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.

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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.

I thought she said something along the lines of that she's not dating until she's ready? So if she's 18-19 that might be 5 years away or so.

She might like someone to boss about

Isn't Ramadan one moon cycle, whereas Lent is 40 days?

Nevermind - Award Winning Junior Business Man Henry will soon sort them out.

My mistake. Lynda said she once fasted for a couple of days during Lent.

Gavin (Gareth?) is out.

Is he up to laying floors? He was coughing like a consumptive Dickensian orphan last time we heard him.

I agree, I feel like I am being dragged into a civic studies/ RE lesson every time I listen to the Archers. The rather cringe worthily excessive goodwill the Snells are throwing the way of the Maliks is saccharine at best. We also have to hear “ Dr Malik” several times an episode, as if to make a point, and it feels odd. Why not just “Dr” or whatever her first name is.

Yes you are right about the Dr. Perhaps where I live is odd but using titles is unusual and reserved for professional environments - and even then at my work we use first names.

I can understand ‘I’m going to see Dr Malik about my hernia’ but not ‘Dr Malik is staying with us’ necessarily

although Lynda is the type to be impressed I suppose and want people to know Azra is a doctor and not just some boring accountant or surveyor

i get this strange feeling that one of the sw has had a bad experience claiming on their insurance

Hard agree. Probably not the place but the BBC is getting relentlessly woke. Just a sample from today, Start the Week ostensibly about cities in decline, but Adam Rutherford had to exercise his hobby horse and include a section on how horribly racist Liverpool was in its seafaring heyday. Artworks Roleplay at 11am- apparently it’s prejudiced to say Cleopatra was Greek, she was Egyptian and African and to say otherwise is racism. Then at 2 the replay of Linda’s desire to do Ramadan. I’m losing the will.

Now having a bad experience claiming on insurance is something I can relate to!
Back to the Dr Malik thing, they all do it, Ben, David, Mike etc. It just has an odd ring to it now.

BeatriceBatchelor
Will they be able to get a mortgage on the property now? Is it insurable?

The lavatory backed up. I wouldn't have thought this was something that would make a property uninsurable, any more than a dozen slates coming off the roof in a high wind would. Or at least, we could get house insurance without any problem after one of the lavatories backed up in the house I lived in during the 1970s and we had to replace the bathroom carpet. (And the outflow drain had to be replaced because it was a tree-root growing into it which had caused the problem, so it was not that we hadn't put in a claim.)

I feel honour bound to defend Kirsty!

I think she's very strong. She's survived being jilted, the still birth of her much wanted baby and the betrayal of her trust by Philip Moss.

She's built a life of purpose without the emotional & financial support of her family. Philip's money is coming in useful now but she never wanted it. She wanted to do right by the "horses."

I'm awfully fond of Kirsty.

' hello you two' out of Tracey's mouth has she taken over the verbal mantle?

If Philip has any money surely it ought to be going to his slaves rather than the woman who divorced him after only a year of marriage (of which a fair chunk was spent apart)?

The Beechwood house was said by him to be mortgaged to the hilt, so how he was able just to give it to Kirsty with no strings attached is a complete mystery.

Thinking of Freddie in tonight's episode, I think his business acumen, and not seeing the end of the day as the end of doing the job, is the SWs' way of positioning him as fit to run Lower Locklsey when the time comes. And the inevitable clash of interest with Lily.

He's made a good fist out of an unpromising situation.

the still birth of her much wanted baby

The miscarriage of her accidental pregnancy. She was by no means sure initially that she wanted it; she dodged a bullet there, not having to coparent with that arse Tom and work her arse off nurturing his DNA for the next umpty years.

That's unfair. Once she'd got used to the idea she very much did want him and grieved for him.

It was an accidental pregnancy, and initially she didn't at all want it; but she did realise on reflection that, given her age and the lack of congenial men (ie potential sires) in her life, she might not get another chance to have a baby, and decided to make the best of it. She then spent a fair bit of time fending off the father before having a traumatic late miscarriage. Naturally, having accepted the idea of having a baby and now having all the hormones and her body prepared for the experience, she was knocked all to flinders by not having one after all, and, once she had been bullied extensively about not doing it properly, she grieved as the people around her had decided she ought to.

The name Wren for the baby she was carrying was never mentioned at the time, but invented by the prod team six years later.

I thought this was fair. If one of my friends told me years after a miscarriage that she’d named her baby (either at the time or later) I’d not think that was weird. Poor Kirsty, I like her too. Having shit friends isn’t her fault.

Not that I’m in the pay of the SW but I also kiiiind of get the Dr Malik thing, if she is Lynda’s doctor which I can’t remember. I find it v difficult to think of my doctor as anything other than “Dr Wilkinson” much in the same way as if you meet one of your old teachers as an adult it’s awfully hard to call them “Jenny” rather than “Miss Green”. Or is that just me?

I've only been half listening but I assumed that Lynda had muscled in on fasting under the misapprehension that Ramadan is only a few days, and there will be 'hilarious' fallout when she realises how long it is.

I'm assuming I missed something important because that would be ludicrous.

I had a muslim housemate for a while and hadn't realised that the fasting also meant not drinking - I found it very hard not to keep offering her cups of tea which was not very helpful of me.

One of the many silly and possibly offensive aspects of Lynda joining in the fast is that she’s doing it for the first few days “until you get into the swing” or whatever she said. Only minutes after we’d heard Dr M explaining that it gets harder as it goes on.

I can't see Lynda keeping quiet around the village about fasting. In real life if she told her friends that she was suddenly fasting for Ramadan at 80 years old, they'd ask her what on earth she was doing, probably think she was losing the plot, but I'm sure that everyone in ambridge who finds out will think it's perfectly normal and won't bat an eyelid.
It's another aspect of this very silly storyline. They should have just left it that she arranged for Azra to be able to use the kitchen at a certain time each evening, as was suggested before she decided to join in. Will she decide to pray 5 times a day with them too?
I was using my food processor when listening this evening so couldn't hear some words, was she trying to get Robert to fast too?

Yes. She assumed he would join in, without having consulted him. At first he kicked off about it - but he’s married to Lynda so resistance futile.

I very much hope that Lynda doesn't refuse to drink between sunset and sundown. Very bad idea for health, especially in an older woman.

Interesting to hear that The Bull was flat out serving food on a Monday evening in February. Is that realistic? We don't eat out that much so are possibly out of touch, but I thought pubs and restaurants were really struggling at the moment. Good to hear some realistic assessments of Terum's struggles without Fallon, though.

Lynda fasting for Ramadan is the stupidest plot line for a very long time.