Archers thread #180: Burgeoning backstories! Continuity, what’s that? 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 think it's a great idea for Helen and the boys to lodge with Tom, Natasha, Seren and Dippity*, 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 www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/5244480-the-archers-spoilers-thread-10-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.)

*Can't remember who coined this, but it's genius.

I was strongly tempted to use one or both of the posts suggested for the title of this thread on the last thread, but went for something a bit briefer. However, they're brilliant and will kickstart this thread very nicely, so here they are:

@Sidebeforeself: Beavers, bridge, bunny boilers and busybodies - it's all a load of bollocks!

(I couldn't agree more!)

@DeanElderberry: I don't usually speculate much on the appearance of characters, but do wonder what it is about Miranda that is bringing out the chest-thumping silverback in Brian and Justin? One little bridge game and the course of Ambridge rewilding is set. The face that launched a thousand beavers.

Over to you!

I can't remember exactly what happened with the culverts, but Charlie Thomas (back in the days when Justin was a mega-rich owner of Damara Capital) was sent up to manage one of Damara's Scottish Estates after the biblical flood. He could return to manage Lower Loxley for Freddie (and its hefty vineyard, conference and wedding business, treetop walk....)!

I can't remember why he nearly drowned (was he trying to unblock them?), but Adam rescued him.

There was also Stefan (the Polish guy who saw Rob fill in the culverts and shopped him to the Dopeys and Charlie Thomas) Rob paid him off to leave the country, but there was a later blackmail episode possibly leading to Stefan now residing under a Borchester patio.

I seem to recall that most listeners were underwhelmed/annoyed by the flood storyline.

On a positive note I enjoyed the scenes with Stella and Brian yesterday (and note that she is also mystified by all the excitement about pantos). Pip clearly had a Mumsnet chicken!

For some reason I thought Julia and Lewis lived in the attic.

Yes, you can't imagine new Kate doing what former selfish Kate did. Is there no self-reflection at, say, Christmas, when they could all still be back in Jenny's kitchen (sadly without Jenny)?

I had no idea LL owned five farms!

Lower Loxley could "flip" an agricultural building on one of the farms so that Vince and Lizzie could build an enormous Passive house to annoy Pat and Tony.

That seems to be the latest property developer wheeze down in my neck of the woods.

Oh dear Vince….

That was a lot of nothing

i I guess just as Rex is the only taxi driver around, zainab will be delivering all takeaways🙄

Look on the bright side, @Bruisername - they make up for that by being more than adequately supplied with idiots.

Well if I were to be positive about that episode

it suggests more Brookfield which I think would be good

um, that’s all I’ve got

I find it so difficult to distinguish between Josh and Ben - is it just me? I don't find the three of them as convincing as siblings as the Aldridge sisters (and you would never mix them up!)

I thought it was … interesting. At least, the sibling scenes - they really were like the wordier and more consciously ‘intellectual’ Sunday night R3 plays of old. I’m glad - had given up ever hearing anything worth hearing from Brookfield. Obviously there wasn’t much content - but it was a worthwhile enterprise to re-establish exactly who the next generation of Brookfield consists of.

As for Elizabeth and Vince. Poor man. How to tell someone you’re still more in love with your deceased husband than you ever will be with them …

I hope never again to hear Pip, Josh and Ben wittering inanely. Tbh, I'd be delighted never to hear Pip again.

Or Zainab either.

I feel we need a PSA on accidents on farms. It’s been long enough since John and it’s about time something is done about Pip

I can't tell the difference between Josh and Ben either most of the time.

Am so pleased to see Felicity Jones has been nominated for an Oscar - Who would have thought that we’d have seen Emma Carter up there !

I can't even remember which one has, or possibly hasn't got a girlfriend and I've just listened to it.

As for Elizabeth and Vince. Poor man. How to tell someone you’re still more in love with your deceased husband than you ever will be with them … so true @TottersBlankly. Nigel is quite simply irreplaceable (and I'm sure a lot of people on here would agree with that!) It's funny because you would have thought the SW killed him off to move the story on, but that hasn't really happened. Freddie has never had so much as a date as far as I can remember, Lily hasn't seen much action either since the departure of CMR - a man old enough to be her father, LL continues much as before with Elizabeth in the driving seat (where she has always been!) I actually felt a bit sorry for Vince - and also for Elizabeth. The way she asked if it had really been three years - you get the feeling she doesn't really want to move on, but she knows she must (in her relationship and in her living arrangements if Freddie ever actually inherits) She's in a strange limbo.

Josh is the older one who thinks he has a girlfriend but probably hasn't, at least not in any meaningful sense of the word. He is a chicken-botherer by profession. Ben is the slightly-even-wetter one who impregnated Chelsea, is training to be a nurse, and fancies Zainab. I hope Zainab has more sense than to reciprocate. Neither is anywhere near as loathsome as Pip. I look forward to Stella telling her that she's driven her to become heterosexual.

I always feel that in falling over themselves to define Pip, the SW rather let Josh and Ben fall by the wayside. Unfortunately since Pip has variously been the Pope of Farming, Single Mother and now TWFL she is equally undefined by being so inconsistent. I applaud the SWs for trying to finally bring the siblings together (in the way David, Shula and Kenton and Elizabeth always were), but I fear their efforts might be too little too late as I find them all equally uninteresting (and in the case of the boys indistinguishable).

How to tell someone you’re still more in love with your deceased husband than you ever will be with them.
I know someone who was exactly in that position. She married the bloke anyway, cos she disliked being alone, and now he's siphoned off rather a lot of her late husband's money..... Not that that would be Vince's motivation.

If a voice can be said to gurn, Pip’s voice gurns. A revolting individual (but then look at the mother) and dim with it (look at the father).

I don't find the Archer spawn at all interesting or engaging but I liked the pace of their pointless banter, and for once it seemed as if the SWs were on home turf, linguistically.

The Vince/Elizabeth SL is one* of those parallel SLs so beloved by TA. Cf. Helling/TomTash for imminent doomed house sharing...

One's as rubbish and far fetched as the other.

*No, two - cf. Joy & Mucky Mick for incongruous pairing, and credit where it's due for a long drawn out scenario in both cases.

I find thr Neil storyline awful as an adoptee and adopter

Very sorry to hear that. Could you bear to tell us more: whether you feel used by the scenario, or whether it's portrayed insensitively, whether it's the cynical reactions of some of us on here who feel it's done unrealistically and for sensationalism, or all of these, or something else?

No need to explain why, though. I can imagine it's horrible to have a life like that exploited for entertainment.

Apologies if my interest feels crass.

I don't find the Archer spawn at all interesting or engaging but I liked the pace of their pointless banter, and for once it seemed as if the SWs were on home turf, linguistically

I agree. I found myself listening more attentively, even though nothing much was happening.