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!

Kind of the opposite of doing any good, that!

Older woman, any ethnicity, complaining of memory problems'

So you’re saying there could be another career out there for me?

Our of interest were there more non-farming professions in the The Archers in the past than there are now?

The actors were always very insistent that nobody but a trained actor could do this work, but then they would, wouldn't they!

I was expelled from my posh boarding school. 😁
There were a fair few farmer's daughters there

I wouldn't say so. The staple non-farmers have always been the Vicar, the vet, the staff of the shop, The Bull and Grey Gables, sometimes a local GP or solicitor or business type, quite a few retired people. Brenda Tucker was a reporter for BBC Radio Borsetshire. That's about as exotic as it's ever got!

Gosh! Are we allowed to know why? The only person I can remember being expelled from my school was the Headmistresss.

Thinking about Ambridge, now that it is deemed by the BBC podcast to be an attractive little village, isn't a bit odd that there aren't Airbnb's aplenty and City folk who now work from home a fair bit since lockdown.

I wonder how Grey Gables is getting on these days; are they worried about the hike in NI come April? Lily might suddenly become a lot more expensive AND Brad.

Our of interest were there more non-farming professions in the The Archers in the past than there are now?

Like Gasp0de I wouldn’t say so. What I do recall (vaguely from memory, and far away from my Ambridge history books) is that a larger proportion of ‘outsiders’ or non-landed people were able to get into farming or adjacent occupations through patronage or unexpected bequests. There was more - fluidity, in a way. During the early years of the show when the writers were establishing the broadcast community there were really significant transfers of land or property, sometimes involving quite small fry, that set people up for life. Nowadays - well, not even Fairbrethren can get a secure foothold in the village, and no one who doesn’t already own land is going to get it, unless they win the lottery. So (to my mind, at least) there’s less merging of farm work with other work - almost no-one does both.

Somerset Beaver sighting

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cj3e1zmp08ro

In my working life, I have, to my knowledge, worked with two actors.
One did voiceover type work, but had done stage work. The other had been an extra on EE. Not sure if being a face in the Queen Vic is that good a gig because it's a popular show and you might get a bit too recognisable.

... isn't a bit odd that there aren't Airbnb's aplenty and City folk who now work from home...
In the tiny village I'm from, 1 in 4 dwellings are holiday lets. The small farms have pretty much all been sold. The holiday lets were mainly family homes.
It's not even in a tourist area, and there isn't much there, not even a shop.

So (to my mind, at least) there’s less merging of farm work with other work - almost no-one does both.
I know some farmers with large farms who work very hard and make a living from it, but many farm and do other work. Farmer's wives tend to work outside the farm.

I think I meant the other way around! So people with ‘other’ jobs who find / create / fall into some sort of relationship with the rural landscape. Rex with his pigs is possibly an example but I’m thinking of (completely hypothetically) a vicar keeping bees or a banker who buys a ten acre smallholding, or a teacher investing in a quarter of a horse. That just doesn’t happen there - the non-farmers just observe the landscape, they don’t get involved. I guess that reflects the reality of contemporary life - but it makes Ambridge a village of individuals in a place where there are farms, rather than a rural community.

I live in a small seaside town mostly built in the late 19C, after the railway arrived. On the sea side, there are a fair number of Victorian flats - mostly now (and probably even back then) holiday homes and unoccupied for most of the year - but a 10 minute walk inland it was all farmland when we moved here about 10 years ago. Not a lot of farmers, though. It's mostly owned by what I think of as "Big Farma" and provides very little employment. It's steadily being neglected and flogged off to property developers, who build houses that the locals can't afford and that nobody else wants ... because there is no incentive to move to an area with no jobs!

I don't understand how this works, but I assume someone must profit from it?

So Rochelle is out of work I suppose. Bit of an odd conversation about ‘wellbeing in the village’. And do people really just turn up at someone’s home/workplace for a chat when they’ve only met once? And she seems to have inherited her mother’s busy body ness. And are we honestly to believe the village hall would be booked for a whole month.

so if they have borrowed land from the surrounding farms - did the farms ensure they had some sort of say?

sorry I’m going to ask again how old Rex is! I feel like Rochelle must be 30’s? And just because Rex doesn’t now want to go out with her does that mean he needs to completely shun her.

didn’t need to hear the Elliott’s little spat. But nice to hear Brian. And bloody bridge tournaments 🥱. I really would happily have Miranda and Justin run off to Dubai together for good.

I'm kind of hoping the beavers disappear because I’m getting quite bored of it now and don’t need to hear every characters opinion on them🙄

tonight was basically full of characters I would rather not hear from again

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 I have a friend that does that, sounds really interesting. Last time she was supposed to be a well informed professional woman and the aspiring doctor talked to her in language you might use for a five year old. She had fun with that!

on a related topic, another friend used to brush up her first aid by entering first aid competitions with volunteer “patients” simulating various medical scenarios. The volunteers acquired a good bit of knowledge of medical symptoms.

A farmer's daughter I know was kicked out of Brownies for throwing a table at Brown Owl...

DH wonders whether playing bridge will reveal the Brian’s memory is going

oh sorry, it is SUPER outing. It was just before mock A-Levels, right before the Christmas break, and over the break they commuted it to a suspension so i had to go back and do mocks i hadn't revised for...

Aargh @Brefugee! So as it turned out, that was probably a worse punishment than being expelled?

My sister made every effort to be expelled, because she wanted to leave her (crap) boarding school after O-levels but our dad insisted that she stayed on until she passed O-level maths. It took her three attempts!

<on edit: three attempts to pass the exam, that is, not to get herself expelled, at which she consistently failed>

oh yes, it was much much worse for me. I had wanted to leave after o-levels (did brilliantly) and go to the local (military) school in Germany. But my dad thought i'd do better staying where i was (and not allowed to do the subjects i wanted)

He had the best intentions. And everything worked out in the end, but it took decades...
you know those things "what three words would you say to your teenage self?"

i would say: Do. Your. Homework.😁

I listened to The Cider Shed podcast today for the first time in ages. They had an idea about Leonard going to Singapore, and that is: perhaps he made up the invitation from his son? Which is why he rejected it so quickly and easily.

Oh interesting, thank you! It’s a shame we’re losing the police officer, not Harrison himself though! It could’ve been more interesting having him in that role versus him just being consistently useless at it.

Thanks! That’s interesting to hear / know. I still think the loss of Home Farm (the house) was such an odd thing to do. I just don’t get why they did that. It hasn’t even had a lasting impact from a storyline perspective at this point.

'Then we'll see what you're made of'
I've never played Bridge, is it a game that by playing would reveal a depth to your character, like playing Poker might?
We'll find out how well Brian plays on Wednesday, this is the sort of low key drama I like to hear.
Rochelle is settling herself in, she might be in Ambridge for a little while it seems.

Rochelle is giving bunny-boiler vibes imo. Wonder if that will turn out to be part of her back story?
When Rex rejects her will he return to the barge one evening to find a pot of simmering beaver on the stove?

I just had a horrible presentiment - given last New Year’s Eve - that Rex’s boat might be on fire next NYE …

All those relentless calls - pretty worrying, yes.

(And anyway the whole thing is incredible; she’s been in the village less than five minutes and she’s already hiring venues and setting up community activities. Really?)