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!

Neil is Jill's love child. Has to be. That's why there was an attraction between him and Shula. The comments the sanctimonious old witch made to Ben.
Hannah's question seemed a bit out of the blue.

I don't understand why the Brookfield next generation are written to be uninteresting, when the Bridge Farm ones aren't. Helen and Natasha are great.

I don't want any deddings of the old characters. I'd like to see the back of some younger ones (Pip mainly)

There will be some rural crime before long. I hope Harrison gets a bump on the head and becomes less irritating.

"There will be some rural crime before long. I hope Harrison gets a bump on the head and becomes less irritating."

My current theory is that Harrison will hold on until George is released when he'll go rogue and get sacked or, even better, sentenced to a long stretch at a prison with no microphones.

Didn't he complain of a dizzy turn last night? I predict a stroke.

Re passive houses, they must be air tight with controlled air changes and can have problems with condensation and mould, I'm not sure if you can open the windows, this doesn't sound that great to me.
Happy to be convinced otherwise.

I was interrupted by a phone call last night so I’ve just caught up.

Also there was the time Caroline and Oliver were fostering - not a peep from Neil

Yes, @LillianGish - that was my immediate thought too. There’s no way on earth Neil wouldn’t have broached it sympathetically with them.

I've got my suspicions about Miss Bun the baker's daughter, who 'found' the baby in the morning….leaving aside the fact that this spurious backstory has been entirely retrofitted, of course.

Re Helen's conversation about want to move back to Bridge Farm when Pat and Tony retire and bugger off - I'm intrigued about who she thinks will do the actual farming till Henry and Jack choose to take over? It's pretty clear she doesn't envisage herself out and about at all hours shovelling muck and mending fences. Does she just assume Tom and/or Johnny will carry on and then meekly step aside when the time comes?

Mere detail. Tony and Pat will commute back every morning to see to all that boring farming stuff. They'll only be in their 80s by then; plenty more work in them yet. Helen will allow them into the kitchen for timed breaks; she’s not a monster, after all <tinkly laugh> She deserves the farmhouse, you see. She’s fragile (yet doggedly independent).

What does Helen do all day?

Lies on a chaise longue fanning herself bravely and beautifully.

I would imagine Tony and Pat would be less busy if they weren’t having to pop in all the time to feed her grapes and tell her how strong and independent she is

I feel that the point of the invented back story for Neil was how interested Rochelle was in it. Doesn't this signpost that:

(a) Joy is her birth mother & gave her up for adoption, or
(b) Joy is her adoptive mother and was upset when Rochelle decided to track down her birth mother?

Either explanation would explain their awkward relationship. A member of my extended family gave up a child for adoption in the early 1960s & he tracked her down 35 years later. They were close for a little while, but AFAIK they lost touch again pretty quickly. It's not an easy situation to navigate.

I feel that the point of the invented back story for Neil was how interested Rochelle was in it.

Unless I've missed something Rochelle doesn't know anything about this. Neil was talking to Hannah.

The Mrs Bun the Baker plotline is nonsense. Other than being told the baby is safe and well the finder of a foundling wouldn't get updates or be allowed regular visits.

Ah, ignore my previous post! I turned on half way through & though he was speaking to Rochelle.

And I thought it was such a good idea, too!

Retreats, blushing 😳

The Mrs Bun the Baker plotline is nonsense. Other than being told the baby is safe and well the finder of a foundling wouldn't get updates or be allowed regular visits

Unless she was the actual mother, or her daughter, Miss Bun, was the mother. Or neither, and it’s all a load of badly-thought-through rubbish.

Hmmm, I can’t decide which….

We've all done it!

Namechange in honour of Shipping Forecast day? Just catching up with that now, as it happens.

I thought that the Neil backstory is because Hannah is going to adopt a child - hence asking Abdul about whether he'd always wanted children

Who is Abdul?

• apologies my phone corrected Neil to Abdul (?)

I listened to Neil's ludicrous newly invented back story with mounting incredulity. It was so ridiculous that I fully expected him to end it by saying, "And that Hannah, explains why I am the only black person in Ambridge (even though no one has ever mentioned it before)."

Really hope we are not going to have to endure Neil tracing his birth family. We do not need any more random new characters. Neil is a genuinely satisfactory character - my favourite actually - who already has a full and interesting back story based on the fact that we have known him since he was a teenager and have got to know him well through the course of his life full of both big and minor moments. The SWs seem to have forgotten that that is how you build a character who feels real.

Interesting autocorrect!!

I thought I’d missed a boyfriend!

Maybe "Abdul" is part of the Joy/Rochelle storyline .... and my phone is ahead of me ( it does do random weird spelling things, it's on its way out)

I rather like the Abdul idea. Emmur, Kristiffur, Geowurge, Keyura and Marthyr all mixed race.

Good point about the houses of the older folk, LilianGish. I have such a clear mental picture of the rooms and garden of Home Farm, Jenny's lovely kitchen and the swimming pool, of Jill's kitchen, the Lodge, the Bull, Lower Loxley and the Stables. All associated with the strong characters we have known for years. But I can't for the life of me imagine the houses of the younger ones much. They seem to swap around so much, and some how they don't seem to be associated with place like the oldies.

Stellar planning from whoever she is on "wild Beaver release" as a long term prospect

Hannah fancies Chris, doesn't she...a ONS baby? Little Abdul.