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!

It was another nail in Tom's coffin last night, as far as I'm concerned, that he left the 2.5 year old twins more or less unsupervised (and presumably without access to any age-appropriate toys) while he got on with a phone call and vaguely kept an eye on them. It's of a piece with him sleeping in when it was his turn to get up with them. What a prat.

Jack is 8/9ish I think. Yes that's what I thought, why on earth did Tom think he could keep it. He really is a prat. Good for Joy!

We lived for a few months in a similar situation to what Tom, Helen et al are proposing: me, my pre-teens, my brother, sister-in-law, their baby, and my parents.

Let's just say it wasn't ideal! It worked ok, and we're all still friends, but there were some tense moments. Being instructed in how to close doors more quietly was fun. 🤔

Jack was born in May 2016 which makes him <gets out fingers> 8.

To survive that and still be friends you'd all have needed self-awareness and a sense of humour. I've never seen evidence of those from Tom or Helen.

Memory Lane Q, was he the 'snarty little twonk' or was that his poor dead brother, Holy John?

There's no way it's going to work, I can't believe Helen is even trying. The twins will be allowed to run riot whilst everyone else tiptoes around them. Helen and the boys will turning up at Bridge Farm with their suitcases before a week is up.

I don't understand how it's better for Helen and the boys to live with Tom, Natasha and the twins (four people) than with her parents (two people who will be bending over backwards to accommodate her needs) in what I imagine is a bigger house attached to a farm where Henry now loves to spend all his time. Also, it's not unreasonable for Tom/Tash moving into their first home of their own to want the master bedroom and a nice room for their twins. Helen can't expect to continue to rule the roost when she's effectively living with her landlord. I don't find it surprising that Tom is obsessed with the twins sleep - lots of people are like that with PFB and that must go double for twins - the idea that he can control how much noise other people make outside the household is just silly though. We once had retired neighbours in London who regularly had friends round in the evening for drinks in the garden in the summer and played music - they were easily the noisiest neighbours we have ever had (though perfectly lovely in other ways).

It used to be that having been sectioned under the mental health act could mean you are not allowed entry but I doubt Italy was one of those countries.

I have found a lot of surprising people I know have a criminal record and been to prison. Maybe Fraud?

I really love it when there a subtle(ish) details in the script that paint a picture. Tom being on his phone and occasionally popping his head out to ineffectually tell the twins to settle down is so true to how I imagine his character and so similar to many self-centred dads I encounter in daily life. As is the casual self-centred ask of neighbours to keep the noise down, as if its a completely fair and no-big-deal request. I really like how some characters are presented consistently, with "show, not tell" details.

It’s interesting how some characters are written so consistently - like the bridge farm archers

and then others aren’t - like the Brookfield archers

DeanElderberry
Memory Lane Q, was he the 'snarty little twonk' or was that his poor dead brother, Holy John?

There's a long list of nicknames and such from various Archers boards at https://ambridgereporter.org.uk/nicknames.html

It's searchable, and it tells me that "Snarty Little Twonk" was coined by Dusty Substances for Tom. Unfortunately it doesn't give dates.

It was very subtle and very well written.

Yes I had same thought about Tom being on his phone. I may have even muttered "typical".
I imagine Tom as one of these Dad's who likes to bleat on about how exhausted and hands on he is but in reality does next to nothing. He's also very PFB with them. Hopefully Natasha balances it out a bit, she seems to live in the real world a bit more at least.

Dusty wasn't wrong, and he hasn't changed (except that I'm imagining him chubbier). Snarty as ever though, still a twonk.

Hopefully Natasha balances it out a bit, she seems to live in the real world a bit more at least.

Natasha and real world have no connection. She's also awful in every way possible.

Oh I agree about Tom! I could picture it perfectly and it told all. I may be reaching here but I am sure Mick said 'our Rochelle'. I'm from the midlands so 'our' is used by certain people (Lynda style sniff)(and tongue in cheek!). Obviously might be a bit more general more northerly - but that seemed portentous in some way? Like he thinks this is an ordinary family set up and it will come crashing down.

Except he does know there's something wrong because he and Joy agreed not to speak about it. So on second thoughts, is it that he's complicit now in keeping up a pretence?

I thought he was saying "your Rochelle" but at times it was a little unclear.

I just heard him sayYour Rochelle to Joy.

Ha I was probably giving the SWs too much credit for subtlety (tho it is a soap!)

Checked the transcript. You're all right!

Ten houses on the R (2, 4, 6 … 20), 8 on the L (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 15, 17) = 18 houses with numbering up to 20.

I always assumed it was a bit of an estate rather than either side of one road

There’s plenty of posters on AIBU who think the whole world should fall silent for their children’s bedtime. Most recently a whole group agreeing that 7pm was a completely unacceptable time to knock on the door to retrieve a parcel.

I have a suspicion babies’ sleep is more troublesome nowadays. Mine were pre-Ann-Diamond. One I used to swaddle tightly and put on his side, the other used to sleep in a kneeling position with his head in front of his knees. I don’t know how I’d have got either to sleep lying on their back. Great that the number of cot deaths has declined, but I expect life is mow harder for the average mother.

As Helen said “oh, so it’s too small for you, but not too small for me and my Two Boys”