suspicion I’m more attached to gardens than to partners. I knew it was time to break up when I realised the only thing I would miss was my broad beans

I suspect I say vickarious but vye-cariously

Oh, @MereDintofPandiculation …

@LillianGish I’m late to ask whether you are amongst those residents who have Air BnB-ed their terraces with views for the next two weeks, or whether you’ve bravely stayed at home despite the crowds?

See also: vice versa. Same root. so, by analogy, vice (to rhyme with nice)-ariously?

vicarious certainly flows better without a hard k. What, “vissarious”?

Although in everyday speech I pronounce this "vice-sa verse-sa" (like other people?), in Latin lessons I was taught to pronounce it "why-sa worse-sa" (because apparently that's how the Romans spoke).

but cervical is usually cerv-ike-al, not cer-vick-al Round here, it’s usually serv-vye-ical. Drives me potty!

I don't know why caecum is 'seecum', other than it just is Because ae is basically e so softens the c?

in Latin lessons I was taught to pronounce it "why-sa worse-sa" (because apparently that's how the Romans spoke). Not “wee-kay worse-sa”? (Like waynee weedy weaky?)

I don't have a view of the Seine @TottersBlanklyTowardsImaginarySunlight though the torch did go right past our front door. I'm staying for the duration, managed to snag some bargain tickets for myself and the kids (including some €24 seats at the athletics) and actually rather enjoying the atmosphere (though not the rain which continued all day yesterday). Bright and sunny this morning so planning to venture out and see the Olympic cauldron/balloon in situ.
@MereDintofPandiculation - I have no words.

The cauldron is pretty cool this year

I think my mistake was having switched on just as the catwalk part started and I should have switched on an hour later rather than giving up at that point!

i guess i’m too old for all this - i miss the amateur side of sport!!

anyway, back to the archers, the denistare romance is so dull and lacking in passion. The Brian/siobhan affair was amazing and created such conflicting feelings for the various characters involved

"the denistare romance is so dull and lacking in passion"

Absolutely! They don't even seem very interested in each other (which is fair enough, as they are both very uninteresting) beyond making plans to meet secretly. Now that's over and it's all out in the open, whatever will they have to talk about? Presumably how upset Paul is will last them a while. Oh, and how well John seems to be getting on with <insert name of random female character here> and how Denise thinks this is "Too Soon".

Yes. I'm sure we said vice with a hard c.

Better then going to the uncut Duchess of Malfi at the Exeter theatre in which all the seats creaked. You didn't even dare to wriggle to relieve the tedium.

But I later saw a cut version in which one character appeared for the first time in I think it was the last act, purely in order for someone to call him a villain and run him through, leaving him a corpse on the stage. Got to keep the body-count right!

going to the uncut Duchess of Malfi at the Exeter theatre in which all the seats creaked

Truly, one half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other. In the case of Archers listeners, one portion often cannot even understand the pleasures of itself.

Believe me, I would not have been there except as someone's guest. Jacobean lunacy was no pleasure to me when I was in my teens.

Come to think of it, why on earth am I still an Archers listener? That is being no pleasure to me either.

I saw The Duchess of Malfi (played by Helen Mirren) at The Roundhouse in about 1980. It is a credit to the production that I have absolutely no memory of whether or not the seats were comfortable. 😉