Archers thread #182: The Shit hits the Am! 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 be delighted to oblige your employer by cleaning up sewage spills without proper training or equipment in place of your normal duties, 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.)

Credit for the title goes to @echt. Can't think of anything much to say about current storylines. Credulity is strained to its limit on many fronts, unfortunately, but there are a few nuggets in the slurry. I did enjoy hearing Natasha's outrage that Fallon is doing obvious, sensible things at The Bull even though it might hit Terum. I thought Natasha was supposed to be an entrepreneur!

Over to you!

Im getting frustrated with the house buying, how are they getting a mortgage with a tenant insitu, how has Kirsty’s solicitor/mortgage company agreed to let them move in before exchange, let alone completion, why does Natasha think a short term loss of revenue will impact their mortgage that has already been agreed on their previous sets of accounts, how have two self employed people who make seemingly little been able to sort a decent mortgage quickly and with zero hoops to jump through?

sighs in paperwork

There's nothing to stop Helen accepting the notice to quit- which she had.

I only heard he was a plumber on this thread!!

I looked back on the synopses this week to see which episode sounded most likely to give us the answer, whizzed through Monday's episode and bingo, Akram says to Azra he needs to work on making some fliers for plumbing services. Well done to those paying attention.

I assume half of Ambridge will be having plumbing emergencies in due course.

What was the point of that odd scene with Kirsty and Pa Malik?

Gnasher is so manipulative.

This may sound a tad too fanciful and disruptive, but this is what I heard …

Chemistry.

Akram and Kirsty.

They sounded so natural and relaxed in each other’s company - as if for each of them it was a relief to have found someone to talk to. (I have felt, in his conversations with Azra, that they’re so busy negotiating and arranging and whatnot, they never sound just together.)

I dunno. Probably just imagining it …

No, not just you.

Thank you @TheUsualChaos for vindicating those of us who thought we were going mad that Pa Malik is a plumber!

The Archers has now become the Joy Malik show and, as a consequence, I'm starting to miss Pip!

I did hear Mr Malik say he was a plumber a few episodes ago, because I thought thats handy after the poonami. Perhaps when the insurance company's pay up they may say get a plumber in and give us an estimate, and who you gonna call?
Hope Kirsty doesn't waver and listens to Joy who was talking sense and not annoying for a change.
Fancy asking that big mouth boy to fix the vac. Why not as someone said ask Leonard or why not just buy a new one and share the cost between Brian and fag ash. Silly Grundyish story line, it's not as if either of them are skint.

I was hoping he'd made an offer for the house off-air and she was going to tell Gnasher. But no.

I wonder if he's a plumber as in the bloke with a van who comes round and changes a tap for you for cash, or as in the owner of a vast plumbing chain employing thousands of people.

Why would the owner of a vast plumbing chain employing thousands of people be planning to hand out leaflets though?

Well we had a Pakistani plumber and of all the tradesmen we ever used he came up with the most amazing excuses for not being able to come to work that day. That man was the unluckiest person alive. And who knew you could do a day trip to Lahore.

Luckily his sidekick who did the electrics was a lot more reliable so we now have first class electrics and rather dodgy plumbing

(To add I think it was his trade rather than his nationality which made him flaky - I don’t think I’ve ever used a plumber who has managed to work every day agreed)

I noticed his mention of being a plumber because I found it unexpected. Azra is a GP who has gone through years of studying and training to get where she is. From Akram's mention that he married her after coming over from Pakistan I assume it was an arranged marriage, and this is something I know nothing about. I find it odd that her parents didn't look for a husband for her who was also a graduate in a professional career, but maybe that's less important than family connections. I know plumbers can make a lot of money if they're good, so their incomes could be comparable.

(I find the idea of an arranged marriage quite terrifying, actually, because I have an idea of the sort of man my parents would have chosen for me and he would not have resembled Mr Gasp in any way.)

The prospective buyer pays for the survey in England. Often the lender will want a survey to confirm the house's value before the mortgage offer is approved.

I made the opposite assumption, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - that Azra must have married him in the face of parental astonishment. My parents are from two different continents, and neither side would have been encouraging if their Oxbridge educated daughter had brought home a plumber, no matter how lovely he was. If he were revealed to be the gazillionaire we hope Akram turns out to be, my DM would have relented pdq; my DF might still have raised an eyebrow, fearing we wouldn’t have the same tastes in novels …

(As things stand my DM would be relieved to hand me over to anyone who’d have me.)

For the avoidance of doubt - this is just idle chat about lived experience of 20th c parental attitudes - not a concrete statement of personal disdain towards plumbers! I’m well aware they’re perfectly likely to have PhDs, live in vast houses and spend their leisure hours on complicated needlepoint …

Q&A feature on Charles Collingwood today:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/mar/08/the-archers-star-charles-collingwood-the-last-lie-i-told-darling-marvellous-isnt-the-word

@Abra1t yes usually so- but Kirsty said she had paid for it to Pat so she he knew it had been done and then K asked Natasha what it actually said. It was another part of Natasha's sense of entitlement. I say entitlement of Natasha but I am fully confident that Tom shares this.

Ah @stilldumdedumming, I wasn’t paying enough attention!

Thanks for that! Nice concise witty answers. If only he was allowed to write his own scripts.

If Kirsty paid for it (and I’m pretty sure she said she did), then she owns the survey. If you are buying a house and you get surveys done (as recommended) then these belong to you. The idea being that this avoids bias. You don’t have to show or pass these on to the seller.
Auction packs, will sometimes, I believe, include surveys paid for by the seller, presumably to increase saleability.

Apologies, seems I cross posted and also missed the point of confusion

Kirsty did have a lot of chemistry with his brother in law also, I always thought they could have been a great couple, but Kirsty was still getting over everything that happened with Philip and then we heard about Adil's bereavement with his fiancé...
I don't mind the Malik's at all, I'd like it even more of Adil came back. That said I agree there is way too much new-character-content.
I'm not missing Pip yet though 😂

I found Adil’s vocal delivery too arch, and his presence in the storyline too unbelievable, for him to be tolerable. The whole GG refurbishment thing was just so ridiculous.

I vaguely recall they seemed to get on - but he sounded about as sexy as Paddington Bear so I couldn’t get excited about it. Akram, on the other hand, has a bit of something to him, like Alan when he first arrived.