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!

Haha yes we did!

They are edible just not worth it, compared to the Roman snails. People do eat Helix aspersa which is the standard big brown one, the pink and yellow ones are too small. And you’d want to be 100% sure that your neighbours don’t use slug pellets, and they hadn’t been chomping on vegetation that had been sprayed.

Relieved you said that, pretty sure we ate them as students (back when foraging with HFW was the thing…). I can’t remember if we actually ate them or if they escaped…. I do remember mushroom (Russian) roulette and the hare on a bed of hay (tasted like rabbit droppings).

I might just mention that although I have eaten some fairly odd things. Rabbit droppings is not one, years of pets made me very familiar with the smell.

For some reason, I thought Joy had
already made some sausage rolls, so it was handy to take them round to Emma’s as a gesture of friendship. Whereas the Sachertorte was made specially - possibly a practice run for the flower and produce or something? And Joy didn’t want to eat it?

If Fallon and Ed have an affair I might have to stop listening.

Mick is weird. I agree that his characterisation is shockingly inconsistent.

I like Emma, but she is ridiculous asking Ed to ask Brian if he reported her to the PC, and being so defensive with everyone. Just own it, resign, and come back again later.

And yes, why was Robert referring to Lynda as Lyndy to other people? I picked up on that, I’m glad I’m not the only person who thought it sounded wrong.

Zainab is shockingly rude, and Azra is incredibly annoying. Why does everyone want to be friends with them?

I hate to predict something so dull but could we end up with a Ben/chelsea/zainav love triangle

although why anyone would want to be in a relationship with Ben - the whole Beth thing was just too odd

Its funny when a girl/women speaks to another boy/man, person in TA ,some think they will have an affair or fancy each other, can't they just be opposite sex friends.
Mick is called Mucky Mick because I think Joy was saying that Mick wasnt very hygienic and his camper van was a tip. I surprise she likes him as much as she does, as I said before, I think he has smelly feet yuk!

@Nettleteaser101 I think the same - but that's usually the case with most dramas/ literature etc. my best friends have always been opposite sex and my dp is the same. Neither of us think anything of the other meeting/ texting/ talking to an opposite sex person. It doesn’t signify romance at all. But in fiction, it is normally the case that opposite sex can't be proper friends - unless one or both are gay or elderly of course.

@Nettleteaser101 , Yes they can, but if there wasn't more to it, it would happen off-air.

Ach, two people who have been friends since they were at school together and live in the same village are still friends. Hold the front page!

I thought Fallon held a flame for Ed at some point a long time back? I really hope the sw aren’t planning an affair

it feels like they are trying to put Ben and zainab together but in the scenes he just seems quite bemused by her

Ben isn’t exactly sophisticated or well travelled. He’s generally bemused by anyone who doesn’t live at Brookfield …

True!!

he seems to attract the ladies which I find very surprising given how beige he is.

Bruisername
I thought Fallon held a flame for Ed at some point a long time back? I really hope the sw aren’t planning an affair

Fallon fancied him until he took to calling her "Emma" in a doting voice and in tender moments. She also carried a torch for Tom, slightly earlier, and she grew out of that one too.

Blimey - what terrible taste in men she has

All the women in Ambridge do, because the choice is so limited. The only people who have got the dangerous idea of people from (gasp!) the next village or the next county or the next country are Archers and Aldridges. Such high flights are not for hoi polloi, or if they are they go elsewhere to indulge them.

Hello, just dropping by. Has Mick been DBS checked? bit weird having a bucket list ambition to play Father Christmas.

DBS checked? In Ambridge? I doubt it, unless he had a check to work as a security operative which he has shown to Kenton and Jolene.

Fallon and Ed had the dance lessons for Emma thing too which does fit in with the SW’s penchant for the long game.

As far as I know you do not need a DBS check to play Santa in the presence of the children's parents. Which they always do seem to be.

My DS had a holiday job as an elf at at a Winter Wonderland when he was in the 6th form. He absolutely loved it. He had to be taught to skip, which he had never done before as it seems only little girls skip, and he said it was impossible to feel anything other than happy when you were skipping everywhere all day. He was a great hulking rugby playing teenager but he looked impossible cute in his elf outfit with red and white stripey tights and bells on his green shoes. He always came home in such a good mood, full of Christmas spirit.

I have to say Creepy Christmas sounds a lot less wholesome, particularly with Mucky Mick having a starring role

On the one hand the SWs do seem to pride themselves on playing the long game and developing SLs over a long period (which I wholly approve of) and on the other hand they seem to have a complete inability to remember things that happened in the recent past.

It may not be required, but if I were setting up a Santa thing I'd want to consider safeguarding. Better safe than sorry. However, Ambridge being Ambridge nobody will think about this because they know Mick. They knew Philip Moss and George too, of course, but it still came as a nasty shock when they were revealed to be criminals.

Clearly anyone who catches a bus at the same time a minor child might do so had better have to have a DBS check in case they molest that child – even if there are thirteen other children and several of their parents also on the bus.

And any man whose wife invites any school friend of their child's to come to tea must have a DBS check if he is going to be in his house.

While we're at it, all women who are ever in the same room as several children had better have them too.

That's not what @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g is saying.

Mick as Santa is not in a private capacity, so yes, it's reasonable. The same way the village fete has insurance.