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!

Maybe Ellie's OH has tracked them down and will turn up in Ambridge with evil intent and burn the barn down with all of them inside. Thanksgiving day indeed.

Godesstobe
I also have a horrible feeling that Ellie is going to become a permanent Ambridge resident.Why for Heaven's sake?

Because she has sixteen-year-old twin daughters and the editorial team has noticed the older generation are all beginning to push their century, so they need some immigrants to work for them.

New love interest for Brad?

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g I love your user name and I hope I'm not overstepping by suggesting 'Beaver hugging is not what we need in Scambridge' as a potential thread title.

Inspired by @WagnersFourthSymphony and David Archer in tonight's episode.

I had the horrible feeling that SWs were using it as a convenient way to port a large number of new members into the cast.

I've just queried the crackers-at-Thanksgiving business with my Resident Ex-American and he thought I was talking about firecrackers, which I think are illegal here. When I clarified that I was talking about Christmas-cracker type crackers, he just looked blank. Mind you, he did leave the US in the late 60s! But he lived in Canada for about 20 years, and apparently didn't come across them there either. I've just shown him some on Amazon and nope: nothing!

An episode of Murdoch mysteries (Edwardian Canadian setting) had Christmas crackers (one of them blew up and injured someone) (I think), and the American audience on the show's message board were baffled, amused, enlightened - a few of them had read about Christmas crackers and had thought they must be some oddly compelling Christmas foodstuff, not paper doohdahs full of gunpowder and silly hats.

I find it very strange that you can buy a gun in the USA but not a Christmas cracker because the latter are considered too dangerous, but it seems there is no right to bear crackers in the Constitution.

Kinder eggs are also banned in the US. But the guns are ok.

Quorn is also banned

one would question if the reasons for all these banning is nothing to do with safety and more to do with trade protection

So glad to find this thread, why oh why is The Archers just so plain weird these days?

The message from the whole scam thing seems to be that if you’re scammed, just chill and enjoy all the good that will come out of it.

Three love interests in one year for Brad?????

Ahem - I need the Archers scriptwriters to get Chelsea with Freddie. Does anyone have the radio4 feedback email address?

We can but hope.

I've just caught Friday's episode. Drivel from start to finish.

Drivel from start to finish

Drivel is such a good word.

I'm probably the only one but I found Faith charming. If she chucked Chuck, I'd be quite happy for her to move to Ambridge and settle into Glebe cottage as I doubt we're going to hear from Eleanor Bron again.

I

I've lived in the US for twelve years now, and can confirm that crackers never used to be a thing, but some of the fancier stationery shops and department stores are catching onto them now. Because America loves capitalism I have now also seen thanksgiving and hannukah crackers, and surely halloween crackers can't be far off the horizon.

Please don't boot me off the thread, but I have quite enjoyed this week, not for the ludicrous storylines but because I just love Kate in all her awfulness, so more Kate = a good thing. Although I thought she was quite sweet this week and I do like her and Jakob as a couple.

I also properly laughed at the 'beaver hugging' line. And did wonder if Ellie was going to move to Ambridge and perhaps befriend Helen so they could commiserate about abusive husbands.

Duplicate post - Mumsnet has gone slightly bonkers at my end.

Dear lord I underestimated the US - it appears there are already halloween crackers, along with 'harvest medley' crackers and what appear to be EASTER crackers???

https://www.papersource.com/search/go?ts=custom&w=crackers

It really is very hard to understand the producers’ thinking …

Glebe Cottage - thrown away for years.
Home Farm - ditto.
Willow Cottage since Brian moved out.
All the unnamed buildings at Lower Loxley, where people should be living and working and generally woven into the LL story. Rex has pigs there, it’s far more likely that Elizabeth would have found him a cottage or a few rooms above a barn or whatever than that he would have taken to the river.
Arkwright Hall - even if leased to the Landmark Trust it shouldn’t be silent. It should have generated all sorts of local trade, social interaction and possible relationships.
What happened to Nightingale Farm?
Who has bought The Lodge???

It’s awful hard to believe the creative team actually care about the Ambridge community when they just abandon narrative assets like this.

And then there’s Amside Property. I know Lillian may want to be winding down - but she has a business she could pass on to James (and eventually Mungo). (Surely she didn’t hand that over, lock, stock, and barrel to Justin as well?)

But we never hear a single thing about anyone in Ambridge being employed by her - despite the numerous residents who must leave school every year needing jobs. She’s another who could have found Rex somewhere affordable to live. The absolute silence around a property development business is just unbelievable and infuriating.

I cant see how Jakob can forgive or even apologise to piss taking Kate, I was so hoping he would get rid of her. She seems to think that she is right all the time and that Jakob is just a bit of arm candy, even though she apologised, sort of to Jacob. I dislike her more than Alice and thats saying something.
Nice touch with Ellie milking the cow and enjoying the farm whilst worried about what it would be like when she gets home, but I expect we wont find out unless Ruth says later that she has phoned and her husband has gone. I writing this as though I care 🤷‍♀️. Dont think I can stomach listering to the podcast with E F going on how great it was this week.

Ditto the entire week.

What a load of schmalz this week has been. Motherhood and apple pie. Last week Ruth was snapping at Fallon, who just done her a massive favour - 'got to go and milk the cows, can't stop'. This week she's got the time to let some stranger have a go at milking. Seriously getting fed up with all this fantasy fairy tale stuff. I’ve listened faithfully for over 50 years and really am thinking of ditching it now.

@FizzingAda I thought Ruth’s snapping at Fallon represented a total personality change on her part. Something which does happen more and more in TA these days.

I’m a very long term faithful listener too and I’m beginning to wonder if the BBC is deliberately trying to alienate the listener base. I found the whole week to be total drivel.

Everything that @TottersBlanklyOnTheEdge just said. It sometimes feels as if the SWs have never listened to TA.