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.

There are so many points in the case that make me fear for the continuation of harmonious life at LL:

He is seeking to dismantle the structure controlling the trusts and replace the trustees, who he claims have sided with his parents.

he was said to have “started to assert himself”

The lawyer added that the family was “disappointed with William’s lack of achievements”.

attended Cirencester Agricultural College but dropped out after a year and had not subsequently obtained any professional or other qualifications.

problems arose between him and his parents after they appeared to stage a “volte-face” by scuppering his expectation of inheriting the estate while still a young man.

I almost feel I don’t need to listen any more - it’s all there. And either the SWs already have all this planned or, if they’ve been floundering, they can simply turn the court hearings into script.

Doom music …

@BBQHulaHoops I fear the fallout from the Ambridge poonami will see us well into the spring.

I assume someone will get poorly following Azra driving home the point about dangerous viruses. Maybe Zainab goes back to the house to rescue the boxes and ends up being seriously ill, forcing her father to rush back to the UK. Meanwhile nurse Ben won't leave her side until she has recovered and she can't resist falling in love with him. They want to marry but her father forbids it unless Ben converts to Islam. Ruth thinks it's wonderful. Jill is horrified and disowns him from the Archer family for good. David is stuck in the middle as usual and worries whether they will still be allowed to eat pork pies.

All because of a blocked sewer pipe.

If all the land is contaminated presumably Bridge Farm will lose their organic status for years. In fact probably not be allowed to farm at all.

Or perhaps they’d have to rent land from another farm?

Cap in hand to Jack …

The Seymour thing is quite something. Different to Freddie in that his father is alive and well!!

interesting in other cultures it’s the youngest son who inherits

@TottersBlankly There are so many points in the case that make me fear for the continuation of harmonious life at LL ...

I'd love to see a Hello-style interview with the merchant-banker wife: "So tell us, what was it that first attracted you to your J D Vance-lookalike husband?"

Yes, it does rather come over as, "how dare you continue to live?" which is a key difference from Freddy.

I think this is insurance week, making sure we all have contents insurance

Why on earth didn’t anyone call the water board - yesterday and the day before. I think that is the first thing I would do and insurance companies often help with somewhere to stay.
The Archers is definitely a parallel universe

I have to admit I am not following TA or this thread with my usual meticulous attention at the moment as I am deep in the parallel universe that is Sandie Peggie v Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton. I am rivetted and finding it difficult to get anything else done. I'm hoping someone will eventually dramatise a transcript of the tribunal hearing for TV.

Me too! It’s fascinating

Probably a bit to neich*, but for insurance week...could Joy not have added mick to her home insurance (don't you have to state the number of people?) So mick isn't coverd/invalidated her insurance?

Clairie gets seroiusley ill after helping with clean up and eddie tries to sue BF as cleaning biohazard isn't part of her job description (possibly a bit beyond eddie, but could see him getting no win no fee lawyer)

Me too! Gripping.

The programme started off originally as a vehicle to inform people about farming matters - now it seems it is listeners who are having to inform the scriptwriters!
Let's hope Naylah Ahmed reads these threads and is suitably educated.

Me too (I have a shiny new name), but have the radio on, having been booted out of the tribunal feed yesterday.

Is everybody going to end up in the Brookfield Barn?

Me too.

sorry I’ve been a bit behind so ignoring the calamities of sewer week, and the alarming lack of protocol - going back to the Rochelle storyline, I am enjoying how it’s being handled.

Rochelle could easily have googled the Brookfield Events Barn and explained she would no longer be available to do her event. The fact she didn’t,- and how she started her event in the first place, shows us more about her.

On a separate note, if Zainab wore hijab I suspect Ben wouldn’t have been so dense about requiring halal meat. (And probably less inclined to chirpse her.) But perhaps not, he’s written as a bit bumpkin-y these days.

So the farmhouse is pretty big then - 4 beds assuming Pat and Tony still share

and fallons pies aren’t as nice as cheapy UPF pastry ones

I thought we weren’t supposed to eat cod?

bbc going for the water companies. As a Thames water customer I’m all for that!!!

Also, we’ve discussed joys finances before and tonight seems to highlight that despite her house she isn’t well off (and neither is mick I guess)

That just makes no sense.

Re the water board... our water company are useless. We lose access to water several times a year due to their failure to correctly mend a certain pipe. Even they have a 24 hour emergency line answered by a long suffering employee though.

On second thoughts being without water doesn't seem so bad as at least we don't have sewage coming up the pipes.

Also, this is a village that rallies round and sorts accommodation for scammed strangers. Yet, despite Joy and Mick being homeless from first thing in the morning they couldn’t find anyone to bunk in with. We all know in jolly ambridge that Oliver would have put them up in the bridal suite or Kenton and Jolene would have given them the spare room or Brookfield would have set up the camp beds or Kate would have offered Jacob’s house

None of it makes sense!!

I’m wondering if she actually has house and contents insurance at all.

I am more inclined to wonder whether anyone in the production team has house and contents insurance, or knows how it works.

Almost Joy's first reaction was to ring her insurance company.

Yes she did call them early - they may not have found her somewhere to stay but they likely would have given her a budget to claim back. Perhaps she’s a bit of a fraudster and is sleeping in the car so she can keep the money 🤷🏻‍♀️

the sw are really bad at research

Insurance companies arrange the accomodation and pay the provider direct.

And where are the officials from the Water Company and Environmental Health?

The officials are in a traffic jam on the Borchester Bypass.