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!

That’s ’Abdul” and “Nododo” that both need to make an appearance in the next thread title!

<gulps slightly>
<makes note>

A Prodigal Child and a Foundling.
Nododo, Abdul and Joy.

O Little Town of Ambuhridge
?

A Prodigal child and a foundling
An escaped pig (a two eighty pound thing)
Add in Nododo, Abdul and Joy
And memories of Lexi and Roy
No wonder the listeners are doubting

(Sorry)

Godesstobe · Today 13:48

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)."

This really made me laugh, if only....

CaptainMyCaptain
Mrs Bun the Baker is definitely his Mum

The person who found him on the steps during this fantasy of his was described by Neil as the baker's daughter, so it would be Miss Bun. Her name was Nelly Bannister, which took me straight to the Goons in case it was an homage, but that one was Minnie Bannister.

Abdul?

OK thanks. Maybe Miss Bun the Baker's Daughter should feature in a thread title.

Although I also like Wild Beaver Release. Plus nododo of course.

Miss Bunnister's baby?

I like it!

In all seriousness, I find this sudden introduction of Neil’s back story really insulting. The sw really do take us for idiots and it puts me off listening

You have hit the nail squarely on the head with that comment, as far as I am concerned.

Why should I take seriously something the editorial team is clearly now playing for shits and giggles?

In all seriousness, I find this sudden introduction of Neil’s back story really insulting. It did seem made up. I found the reference to the Shipping Forecast a bit forced.
The sw really do take us for idiots and it puts me off listening Doesn't your radio/device have an off-switch?

I suspect I might have suggested Passive Aggressive House, but I might not have been the only one.

@KnittedFerret
The sw really do take us for idiots and it puts me off listening Doesn't your radio/device have an off-switch?

Gosh, I think you're missing the point here. We all know where the off switch is and for some of us our fingers have been hovering over it for quite a while. It's the falling off in standards, the lack of continuity, the lack of knowledge of some of the script writers - not only of general knowledge of some of the SLs they are using, but of the backstory of characters - that is really irritating. It's as if they have wandered into someone else's empty playroom and found some toys lying around and decided to make up new stories. TA wasn't always like this.

I know I know, I remember when all this was fields.

Well I haven’t listened live for a while and only listened to last nights and another on catch up because of this thread more than anything

if it wasn’t for this thread I think I would stop. I’ve stopped twice in the past because I couldn’t bear it!

Nine children's homes by the time Neil was five is garbage, isn't it; point a, no way that would happen, and point b, how would he know? Some foundling older than him was taking the piss and told him that to wind him up, would be my guess on it.

Moot anyway, of course, because until he took up his traineeship with Ambridge Farmers he had been living in Birmingham with his mother, having moved there with her from Oxfordshire where he was born.

And what's more, if he had been a foster-child he'd have noticed and shown some interest in the fact that Tom and Pru Forrest fostered two boys in 1960 (they were around in Ambridge until 1987). To say nothing of perhaps making a bit of comment about Caroline and Oliver fostering during this century.

Hang on ... we're supposed to take The Archers SERIOUSLY? When did that begin?

LOL. But we should be able to take the SWs seriously as professionals.

Hear hear! And I can't any more.

Scam week was a pinnacle I suppose - ridiculous SL, terrible writing and they didn’t seem to really get the brief

A nadir.

I don't think it's a dedding in the offing but a revelation via DNA ancestry testing. Miss Bun may well be still alive. But if they go down that route I hope they don't make Mr Bun the father.

@WagnersFourthSymphony , I agree to a point but if I can no longer stand something, I don't listen.

I didn't like yesterday's episode because it didn't ring true but it was NYD.

There have been SLs and episodes I've disliked for decades. Some of the SWs are not great IMO, but then we get a SL that has taken ages to build up and it worked.

Scam week was a nadir - like a week long advert on how to get a free holiday with a twist.

I follow a soap and I knew one of the SWs when I was a child. Part of me thinks 'How on earth is [name] doing that?'. The difference is that it is [name]'s name in the credits and not mine.

I do hope they haven't listened to The Gift and taken inspiration from it. Some horrifying discoveries made from DNA tests for Ancestry etc.

Perhaps Neil will turn out to be Phil Archer's son with a claim to inherit Brookfield. (It would explain how of all the farms in all the world he just happened to end up working there.)