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!

If they moved both Helen and Tom (plus families) into Bridge Farm it would be carnage and they could move The Archers on to some sort of pay-per-episode channel.

My money would be on Natasha.

Glad to hear there’s an inheritance story in the making. Farmers here and every conversation I’ve had in the last two weeks has either been about this of the increase in MW!!

They could have some cracking storylines on it.

I’d love to hear more about that, too,
The budget must be set to have an effect on several families.

Not sure I have the bandwidth for yet another archers podcast.

Came on here to check if we'd discussed Natasha's total disregard for Fallon's confidentiality when she immediately told both Emmur and Tony about her request.

I would have said it's obviously going to be Justin who's got the bigger unit but that doesn't fit with last week's reformatory storyline.

I'm glad Summer Orchard is being erased, its unreality in time and space bugged me. Tony's eco house-building brings up the unlikely business of Helen renting a Justin house on the family's former land - but its creation is for the greater good of what should be a cracking storyline about the inheritance of Bridge Farm.

But I can't get my head round Lee: he's not joining his own daughters - whom he used to see a lot of - in the U.S. after definitively splitting up with Helen but is still coming to Helen's to see her children?

But I can't get my head round Lee: he's not joining his own daughters - whom he used to see a lot of - in the U.S. after definitively splitting up with Helen but is still coming to Helen's to see her children?

Getting a work visa in the USA is very difficult.

Getting a work visa in the USA is very difficult.

Fair enough, but it is the Archers...a village where there is no snobbery, the elite go to jail at a shocking rate, and people come and go at alarming rates.

In the face of that a US visa is nothing.

I did laugh last night at Natasha, she sounded bored and irritated when serving her FIL and as soon as he said about his eco house idea, it was all "flat white Sir"

Marrying into that family shows Natasha is made of stern stuff!!

I don’t think Fallon is owed any confidentiality tbh but suspect Natasha k ee exactly what she was doing

i was just thinking about how Helen is always described as fiercely independent but isn’t - yet her sister in law is effortlessly independent

Does the Teerum not fall under GDPR legislation?!?! #shocked

Who does all the baking at the Terum?

Fallon knew that there would be no immediate income from the Charging Station Cafe, but that was ok because they could live off Harrison's income until the CSC started turning a profit.

But now they can't live off Harrison's income short term and she'll have to pick up minimum wage shifts at Terum, serving customers.

It makes no sense!

@JanglyBeads I would have said it's obviously going to be Justin who's got the bigger unit but that doesn't fit with last week's reformatory storyline.

It's not clear he is reformed. He was tricked by Robert's Wizard of Oz act and will go ballistic when he discovers it. (I expect Martyn will put him straight on the limits of AI.)
And the way he teased Rex and Kirsty about the renewal contract shows that his nasty streak is intact.

But really, I have no idea. Nothing in TA these days makes any sense. As if Fallon would have quit her job before securing the charging station contract she wanted. (And even then, the vegan café doesn't make sense.)

Fallon and Emma, and Natasha now, I guess. It will be bought in, part-baked in no time.

Bridge Farm has probably 3 or 4 bedrooms unless the Ambridge Property Fairy has been busy. Nobody in their right mind would try to fit in the doggedly independent Helen and fiercely independent Natasha's families, when it hadn't worked out with Pat'n'Moany.

Last week I spent all day in an AI workshop with work. I am no expert but I was quite surprised about what is possible and how quickly it works. We used a licensed chat GPT. It wasn't trained to do our job but made a reasonable go at it. It does a better job if you ask it to take time to think. And if you tell it that your career depends on it. And also if you thank it. Which amused me. I told the managers in the room to take note!

But yes I still can't comment on whether the AI in TA was a trick or just unfathomably advanced for what must be public use software?

I am vegan. The cafe makes no sense.

Very good question. Given Fallon's cakes were apparently the talk of Borsetshire, standards must have plummeted.

@stilldumdedumming I posted upthread about the supposedly-interactive website in light of having some experience in a related field. No, it doesn’t make sense, and as far as I'm concerned the second part of your either/or applies

And the way he teased Rex and Kirsty about the renewal contract shows that his nasty streak is intact.

I'm not sure about this. IIRC, the reformed Scrooge does enjoy teasing Bob Cratchit about being late at the end of the story, before revealing his volte-face.

How was she intending paying for fitting out the empty shell at the charging station?

None of it makes sense.

I've been remembering June Spencer's response many years ago when someone expressed concern about recent events in Peggy's life 'Don't worry, she's just going through a change of scriptwriter'. Can't find the exact source - I think she was quoted by Norman Painting.

Justin has let the larger unit out to a social enterprise venture run by ex-Borsetshire Social Services clients led by a young foodie with a name something like Oscar Quist. It's going to be called More! and specialise in gruel, which is the coming thing in health foods. Minimal expense on decor and furnishings as all diners will sit on long benches on each side of a long trestle table and plain breeze block with no windows is exactly the vibe they're looking for.

😂

I could see that being a hit in some of the hipster parts of that London.

I assume she had budgeted to start making a profit with a year, rather than the 2 years the smaller, corner unit would make.

How many units are there at this poxy plug-in park anyway? I thought it was only three - in which case Fallon has been offered all of them in succession. But the way she was talking about it (on Sunday? I lose track) made it sound as if there were more than that.
ah well, it’s all bollocks anyway, so what does it matter