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!

Maybe Azra's husband is just waiting around until it's his turn to be prime minister? Of the 24 prime ministers since 1947, only 3 have left the post at the end of a parliamentary term.

The Neil episode confirms my theory that on some cosmic level TA has existed for too long, and now various alternative realities are colliding. The Ultimate Reality will appear soon and lead all the human characters one by one into The Bull - now standing alone on a swampy wasteland under vast, starry skies - leaving only the haunting cries of the wild beavers to mark where Ambridge once stood.

Deeply scary!

the scriptwriters have found the infinite improbability drive and upgraded it to include the multiverse?

Lordy that's an unearthly sound Asking. I think Kirsty needs to think good and hard about populating the Am with those.

I think you've hit on the only explanation for these strange storylines Brefugee. Everything that possibly could happen in Ambridge in the past or future is all happening at once!

That would be an improvement on the current state of Ambridge. Beavers sound considerably more pleasant to listen to than Phlemgy, Fagash and the ole Pirate.

No electronic tagging. Difficult with a species which spends a lot of time underwater or underground. Also a lot if grooming goes on which is liable to dislodge tags. Instead they track visible signs - dams, lodges and forestry activities.

How about chips? Those aren't bothered by water or grooming.

With a piece of fairy cake in the middle!

I think the beavers thing is bonkers. WHY TF would two grown adults who are reliant on funding from various sources, which generally requires accountability and a shit-load of paperwork, even contemplate something this mad?! I get being frustrated with bureaucracy, and I get that the SW seem to want to make a PSA about this, but never in a month of Sundays would Kirsty and Harrison do something this irresponsible INFRONT OF A RANDOM TEENAGER! I quite like Khalil, tbh, although I would find him behyond obnoxious in person, and hope he grows into a townie-discovers-real-identity-as-country-folk sort of person.

I meant Rex, of course.

Would be even weirder if Harrison did that, though oddly, more believable for his quite mad character.

They’ve really jumped the shark with this beaver storyline, utterly ridiculous.

Did anyone else think Rochelle was spinning a line about Joy and her dad splitting up? To get back at her for telling the whole village all about Rochelle, including some embellishment of the facts.

Joy too has said that she and Rochelle's father split up, I think, and at the BBC website page on her at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/3tYCTrxJq0f2TLmt8RkN2tR/joy-horville it says that "Joy laments that she’s “never got the hang of cooking for one” after splitting up from her husband."

As mad as the beaver story sounds, it's actually very topical: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/28/conservationists-warn-unauthorised-releases-beavers-english-rivers

I find beavers fascinating so am quite happy at this happening in Ambridge, and it's got a lot of potential storylines about knock-on effects to keep us occupied for a long time.

The beaver story is less mad than Justin's Christmas Carol and Scam Week.

The SWs must be on drugs, surely?

Thanks, @noodlezoodle, that's interesting. I hadn't realised there were so many beavers already in England.

Apparently The Mail is carrying an exclusive today about a BBC denial that they're cutting back on TA budget and number of episodes with top stars.

It's behind a paywall at the moment and hasn't been archived yet but I heard it on the R4 papers roundup so no doubt will be covered by other media in due course.

Anyway, never believe anything until it's officially denied.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-14250663/BBC-cuts-Archers-episodes-stars.html

warning - cast pictures

I agree (other than the liking Khalil part). Especially after they’ve only just - as in, weeks ago - fought off Justin’s threat to pull their funding and his Scrooge-conversion has clearly come and gone. Guerilla beaver bombing (if there can be said to be such a thing) is an utterly crazy thing to do and moreover, illegal. Don’t the SWs remember that Kirsty was married to a criminal? Don’t they think she, of all people, the woman now so perpetually agonised by ‘doing the right thing’, would stop to consider the legality of what she’s proposing?

As someone pointed out above - Kirsty is a terrible decision maker

I always thought stretching it to six episodes occupying 15-minute slots was a mistake, the old five episodes occupying 20-minute slots model worked much better - that extra few minutes allowed more continuity in character and plot development. I can live without 'live' TA on Sunday evenings.

Interesting to a point, but the writer clearly doesn't realise that Jill Archer is pretty unusable as a character because Patricia Green is now so old which rather undermines the whole story for me. She's not in it not because she commands too high a fee, but because she struggles to deliver her lines. The story is written by someone who clearly doesn't have even a glancing acquaintance with the programme. It could equally be argued that the programme needs to urgently develop new characters to replace the old ones who are dying off and preferably before they die off or fade away to ensure some continuity.

Yes I agree it was written by a non-listener. I can’t imagine the current mess is due to cost cutting - I think it’s younger audience chasing