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!

If Akram is a long term character, can they find a way to shoe-horn Neil Nunes into a role? I know that he is an Archer fan.

Neil Nunes is MUCH TOO BUSY, reading the shipping forecast to me.

I thought the same. And when he said he moved to the 25 years ago which is almost half his life I realised Papa Malik is a lot younger than I thought (in my head I imagined a man in his 60s for some reason) and quite close in age to Kirsty. I hope there isn’t an affair storyline down the line. She has had enough bad luck with men.

I am surprised that if Akram is a plumber he hasn't shown more interest in what caused the sewage backing up through the drains or entered into more discussion about it.

I assume the Malik parents are in their 40s.

I’m guessing Akram can only have as much interest in anything as the SW giving him a voice!

Wouldn't they be older than that? Zainab is late teens/ early 20s? I'd be surprised if Azra had children earlier than late 20s/early 30s.

I think Zainab is supposed to have taken her A levels last summer so she will be 19 at some point this year. With a huge amount of family support, Azra could have fitted in having children during her medical degree, early medical jobs and GP training. It would have been a lot easier if she'd waited till all that was finished, though.

She could still be late 40s.

Well she could but late 40s early 50s is more probable.

No-one's moved in before exchange?

The survey in question was a specific drain survey that Kirstie paid for.

I've just listened to the Omnibus.

Akram was chatting to Kirsty when he said that he'd been living in England for 25 years; his kids said that this was longer than he'd been in Pakistan. It probably suggests that he came to the UK aged 22/23 to marry.

I've just looked back and the poonami was 4 weeks ago. Where have the Gills got to?

Lost in an avalanche?

Picked up by Trump as suspected Mexicans and deported?

At the risk of trumping Leonard, my MiL(85ish) fell off her electric bike a couple of days ago and now has 2 broken wrists.

Leonard is mysteriously silent these days, isn't he? I'd quite forgotten about him.

Nobody?

Freddy did well tonight. I like Freddy. And as for Pat- does she really think the schools meal budget extends to organic prices?

Brad please grow a backbone.

I laughed at "you can see how skilled our boners are" but I am a teen at heart!

Freddy was great.

Intrigued by the storyline Brad is going down. Will it be burnout, ED, or MH crisis?

Freddy was OK, except I don't believe that character would say 'they can even lay down'. 🙁

And it gets tedious when they run parallel story lines - always some kind of 'compare and contrast' - e.g. tonight: pressure on Brad, pressure on Freddy.

Oh no @Madcats, poor MIL! Both wrists is very unlucky.

Eddie was awful in tonight's episode. Brad was so close to putting his foot down for once. I don't understand how Tracey isn't seeing that her son is being taken advantage of and step in to help him.

That's awful, @Madcats, but I'm quite impressed at an 85-year-old woman having the nerve (aka sheer madness) to ride an electric bike. I wish her a speedy recovery.

(I confess that if it had been an 85-year-old man I would probably have said "Serves the idiot right!" )

Just one utterance from Eddie Grundy and I find myself missing the Maliks.

Yes, she can be quite the tigress! Strange she’s missed this.

On the one hand Brad has no time (or aptitude) for the drone but he wants to take up cricket? make it make sense.

Where i live (very close to NL, so flat as a pancake for the most part) everyone rides bikes, even (especially) the oldies. These days most, but not all, have e-bikes.