Archers thread #177: Will Bridge Farm get a PassiveAggressivHaus? 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 love to have a moribund camper van parked indefinitely outside your home, 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.)

Over to you!

Tracy had no trouble climbing out of the window at Greenacres, so I can't understand why it would be harder for Joel.

I suspect that in theory at least, if you live in a bungalow your windows ought to open far enough for you to get out of them in case of fire.

How about utilising the dog? The phone could double up as tracking device, there's no need to carry poo bags and you wouldn't have to walk like John Wayne. Win win.

I sit corrected. My mother tells me the windows can indeed be fully opened. That makes sense for reasons of fire safety, as Asking has pointed out.

Seriously, they have a bare hour a week to develop the stories of the regular characters, and they've spent almost all of it this week on people we neither know nor care about and hope never to hear of or from again to tell us the Very Important Fact that if you find yourself part of a scam it doesn't matter a bit because your fellow victims will drop their day jobs, forget about insurance liabilities and business costs and biosecurity and common sense, and instead run around bringing you air beds, cooking your breakfast, and making sure you have a choice of fucking teabags.

Seriously?

I mean.

Seriously?

This is a public service?

About 15 years ago the BBC used to describe Radio 4 as 'intelligent speech' I presume they've dropped that claim.

We live in a bulgalow (a typo I shall not correct as it reminds me that an ex-employer used to refer to bungalows as "bungaloid growths") and although we have a landline, we don't feel the need for any extensions.

I think there's a law now that new windows have to be openable wide enough for people to climb out. I asked the fitter how that worked for people who were wider than the window and he said it didn't!

I quite enjoyed Chuck'n'Faith appreciating (rather than being upset by) Eddie's fantasy World of Grundy Lies. It will give them a story to tell about the madness of the English, I suppose?

I have always been seriously unhappy that the windows in this house do not open wide enough for me to climb out through in the event of fire, but didn't realise the new building regs mandate it. I hope it won't make it difficult for people selling houses built/glazed before the date of the new law. And for sure, if we can ever afford to have the windows replaced it will be an important consideration in what sort of replacement windows we buy.

About Eddie's World of Grundy Lies: what do they do with Oliver in the evenings? tell him to make himself scarce or stay in his room so they can entertain their friends? Does he have to go and eat at The Bull?

I did hope for a moment that the furious pounding on the door was Oliver trying either get into the house or out of the cupboard under the stairs but alas no.

I clicked on the Telegraph article link and the actors that play David and Ruth look nothing like I imagined!

Apparently, the archive.ph site mentioned above archives behind-a-paywall articles so they can be publicly read.

did anyone else turn up expecting a bed?. No. we just got lots of meaningful conversations and agreement that this was the bestest holiday ever. Or something like that

So where’s the scam? Worst PSA ever

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime - I got the impression that if the existing windows didn't comply, that was one thing ... but replacement ones must. In our case, we replaced all but the kitchen windows in about 2014. But the kitchen windows presumably don't matter, because there's a back door in the room. I wouldn't care to attempt escaping via our bathroom window, which is at tit-height!

Bathrooms and kitchens don't count as living rooms, apparently. Which is silly given that the majority of house-fires in the UK are started by cooking-stoves! But good that new windows must be possible to escape through these days.

Speaking of fire hazards: where was this camp-fire they were talking about? In the barn, or in the farmyard, or where? Open flames and farms are generally not seen as all that compatible, as Stella made clear to Kate a couple of years ago.

Ive been away so haven’t heard anything apart from the first episode of Scam Week. But was I right…is it all complete and utter drivel?

I would classify it as "no more so than usual". But I am now only listening to exercise my eye-rolling muscles.

Haha couldn’t agree more @DeanElderberry 💁🏻‍♀️

Yes. Tonight's was even worse.

The biggest scam of all is that we are tuning in expecting to listen to The Archers and being fobbed off with this load of garbage instead. One couple being scammed would have been a stretch, but the idea that there is a whole barn full of people who fancied a winter break in Ambridge and that they are now all happily holidaying there like some impromptu scout camp is just laughable (and now Kate is joining them too).

It is No room at the Inn, isn’t it? Will they all decide to stay for another month??

I missed a few episodes and caught up last night - and after about 25 mins had my head in my hands. Who the hell thought this was a good idea? Completely agree with this point above. Gar.

I think I've got the takeaway message though.

If you fancy a holiday in the English countryside, don't book online because you might get scammed. Instead, turn up somewhere you like the look of, demand accommodation, and the locals will make sure you have a warm safe place to sleep with proper beds and breakfast and entertainment provided. Free.

Does the same thing apply to urban and city breaks?

Very clever advertising.

There's so much about this that is poorly executed, but one thing that stood out for me was that Faith is supposed to have left Ambridge at the age of six. Fair enough because let's face it, a couple of random Americans from Arizona would be unlikely otherwise to fixate on a stay in Ambridge in November. However Faith's memories - during cider with Eddie - were not about other people who'd been in the same class at primary school, she apparently remembered Joe Grundy, Jethro Larkin etc like an ancient listener tuning in years later who might need to know that Kate is Peggy's grand daughter or Pip is named after Phil. If you'd moved from a place at the age of six, it's not the old people you'd remember, but the young ones - the other people in your class, the ones on the school photo if you'd kept it.

I though she'd left at the age of ten. I admit my ears were switching themselves off by that stage.