Archers thread #179: Beavers, livestock, ferrets, but nododo! 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 be happy sharing a hot tub with 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 title started life with @JanglyBeads, whose autocorrect turned 'Oh no, nor do I!' into 'Oh no, nododo I!' on the last thread. For reasons of cowardice/prudence/lack of inspiration and the character limit, I haven't included @BeaLola's even more mysterious autocorrect - her phone had her asking Abdul if he'd always wanted children instead of Neil. Perhaps one of the mooted beavers can be Abdul.

For the first time ever I've added a poll to the OP. Over to you!

I thought that! I know nothing about marketing but if somebody asked me for advice about how to generate more custom for an enterprise like Bridge Farm I'd have been able to come up with similar ideas just from general knowledge of how businesses work. Much like the SWs, I suspect.

I feel @Bruisername's puppy should be cloned and one put in every NHS hospital and care home in the land. The country's financial problems would be wiped out.

I'm not sure the patients would appreciate their fingers being nipped!!

But back to the archers - Henry is such a weird kid - I’m assuming there will be some massive breakdown at some point in the future as he just seems to bury everything bad.

I'm surprised terum doesn’t already have a loyalty card. It’s quite 2010’s

The marketing master plan was literally what it appeared to be- very basic marketing plans dreamt up on the back of an envelope by a teenager. It was the reactions of H, P and T that were astonishing. I think what was surprising is that that is what Henry was doing - not playing with Jack or sulking about tedious Lee's departure, but thinking about a marketing plan for Bridge Farm off his own bat - and seemingly out of the blue because it's not exactly been the topic of conversation at Bridge Farm in recent memory. Not only that, he's been getting very hands-on with the goats. I fear they are turning him into the new Pip for Bridge Farm.

Any “business” idea that anyone does up with in Ambridge is always deemed as brilliant. Organic food ? Fantastic - nobody has ever thought of that before! Websites - amazing! Open days - genius!

What nobody tells them is they are wasting their time. This is Ambridge - people still ‘drop off leaflets” here, go around to peoples houses to tell them things rather than ring or text them etc.

Another one here with head in hands at the collective Bridge Farm failure thus far to implement a loyalty scheme. Didn’t both Tom and Gnasher get invited onto some coveted fancy-schmancy business scheme for high-fliers? Can’t believe ‘loyalty points’ isn’t on the nursery slopes of Marketing for Dummies, tbh.

I answered a question which wasn't asked in the poll: Who should the SWs kill off first. Jill, please. May she never witter querulously in my ears again. And if she can take Leonard with her, so much the better.

It seems as if the SWs are putting off killing Jill, Peggy etc because they have been too busy manufacturing drama to deal with the real drama that would be instigated by the death of these long-standing characters. Instead it feels like they have faded them out in the hope that listeners won't really notice when they do die. We won't see their like again - I feel the days of the matriarch are gone. Even the role of farmer's wife - David and Ruth are very much both farmers. Jill and Peggy are irreplaceable. I can't actually see the poll - am I doing something wrong?

I voted Neil. They seem to have been signposting it with a sledgehammer. It’s very usual to know someone who dies over Christmas so I don’t know why they didn’t bump off at least one character -
esp given the long waiting list.

For me...

More
Brad, George, Chelsea
Fallon but not Harrison <wishful thinking>
If they dead Brian could Debbie make a return?
Usha
Oliver and Tracey
Alistair and Jakob but as vets not lovers. I love a good animal storyline.
Already looking forward to George returning
Would like Stella or similar to get a new dog, always feel there aren't enough canine characters.
Pat

Less
Harrison
Mick
Lillian and Justin
Dr Malik, don't mind offspring as much

Definitely more dogs!!

I would not welcome the return of Debbie. Never understood why people liked her so much!!!

How about Stella gets a dog that hates Rosie and there ends up being an awkward convo as Stella thinks her fur baby is most important and pip thinks her human child is

my puppy does a good range of noises if the sw need to record some!!

