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!

Really? I thought the bell ringing stuff is complete nonsense. The cricket stuff is tedious.

Me too, was glorious hearing Kirsty finally tell Tom to take it or leave it. He was useless without Natasha being there to take over for him.

So Natasha was willing to pay the asking price all along, she was just trying to get a massive discount. I hope Kirsty never forgets how willing they were to screw her over especially since she's sourcing on a single income. We haven't heard her talk to Helen about it much but I suppose it's a sore subject.

*surviving not sourcing!

Glad to hear Kirsty finally forced them to make a decision. I can’t see them being able to
avoid stamp duty now, though. Surely it’s cutting it a bit fine.
(Currently waiting for a property to complete since January. It’s not looking likely.)

Well played Kirsty. I still contend that if the house you were about to buy had been awash with raw sewage and you weren't entirely clear what had caused it so you couldn't be sure of it not happening again, you would pull out or at the very least make a reduced offer (which Natasha, not unreasonably, did). Love the fact that Natasha just made an executive decision - didn't give a toss what Tom thought - while he can scarcely blow his nose without getting full written permission from his wife. And how gratifying for Kirsty to see this and perhaps reflect (not for the first time) what a lucky escape she had. Hopefully she'll soon be sitting pretty in Willow Farm while Tom and Natasha have to negotiate the sewage fall out as well as living with the doggedly independent one who will be so busy having to prop up her cheese business with no staff she won't have the headspace to even think of moving on. Fun times ahead.

I don’t think Natasha did anything wrong in the circumstances. Kirsty wasn’t exactly awash with viewings and after the sewage issue I would imagine she would have really struggled to find a buyer

And I still don't understand why, if Akram's a plumber, we haven't had more references to it beyond a passing comment about getting some leaflet's printed. Instead we've had to hear about delivering cardboard on the back of a moped and offering to deliver leaflets for the vicar (Zainab's delivery job starts to make sense now) . I'm shouting at the radio: "Akram, there's a massive plumbing problem at Beechwood - go and sort it out!" Why has Azra never said: "Thank goodness you're back darling, we need a plumber so we can get back in the house." Why hasn't Khalil said: "Couldn't you take a look Dad, you're a plumber?"

I wanted to hear the conversation between Kirsty and Gnasher.

Perhaps none of the SWs feels inclined to acquire that sort of specialist knowledge / vocabulary, @LillianGish?

On the other hand it’s hard to believe they’ve invented a plumber by accident - maybe they’re just getting there slowly?

Nothing really makes much sense in Ambridge.

I'm still trying to get my head around Akram just rocking up at Lynda's and settling down to live there for best part of a month. At least the others are out at school/work during the day.

I'm 100% behind the cricket SL (even though it is far too early in the season). I'm worried that they'll scrap village sport SL, like they appear to have done with anything agricultural. What's happened to lambing and calving this year!!

Lynda isn’t housing them as a favour. She runs a B&B and she’s being paid, presumably.

I cannot think of any circumstances where a family had booked rooms, where the host would refuse to allow the father to join the family. (If they wanted him with them.) He doesn’t require any extra room - and it sounds as if the Maliks are additionally buying much of their own food.

Surely no one beyond that nasty racist Lynda took up with could think she’s being taken advantage of in any way?

I'm OK with the various bellringing and cricket storylines, enjoyed the George visit and the TomTash house deadline.

Enjoying Freddie and Lily. Are they turning Freddie into Nigel? I started listening properly on the night of his demise so never heard him (apart from the drawn-out scream obvs).

Still bewildered by the nature of the sewage 'leak'. What happened hasn't been made to make sense.

Also I don't understand the status of the Ambridge cricket team - what kind of league are they in that is serious and competitive to the point they are considering paying players - but the team is made up of young men, middle-aged women and the odd pensioner? I've got zero experience I admit.

I hope the geriatric rejects form a moldy oldies cricket team and beat everyone for miles around. Maybe excepting official Ambridge, maybe not.

I feel Freddie is turning into Nigel and Lily into lizzie

i am amazed at how his accent keeps getting posher and posher given he works in an environment where he isn’t exposed to that accent and he’s previously been bullied

re getting posher on the phone - my accent does that when I’m nervous or with new people.

Maybe Freddie started (consciously or not) channeling his dad in an awkward situation and it has stuck? I like it, not least because a lot of the Ambridge young sound the same, and it's nice to have a recognisable voice..

I like the idea of mouldy oldies cricket!

Interesting re Freddie and Lily: they're supposed to be properly posh so it feels right they're beginning to own that - they're old enough to not have teen embarrassment about it - looking forward to Succession.

They were indoors (fair enough in the Winter), but the BBC were doing a piece about Mature Women's walking cricket on the local news this week:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c337p08j3j8o

Sounds fun if you have any hand/eye coordination (which sadly I don't).

Not being awash with viewings might have been because the house was under offer so people wouldn't bother?

Maybe - but given the house has been awash with sewage I can’t imagine Kirsty would have been awash with offers if Natasha had pulled out!

Natasha and Tom put in their offer, which she accepted, back in December, and had then been messing her about long before the the lavatories backed up on 11 February – which had nothing to do with the sewage leaking from Heydon Brook and inundating the Bridge Farm yard and dairy on the previous day, as far as we know. Two unrelated incidents, as they were presented on air.

Mind you, there is something very wrong with the drainage system at Beechwood if, as the BBC synopsis for that day tells us, "untreated sewage spills from the plugholes, shower and toilet", because at least on the way out of the house the drains from the lavatory and from the shower should not be connected. That would make me hesitate to buy the property until a thorough check had been carried out on the drainage there. Sewage having been put into and then spilled from a brook, in an incident which had no connection to the Beechwood estate and had not affected it, wouldn't bother me a bit.

The English buying system is so convoluted that the timing doesn’t seem that unusual!!

perhaps we can have an educational piece from Akram explaining exactly what happened because I agree it is nonsensical!

Hang on, the Beechwood sewage drama and the dairy sewage drama are totally unrelated? Is that right? I had not picked up on that.

Exactly this. Often when you accept an offer you also agree to stop viewings. SSTC. Natasha was just being her usual manipulative self. I agree not entirely unreasonable to try a cheeky lower offer after the flood but very low blow considering Kirsty isn't just an anonymous vender to them, plus they know all her unfortunate circumstances.

@LuvelyBunchOfBeetroot yes, it all happened at once. Sewage back flowing up the waste pipes basically.

I don't see how they can be connected. They happened on different days and had different causes: one was sewage pumped into the brook upstream of Bridge Farm (and three fields away) which flowed into the farmyard externally and against all the odds and possibly against gravity as well; the other was backed up sewage from three houses in an estate that is not connected to Bridge Farm. Unless Heydon Brook not only flows above ground but also flows into the drains from Beechwood, it can't easily have caused the backed up drains on the second day.

I suppose the Beechwood estate's foul water drains might be connected to those from Bridge Farm, which is uphill from them, but shit coming up out of the drains (and through the plug-holes and the shower, which is crazy and doesn't happen) and shit coming washing in at ground level outside the drainage system seem unlikely to have the same cause.

My theory is that Naylah Ahmed, who wrote that week's scripts, couldn't decide which cause for trouble to use and therefore used both. This is called "over-egging the pudding", I think.