Archers thread #178: Ambridge or Scambridge? 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 fancy Mucky Mick, 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.)

The scars from Scambridge week will take some healing. Most of us felt we were the ones scammed - where was The Archers we know and (very occasionally) love?

Anyway, onwards and - almost certainly not - upwards. Will it be the best Christmas ever in Ambridge? Do we still care? Over to you!

I like nododo. May we keep it?
(But Daaaad, it followed us home)

I don’t like Rochelle either, but I do feel that had a parent or parents wished that name on me, making their lives a misery to them would be both duty and pleasure.

I think there's a place for nododo.

Rochelle is indeed a terrible name.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14235189/The-Archers-heading-radio-West-End-stage-BBC-commissions-play-everyday-story-country-folk.html

I understand Emma acting like she is as she thought the sun shined out of George , but she is getting on my nerves.
Rochelle is too secretive but boring at the same time. I've gone past caring what Joy's story is ever since she took up with Mucky Mick.
Hope the New Year brings good new story's and some farming, I noticed though they mentioned Brexit a few times, they haven't mentioned the Inheritance tax. I would have thought everyone would be fuming by now.

Again, i'm in the minority but I am still enjoying the George at storyline and the exploration of the impact it is having on Emma. Prison doesn't just punish those who are serving a sentence. It's all so wretched.

I also don't like Rochelle, I don't think we are supposed to!

I prefer Rochelle to Joy!

Wonder what Fallon is doing for income these days...I was looking forward to the vegan cafe being surprisingly a thriving success and converting the lot of them😄

I've never been a fan of Joy but there is something about Rochelle that has improved Joy for me. 😂

Can anyone remind me why Lynda won’t set foot In Felpersham theatre?

Rochelle and George future love storyline, bonding over their prison experiences?

Joy and Rochelles relationship is very banal. Small talk but nothing deeper. Suppose the SWs are maintaining the suspense..

I don't know if she is supposed to sound like that but Rochelle talks like a bored, eye-rolling teenager with that horrible inflection. Awful.
Can't wait for her part to be over. Maybe she can go postal and take out Mick, Joy and Helen on the way

Am not enjoying, but greatly appreciating the way we are seeing the effect of incarceration on those on the outside via Emma having a long, slow breakdown.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g An early plea for ‘nododo’ to make it into the next title thread!

I am struggling to feel sorry for Emma.Not that I dont think she’s in an awful situation, but because she has whinged over everything over the years that this feels just like another opportunity for her to wallow in self pity.

George is so selfish
No consideration for how his actions in denying his family visiting rights is affecting them.
He only considers himself and this has always been the way.

A total waste of space.

The only person who sees George with clarity is Neil.

I find it deeply implausible that George is keeping in touch with Poppay and Kee-ruh. And totally in character that Emma is taking it out on her parents: I almost felt sorry for Susan last (?) night. Then I remembered she is, well, Susan and the feeling passed.

<makes note>

@MereDintofPandiculation, Asking will have chapter and verse, but I think it may be the aftermath of some ancient spat with the Felpersham Light Operatic Society (referred to as FLOS, IIRC), or possibly the man who was their equivalent of Lynda, over costumes she wanted to rent from them for the Ambridge panto which didn't materialise. (I could be inventing this.)

Hannah too, without the complication of being a blood relation.

"She's really landed on her her feet here," pretty much sums up what I thought when Joy first moved to Ambridge. A big Beechwood house (too expensive for for Helen or easily affordable for Natasha and Tom) and yet Joy has no visible income and had moved from a cheaper part of the country - so not a downsize from an expensive London pad. There was no obvious reason for her to relocate to Ambridge - she has no connections to the area whatsoever. Now we know Rochelle is not dead, not imaginary and Joy is not in police protection, what does that leave? It feels a bit to me as if Joy is treading on eggshells around Rochelle - Rochelle is the one who doesn't want to get into raking up the past when Joy suggested a proper catch up. It feels to me like Rochelle has tracked Joy down - they haven't been in touch despite Joy maintaining that pretence in Ambridge. Joy's reaction has perhaps been muted due to the presence of Mick. She seems pleased to see her, but unsure what she wants. Could Rochelle be after Joy's money? If so, she won't like seeing Mick getting his feet under the table.
Brilliant acting from Emma - you can really feel her pain as a mother while also knowing she is the author of her own misfortune by being responsible in part for the man George has grown up to be (and for the fact he was arrested in the first place). These are the layers that are missing from the Joy/Rochelle storyline so their plot, while intriguing, feels more flimsy by comparison and we feel less implicated.

So are you saying Joy chose this unlikely location because it was somewhere she didn’t think she’d be found - by her daughter?

Interesting …

Could it be that Rochelle’s cult were intent on removing the contents of the bank accounts of cult members’ relatives? So Joy fled her previous home leaving no forwarding address? #Straw, clutched …

@MereDintofPandiculation She had a falling out with someone. He was called something like Larry Lovell.

the Felpersham Light Operatic Society (referred to as FLOS, IIRC)

FLOPS?

So are you saying Joy chose this unlikely location because it was somewhere she didn’t think she’d be found - by her daughter? - I'm not sure, I'm just pondering the reasons a person might relocate. For a new job - not in Joy's case. As a downsize, to free up money when you stop working - not in Joy's case, she has moved to a more expensive area. To an area you have an affection for ie somewhere you perhaps lived as a child, somewhere you have family connections or friends, somewhere you used to enjoy going on holiday - none of which apply in Joy's case. Which leaves to start again afresh in a place noone knows you and where you won't be found unless you want to be. None of which explains why Joy talked non-stop about Rochelle and the bairns to anyone who would listen.

Mmm …

I think you would go on talking about the person a lot - particularly if they’d previously been central to your life, someone on whom you expended a great deal of love and thought and energy and who, to an extent, was part of how you defined yourself. Awful lonely to find yourself estranged …

On another note I have to say I am finding Emma’s ongoing distress truly harrowing to listen to.

I still think Joy did bad stuff and then ended up in psychiatric care and had a full conversion to ‘nice’ but it’s all somewhat of an act she’s trying desperately to maintain

the money side puzzles me but sw generally don’t seem to care about the logic of finances unless necessary for a sl