Archers thread #181: Panto Week's behind you! Was that the nadir? 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 enjoy playing badminton with Derek Fletcher, 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.)

Will it be onwards and upwards for TA now, or do we fear even more of these special weeks (Martin and a Christmas Carol, Scam Week, Panto Week) and sudden reinventions of long-established characters (Neil)? I for one have had enough of all that. I want a quiet period of change counting in the village shop, farming talk with suitable sound effects and village gossip over coffee at Terum or a pint in The Bull. Slowly developing storylines featuring the full cast, not a subset for a few weeks with no mention of the others, and all behaving in character. Not holding my breath we'll get any of that, though!

Over to you.

Syooage and syoower as opposed to Sue-age and Sue-wer?

This is how I imagine Bridge Farm (courtesy of Ladybird Book's illustrator, Robert Lumley).

I think that would depend how you say the term for going to law. I don't think I'd say you soo someone to get your money back for the windows they fitted wrongly, and that's the same noise as the "sew" in "sewer" and "sewage".

Or will the Bridge Farm customers soo the Bridge Farm Archers if they are made unwell by Bridge Farm soo-age??

It's not unusual for a son to be given a family ring to propose to his intended.

William gave Kate Diana's engagement ring, didn't he.

For how Pat said sewage, see also how she (and I) would say dew, pew, hew, new, Kew, few, mew, thew...

It can be an upper-RP variant, like wearing a ‘sy-uit’ and drinking ‘hwhite wine’.
In Pat’s case, it could be a nod to her Welsh heritage?

Very confusing for cats and cows if they both make the same noise unless their owner speaks upper-RP, I feel.

I'm distinctly on the upper RP side however, and absolutely would say sue ( legal term,) dew etc with more of a y sound - just not "sewage". I'm a different generation to Pat, though, so that may be it- just a trivial observation!
I also realised I was worrying about Helen as I know she's "fragile", rather than her elderly parents (short A) and suddenly realised I'd accepted, as gospel truth, everyone else's view of Helen. 😅

So Zainab making an upsetting discovery (which was actually what was said)

is it a shit in the middle of her borchester blue?

I'm distinctly on the upper RP side

How can you be upper RP?

Helen sound rather blasé about it all.

Well she was being thoroughly unhelpful when her mum first called and was speaking to her as if she were a child. And then she was blubbing in the cheese room

i have a bingo card with Ben now - how many times can he say sorry or ask if a person is alright

Upper RP.

pronunciationstudio.com/upper-received-pronunciation/

Let me be the first person to say I am very definitely not upper RP. I say hwite but that's because I'm Scottish and in spite of living in England for 54 years I have obstinately refused to change my pronunciation of words that begin with wh-. I remember at primary school a question in an English workbook which tested whether we knew how to spell witch and which and I was genuinely perplexed by how anybody could confuse them. Sooage for me (as it were - very much hoping I have no contact with the stuff except through my radio and Sounds).

Is Upper RP like the late Queen?

I think pp is onto something. This is sewage week. And they are admitting to the quality of their recent scripts

so zainab moving the boxes was just a plot device

so Tom and tash - have they exchanged? Guess they’ll all be in the farmhouse

Are they all going to end up sleeping in the events barn

Oh goodness! Yes, is the Beechwood house actually sold? Because it must be nigh on worthless at this moment - and Kirsty can’t buy Willow Farm house unless she’s sold hers.

Yep another theme week! Although this is definitely far less painful to listen to than the panto week.
Poor Helen and boys things though, that's awful. I felt really sorry for her.

I've skipped a week so jumping in to this thread here (thanks Gaspode, as ever) Surely someone in the village has a JCB so they can dig a long ditch between the overflow point and Bridge Farm so as to stop the advance of the offensive liquid? It isn't the first flood in Ambridge, the businesses, if not the housing developments, must (surely, even in Ambridge) have a disaster plan - what to do in the event of . . .

And with liquids, slowing them down and containing them is basic. Not pushing them straight back down the drain that they are pouring out of.

All Helen's boxes are destroyed but will she still be covered under contents insurance?

Yes it'll be interesting to see if they have exchanged contracts - I'd presumed not because in my experience it all takes at least a couple of months and exchange happens close to completion.
That said, if they hadn't I would have expected Tom to immediately say "Oh thank god we haven't exchanged contracts yet!" because he is so selfish and tactless.
So either they haven't exchanged contracts and Helen and the boys move in to the farm house.
Or, they have exchanged contracts and Helen and the boys move into the farmhouse. And poor Kirstie is left in the poo... Either way Tom and Natasha stay in the flat.
Maybe this will force Tony and Pat to sell them some land to self build on. It must be a bug farm, surely there's enough space for them all to have their own nice self builds?

I am a tad puzzled.

The brook overflowed into the farmyard, yes, plausible if the brook had been absolutely filled with sewage from the non-existant treatment plant up the hill on that side of the Am (the "water treatment works" is on the other side of the Am valley and of the village, though).

But if that was the cause of the poonami, why has the fan-hitting substance also, perhaps twenty-four hours later, blown back out of the loos in houses in half but not all of a new-build estate, all of which is presumably on the same drainage system and at much the same height? This made some sense to me until that point, but now it makes none.

I assumed the sewage was coming up through the pipes

so Helen and the boys will move to the farmhouse and tash and Tom will stay where they are?

I don’t think I can bear the sale falling through

I guess so.