Perhaps the sperm donor Helen chose was an entrepreneur ? I think it's to tie in with inheritance thread for Bridge Farm

Pls kill Christine and Peggy off first

Thanks for the new thread.

Having listened to the Neil revelation it is quite a story. It would be more believable without the number of homes. Hey ho, who said it was supposed to be believable..!

One of the many problems with only having a handful of characters each week for budgetary reasons is that the SWs seem to feel they can no longer waste this precious resource on having characters do boring every day things (like cooking, farming, turkey plucking, etc). Instead they seem to feel obliged to introduce some new drama each time characters take their turn in the spotlight.
One of the pleasures of TA for me was the sense of continuity - Jill was always in her kitchen, farmers were always lambing or talking about tractors, and barrels were always being brought up in The Bull. The dramas, when they occurred, felt more realistic because they took place against a well grounded background of every day life.

As far as I'm concerned, Peggy and Auntie Chris can carry on living in The Laurels forever as they are silent and are doing no harm to anyone. The same can't be said of Harrison and Pip.

Incidentally, the average life expectancy in a nursing home is 12 months and 24 months in a care home (without nursing). The Laurels seems to have bucked this trend and discovered the Elixir of Life.

If they dead Brian could Debbie make a return? I think this is unlikely as Tamsin Grieg now has bigger fish to fry and I don’t think she will be replaced. Personally I think this is annoying as it stalls the handing over of the reins at Home Farm (already diminished by the loss of the farmhouse). As things stand, it’s unrealistic to think Ruari will make a sudden comeback - no farming experience, scarcely on the farm at all in view of being away at boarding school then uni, hasn’t shown any interest or done anything even vaguely agricultural. A battle Royal between Adam and Debbie should have been on the cards, but Adam has also removed himself. It’s most unsatisfactory - The Archers needs farms! Willow Farm has gone, Grange Farm is finished, the Fairbrethren had a go at starting something which never got off the ground. At least we still have Brookfield and Bridge Farm - big conglomerates like Damara don’t provide enough rural cosiness and I fear Home Farm, run by a manager and with no farmhouse, is starting to fall into this category.

I'm not a huge fan of Debbie-the-character, but I miss Tamsin Greig.

@Godesstobe Incidentally, the average life expectancy in a nursing home is 12 months and 24 months in a care home (without nursing). The Laurels seems to have bucked this trend and discovered the Elixir of Life.

I think the more expensive the care home, the more incentive they have to keep them alive!

Having listened to the Neil revelation it is quite a story. It would be more believable without the number of homes. Hey ho, who said it was supposed to be believable..!

It sounded like a story from a Dickens novel but Neil must only have been born in around 1960 or so. I’ll be sorry for Susan if he dies but he’s not exactly my ideal man.

I wonder whether the life expectancy at The Laurels will go up or down with the loss of Lee. And whether Ben's departure affected it at all.

1957, according to the BBC, but his actor (Brian Hewlett) was born in 1939. I put a few similar dates in a post towards the end of the last thread if anyone's interested.

I don't see why a new actor couldn't play Debbie. It's far from unknown!

I think that Debbie, objectively, is a rather nasty and somewhat hysterical person whom I wouldn't want in my house or my life – and the fact that she was in favour of factory farming and responsible for the existence of Cowditz at Berrow (and deplored it not being big enough) is a very black mark against her as far as I am concerned. She was made occasionally tolerable by being acted by Tamsin Greig, who has an excellent voice for radio, but honestly hasn't added anything worth having to the programme for years. So bringing her back but being acted by someone else would get rid of her only merit as far as I am concerned.

I was first introduced to the voice of Tamsin Greig as Debbie and I now can’t bear her!!!

Or could Neil's story actually be a sign of mental instability, mingling his memory of reading a Dickens' novel with his personal memories? Does that ever happen?