Archers thread #183: The Scorekeeper's Apprentice. 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 like to share a hot tub with Mucky Mick, 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 @TottersBlankly who suggested it and @BeatriceBatchelor who coined this lovely phrase. (It's led me to take a look at the Wikipedia page for The Sorcerer's Apprentice. I had not known before that the animation in Fantasia that goes with the Dukas symphonic tone poem is more or less unadulterated Goethe, and the story goes back to ancient times. You learn something every day.)

At the end of the last thread, there was an apocalyptic tone as we were all bemoaning the lack of continuity and farming storylines (especially lambing, which used to be a big theme at this time of year). Are there any reasons to be cheerful? (Not just Part 3 - another reference for the older listeners here. ) Over to you!

@LillianGish you are my hero! How lovely.

Outing myself as another Lynda fan. I also like the Maliks, Kirsty, and Ben. Please don't banish me from the thread!

It was not nice at all.

I like Lynda she is everything I could never be. Pushy, very well read, and runs a bed and breakfast. I also like Leonard and that he can fix anything. I could really do with someone like that , my lovely cuckoo clock that I've had for 30 years is broken. 😪,I bet he could fix it. I used to like fag ash but she has been made to be not very nice, I don't know what she was like years ago though. I like Tracy but can't understand how she didn't notice everything is getting on top of Brad. I like the prof and his wealth of knowledge. I would also like more farming from Ruth and David.
Joy, Muck and Rochelle can do one but I think most on here think the same.

I think the Mick actor has got new teeth. He always sounded to me as though his dentures were loose.

my lovely cuckoo clock that I've had for 30 years is broken.

Is there a Repair Cafe near you? We have one in my town with clever people that can fix all sorts of things.

Must get my cuckoo clock fixed. My parents bought it for my GPs when we were stationed in Germany in the 60s.

I quite enjoyed that episode. But. I'm worried all the curve for Neil is to Serve A purpose later on.

Also rolling Mt eyes at the late realisation you can check who directors are. All the protests I've ever been involved in, it was one of the first things we did. Letter writing campaigns. Surely Pat knows that

Burying a hamster in Pere Lachaise Cemetery is lovely. My own dead hamster story is not so classy.

When my DC were little - so nearly 30 years ago - their hamster died (after a long and happy hamster life) the day before Bonfire Night. I had to leave early the next morning for a work trip but when I left they were very excited about the prospect of burying Snowball in the garden and having a full scale funeral.

When I got back a few days later I discovered these touching plans had changed in my absence. The DC and DH had decided it would be more fun /a more fitting memorial to strap Snowball's lifeless little body to a giant rocket with masking tape and launch him or her into space.

I have often wondered if the remains came down in someone's garden and pictured them distraught at the thought that Snowball had been alive at the time.

That's horrible.

Yes I thought it was horrible but DH assured me it was all done very respectfully - and, to be fair, the DC still regard it as a very happy memory.

That's horrible

Agreed but no doubt some will find it hilarious.

The word that came to mind was "litter-louts". (Or maybe that is two words.) Randomly dumping a dead hamster in somebody's garden is anti-social behaviour.

I like the Maliks, particularly Khalil, he is an amalgamation of every teen boy I've met, brilliant!
As for companies House stuff, do you not think they've just seen Borsetshire Water as 'The Enemy", with no great thought about who is actually involved?
It's one of those 'oh bugger' moments when you discover some of your pension pot depends on them making profits....

The Joy/Rochelle storyline must have more to it!
But there again, the Neil as a Foundling went blooming nowhere .....

Who are we believing Joy or Rochelle?

So.. the whole dead Llama thing was asset up for Rochelle's backatcha

We could always believe neither of them!

So listening now. I thought when Rochelle responded to mick at first she seemed to be so relieved to be heard. I believe Rochelle tbh. Joy has always sounded so worried about Rochelle speaking to anyone - and the way she didn’t know the exact time. And the way she said she couldn’t take the character assassination in front of mick - suggests it’s very much the truth. And then she runs away again 🙄. It also makes sense that Rochelle probably experienced some bad stuff when over the summer. I guess she’s about to have a breakdown. Maybe Ben will talk her round 🙄.

Poor Elvis

so if that was mid 90s and she was 15 then she’s 45? I thought she would be younger

i really wish Joy wouldn’t say the name of the person she’s talking to all the time

Helen - your interview, you were stunning. What an odd choice of words. It’s an odd and expensive choice. Glad clarrie put her in her place

Neither! Both are lying. All three make me sick.

And as for Helen, why have a points system at interview if you don't abide by the clear result?

So … Joy went away and apparently had enough money to continue paying bills and providing money for food for Rochelle in their home, whilst also having the expense of living somewhere else herself during that time? Surely she can’t have gone far if she had a job to get to? Or are we supposed to believe the absent philandering husband was still providing for them both?

And eventually died and left Joy enough to buy the Beechwood house?

Hard to make sense of any of it …

Yeah it doesn’t make sense. I suspect Joy was sectioned and that’s why she has no idea what happened and that’s why she closes her ears to it all

Ooooh! Interesting thought! Would finally tie up with her surprisingly informed reaction to Ben’s MH crisis - is it two or three years ago now?

Even so - what was 15 year old Rochelle using for money while her mother was ‘away’? Were social services involved? Or was Rochelle having to be ‘grateful’ to more than one lad she hardly knew?

Talking about money is so crass darling. Those of us in the sw class don’t discuss those dirty details

That left me with that 'why am I listening to an afternoon play?' feeling again. Indicating that neither Joy nor Mick are real enough Ambridge people for me to care even slightly about them. Rochelle even less so. I sincerely hope that Joy never comes back, Mick goes to look for her and stays wherever she's gone to, and Rochelle wanders away for ever. The house can then be sold to someone we care about.

Like another pp has said it's like Joy, Mick and Rochelle are in a Radio 4 afternoon play which has got mixed up with TA.
Some of the things they are coming out with are so weird I'm almost laughing; Joy's husband had sex with her neighbour, her best friend, the lady in the drycleaners... and now Elvis, who Rochelle had to bury half decomposed and then felt obliged to sleep with the lad who helped her bury him..WTH!!

I've never liked Joy, I can put up with Rochelle and Mick in small doses.

Oh walk out Clarrie and claim all the money you're entitled to while you put your feet up for once.

How has Joy got the money now to just waltz off to who-knows-where for who-knows-how-long? How did she appear out of the blue in Ambridge, a place she had no connections with, jobless and with no apparent means of support, and buy a brand new house on a desirable (it seems) estate? These things trouble me.

(Oh, and Helen - how dare you tell Clarrie 'you made things very difficult'. The utter nerve!)