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!

Yes, stay and chat!

Might I suggest ALL stop opining, for 24 hours?

Go for a walk, listen to the World Service...

Write a (audio or otherwise) book review/

I assume that's an extra cost on top of whatever theor normal fee is, because otherwise it's seriously rubbish.

Have a spa day? (Never could abide a peacemaker)

I am, however, in favour of a wild release. Of Kirsty and Rex. In their respective nightclothes. In the Cairngorms. Tonight.
— with apologies to posters in the area, but if Yorkshire can take it, so can you.

Perhaps they'll set up a breeding colony there?

Yes, it says “additional payments”

So for the funeral episode the actors cost no more than £45?

I think they get paid (something like) £300 per episode with extra depending on length of service.

The £300 figure comes from an interview a disgruntled Patricia Greene gave a few years ago.

Ah ok

i suppose it depends - if they are going in and recording 5 episodes in half a day then £1500 isn’t bad.

Surely he'd be disastrous. He wouldn't cope with his charges moving on to be adopted, and the first time the SWs wanted to send a foster child back to a birth parent he'd probably run away with them to try to prevent it.

I definitely think Ma'am is well aware that Harrison is at risk of letting his emotions get the better of him, and wants him out of her way and to become someone else's problem. Works for me - and Fallon too by the sounds of it! I agree with others, she'll fly without him and refind her previous fun self.
I don't want her to have an affair with Ed, but they have previous and I think it's the kind of thing they'd do for the sake of drama.

I never thought Ed was really into Fallon and I’m not sure Fallon will want to get herself tied up in something that isn’t just for fun and low stress. I’m campaigning for her to end up with the manager of Greggs at the charging station

if he has an affair then i guess it will be because Emma isn’t fun anymore etc which would be a shitty move

Don’t forget Fallon, Emma, Pip, Alice , Natasha are all supposedly very attractive so it wouldnt surprise me if SWs decide Fallon is impossible for Ed to resist.

Indeed, but what if that's the only work you have that month? Very few actors seem to be able to make a comfortable living out of it. A lot of them branch out and do other work to pay the bills. We had a temp once who self-identified as an actor and screenwriter, but who spent 95% of her time doing admin work (very badly, on the strength of her work with us, unfortunately). We had another who identified as a stand-up comedian and left within days because it was all too much. Another who was good and stayed for many weeks was really a drummer.

In another job, I had a lot of contact with actors who worked in medical education. Not all that lucrative, but there's steady work there for those willing to do it, especially those who meet the brief of 'Older Asian male, slightly overweight, has come to see his GP with worrying symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of diabetes' or 'Older woman, any ethnicity, complaining of memory problems' and so on. Even then those actors were mostly also fitting in voiceover work if they could get it, teaching, dogwalking, crochet workshops and the like.

Sure but you can’t pay them more per episode because they’ve chosen to become actors and might not get more work

doesn't the Alice actress work as a nanny outside her acting roles? Although she will have done pretty well last year

I have been very critical of TA in recent months, so I feel I need to say that I thought most of last week's offerings represented a return to form with believable and engaging SLs and good quality acting. Obviously I am excluding Harrison's hideous mooing and the silliness involving the obnoxious impulsive liar Khalil.

I'm so glad it looks as though Harrison will not now become landlord at The Bull. His self pity and moaning would surely empty the bar, leading The Bull to close like some many pubs IRL. I do wonder though if Harrison is going to get dedded in Yorkshire. (Absolutely fine by me, as long as he doesn't return to Ambridge.)

I also wonder what Jill and Leonard actually have in common apart from both being old. I don't recall Jill being politically aware enough to go on Aldermaston marches in her youth or doing anything other than cook, keep bees and chickens, and oppose abortion. (There was the short lived period when she got involved in the food bank, but that always felt very out of character to me and doesn't seem to have lasted.)

Sure but you can’t pay them more per episode because they’ve chosen to become actors and might not get more work

no, but then I suppose that it’s understandable that some of our favourite skilled actors may not be available as often as we’d like for this relatively low paid work.

No, I wasn't suggesting that. Just giving context to say that £1500 for half a day's work (and probably another half a day's travel to get to Brum) might be as much as they get from acting for a month or two, which I expect we all knew anyway.

Didn't Jill once get arrested for throwing a flapjack at some sort of protest about Les Soeurs Heureuses?

As a healthy, elderly widower Leonard could've had his pick of elderly women so it is a mystery why he chose Jill.

To be fair to Jill, when the Aldermaston Marches started she had twin babies, and then the following year another; that would have crimped her political protesting style a bit at that date.

She did insist on allowing a couple with a baby to squat in Rickyard Cottage rather than allowing Phil to get them evicted, on one occasion.

Where my mum lives (sort of village, outskirts of big city) there's a great sausage shop (they butcher their own livestock etc) and last time i was there i asked the young lady serving us if she was doing a sausage apprenticeship (and thinking about Tom while i asked)

She laughed and said she was just part time. The owner asked her if she minded if he showed us, she said no - and said she's an actor. And he showed us the Post Office christmas TV ad, and she was the main actor in it. She does musicals and is lovely, so i hope she has a good career.

Jill was opposed to private education (although Phil prevailed there and David and Elizabeth were sent to boarding schools) and I think campaigned (for or against, can't remember) when Borchester Grammar School was forced to merge with the local secondary modern and become Borchester Green comprehensive school. Kathy Perks was definitely against, I do remember that, as she taught at the grammar school. Odd really, as she was a Home Economics teacher and might have had more to do in a school where more pupils were looking for vocational subjects.

Kathy was passed over as head of department in favour of the Home Economics teacher from the other school, so she quit altogether.

Jill was pro-comprehensive, as was Pat. I think David was sent away to school because he didn't get into the Grammar like Kenton and Shula, and Elizabeth was a Wayward Girl and needed the more disciplined approach of the boarding school she was sent to. Not that it did any good, since they ended up expelling her.

"Elizabeth was a Wayward Girl and needed the more disciplined approach of the boarding school she was sent to. Not that it did any good, since they ended up expelling her."

It did at least give her an unshakeable confidence in her own innate superiority!