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!

It was eccles- not Eccles and there was a non-silent TA character called Eccles.

I currently have the head of a Mari Lwyd sitting on the filing cabinet behind me. Looks good in work Teams calls 😂

Aren't electric bikes just as dangerous as regular bikes? All the dangers of ordinary bikes with the added problem of heavy battery. A lot less dangerous to other road users than a car.

Yes, I’ve just re-read your post and realised. Sorry!
was Eccles the peacock at the Bull?

Yes. I think there was an Elvis afterwards.
eccles- might be from Greek not Latin.

ekklesiastikos is a Greek word.... Originally it was to do with the (Athenian) assembly not a church, I think, but first the Romans and then the Christians appropriated it.

What's the octogenarian version of a MAMIL called?

I don't think that would be appropriate for Leonard: wasn't he going to wear Joy's hi-vis jacket?

I rather liked the idea of Leonard bobbing bottom in cycling shorts.

And now I shall have to wash my mind out with bleach, and on a Wednesday too. Have you no consideration?

I was a bit baffled about Ruth and David being completely and utterly unable to say to Leonard that they are worried because he is driving/cycling too fast.

THAT was the go-to. Not giving him the impression they think he's a wobbly old git on a bike. FFS. My eyes rolled so far back in my head, i'm not sure i can see straight now.

Yes, it was the word for assembly in Ancient Greek. Athenians who were free men of voting age would gather in the theatre of Dionysos or at the top of a hill to vote on proposed policies and laws. 6000 men, several times a month - the first genuine democracy. Aristophanes wrote a comedy where the women of Athens seized power and displaced the men. Perhaps we could be inspired by this and seize power over The Archers. We could hardly do worse than the current shower.

Zainab is rude and confrontational to older established villagers like Lynda and David in a way that surprises me for a 19 year old doctor's daughter. I can imagine a confident 40 year old answering David back like that, but not a respectful daughter of the Malik house.

I hate listening when it seems so contrived. I know it’s fiction and all but it just seems so fake!!!

Signposting Ruth sustaining a head injury? Leonard as a red herring? It will be about helmets, not soeed

Sorry, that’s an old post I never sent earlier this week! My thumb slipped. Zainab seems very immature.

Zainab is horrible, yet another example of the SWs long term agenda of making the women of Ambridge deeply un-likeable. I don't know why they think that will win them listeners.

Zainab is horrible. Awful and being set up for Ben.

Her mother is awful too.

If we’d known what was coming we could have had a thread called BorsetshireBroke.com

I don't dislike Zainab. She does seem more like 16 than 18/19, but her refusal to go to university until she decides what she wants to do with her degree is just sensible these days, given the costs. If her mother could get her head around that, and stop nagging her about it, life might be easier for both of them.

I assume Azra's husband isn't coming back?

Zainab not wanting to go to college is fine, but her rudeness and sniping isn't. She should be looking for a job, and meanwhile she should be doing enough of the cooking and household maintenance to justify her mother paying for housing her.

Don't blame him.

And making up unpleasant nicknames for people three times her age and whom she barely knows is simply offensive.

Tonight I found myself puzzled. Mick has apparently always wanted to be Santa Claus/Father Christmas, by which he presumably meant the traditional jolly model since the left-over-from-halloween one is a recent development. Why then is Mick prepared to play a daemonic figure intended to scare the tots into fits? Surely that wouldn't be what was on his bucket list?