Archers thread #170: The scriptwriters have cast a Paul on proceedings! 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 Drunk Alistair, 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/radioaddicts/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/radioaddicts/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. I was tempted to try some sort of complex riff on chocolate names, given @PedantScorner's lightbulb moment - Paul's sister is Cara Mack! - and all the nonsense in last night's episode about coffee creams, but I couldn't be bothered, beyond thinking we must all be Cadbury's Fruit and Nutcases for listening at the moment. Let's hope the SWs take a walk along Quality Street or we'll have to put a Bounty on their heads!

And over to you ...

When I said we I wasn’t referring to just the British!

I'm wondering how old the SWs are these days.

I have just discovered on another thread that Gen Z consider the 👍 to be passive aggressive and that it is normal instead to respond with ❤️ even to people you don't know like tradesmen. (Checked this with my own Millennial DC who confirmed they knew this, although they don't feel the same way.)

At the risk of sounding like the 70 year old I am, I often find Gen Z views baffling. So I wondered if there is a new set of Gen Z SWs who genuinely think the Alistair/Denise storyline is racy and rivetting. Otherwise I'd be forced to conclude they are just not very good at their job.

I can never remember which generation is which (I remember Boomers because of the War, but after that the letters confuse me, and Millennial I can never remember because it doesn't seem to be tied to the turn of the millennium).

Whatever generation I am (it might well be Gen Z), I don't find the current scriptwriters riveting or racy.

It’s as if they don’t know their audience!

@Fink
Generation Time Frame Age Now
The Silent Generation 1928-1945 79-96 years old
Baby Boomers 1946-1964 60-78 years old
Gen X 1965-1980 44-59 years old
Millennials 1981-1996 28-43 years old
Gen Z 1997-2012 12-27 years old
Gen Alpha Early 2010s-2025 0-approx. 11 years old

That table is based on American demographics, though it makes no difference, really as it's all American-invented nonsense. Generation Alpha are going to be intolerably smug, aren't they! Whoever thought of calling them that should be taken out and shot.

Thanks for pointing that out @Gonners .

In that case I'm a millennial. Why millennial and not generation Y? And why did it start at X? Had they got up to W before they started naming with the Silent Generation, Greatest Generation etc.? Or is it like X marks the spot? X as in mysterious? X as in former? And going to Greek letters now is going to cause trouble. Generation Beta and Delta presumably won't be too pleased! What an all-round odd set of names.

It was I who said Brian had ‘numerous’ affairs - I could only remember Caroline and Siobhan, but it seemed unlikely that they were the only ones. I think the fact that Betty didn’t succumb to his charms doesn’t negate the fact that he would have, if he could. I also thought there were suspicions about his relationship with Annabel.

I’m happy to retract that word and say ‘many’ or ‘several’, if that helps. The point really was that adultery is nothing new in the Archers. Or in real life.

The question now is: will the George cliffhanger be on Friday or Sunday? Surely they can’t stretch it out much longer. Whatever her feelings for George, I think Emma will put Martha’s needs first. She won’t want her to go through the experience of her mother being in prison.

Ultimately it is better for George to go to the police and confess than it to be a dramatic court room confession

No, I want the Grundys to sit on it, coach George, and for him to stuff it up in court anyway and for it to emerge then that Emma knew.

@@Fink And going to Greek letters now is going to cause trouble. Generation Beta and Delta presumably won't be too pleased! What an all-round odd set of names.

I think they were called Millennials because the eldest of them would be "coming of age" in about 2000. Also, Generation Y might have prompted the "why oh why?" response!

As to the Alpha lot and their successors, I wonder whether they'll go full-on Brave New World and start giving them pluses and minuses too ... based on physical attributes/level of stupidity. By the time they get to Epsilon Minus, humanity will probably be extinct.

The whole naming generations just seems so divisive these days

I was blissfully unaware of it until we came back to the UK in 2013. For the record, we left in 1999 and it can't have been mentioned much then, though perhaps it was by the sort of people who find it significant. I don't know if it really exists as A Thing outside the English-speaking world.

My main complaint is that it's unnecessarily complicated. What's wrong with terms like 'people in their late 30s', 'young adults' and so on?

I was born at the very beginning of one generation. It's not as though I have more shared life experiences with people 14.5 years younger than me than with people 2 months older than me. For a start I was in the same school and university year as the latter, whereas I was a teacher to the youngest of 'my' generation when they were still in primary school.

True

but I was unfortunate enough to hear a discussion on socks and it was all around how the different generations do things a certain way and negatively judge the other generations for either not doing the same or doing the same and it being naff for being the wrong generation

that was only socks but I think it’s common with more serious issues

I don't have any issue with it. It's a way of grouping people together.

'Young adults' is vague. 'People in their late 30s' is too specific. Terms like middle-aged seem fine, but for some reason on MN people argue that it means age 35.

I don't like the way the terms are used to criticise (e.g. boomers having had it easy because houses were cheaper, millennials are entitled) - it's ageist.

Tell me more about different generation's socks. I'm wearing age 11+ ones but am probably not doing them right.

I can’t remember the fashionable generation atm but they wear them mid calf whereas unfashionable people wear trainer socks. Basically seeing ankles is naff.

the next thing in socks will be knee high ones from tights material

My ankles are covered but the socks don't reach mid-calf.

Ha! I remember those sock-tights, though I couldn't tell you from when and don't think I ever wore them. What would you (not "you" personally, "you" in the sense of people) wear them with? I see that Wolfords and Charnos still sell them.

Popsocks. I assume the idea was that you wore them under very long skirts or trousers, so the uncovered flesh was hidden. From my limited experience of them, the elastic cuts in around the fleshy part of the calf just below the knee, but perhaps not everyone is as fleshy as I am.

They were for wearing under trousers but you were never supposed to see the tops. They were called Pop Socks.

With shorts and short skirts apparently…

No. Never.