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!

Actually, wasn't it moronic Tony's incompetence that ruined the lawn? It's almost as though he was looking to put off potential buyers (other than Helen and Natasha) and get the price down. Fortunately, we can discount that as Tony is not that bright.

I keep thinking I'll give it one more week...

It’s just all so badly written

helen has been a total cowbag

every scene with azra was written badly and the dialogue was not at all natural

and who the hell lends out a cat for a day? Is that normal behaviour?

and 2 mice? That’s a little worrying isn’t it? Or in the countryside to the field mice just wander in and out

Tbf I was trying to cook so I missed that bit, just came back as the dimwit trio were umming and aaahing and the lawn was totalled. I’ll add Tony on to the charge-sheet in that case.

and who the hell lends out a cat for a day? No one

Is that normal behaviour?

No.

I really dislike Azra.

its like they’re not giving azra and her family a chance by writing them so badly

and the whole ‘what are teenagers like eh?’ BS - teenagers are not generally plotting how to get their parents to accept chickens

i really hope things pick up soon. I’m still expecting love to have some trouble and not to have been miraculously cured.

fallons so could have been good if they had known what they are doing. And the actress needs to stop trying to signal the turmoil in her life through the stuttering

character consistency would be appreciated

Azra has a problem way beyond her (rather typical) teenagers, which is that in a place the size of Ambridge she is going to be everyone's GP and so not really "friend" material.

Fallon has turned from the only competent person in the village into a stupid woman and needs a good (figurative) kicking.

We now know that Fallon has somehow become a woman able to cater for a party of 50 without turning a hair (provided she has a kitchen large enough for the purpose). It becomes even more of a mystery why she was wasting her talents in the TeRum for so long.

Are we supposed to believe that Jill is still catering for the entire household, if she thinks the kitchen is her domain? She sounds so wavery nowadays that that seems wildly unlikely; I know the Dopeys are massively selfish and inconsiderate, but if they still expect Jill to do all the work to feed them that's pretty outrageous.

Doesn't seem that likely for a silver wedding. Even if they didn't get married till their early 30s, that would still mean that they are in their 50s and quite a long way off retirement, and the same is likely to apply to their friends.

TBF, I could cater for a party of 50, and I have no culinary training whatsoever; just experience of trying to run conferences etc. without running afoul of university catering, who charge insane prices for nothing much...

I didn't mind the "Not-Hilda" SL: seemed a lighter-touch PSA than the usual of late, and I was glad it wasn't Hilda. As for the mice, I think my cat could still give Hilda lessons. At 19, he's retired now, but I think he still runs online courses for other cats.

I'd be quite keen on a storyline that reflects the experiences at actual normal contemporary livery yards/riding schools, rather than some sort of weird impression half-absorbed from 1950s pony books. E.g. instead of the heavy-handed attempt to talk about laminitis last year by looking at one fat pony, why not have an argument between a livery and the yard manager about turnout, feeding, and access to forage, where the livery's knowledge and concern about the individual horse's needs are set off against the yard manager's need to run an efficient system that will work for most and will not trash the land. But, um, that would require actual research on the SW's part...

Agree - an upsetting story and I felt sorry for poor Jakob. Coincidentally for me I had (barely an hour beforehand!) been reading a short story by Ruth Rendell in which a cat gets run down, so was going "oh no, not another one").

Helen is such a selfish madam, poor Kirsty, Im really annoyed for her.
Mick is a tramp and I dont know what Joy sees in him, and then destroying Kirsty's lawn. To be honest if I had the life Kirsty has I would think of moving on. Nothing goes right for her in Ambridge poor girl.
You would never loan your cat out and cats usually leave bits of mice not dead whole one's, usually under the bed, well thats what my boy does anyway.
Hate the cat being run over, why couldn't it have been Helen. Nice to hear lovely Jakob though.

I used to live backing on to a rough field and woodland. In the autumn I could catch five mice a night. And yes, they can just stroll in. I bought Little Nippers in bulk!

Maybe those so far non existent chickens are a ray of hope, maybe the SWs have a 'most of the population of Ambridge gets wiped out by bird flu' story already recorded and are waiting for a moment when it will be just right as a topical insert.

every scene with azra was written badly and the dialogue was not at all natural

The Axra actor is so wooden!

Also in the country you get mice. If you have chickens you get rats

So true Brefugee (regarding the rodents, not that there's anything wrong with the rest of your post).

and who the hell lends out a cat for a day? Is that normal behaviour? Surefire way to lose a cat. It’d be trying to find its way home from the instant you let it out of the box.

I loved the bit of dead cat dialogue “can I help. I’m a doctor” “Actually, I’m a vet”.

Agreed. I had to switch off so could someone confirm if it was Hilda who was hit?

Mick gives me the ick.

They don't know whether it was Hilda. Probably not, it didn't have a detectable
microchip. I suppose she was she rather than it, presumably Jakob would know.

Jakob said 'she'. If it wasn't Hilda then what was the point?

helen has been a total cowbag And she’s so not conscious of it. True self-centredness.

Are we supposed to believe that Jill is still catering for the entire household, if she thinks the kitchen is her domain? No, Ruth said “we do all the cooking nowadays”. Must be distressing for Jill to see her clean and tidy kitchen trashed daily by Ruth.

You would never loan your cat out and cats usually leave bits of mice not dead whole one's, usually under the bed, well thats what my boy does anyway. Ours bring in live ones, because it’s more interesting chasing them around the furniture. If they-do become dead, the cats just lose interest. They seem to be happy for us to catch them and return them to the outdoors. Anything small and four-legged will do - a previous cat brought us a gerbil.

Pointless. Was it a crude attempt to get Azra and Jakob together? (Oh noes, Kate!) What is the point of any of it? PSA about microchips. Jakob, who knows Hilda, suspected it wasn't even before checking. If it's not Hilda it's someone else's cat, so are we going to hear a new feckless character?

Agree about the acting. I stay listening for the odd scene like the Carters visiting George, which shone out amid the dreary slapdashery of late.

The thing that annoys me about Azra (one of the things, anyway) is that she’s a GP, someone who does a stressful professional job requiring qualities of fortitude, organisation and toughness, and yet she appears to be totally wimpish about everything and anything in her private life - which wouldn’t give me great confidence in her abilities as a GP.

She didn’t want to have to meet or talk to anyone at the fete, and panicked when asked to undertake some basic interaction with people. She goes into dramatic flaps over relatively small problems (mice, cats, things to do with her children). What’s the point of her? I can’t work her out.