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 doubt Berwick thought it was a joke.

More fun times ahead. 🙄

I had that exact thought. I ended up not posting it because there was so much else wrong with recent episodes. But I agree that we ont have Mick's assertion that it was all a laugh, we haven't heard from Berwick on the matter.

Don’t worry. Mick is a secret millionaire who has been living this way to make sure people like him for who he is🙄

Are we then meant to be confused?

I had completely assumed that Mick and the Dame had indeed agreed on a realistically substantial figure - to be paid by Mick. Who went up in my estimation as I concluded he must have savings which he was willing to deploy in order to win back his landlady love with this grand gesture.

If shoes signal the availability of drugs, underwear might indicate different purchasable, erm, services?

Having watched a bigger boy tie together the shoelaces of the trainers he'd removed from the feet of a smaller boy, before throwing them up at some telegraph wires where they then hung out of the smaller boys' reach. I'd suggest there may have been no coded meaning to at least that particular dangling pair of shoes.

I think you've nailed it. God help us all.

I assumed that Mick had written something like 'It's payback time for that night when I [insert details of massive favour here]'. Just as ludicrous as what we're being told now. Why would an actor stay on in a B&B they have to pay for instead of heading for home as soon as the production they were acting in for money has been cancelled?

I've been listening for 20 years. It's never occured to me to stop listening to The Archers. I'm considering it now. It's just rubbish!
The only thing keeping me listening is I want to hear what happens when Tom and Natasha and the twins moved into Helen's house...

Hi everyone, I've been recommended this board after posting the below. Hoping to get some tips about whether / how to continue listening!:

Hello Archers fans. I'll start by saying NO SPOILERS PLEASE!!!!

I haven't listen to the Archers since May last year. Prior to that I listen to every episode since about 1999! So I was a serious listener.

I'm not quite sure what happened but I became really busy with DC, work, family etc and started listening to the omnibus on catch up each week, but then I missed a few weeks and kept thinking I'd catch up and never did. I kept thinking I'll have a good catch up session one day while I'm cleaning or something but the opportunity never arose and then I didn't want tune back in in case I'd missed out on anything juicy!

When I stopped listening the storyline was about Alice, and how George Grundy had crashed the car and made it look like her. At the time I stopped listening he hadn't been found out yet and everyone was treating him like a hero.

Now I'd like to get back into TA but I don't have time to listen to 9 months worth of episodes.

Option 1 is I just start listening again and try to catch up. But then will I have missed major events, lives and deaths and nuances that leave me confused or disconnected?

Option 2 is I try to catch up somehow and listen to some key episodes I missed. Wouldn't mind hearing the moment George finally owns up (which I presume happened), and is punished or whatever.

Not sure how I could do that though.

With your knowledge of having listen to TA for the last year, aside from George Grundy are there any big events I've missed, deaths or new characters? NO SPOILERS please don't actually tell me what they are! But ultimately, if I dive back in, have I missed much or has it just been loads of Linda Snell and Susan silly stuff?

The biggest you thing you missed was the sw employing a load of gcse students to write the scripts!!

other than the denouement of the George SL I don’t think much has happened?

Until Chris gave up in disgust earlier this month, there were synopses of each episode at https://ambridgereporter.org.uk/synopses/

And there are synopses by the BBC for every episode, but getting to them can be a bit of a bore; someone else may know how to do it without going to https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qpgr/episodes/player and opening the episodes one by one.

Bruisername
The biggest you thing you missed was the sw employing a load of gcse students to write the scripts!!

The very worst ones have been written by a man in his seventies with a track record of writing afternoon plays and series for the BBC that were fine. He seems to have gone a bit mad.

Oh wow, it sounds like it's really gone downhill! Has anything been said by the editor or any complaints to radio 4? That's crazy they are re-writing history. One of its strengths used to be the slow burning nature of stories with small details returning years later.

Thinking back I think you can safely skip listening to most of December and January.

EXCEPT that Brenda returned for a few episodes (because the actor who played Roy is dead, so he is becoming silent) and Josh was back for a week as well. That was nice. Also I don't think they've messed up any scripts involving Brian. Henry has a voice these days (and manages to string sentences together). I'm fairly confident that they forgot about Peggy's 100th birthday (just had a couple of lines about it) and the Pargetter twins' 25th.

The only new characters I can think of are Azra (new doctor - no idea where the old one went) with her teenage children Zainab and Khalil. She is the sister of the Ardil who the new majority-owners bought in to to oversea/manage the refurb of Grey Gables (though Oliver still seems heavily involved in managing the place for some reason, despite being well passed retirement age).

Ambridge Reporter is probably the best place to head.

R4 Feedback (On Sounds if you want to listen) had some angry listeners complain just before Christmas. The following week presumably the scriptwriter bribed some rather unconvincing listeners to contact Feedback to say how much they had enjoyed the Neil storyline.

It just struck me that some of the older scriptwriters might be on some sort of retainer vs being freelance. I wonder whether they are entitled to some sort of pay out if they get booted off the writing team (It would explain a lot).

Glad you found your way here, @ukeleleplayer!

Probably just in time to see it all come crashing down around our ears …

The last time I remember thinking the SWs had lost the plot was when they came up with the insane idea of David and Ruth leaving Brookfield/Ambridge and moving up North. The difference is that when that happened, it never occurred to me they would go through with it because it would have been beyond ridiculous. So I just hung on and waited for the SL to end and sanity to be restored.

Now, however, I wouldn't be at all surprised if half the long standing characters were packed off to the Falklands, and were replaced by a new set of characters each week engaged in some short-lived jolly jape. There seems to be no end in sight to this nonsense.

Next week some version of faerie porn (which I hear is very popular at the moment), while Adam runs away to join the circus, David sells Brookfield for a handful of magic beans, Leonard is revealed to be Lord Lucan, Neil discovers he was the lovechild of Elvis, and Bartleby is found to be sharing a stable with Shergar at Meg's. I'm sure there is an audience for this kind of dross, but unfortunately it won't include me.

As a PP said, only a short while ago I was actually moved by some of the George/Emma/Neil scenes. What on earth has happened since then?

Well, that didn't work, did it?

Madcats
It just struck me that some of the older scriptwriters might be on some sort of retainer vs being freelance. I wonder whether they are entitled to some sort of pay out if they get booted off the writing team (It would explain a lot).

I don't think it can be that, because the very worst rubbish is being written by people who've only been writing for TA for five years or less; they seem to know very little about the village and its geography, or the characters, and the result is extremely irritating.

Keri Davies started working for TA last century, then started writing scripts in 2003, and Tim Stimpson also in 2003, I think. They are the longest-serving SWs as far as I know.

@Madcats - It just struck me that some of the older scriptwriters might be on some sort of retainer vs being freelance.

Nah! They're on glue.

Sympathies to anybody tuning into to R4 tonight.

If they don't all live Happily Ever After, I quite expect it to be like when Dallas went AWOL and we discovered that Bobby Ewing's death was just a dream.

BTW R4 listeners were ranting about scam week; they've not been able to complain about Neil or the panto....yet.

I’d say that episode went from poor to very poor.
jesus they really chewed on those lines.

But who gave the money to the ugly sisters? And, more importantly, who cares?

Well this week has been a true test of my commitment but there you have it. We move on.

Did Mick propose?

Why give the money for the panto bet to two people who were absolutely nothing to do with the panto?