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!

Ah; that was not clear from your post. Though mind you, it rather depends on how warm that is: people go to work leaving things to cook in the slow cooker in their absence....

I have few memories of fridges, but MrG (82) - who couldn't tell you what we had for dinner an hour ago - remembers having a fridge from the age of about 5 and that before that they had an "icebox" which sat on the windowsill of their apartment. This was in Brooklyn, which was then where the poor people lived!

I thought it was rather too short. 2 sentences! Surely, THIS show would be a place to explore the issues in some detail? Or are they just setting a seed?

Planting a seed...

I'm so confused among languages at the moment. In any case, it felt like a slap with a wet fish, for all its subtlety, and was then not worked out at all.

Late to your post @Godesstobe but rest easy, there’s no problem if you’re catering for a party/social gathering. If you’re an actual caterer or run a food-related business for money you need to be following the appropriate regulations, though.

(I had to get a food hygiene certificate to sell cakes, and someone from the council came to cast an eye over my kitchen to make sure all was OK, principally that there was a separate hand-washing space away from the kitchen).

Separate to all this is the whole issue of ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ in actual everyday life, which often leaves me 🤨 . See the posters on here who chuck out entire fridge-fulls rather than take an actual sniff at something to check it’s OK, as we used to do in Olden Times.

They're not going to dead Leonard, are they?

I hope they dont dead Leonard he is one of my favs. Always jolly and can fix anything, I bet he could fix the moterhome and get it in fine fettle in one afternoon.
Mick is taking the piss, I really dislike people like him, it makes you not want to be a good neighbour with chancers like him around. The pirate is going to blow her top soon.

I'm a bit confused by Leonard and Jill's relationship. Isn't Jill 90 something and basically housebound, not to mention incredibly cantankerous and forgetful? While Leonard is sprightly enough to be fixing up bikes and zooming around the countryside on them; the only concession to his advanced age being his plan to push up the hills. Now if he and Jill had been together their whole lives it would make sense, couples at different rates - but they've only been a couple for what, 5 years? It's not a very plausible relationship.

Turned off but still warm for hours. A breeding ground for bacteria.

I don’t believe Jill is supposed to be completely decrepit? Just significantly ‘slowing down’. (Wasn’t she reportedly out and about in the village recently? I forget.)

As for Leonard - being mown down on the road is a possibility, but I thought it more likely they’re reintroducing him so he’ll be familiar to listeners come Jill’s funeral. Although I’m not sure how they’d fit it in …

I like Leonard. He’s cheery. Goodness knows what he’s doing with Jill, Queen of the Querulous.

My father had an old caravan he used for fishing and sailing trips, totally his domain, my mother had nothing to do with it. One day I found him happily eating toast with ant marmalade. He’d scooped off the black crust from the top but gave up with the rest and wasn’t going to waste perfectly good marmalade, reckoning they were well preserved. He had a similar attitude to mould, would slice off the most obvious bits (with his fish gutting knife, cleaned by wiping on his trousers) but eat anything else with just a green tinge.

He’d been in Burma during the war, so I guess being in a jungle for two years tends to make you much less fussy.

Our fridge packed up a week ago, and we’re running it as an icebox, using ice packs from the deepfreeze. With critical things in the porch. After much dismantling, waving of soldering irons, and re-mantling (old fridge is 30+ so no spares available), DH has given up the battle, and a new one arrives Wednesday.

Mine has a 'keep warm' function!

and of course the BBC had to have Leonard with the opposing view. For balance.

Have they brought Leonard back to a) have a heart attack on his bike or b) fix Mick's van...

I bought an old Victorian bed and breakfast and the 5 star hygiene review was featured on the front door. The actual kitchen was awful, with no door to close and no extractor fan and the oven was broken. I can’t think how they coped doing fried breakfasts without filling the house with greasy smells. No separate handwashing sink and a dog shared the space. Maybe they bribed somebody!
It has all been renovated now but I do have a meat safe with perforated zinc walls. I keep naughty snacks in it for DH.

@Molecule I have a similar attitude, maybe slightly softened, and I was born in the 1980s and have never served in the forces.

What I heard once, is that it's fine to cut mould off hard foods and eat the rest, but the tendrils spread further (before they're visible) in soft foods. In practice, I wouldn't throw away a whole strawberry or yogurt because of a bit of mould, but I'd cut it off with a bigger margin.

I have excellent hygiene wrt hand washing: I'm the woman you pass in public loos doing the full NHS guidelines around the thumbs, at the base of the fingers etc every time.

Never had food poisoning, so far.

Yes, I’m sure David would have been more adamant in his explanations of the issues. Plus, ‘never been such a big farming protest’ - over 400,000 at the liberty and livelihood march. Whilst not just farming, I can’t see anyone vaguely rural uttering that line without considering it.

Delighted to hear Leonard, was thinking he might be quietly pensioned off with Jill. Really hope this isn’t the end for him!

A fatal accident involving a Corby trouser press feels about right. Or exploding dentures.

My Dad was in Burma too.

I sort of always thought that if Jill shuffles off then he might move into the farmhouse as a replacement. But now I’m wondering whether he is Future Joy Boyfriend, I’m not clear on their respective ages but it’s clear she has the Ick for Mick and who can blame her?

Won’t the gang come back and dead Mick defending the pub?

So does mine but it's not for keeping food warm overnight and into the next day. That's not what he was doing anyway. Cooked food should be cooled quickly and kept in a fridge or, at a pinch, on a cold shelf in a larder. Not festering all night luke warm.

Anyway I doubt if anyone else on here is that interested in the state of my Dad's chicken stew. He died in 2017 but not of food poisoning.

So does mine. The manufacturers are probably hoping to kill us all.

Slow cookers and trouser presses: the lurking menace in your home.

(although IME ‘lurking menace’ tends to default to ‘cat’)