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!

Zainab is one of those who would have been described as "thinking the world owes her a living" in my youth.

Not forgetting that in my youth if you were not at university, which few were, you were expected to be at work and earning, and paying your mother for the food you ate. That would come out of your wage packet before the money to buy petrol for a scooter you spent all day riding around on. Zainab has never been demonstrated actually to have applied for and got that delivery job that was mentioned – and if she did, her attitude would probably lead to her not keeping it for long.

Zainab seems to be what was then called "an idle little layabout".

I didn't realise that.

My bet is that it doesn't, since Zainab is always in Ambridge and not in and around the local Thai restaurant needing delivery drivers, local meaning two villages away. That would be evening deliveries, and was what Fallon suggested she could apply for – a suggestion that has not as far as we have heard been acted upon.

in any case, if Zainab had found herself painful engloyment I'm sure Azra would say something like "at least she's got herself a job, even if it's a rubbish one", and if Azra contributed towards her keep I'm certain that too would be mentioned in her favour.

There was definitely a mention, I think from Khalil, of Zainab doing deliveries.

I found it odd that a suffocating mother like Azra was happy about a daughter zipping around country lanes at night on a scooter.

Odd? It's totally extraordinary, and what's more I don't see it happening.

This is one tiny way in which the SWs might actually be reflecting reality. Every family I've known whose roots are in any part of Asia or Africa has been keen for their children to do well at school and progress to solid, well-regarded careers like medicine, law, dentistry, pharmacy, finance, accountancy and similar. I worked with one senior academic in a medical school (also an A&E consultant) who was absolutely straightforward about it - anything less than an A was a fail.

I can easily imagine Zainab's parents being in despair that she seems so lacking in drive and oomph at any rate for their approved options. She's still a long way from the youth I heard about from his despairing parents. He failed to get into medical school, in spite of 15 years of private school, private tutors and work experience opportunities wangled by the parents, went away to start a STEM degree, had a wonderful time but failed all his exams at the end of his first year, failed the re-takes in September, failed the second re-takes at the end of a compulsory year out and then did what he had always wanted to do in the first place and became a DJ. His parents had paid all his tuition and maintenance costs up front so he didn't have to take out loans, and apparently told him he'd stolen £25k from them. Not an approach that would find much approval on MN, I feel. Lost touch since, so have no idea how things turned out for that family in the end. The young man's younger siblings by all accounts were on track to do all the approved things, just to make things even tougher for him.

i live in a village. Nearest town is 5kms away (and it's a small town). Inside the town, there are a few places that deliver. But there is precisely one place that will deliver as far out as where we are. (ok pizzas tho, so not too bad)

The idea that a young woman on a scooter is doing deliveries around Ambridge - from where? Felpersham? - is ridiculous.

Felpersham would be absurd, it's seventeen miles away. Borchester is six miles and might be more plausible, but "the local Thai place" two villages away was where Fallon said was advertising for a delivery driver on a card in the shop window.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g Some friends here have a son who was well on the way to his intended career as a surgeon. This was 100% his ambition for himself, not theirs for him. Anyway, when he got his 4 x A* results and offers from all the best places, he said that perhaps medicine wasn't for him after all and he was planning to spend some time at the Radha Krishna temple, having a bit of a think! His parents took this perfectly calmly and off he went.

More than 2 years later he's still there, and his mum says he's a changed person, in a good way. He's now entirely focused on other people and (this made me laugh) when he comes home for a few days, he simply gets on with whatever housework needs doing, including the cooking, without being asked!

Surgeons do help other people....

They do, but, historically anyway, they have often been very gung ho, driven people with not much bedside manner. I did wonder about a few of the students I encountered who seemed to struggle with the personal interactions. A friend who is a GP tells us that an eyewatering number of newly qualified graduates never practise medicine. They go off instead to work in the City or for pharmaceutical companies. He runs a large practice which like many is struggling to recruit new partners. He says many young doctors prefer to work as locums because it gives them much better work/life balance and they don't have to do any of the boring admin side. Of course a lot take it one step further and leave the country for far higher salaries elsewhere. He thinks we're heading for a crisis when his generation of GPs retire (he's in his 60s). Another GP friend in another practice says similar. Tricky times ahead!

I think the tricky times are already here, judging by how long it takes and how difficult it is to see a health professional at all. (Cuts long post giving details; I am reasonably sure we all have a similar set of events we could report.)

I agree, but I fear it might get worse before it gets better.

Loads of unhappy listeners wrote in to Feedback on now!

Interesting and unsurprising! How did they respond?

"no one was available" to respond on feedback, so they replayed the sw talking on the podcast... I've already forgotten what she said, it was such arrant nonsense about "heart warming" and "community spirit."
I think they brought in a one-off writer, who knew nothing about the characters....

The writer that week was Sarah McDonald Hughes. She also wrote this week's episodes, and has another week forthcoming 29th December to 3rd January. She's written six (and a half) weeks of episodes this year, and first wrote for the programme for the week starting 9th December 2018. You'd think she might have known better, really.

I heard Feedback too. The majority of the responses from listeners described last week's episodes rubbish, making all the same criticisms we have made about how unbelievable it all was.(In fact I did wonder if someone from here had written in.) One deluded listener apparently said she had enjoyed the week and found it "heartwarming" but she sounded very much like a lone voice.
I was annoyed that "no one was available" to respond to these perfectly reasonable critisms when they had had no difficulty making someone available on the Podcast to congratulate themselves on the week. The difference, of course, is that the Podcast is just self-satisfied advertising while on Feedback they might have listen to some, er, feedback from unhappy listeners.

Well mick is a bit of an arse - sounded like he was trying to open a space up for joy. I’m a bit bored of the car accident tbh. Can’t say I really care about the impact on mick. Not a character I’ve any interest in

robert didn't sound like Robert somehow (not the voice!). And such an odd conversation between a married couple. Are we pals again 🙄

and joys little pep talk. It just seems like a stream of cliche

Also, it would be terrible if someone reported Mick living in the camper. I know there's all these van lifers but it's actually quite hard to legally do that in England. What a twat!

I'm still enjoying the car accident storyline. Can't stand Mick. Can't wait for the whole 'Rochelle' thing to come out and him to find himself in the impossible situation Emma foreshadowed.

In the meantime sort of enforcement notice on the camper and will do @stilldumdedummin.

Camper VAN!

On the Rochelle thing - so do we think Joy killed her as a kid and moved to ambridge on release and mick will find out and hide it from the village?

I've suddenly come very bored with Mick. Didn't like him much for setting up at Grey Gables.
The homeless living in cars, and not for great nomad reasons, very often 50s+ women, is very much a thing here in Australia and I try not to think of it when he pitches up.