Archers thread #176: In which Ian puts the I in PTA. 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 from Wesley the ashtray collector, 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 @DeanElderberry for the pithy phrase in the thread title and @CaptainMyCaptain for suggesting it should go in there. At least we've got the spooky disco out of the way for now. Plenty of wooden dialogue in the last few episodes that could go on the village bonfire next week. It's all been too dispiriting to discuss in greater depth. I'll just say that I don't hold out any great hopes that the production team will make a good job of reflecting concern in the farming community about the changes announced in the Budget to inheritance tax for farms. So often they get an expert to talk them through stuff like this but instead of ending up with a realistic storyline they pick out the bits they like the sound of and cobble them together in a totally unrealistic way. Maybe I'll be proved wrong this time. I hope so.

Over to you!

Thanks!

The burning question is will Thursday's episode be even worse than Wednesday's?

I would just like to say that when Emma'n'Ed have their chainsaw accident, I'm okay with it fatally involving Justin. What on earth does Lilian see in him?

Also - Khalil and Josh are definitely going to end up in chicken heaven together. Possibly with a rehabilitated Hilda, although probably not literally with the chickens, for their sake.

Why is Fallon so hell-bent on making her café exclusively vegan? Presumably it's not a matter of principle, otherwise she would have done it before when she owned the Tea room. So why on earth not carry on as she is but broaden her vegan offering?

That would be really difficult.

Thanks Gasp0de
The 🔮 is of the opinion that Fallon might end up back at TeRum.

Harrisons Marm is very on the ball noticing how Harrison is acting and im not surprised is he only answering the phones he is a powder keg ( nearly 5th Nov) waiting to go off.
Im not keen on the Doc and her kids.
Poor Hilda is she on the move again.
You just know Justin is going to mess up the rewilding, and who goes to a meeting in the middle of a forest in flash leather shoes, surley he would have a pair of Wellingtons in the boot of his car.
I hope he and lilian both get ship wrecked and end up on a desert island never to be seen again.

Thank you @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g , placemarking because I don't want to miss this thread if anything really good happens to Hilda, Henry or Khalil.

Khalil and Josh are definitely going to end up in chicken heaven together.

I can’t see Azra sanctioning that. She won’t let a 13-year-old go about the village unaccompanied, so him striking up a friendship with a (late 20s?) chicken keeper seems extremely unlikely. It was Henry he was interacting rather clunkily with last night. Come to think of it, Azra and Helen ought to hit it off: both have weirdly infantilising parenting styles.

The SWs are as crap about cats as they are about almost everything else.

OMG, just noticed the thread title!

I'm with Azra on the chickens.

Im not keen on the Doc and her kids.

They're awful. Agree about the weirdly controlling parenting, although to be fair, the children are unpleasant, rude brats so keeping them under control, preferably locked up out of sight and hearing might be a good idea.

I usually like Henry but Khalil and Henry together were excrutiating.

What age is Mungo Bellamy? If Lillian and Justin drown, presumably the horrid James will have to come to Ambridge at least for a little while?

I've googled, he's 10.

I didn't think Wednesday was too awful. Although my 14 year old and I chortled over the entirely unrealistic dialogue between two 14 year olds. I was grateful for small mercies that there wasn't any Gen Z/Alpha slang.

I mean, I know I'm setting the bar low, but I'd say yesterday was the least bad episode of the week so far.

Thanks Gaspode, as ever.

What is going on with Rex? His dialogue is like an awful office job training video

I used to listen to the archers as a kid and be mildly interested. Unfortunately if my dc are in the room when I am listening I get either ‘why do you listen to this rubbish?’ or a rather insightful comment about how predictable the sw are - which given how little they listen is quite embarrassing for the sw

However preoccupied Kirsty might be with her own concerns, the date of the lease renewal would have been impossible to overlook. She will have had reminders on her phone and the date highlighted on a wall calendar. She would definitely have been thinking about it since January- aware that 2024 was the year of the lease renewal.

Her and Fallon are being painted as incompetent and totally naive, giving a terrible interpretation of how women operate in the workplace. I can’t imagine it’s deliberate but it feels like very lazy stereotyping. Grrrr…

Justin going around bullying tenants and students is just so weird and very unpleasant to listen to.

I know they don’t want to introduce too many new characters but Justin wouldn’t even be doing these negotiations himself so that’s the stupidness I can’t get past

The children are the result of the parenting. Tight control is always followed by a bid for freedom.

I’ll reiterate - why are the negogiations even taking place? Rewilding doesn’t happen in 5years, you need ownership or a much longer lease.

Because the sw don’t understand much? The whole thing is ludicrous

the charging station is being run like a school fair. Does Justin actually have any employees?

Justin was vile last night.

Looking forward to Hilda turning out to be a cuddle monkey in the right hands.

FFS how do you trial a cat.

You either go all in or don't do it. It's not like something you buy in a shop and return later because you decide you don't like it.

Maybe they could foster with a view to adoption a cat/kitten from a local rescue centre.

I can only assume that she thinks the sort of people who drive EVs are likely to be vegan. In reality, the people I know who went vegan in recent years for health reasons are likely to be the ones binning it off once they've realised how ultra-processed a lot of vegan food is. The ones who are vegan for ethical reasons are - IME - generally not the sort of people who drive an EV and want to spend goodness knows how much on an expensive alternative-milk-latte and butter-free croissant.

FFS how do you trial a cat.

I have a friend who fosters cat shelter cats until they're ready to be permanently removed. I guess you could trial having a cat like that. The Maliks won't though, they're destined to have Hilda.

You could trial the principle of a cat by adopting an elderly cat from a cat rescue (but they come with their special problems). Or you could look after a neighbour’s cat when they go on holiday (our neighbour’s cat understood that when the tins of cat meat moved to our kitchen, he was expected to follow). Or you could start with stick insects and work your way up.