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!

If the SWs had made him younger he could have been a credible suitor for Joy. They would be quite a nice pair actually, busying themselves around the village helping everyone whether it was wanted or not.

In a way I quite like the fact they paired apparently boring and respectable Joy with essentially a grubby tramp. And that for her it seems to be purely about sex - she clearly has no respect at all for his thinking skills, and I recall their early relationship was spent almost entirely in a hot tub somewhere. It’s a much less predictable story than setting her up with some tweedy gent.

This is the problem in a nutshell. She no longer sounds like a woman who could iron a suitcase full of shirts while whipping up a batch of shortbread. Fair enough if she's doing it all off-air, but as soon as we hear her voice it's game over. I actually thought David was quite controlled yesterday - especially when Leonard said he had told his son not to bother coming because he didn't think he could take time out of his very important job! I wouldn't expect David to be a brilliant suitcase packer - when does he ever go anywhere that requires him to pack one?

I'm really missing Brian, anybody else?

He's my favourite character.

Ditto. Hope Charles Collingwood is OK. The SWs do seem to be concentrating on a small group of characters for weeks on end these days, as we have often commented here. Not a change for the better.

I agree with Lillian's insight (as I invariably do). It’s sad, but I’m afraid Patricia Greene's voice no longer matches the character they're clinging to - the disconnect is too jarring.

I also think Leonard's (over) worry about 'closing up the house properly' was the first proper indication of him being his real age, too. All the fretting about unplugging everything and putting the bins out - I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted David to turn the water off at the stopcock as well. How long's he going to be away for, a couple of weeks max? And any of the family could drive him back for a quick check to pick up post, etc. It doesn’t quite fit with a sporty ex-cyclist whizzing round in skin-tight Lycra.

I love this post, especially the 'grubby tramp' description.

Paul Copley was 80 a couple of weeks ago. If we've been told how old Leonard is, I have, of course forgotten it. Patricia Greene is 93. Jill Archer is 94. The age difference between the actors might have seemed immaterial when Leonard was introduced but sadly it's very obvious now. Added to that, some people remain full of vigour well into their 90s (e.g. June Spencer, David Attenborough) and their voices reflect that, but I don't think it's the norm.

I liked hearing Jill insisting on ironing Leonard's shirts. It rang true for a woman of fixed habits with strong views about the right way to do things, but it's also an indication that the SWs still think Jill is reasonably active and fit (for her age) - well, I hope it indicates that, and not a total failure to think what most people can reasonably manage at 94

My mother ironed absolutely everything until the last few weeks (not socks, but everything else). She commented to me on my recent visit that she'd never thought she'd ever find herself wearing unironed pants. It's sadly a sign of a very recent steep decline in her health that she's had to stop ironing. (Not a habit she passed on to me! I hate ironing and do it very rarely indeed.)

Lawks, I’d forgotten about the hot tub. Our new neighbours have one, yet to be installed…

Mine too. By a country mile.

My 95 year old mother is still ironing everything, including her pants, but she is definitely slowing down and finds it difficult to stand at the ironing board for long periods. Even a few years ago she would have polished off a suitcase of shirts with relish, but I can't imagine her doing it so easily now.
Ironing is the only form of housework I actually quite enjoy. And the only badge I ever got in the Brownies was for laundry. (I wonder if Brownies still do that?)
It upsets my DM greatly that most of her DGC don't iron anything. Indeed, I am not sure my DC even own an iron. It certainly doesn't look like it.

We moved countries in 1999 and, because the iron was old and not in great shape, I threw it out with the intention of buying a new one (with the appropriate plug) when we got there. Ladies, I have never once ironed since that day! And no, we are not permanently (or ever) clad in polyester/acrylic.

The only Brownie badge I remember was semaphore. If stuck on a desert island, I could still signal for help from a passing boat with the aid of a couple of palm leaves ... though I suppose that would rely on someone on the boat being able to read it. 😆

Every time I hear Paul Copley I just think he's going to start up about Grime Offenders like he did when he did voiceovers on How Clean Is Your House 🏠

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
Paul Copley was 80 a couple of weeks ago. If we've been told how old Leonard is, I have, of course forgotten it.

David described Leonard on Tuesday as "an injured eighty-something-year-old"

Where will he be sleeping? Has Brookfield grown a bedroom?

also, who is living where Ben was living with Beth? Stella?

Presumably the room Josh was thrown out of on his birthday a couple of years ago is vacant, since they no longer use it for B&B guests. Leonard will feel quite at home there: he decorated and furnished it for them.

Ben was living with Josh and Beth at the Stables; that house is now occupied by Josh, Lily and Paul.

Are we assuming Leonard will not be sharing a bedroom with Jill?

Thanks - so I've forgotten that in the space of 36 hours. A new low!

Shows how memorable it is at the moment, I suppose.

With his hip?

What about his hip? (or is this a TV reference? i don;t have a TV so i iss those.)

I thought he'd damaged his hip

He broke his wrist.

What are that generation like! My mother died of aggressive leukaemia this summer and was insisting on ironing up till about four weeks before she died. I even found a pair of trousers she'd bought, turned up and started to hem before her last admission.

Perhaps the ironing is actually quite good as gentle exercise?

Abra1t
Perhaps the ironing is actually quite good as gentle exercise?

There was a study carried out a long time ago in which various house-work was compared (in terms of calories used doing it) with manual labouring jobs, and I have a feeling that ironing used as many calories as laying a brick wall.

David is a farmer and he had been volunteered to spend time in daylight hours taking Leonard to his house and back, that he would have otherwise spent on the farm. It is understandable that he was annoyed.

The actor who plays Leonard is 80.

Jill has lived on a farm for most of her life; it's hard to credit that she would volunteer a farmer to waste precious daylight during the winter.

In any event, why could David not say to Leonard, "I will take you to pack your clothes for your stay with us after dark when I can't be doing the jobs requiring daylight that I am needed for around the farm", I wonder?