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!

I find Kirsty almost unbearable to listen to. It's partly the righteousness of the character (and of course the Being Helen's Friend thing), and partly the croaky voice.

The Justin/Rex/AI/"AI" episode last night is easily the worst episode of the Archers I've ever listened to. It was, for multiple reasons, completely unbelievable. It shouldn't be difficult for the scriptwriters to make storylines believable, which infuriates me. I've actually caught myself thinking I might complain to the BBC... not that it would do much good (or would it?)... 🤔

Complaining to the BBC wouldn't do any good. According to Feedback on Radio 4 everything the BBC does is always for the best in the best of all possible worlds and any listener who has the temerity to suggest otherwise is a sad, deluded fool.

I'm just trying to decide whether I can bear to listen tonight. I'm beginning to lose my self respect.

Sometimes when I listen to feedback I wonder if I live in a parallel universe

Well Fallon will definitely not be making Monty shaped biscuits in her vegan cafe🤣
So Kirsty's mum is talking about Fallon as if she knows her really well infact Kirsty must have told her mum an indepth resumè about every one in Borchester because she talks as though she knows everyone except of course Justin. She is so interfering I would have packed her off by now she is not doing TA any favours.

I wondered about all the butterflies and wild flowers they were apparently going to be able to see in November.

Does the rewilding site have wetlands? Why have we never heard them mentioned if it does? Can pigs wallow in woodland? Is the osprey, is the black stork, often seen in the midlands?

Why does she need anything else about her?

So what does Megan's stuff reappearing in her bag denote, for goodness' sake?? Justin's floated into Kirsty's and replaced them magically now he's repented of his evil ways?!?! Not that he stole them anyway of course.

And is it what, a fortnight since Brad visited, and now suddenly George is running with the Big Guys?? I like this twist though, it's going to be fun fun fun .....

This made me laugh

Maybe instead of a Scrooge crossover, it's Scrooge McDuck, and Justin's voice has evolved into a full-fledged panicked quack-quack, and we just imagined hearing about butterflies and The People...

@JanglyBeads So what does Megan's stuff reappearing in her bag denote, for goodness' sake??

That (for reasons unknown) she had put the items into a very rarely used zipped internal pocket in her handbag. I had that experience with a lost bus-pass. The council asked for a new photo in order to replace it and, after getting it taken, I shoved it into such a pocket. When I went to take it out, I also pulled out the bus-pass.

She just seems very one dimensional

is tonight’s worth a listen?

Well, we find out a bit more about the house sale, and about George.

So an improvement on last night! I’ll give it a listen at 2

What was Kursedy's volte face re ceurtains meant to denote, I was confused then too?

• the curtains

are she and Helen quibbling over the curtains?

is she buying Roy’s house?

We had a mouse in our kitchen, so for the lack of anything else I put one of those cubic fabric covered IKEA storage boxes over it. Slid card underneath, turned it over, removed card - no mouse! Bottom of box completely bare!

Turned out the bottom of the box was double,with an internal stiffening piece hinged at one edge. Mouse fall into bottom of box, stiffening piece falls on top, hiding him from view.

Maybe Megan's bag is similar?

Possibly that she's realised that selling a house to your mate without agents isn't necessarily the best way to get
a) a quick sale
b) a fair deal
c) along with your friend

I took the finding of Megan's purse to be another unsubtle hint that the whole incident with Justin was in some way magical/ destiny/out of the ordinary.

And I wonder whether George has genuinely gone over to the dark side, or whether he was making a show of bravado to keep his parents from worrying. Maybe the reason he needs the maximum money is because he's still having everything stolen, and possibly having to buy stuff for others.

Maybe just to signal that she'll miss the house she wants. What the implications of that are I don't know. Row with Helen when Kirsty backs out of the sale?

Helen's being a pain, isn't she? "Let's do it without estate agent - much simpler" "Oh, I've just thought, I want a survey".

Boring story: three weeks ago I lost a packet of dog treats while out on a walk. Found them in an inner jacket pocket yesterday while looking for something else entirely.

Yeah at first I thought the Megan's bag story was just about Kirsty's frustration with her mum, but then I realised it was supposed to be woo. What the heck are they going to give us at Christmas....
It must be TA's Christmas Carol mustn't it?

The curtains make no sense. I highly doubt Roy is going to come over and take all the curtains from Willow Farm.

George was fronting it out. Why else would ‘Baseball’ (hmm wonder how he got that name 🙄) be looking so angry or whatever it was that Emma said.

I'm not sure it was meant to be believable, unless you believe in ghosts. Just as some supernatural being spirited away Megan's purse, another one got into Justin's computer and spoke to him.

What mystifies me is: why on earth are we having a Christmas Carol in early November? Surely it's a storyline they could easily have slotted in at, um, Christmas?