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 agree fickle - I think she’s manipulative

xref her coming up with ideas but manipulating others into doing the work

When Rochelle said she had an idyllic childhood she definitely sounded bitter to me with a hint of sarcasm. I do wonder if it will turn out that Joy was an abusive/neglectful mother following the breakdown of her marriage and Rochelle was taken into care.

It’s funny that most of the speculation has been around Mick and a possible hidden wife because I had no idea Joy was married before.

But dad left at 15. I wonder if Joy was abusive before and always put the husband first despite his infidelities. Perhaps him leaving wasn’t because she wouldn’t tolerate the affairs but because she was abusive

she seems to follow the martyr approach

@Gonners , Perhaps someone could drive a car over the parapet? George isn't available , sadly, but Mick is. I like this idea.

@JanglyBeads , @muddyford ·I posted something I would have liked to have heard.

@Ambridge, I agree that Rosh-hell was sounding heavily ironic with her 'idyllic childhood' , definitely some dark secrets.
Kirsty and Rex - seething unspoken attraction - affection rather than attraction IMO.

Kirsty sounds a lot older than Rex to my ears.

Joy was more likely abused herself, she is quick to disparage herself.

It would be a far more interesting sl though if it turned out Joy was abusive (although I hate the ‘what about the men’ diversion) - it would make everyone look at her again and Helen in particular!!

although perhaps her behaviour around Rob’s death is a better signal?

Oh yes, she was very supportive of Helen wasn’t she? I can’t remember the detail though.

I was remembering three or four christmases ago (more?!) when it looked like she was after Tony, remember?😂

Oh goodness yes, I'd forgotten the business with Tony.😂

@JanFebAndOnwards Crikey has she been with us that long? I still think of her as new.

Can we discuss who we’d like to hear more of in 2025? I’d like to hear more of Hannah, Stella ( sans Pip) , Tracey, Fallon because I like their characters , Tom/Helen/Natasha ( for the story lines) . Not fussed about anyone else and I’d particularly like to hear nothing whatsoever from Linda, Kate and Alan.

I don’t want to hear moi darlin, darling or pet this year

caught some of Sophie Ellis bextor last night and she kept saying ‘my darlings’.

Ha yes ..I nearly added Jolene but then realised I might as well just list the entire remaining cast!

Bruisername
Yes Rochelle said ‘baking cakes, something else and telling stories’ so Joy is clearly lying or exaggerating

um... My mother was good at baking cakes, crafts and telling stories. The stories were wonderful, all about her childhood and her brothers and sisters and interesting things that had happened and that they did, in a world before the motor-car. I have no reason to think she was lying or exaggerating.

I think perhaps we nay be interpreting that phrase in only one, negative way when in fact it may equally be positive. It's either our interpretation being biased or Rochelle is happy to trash-talk her mother to people whom she doesn't know but knows must know her mother, which makes Rochelle a person I'd walk miles barefoot on hot pavements to avoid.

(Brefugee has it nailed: "Nice to your face, slag you off as soon as your back is turned, and everything ends with 'pet' so they sound as though they're being gently teasing rather than bitchy ol' harpies".)

Bruisername
I don’t believe for a second that they had a happy home until the dad walked out.

Why not, though? It is commonplace on Mumsnet, a woman putting up a despairing post about how her DH or DP has just walked out on her and the children for another woman, and he was a super dad and the children adore him and right up until now everything was great although now in retrospect she is seeing little red flags.

Often enough in real life the children blame the mother, too, and resent her for the drop in their living standards as if she were the one who had been thinking with her genitals.

'bacon, craftin, makin oop stories an' that.' was how I heard it.

I'm bored with Rochelle already. Just get to the point.

Oh, definitely this! I was bored with her a long time ago, and her turning up hasn't provided any particular interest.

What do we know? Rochelle appears to be in the driving seat - she is the one who has landed on her mum. She has refused to fill her mum in on what has happened in the intervening period and we are still not clear what the situation is with her children. The impression Joy has previously given to people in Ambridge is that Rochelle and the bairns were the light of her life who were too busy/distant to visit. Rochelle has made a few cryptic comments about Joy having fallen on her feet and about her being good at making up stories. Thanks to Rochelle we now know Joy was married and that that marriage ended when Rochelle was 15. I'm increasingly thinking Joy's mysterious move to Ambridge was to reinvent herself for some reason - that would explain the falling on her feet and making up stories. It feels as if Rochelle is poised to unveil the 'real' Joy. There was a moment a couple of months ago when Joy seemed to be on the verge of telling Mick the truth about her past, but then the moment passed. I think she may be about to regret not getting her version out there first.

Would I believe Rochelle if she told me it was raining outside though? No, I'd poke my nose out of the door and check before looking for my galoshes.

It wasn’t what she said about her mum but the tone - she may as well have said it was all unicorns and shooting stars as the tone was sarcastic

if joy doesn’t have a dark past I will be very disappointed!!!

She was so much more interesting when we all thought she didn't exist.

Why do all the other characters so far seem to like her when all listeners appear to have taken an instant dislike? She seems so sly from what we've heard so far.

Definitely sly.

I haven't taken an instant dislike to her. I'm rather welcoming the break from incessant house-talk and George-talk and Emmurr droning on and Kenton's mere existence. Oh, and Ken-un and J'leeen and ... well, everyone apart from Jakob and soon-to-be-deaded Brian, really.

<on edit> I see I've mentioned Kenton twice. This is probably because the fool is my pet hate character.

PatChaunceysFruitCake
Why do all the other characters so far seem to like her when all listeners appear to have taken an instant dislike?

Perhaps because they take her at face value, whereas we have heard her snubbing and bullying her mother?

They were not there, as we were, when she turned up out of the blue at perhaps the most inconvenient possible hour of the entire year, when her mother was about to serve the Christmas meal of a turkey and she needed vegetarian food – that in itself is remarkably inconsiderate, when you look at it, and calculated to put her mother into the wrong from the get-go. She could have let Joy know in time for her to make that nut-roast, as I'm quite sure Joy would have done.

Why do all the other characters so far seem to like her when all listeners appear to have taken an instant dislike? because all they’ve heard is Joy singing her praises - they are intrigued to meet her after all this time. They have not been party to the asides and hints we have been party to. Why is Rochelle’s presence stopping Joy proposing to Mick? It feels to me as if Joy was never expecting to see Rochelle again.

If I heard of someone’s adult child ( who didnt live nearby ) I wouldnt be remotely intrigued about them. Why is everybody supposedly so desperate to meet her? I know Joy has sung her praises but thats hardly unusual for a Mum.