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!

I am constantly astounded by how little common sense the sw have

Until we get an explanation as to why/how Joy materialised in an executive home in what we are told is an attractive village, with no obvious source of income, I don’t care. This my problem @Madcats . I don't know why the SW decided she had to come from Shieldfield. She would be more realistic if she had come from part of the country where property prices are high - moving from a million pound plus terrace in a London suburb would have made Beechwood a realistic downsize (and if Joy is in her 60s she's exactly the right age to have made a killing on a modest house). It's a potentially good story - along the lines of Knob turning up, appearing to be a good guy and then the truth slowly emerging, but Knob had a reason for moving to Ambridge and a means of supporting himself and he took up with Helen who is Ambridge born and bred . Part of the problem with Joy and Rochelle is that she has been paired with Mick, another random blow in who only came to Ambridge for Joy so is of minimal interest and doesn't have any extended family to be drawn into the web. If she'd been deceiving Alistair for instance or Oliver (casting around wildly for single men possibilities) I think we would be feeling more implicated in the story.

If we're addicts that last episode was one crazy, bad trip!
And I'm still recovering from it!
(Thinks again about rehab)

Bruisername
I thought Rex was mid 30s?

Rex celebrated his 32nd birthday on 11th July 2019. So he was born on 11th July 1987 and is coming up to 38 in July this year.

Lowfield, Thursday 11th July, 2019
"Rex’s birthday has turned out to be a masterstroke on Toby’s part. They’re out fishing, with a picnic and Rosie sleeping peacefully on a rug. Things couldn’t be better, though he still resents having to admit to being thirty-two."

Doesn't Joy also refer to Rochelle's children as "kiddies"?

It occurs to me that Mick has a very simple choice to make: he can believe Rochelle (whom he has met twice) when she tells him her mother is a nasty person and abandoned her to be sexually manipulated when Rochelle was fifteen, or he can trust Joy (whom he has known well for two and a half years and with whom he is living). If the first, then he had better get out and cut his losses; if the second, he needs to offer Joy a bit of support when her daughter attacks her and drives her out of her home.

Probably because everyone is live chatting on Zoom.

But Mick is living at Joy's possibly for free and he doesn't have a car? I expect he'd have trouble finding anywhere else to live close to Grey Gables, he'll be staying at Joy's for as long as he can.

Has Mick been driving Joy's car then? He's talked about driving. Or maybe the insurance company did what it's meant to.

I suppose she might think of them as younger if she hasn't seen them for a long time.

Whose car was the car that went for a swim in the Am, with Mick, Joy and Fallon in it? I’m a happy townie, so have no massive need to venture more than a 30 minute walk away -more typically 5 mins- but it must be hard to be car free in a village (I’ll skip over how Rochelle might have arrived in Ambridge without a taxi ride with Rex).

Presumably there was a hefty insurance claim for that totalled car to be dealt with, which makes Mucky and Joy’s stay at the Gill’s house after a few poonami days hiding upstairs in Beechwood even more daft!

Re the dairy - Helen is the one who went to college to learn to make cheese, which sounds like quite a technical business. I had always assumed that she spent a lot of time in the dairy on and off making her cheese while Clarrie and Susan made the ice cream and the yoghourt. However, yesterday Susan said she was going to start off a batch of Borchester Blue (or it may have been Sterling Gold, but it was definitely cheese) and Helen just left her to it while she went to help Tom pack veg boxes. Now, it may well be that C and S are following detailed instructions drawn up by Helen and that Helen checks every step, but is that realistic?

[answers on a postage stamp]

It was Mick's car. Joy's a 2 seater sports car.

So when he was almost late because the had to collect Rochelle from wherever - was that the 2 seater?

She owns an MG Midget, but is it her only car? Tony also owns one, but I'm sure he has a car other than a hobby-car last manufactured in 1979.

Joy and Rochelle could both be pathological liars, their stories get more extreme as they tell them and that's why they sound so odd.
I was expecting Rochelle to say Elvis was a Great Dane but a German Shepherd is big enough, then her mam left the day after he died, then it was a heat-wave, then her friend coerced her into sex.
Same with Joy's list of women her ex slept with, they have to keep compulsively saying more and more awful things for effect.
Where will the sw go with this?
Hopefully they decide to leave and live closer to Rochelle's kids and the Maliks buy Joy's house.

I actually miss Will, must be about 6 months since he last spoke.

Nope - heard it again: Joy was skint after the husband left. Where did the money come from to maintain that household whilst living somewhere else for six weeks???

Surely they’re going to confirm Joy was sectioned during that time? (Practically catatonic.) And that despite Rochelle’s denial, social services were involved?

Sigh, Pa Malik, Khalil and Lynda are back. Educating us about Eid.

And the Rochelle storyline hasn't advanced at all.

What a bore.

Place your bets for how long it takes Mick and Rochelle to find themselves sharing a duvet …

< In advance.

😨

And for Rochelle to mess up big time in the shop!

Inevitably.

Surely if you offer to step in and cover for a week you don't try and change the status quo however annoying it is. She was very rude.

khalil sounds too old

and joy runs away - wonder where Rochelle learnt it from

i Hate fireworks - did he have a licence?

my local park was rammed with people having bbqs to celebrate Eid

Did he tell the neighbours? The SWs remembered last week that Joy has a cat- Ena Sharples.

khalil the animal lover needs to do some research into the impact on wildlife

and will ed find a sheep dead from eating the discarded firework?