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!

Some of the numbering in piecemeal estates in Bristol has to be seen to be believed. But a group of eighteen houses on a small estate, all built at the same time and on one road, and with no more area available for expansion, really shouldn't need to be complicated or have odd on one side even on the other or whatever else. Why would anyone selling those houses do that?

I think myself that the scriptwriter for the week when it was mentioned Azra was looking at number 20 didn't know how many houses had been previously said to have been built there, and since nobody is actually responsible for continuity any more nobody spotted it when the script was submitted.

There are some real detectives on this thread!

Oh I don't know, she's shown several times she is more thoughtful and considerate towards others than Tom. I don't find her anywhere near as bad as he is. But when it comes to anything financial/property she definitely has a very selfish, grabby streak.

Mick declaring Tom 'a bit of a prat' was brilliant. Perfect response to Tom asking them to keep the noise down before they've even moved in. As others have said, if neighbour noise is bothersome by all means mention it... But to mention it before you've even moved in... A classic Tom Archer move 😂
Helen's boys are going to make way more noise than Joy or Mick ever will.
I'm quite looking forward to them all moving in together and it all going horribly wrong very quickly!

I lived on a road (actually a Way) where the numbers started at 1 and went along the road numerically to 50 something. So 3 was between 2 and 4, and opposite 52 or something. I was a bit confused the first time I went to view it.

I once did a relief postie round one Christmas to earn a bit extra. The numbering of some roads was really confusing and meant many extra detours. The houses that only had names and no number was even worse!

My great aunt H and her husband lived in a Dublin suburb with a population that had expanded from a few dozen to more than 3,000 over about 50 years before the postal authorities insisted the house numbering system be changed from - first house built: 1, second house built: 2, to something that gave them a little hope of finding what they were looking for.

It had made perfect sense in 1920.

There was a heartfelt thread a while back started by someone who was making deliveries (temporarily and I forget the details) and implored people to number their houses clearly so they could be found in the dark without too much trouble. So I went outside after dark to see how easy it was to identify my house as it was labelled then, and as a result went and bought bright yellow reflective numbers eight inches tall to fix on a surface clearly visible from the road, just in case I needed an ambulance again as an emergency...

Various delivery people have mentioned this since, always with approval and gratitude. Apparently cutting thirty seconds off their delivery time is greatly appreciated.

The village where I live has no numbers only house names. (A nightmare for delivery drivers.) The main street is called "The Street". One of the houses in The Street is called "The Cottage". The Cottage, The Street is such a great address I think - just a pity the village isn't called "The Village".

In the tiny village where I grew up and where my mother still lives the Post Office belatedly introduced numbers which they insist are used if you want your post delivered. When you do that drop down thing to find your address online only the numbers are listed. The numbers appear to have been distributed completely randomly and the only person who knows them is the postman. Everyone else just knows the house names. A parcel labelled with just the number (and no recipient's name) was incorrectly delivered to my mother who lives at, say, number 21, over Christmas. My mother, 3 other villagers and myself simply could not work out where number 20 was. We had to wait and ask the postman who was able to tell us the name of the house (which we immediately recognised) which is on another road altogether.

My American DIL's parents think this is all impossible quaint. Their address is something like 1512 3rd Street West.

I live in a very ordinary street and the house numbers are odd on one side and even on the other. It is clearly numbered. I still get people knocking on the door asking if it's number something else and I get other people's mail every now and then.

I can’t bear the Neil sl

everytime I hear about drones and prisons I worry they’ll go down that route

joy is still annoying

Any theories on what it is Joy thinks will happen if Rochelle gets into a relationship with Rex? (I nearly wrote "gets romantically involved" and then realised that makes me sound like some tabloid hack).

I’m not sure I care

nice to know the Joy actress is clearly earning well because we never seem to hear anyone else

Any theories on what it is Joy thinks will happen if Rochelle gets into a relationship with Rex?

Maybe Rochelle has form for spreading a narrative -true or otherwise-about Joy which is at odds with how Joy wishes to be seen. The longer they draw ot out, the duller I expect it to be.

I live on a long new build cul de sac. I've lived here for 19 years but still can't understand the numbering. It just occurred to me it will probably be on Google maps but I'm not sure I can be bothered to look. There are two sets of 5 houses side by side facing the same way but with an alleyway between that have different road names. My set is numbered 28 to 36 I've no idea where the odd numbers are.

Coercive control? Stalking? Maybe she's been in trouble for that before and it's why she doesn't have her children.

Rochelle is actually Joy's great great great grandmother and sucks the blood of young(ish) men in order to remain eternally not as old as she should be. Joy is under a curse and cannot tell about this, she tries to warn the young men but they never listen . . .

That is her tragedy.

My street begins at 70. Apparently they planned to have it go right down to the beach but wisely refrained when they investigated the marshland it had to go though. The street, under another name, pops up on the other side of the once-marsh and carries on to the sea.

And yes, it's still floods. You can't buck nature. I'm just glad I live above the flood zone.

Horrible memories of my very brief stint as a relief postwoman one Christmas when I was a student. I realised halfway through one shift that I'd been delivering the post for (say) Anytown Way to the equivalent houses on Anytown Crescent. I briefly considered knocking on all the doors and asking for misdelivered items back, but bottled out of this and hoped against hope that they would redeliver the Christmas cards themselves. Pusillanimous, I know. I never applied for that work again. For the best, all round.

I don't have a number, but used to use the name has been called for at least 70 years and the Townland name. I was hugely relieved about 15 years ago when we got a postal code number that leads directly to the house - it made calling ambulances or the out-of-hours doctor service much simpler. Helps with Amazon deliveries too.

You're on a roll tonight!

Just telling it like it is Gaspode

sucks the blood of young(ish) men

Should men in their fifties be worried, @DeanElderberry ? I want to be able to sleep tonight...

Joy was being awfully shifty in the shop while Susan was wittering on about maternal abandonment of tiny children …