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!

Agree and same with the Maliks

I'd love to be in the SWs' WhatsApp group. Also, given the enormously long list of people who've written for TA over the last few years, maybe they wouldn't notice if one of us tailgated our way into a plot development meeting.

The WhatsApp group discussion round the adil wife/fiance debacle would have been interesting

(speaking of WhatsApp - I hate the bloody meta AI ring)

Yes that Meta thing just turned up on my WhatsApp!!!
I think Vince will see through Rochelle straight away, if not he is not as canny as he thought he was. He loves Lizzy too much to spoil it.
Doesn't Fallen get all her shopping at the shop. They always have her spices and herbs when she runs out.🤷‍♀️

Susan’s eagle-eyes would have spotted R putting the out-of-date food back in the chiller immediately. I enjoyed her giving sulky R tips on how best to engage the customer in retail. I’m not sure how often I would go to the village shop though. It always takes so long to buy anything.

I’m not crazy about Vince but it was great to hear him, rather than the Maliks, last night. They really have exceeded their tacho hours…

Susan says it was her fault and that she gave Rochelle the wrong box.

They need a Signal chat 😂

The village shop puzzles me. Our local Spar employs at least 15 people, most of them part-time, opens from 7:30 to 8:30, has petrol pumps, a deli counter that does boom business selling breakfast rolls to schoolchildren and filled rolls at lunchtime and after sports practices. People can pick up daily papers, batteries, cigarettes and vapes, lottery tickets, bread, milk, a range of groceries, fuel, sweets, fresh meat, fruit and veg.

It's a bit run down at the moment because the woman who founded it, with her husband, more than 50 years ago, is no longer directly involved and her children are obviously marking time until they can sell the business on, but I have no doubt they will do that.

The next rural shop is two villages over, similar set-up but also a range of eco cleaning and beauty products produced by a local small business.

EITHER the Ambridge village shop would be like that, OR a tiny, volunteer-run, emergency supplies set-up doing essentials.

But it seems to be stocked like a supermarket, staffed by incompetents, and closed at the times potential customers are driving past on their way to and from their jobs elsewhere. Is it really a front for money laundering?

Ha ha!! Wouldn’t it be funny if Susan was a money laundering kingpin! Wouldn’t surprise me if the sw went there tbh

maybe there’s an American candy store opening at the charging station and there’ll be a turf war

WFH may have helped the shop by boosting the numbers of locals going in for things they would otherwise have bought at the supermarket on the bypass, but I would have thought most people WFH would have either made their own lunch at home or gone to the tearoom or The Bull for lunch, not bought a pre-packed sandwich from the shop. There can't be all that many casual customers who go in as they drive by, surely? All very odd.

don't people use online supermarket delivery?

I find the whole shop thing extremely odd tbh

I think it's highly unlikely that they've suddenly woken up to finding a back story. It's pretty clear that the back story was in place from the moment Joy turned up, particularly given that Rochelle has been a mysterious presence in the background since forever.

On a connected topic, how would Rochelle qualify for the cricket team if Vince doesn't? She can hardly claim to be a resident.

Weekday rush hour in local shops tends to be 8-9 during the morning commute and school run, mid afternoon school's out time, 6 pm as commuters get home from town, 7-8 in the evening around sports practice.

But I get the impression the Ambridge shop opens 9-5 to avoid most of those customers.

Also it’s volunteer run so there must be some expectation that it might close if a volunteer can’t make it for some reason. Lunch can be bought elsewhere and other than Alice desperately needing a bottle of vodka is there really going to be a desperate need?

I think it's highly unlikely that they've suddenly woken up to finding a back story. It's pretty clear that the back story was in place from the moment Joy turned up, particularly given that Rochelle has been a mysterious presence in the background since forever

Well, yes, obviously the fact of Rochelle was there from the moment Joy turned up in 2019 going on about her wonderful-yet-mysteriously-unseen daughter, but had they really decided exactly what the big mystery was? Maybe so, but in that case you’d think they might not have waited 5+ years to come up with the current limp offering. Plenty of excellent SLs put forward on here that they could have nicked borrowed!

That's another thing, are spirits licenses really so affordable in the UK? Village shop sell wine, but not spirits. Or beer - the publicans are careful to make sure to limit the competition.

I picked up on the odd tone in her voice re Casey Meats too. Maybe Rochelle has another career in animal liberation?

I was assuming she's been planning a financial scam or scams. Casing Caseys. I'm not convinced Susan made the mistake about the sandwiches, my first assumption was that Rochelle would be selling them in a pub carpark in Borchester at throwing out time and am still holding that in reserve. And that if the shop deals in cash, or if the Post Office pays pensions or collects TV license money, that will all vanish one day and she'll wander away again. I can think of no other reason she'd volunteer so enthusiastically to work in the place for a week.

Rochelle as a serial petty criminal blaming everything on her mother would be bit repetitive, we already have Alf and Clive and George and really don't need to have a woman doing every 'job' a man does in Ambridge.

I've convinced myself that some of the SWs wrote for Brookside!

Substitute "Brookside" for "Beechwood" and we'd not notice. Perhaps Rochelle and Joy buried her husband under the patio and fled (which would explain their implausible backstories they have had to invent on the hoof).

Rochelle’s oleaginous manner towards Vince was certainly very different to her normal borderline-aggressive tone. She usually sounds as though she’s challenging everyone she talks to.

@Madcats , the Nigel-murdering Vanessa Whitburn was ex-Brookside.

I’ve watched a few murder mysteries in recent years where the solution is that the man was abusive behind closed doors and killed by the mother or young daughter

so wouldn’t be surprised if the sw do it thinking they’re being really clever

I'm feeling a bit like Mick in all this - what we know about Joy so far is that she is unfailingly cheery and helpful. She hasn't been shown to have a nasty bone in her body since she first arrived in Ambridge in 2019 (has it really been that long??!!) - if she has a fault it's that she talks too much. Rochelle is starting to look like a cuckoo who has pushed her way into the nest and shoved Joy out - even moving into her job in the shop. Thus far Rochelle has been portrayed as being flighty, bit bossy, generally arsey and positively unpleasant to Susan (who was actually too nice herself to pick Rochelle up on it), but who can put on a good face when she's talking to someone she thinks might be of use to her or wheedling her way back into Beechwood. Her volte face with Vince when she learned he was a big business owner was plain to see. I'd like to think it's unlikely Vince can have his head turned based on what we already know about him (he's not one of Ambridge's ladies men - cf Brian and Justin). In my opinion Joy has been removed from the scene so we can see Rochelle's true colours. If she cheats at cricket we'll know she's another Knob.

Joy was awful to mick when he found Rochelle’s address that time and the mask definitely slipped

her reaction before running off was hardly well balanced

her Reputation on beechwood is of being a nosey busy body

so I wouldn’t say she’s never shown any negative traits

DeanElderberry
I can think of no other reason she'd volunteer so enthusiastically to work in the place for a week.

Money, but not stolen money: wages.

She offered to take over her mother's job there before she was told it was unpaid, and her sudden loss of enthusiasm when that was revealed was comical.