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.

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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.

Maybe they are going to expose something that was done incorrectly/poorly when the homes were built? They would have had to connect the new homes to the mains sewer at some point?
It wasn't Phillip Moss building/working on the houses was it?
Will Demara be liable?
Will it destroy Justin's finances?
Or... Will it all be forgotten in a fortnight by which time we'll be into another theme week?

I'm hoping it's with the Gill's who are some kind of distant relatives.

Good call! Though I suspect it won't be, because the SWs have long since lost that particular post-it note.

It's infuriating that they're all fussing about where they're going to stay while it all gets sorted out, given that a call to their insurance company would have got them all into a hotel or Airbnb that night. Why on earth is Helen offering Joy and Mick to stay on the farm, it's totally unnecessary when their accommodation will be sorted out for them. Also I'm surprised that after Bridge Farm being inundated yesterday the water company wasn't on the case immediately.

They were very keen to get a PSA out about how dangerous it is when I think a lot of people would have been rushing into grab stuff!!

ThoroughlyModernNotMillie
Why on earth is Helen offering Joy and Mick to stay on the farm, it's totally unnecessary when their accommodation will be sorted out for them.

It's also a right bloody cheek, given that Bridge Farmhouse is not her effing house to invite people to stay in!

I have lurked on these excellent threads for ages, but this is my first post and i feel compelled to say, I don't want to listen to an extended poo based storyline. Make it stop!

Hello! Some of us might argue that the storylines have long been based on a load of poo!

Yes! I was thinking exactly this when he was talking about the milk going down the drain. I was sure I'd heard something about that being a big no no before. Surely as bloody dairy farmers they know this!

It's astonishing that the scriptwriters would get something like this wrong on a programme involving farming.
I think that these days, with all the inaccuracies, silly storylines, changes of characters' personalities and backstories etc, it seems as if the writers get their episodes made with no overall oversight or editting whatsoever.

Exactly! But that's Helen all over isn't it.

I thought azra and zainab were referring to a whole backstory which we don’t yet know - there was also Zara’s line about “As you and I know, you just have to roll with the punches”

Dearie me, that 'posh' accent is cringe-makingly bad. Unfortunate for a site claiming to opine on pronunciation.

I missed yesterday’s fun-filled episode and haven’t had a chance to catch up with the thread since the weekend, so tonight was a real eye-opener as I was hit with the full force of Sewage-Gate. What larks!

Absolutely agree, I was muttering this at the screen while listening on Sounds. The houses will need professional cleaning, never mind a food producing unit! Hopefully Helen, Clarrie and Susan messing around with mops and buckets will just be a preliminary, rough clean before the actual professionals come in?
(Actually, though, thinking about it, how is it that those 3 can get stuck into working in a mucky indoor environment when everyone else is having to flee for their lives?? Were there some hazmat suits hanging about in a Bridge Farm cupboard?)

Oops, I thought I was quoting IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle's post.

On another note, this appears in The Times:

Earl sues parents over ‘trauma’ of not being gifted £85m estate

https://www.thetimes.com/article/efb05b1f-aaa5-4b46-8c3b-867c31dacafd?shareToken=1e2dd3613213c242f94136a3ea811b3a

It won’t make pleasant reading over the toast and marmalade at Lower Loxley in the morning …

It's nonsense of course. Any normal person would phone the water authority. This a major risk to health. The place would be swarming with water board workers and environmental health people.

Well if I worked for Bridge Farm making cheese and yogurt, I would not be cleaning up that sewage. They seem to think they can ask (or demand), Susan and Carrie to do anything. Shit shovelling isn't in thier job description I'm sure.

Thanks for that share token, Totters! I hope the SWs have been reading it, especially the bit where everything started to go wrong when this directionless aristo met and married a financially savvy woman who encouraged him to challenge family and trustees about his inheritance.

I thought that too.

You're all right. Of course the insurance companies would be sending in cleaners and providing accommodation. The milk gaffe is inexcusable.

Welcome, and amen to that!

If the earl wins in the case of Seymour v Seymour there will be at least two important lessons for Freddie. First, he should immediately give up his job at the abbatoir and set up an elderflower liquor distillery at LL. Secondly, he should cite Elizabeth's relationship with Vince as evidence that she lacks mental capacity.

It would probably help if he married a merchant banker too. And he should definitely complain that hasn't been given £4m, just a paltry old emerald ring that he can't wear himself.

Surely Tom will be prosecuted for pouring his milk down the drain? I am not a dairy farmer (IANADF?) and I knew it was wrong and was screaming at the radio for him to stop. It beggars belief that an actual dairy farmer wouldn't know this.

You would think they would have all read up on the rules after Brian's experience. Or are all the farming families in TA going to lose their houses one by one as a result of polluting the Mighty Am?