Archers thread #175: Crime, punishment and kittens. 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 your current highlight is the kitten naming, 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.)

As I am posting this on Sunday morning at a point where some omnibus listeners won't have caught up with this week's events, I've kept the title less spoilerish than I might have done. Below this point, everything broadcast to date is of course fair game, so be warned!

Of course the main interest for most us at the moment is indeed the kitten naming competition. Isn't it? No?

Oh well, since you insist ...

How do we think George is going to cope now? Whither the Grundy and Horrobin clan? Will Lilian choke on her G&T (please)? Will Kenton get septicaemia from a kitten scratch? Will Alice die of sanctimoniousness? Will Fallon spend the rest of her life with the appalling Harrison and his unfulfulled longing for a behbeh? Will Adam and Will come to blows in the Bridge Farm packing shed?

Over to you!

Do a promo video of the new EV charging station, including drone shots following a car (we have had it emphasised that Brad is not good with piloting the drone.)

Lillian should definitely take Justin on the Christmas cruise. If he's still pissing her off, it's much easier to push him overboard than get rid of him in Ambridge.

Don't forget he also wanted Brad to hire a suitably attractive young woman to be a fake customer for the video. It's almost as though he's being set up to fail!

Oh - I’d forgotten! The Caribbean might be rather convenient for accidentally bumping into someone resident in Central or South America. Surely?

(I mean, if you lived in a soap and were a bit tired of your partner and found yourself even vaguely in a similar part of the world as your ex-soul mate …)

Sunny Ormonde is about 70. I know Archers actors go on forever, but perhaps a new life as a dealer's moll in Central America beckons? She could phone home from time to time ...

Justin could go after her and, with luck, become a victim of the gang.

From what I've seen of her friends and neighbours they are mostly a lot more capable than she is in this respect. Most use WhatsApp, emails and Facebook routinely. Bert may well be similar. We always used to think of the over 60s as being non-tech savvy, unlikely to have an email address, etc. but time has moved on and that generation is now the over 80s. All my friends in their 70s have smartphones and use them for whatsapp, zoom, calendar, odd apps like instrument tuning. The thing we don’t do is phone banking - we-tend to stick to online banking from our desktop.

Covid gave a boost -we’re all of us great at zoom now.

The ‘unappreciative randoms’ are their audience. Episodes like last night’s suggest to me that the SWs/prod team hold that audience in contempt, so I feel criticism is a fair exchange.

And they only decided to draw from the pot 10 minutes ago and suddenly it’s cheating just to go back to the original plan of choosing the best And why wouldn’t you announce the draw would be on such and such a date, in the hope of a few more customers?

Fair points. I must admit I was annoyed by last night's episode because it felt almost as if the SWs were deliberately taunting or patronising the audience. Then I thought I ought to put myself in the shoes of a young SW who'd misread the room.

But you're right @RegimentalSturgeon We are at least a few of their audience, entitled to a view.
And I've no idea who was responsible for last night's nonsense, whether it really was a new young SW trying to shake things up.

It’s all so slapdash at the moment

but then if I think back they’ve managed to make a farce of a lot of their really good sl so I guess it’s nothing new

Last night’s SW was Daniel Thurman, who according to his agent has been a ‘core’ writer since 2019 with over 100 episodes to his credit.

If, and it's a big if, last night is the last we hear of Jolene's Daaarlin then I can forgive them the episode.

Justin though is awful. No one would behave like he does , not even a pantomime villain.

😮

He should know better then.
Where do you get this info, please? I haven't been able to find it.

ETA: info on the current SWs, I mean.

That is my fantasy storyline. Lillian getting arrested for drink driving.

The supposed wealthy, experienced business man exploiting a teen for revenge is ridiculous. I hope Brad realises there is no contract in place etc and tells him to do one.

The letter to the prison is a bad idea. See also bringing photos in. It's not sensible to give too much of yourself away in any threatening environment where you are surrounded by people who are expert at taking advantage and exploiting others. I repeat my observation that George does not have the street smarts to cope with prison.

I really hope the SWs and producers do read this thread and take careful note of what we think. We are not "unappreciative randoms", we are their core audience, and it is their job to write decent material. Last night's episode gave the impression that they simply didn't care and thought we could be fobbed off with any old rubbish. Either that or they are incapable of writing good quality, believable characters, scenarios and dialogue. I don't care at all if they find our opinions a bit upsetting. I hope they do and it makes them try to do better.

If I had been that bad at my job, I would have expected honest feedback and to have been told that I wasn't a good fit for the job if I didn't improve.

(Actually that would never have happened in my case as I was a Civil Servant and regularly saw people getting away with being awful at their job for years, sometimes decades, or even being promoted so they could continue to do a bad job but with higher pay. But I still believe in the principle ...)

Re the oldies and tech, some of us have gone from Wordperfect for DOS via Windows and Mac (in the early 2000s) on to Linux. MrG had a brief flirtation with mainframes back in the day! So we just sneer back at the sneering.

We do, however, shun Facebook, WhatsApp and the like. And mobile phones are for texting, maps, timetables, emergencies and weighing down your pocket or bag.

The Spoilers thread has details of the perpetrators for any given week. The other info was courtesy of Thurman’s agent, after searching ‘Daniel Thurman Archers’.

@Godesstobe: We are not "unappreciative randoms", we are their core audience, and it is their job to write decent material.

My comment was carelessly worded. I shouldn't have implicated anyone else. I am sorry.

I am a singular unappreciative random and a newcomer to the thread (though not to TA).

No need to apologise @WagnersFourthSymphony . I didn't take any personal offence. You are clearly a nicer person than I am and I like the fact that you care about the SWs' feelings.

LOL

Actually that would never have happened in my case as I was a Civil Servant and regularly saw people getting away with being awful at their job for years, sometimes decades, or even being promoted so they could continue to do a bad job but with higher pay. But I still believe in the principle ... And by chucking in that irrelevant fact, you perpetuate the idea that everyone who is a civil servant is by definition bad at their job and seeking to get away with as little work as possible, thus leading to a climate where civil servants can go years without a pay increase, or a candidate for party leader suggest that 10% should be imprisoned.

It would be nice if people could give equal prominence to the number of civil servants who are continuing to do a good job even though their workload increases each year, and making the best they can of antiquated IT systems and the lack of other tools to do their job.

Doesn’t sound dissimilar to the private sector tbh!!

Thanks. So do people think there's an ulterior motive or that it will just be rubbish and ruin George's business?

My Dad did phone banking and all his shopping online until he died at 92. Mind you he was a wireless operator in WW2 and worked on the beginning of Radar. He was very much into tech and I think I've inherited that (nearly 70)

The latter, with added "it will annoy the fuck out of Lilian who made me miss beef for my lunch".