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!

He might well have been let to know that she won't be able to eat any of the sandwiches provided for cricket team teas if they are made using butter.... Seriously, the vegans I know make sure they tell you, so that you won't provide food they can't eat if you are catering for them. In any case I'd be surprised if Joy has not let Rochelle's veganism be spread round the village so nobody offends her daughter by offering her the wrong sort of snack. And if Joy has mentioned it in the shop, the whole world knows.

I believe veganism is a protected belief under the Equality Act, following an employment tribunal case not too long ago. I suppose that means abattoir owners have to be careful about asking if applicants have any ethical objection to eating meat. However, I wouldn't have thought it would have been too difficult to fabricate an excuse not to take Rochelle on. Total lack of relevant experience would have done the trick.

What experience is needed to pack things in boxes? And most employers at some point have to take on employees who have no experience.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
I wouldn't have thought it would have been too difficult to fabricate an excuse not to take Rochelle on. Total lack of relevant experience would have done the trick.

Requiring her actually to do an interview? As opposed to the boss deciding to employ her without bothering to go through all that boring stuff?

What with Rochelle being so unreliable, I wonder if she's just being a vegan for the purpose of inconveniencing Joy? Mildly amusing story: some years back we had a bunch of people round for a celebration supper. An Uninvited Guest (we didn't even know she was in the country) somehow got wind of it, turned up and announced she was vegan and therefore would be unable to eat the meal. Now at that point I should obviously have told her to go forth and multiply - nobody liked her - but instead I did a last minute dash to the supermarket and fed her. She also demanded to stay overnight, which I refused point-blank, without even making an excuse.

There was a food festival on that weekend, and the next day we bumped into her in the street, tucking into a gigantic sausage.

Not vegan stuff, but on one occasion when I was doing hotel liaison for a conference I was contacted by a delegate who sent me a list of things she was unable to eat because of bad reactions, and then sent a follow-up list with some more that she'd failed to mention... In the end I asked her to send me a list of things she could eat so that I could make sure the hotel would be able to feed her over the weekend. The chef was unable to source the special bread she could have, so she brought her own for her breakfast toast, and when she let us know she was going down to the dining room in the evening he made her small individual tempting dishes which he brought out to her in person.

She was in fact being really helpful, unlike the woman who turned up on the day without booking her room in advance, and then put in a complaint the following morning that there was no breakfast available for people with coeliac disease. Which there would have been if she had bothered to ask or let us know her requirement in advance, because chef was coeliac himself and would certainly have sympathised. (Actually, just avoiding gluten at breakfast isn't that difficult if it's a cooked breakfast: no dry cereals, no fried bread, no toast, porridge is almost certain to be fine...)

I thought Freddy interviewed her?

He did nd he wasn’t sure but Vince decided the job was hers

REV would have been prior to 2010. Though I don't reckon that would hace affected KD either way.

I am taking the Morris dancing storyline personally, though, and would like to point out to all former MLers, it's all you, not me. I just end up witnessing it and their legs full of bells. Though I did avoid them in Oxford this weekend by dint of not actually going to Oxford in the end. Red sent me photos though.

There's no way Rochelle could get 'accidentally' into the layerage of an abattoir. She couldn't just slip through a pretty wrought-iron gate from the packing department and let the animals out. I wonder if she's a vegan because she hates animals and wants nothing to do with them!

How thick is Kenton if he thinks Morris dancing bears any resemblance to barn dancing? They'd probably be better off just opting for a barn dance.

How long is a piece of string?

The sw are incredibly patronisibg though. They are always getting characters to do things which people train or study towards for a long time. No doubt Jolene will pick up morris dancing in a week no problem🙄

or is this an opportunity to bring in another unnecessary character/mate of the sw who needs work? Maybe a close friend is a morris dancer

I don't feel that dancing of any kind is an obvious thing to put on the radio, tbh. I suppose with morris dancing there's scope for a lot of jingling and clacking of sticks.

Clarrie was saying recently that she loved country dancing at school. Really hope we don't have a "heart warming" SL where Clarrie recovers her mojo by revealing a hitherto unrecognised talent for morris dancing and saves the day at The Bull.

IME (chef in the family, friend is a butcher) anyone who works in any even vaguely related food industry has to go through regular hygiene training and checks.
And anyone who goes to work anywhere ever has to have an induction into things like safety.
Food packing industry has other checks and regulations, and anyone in a factory that has any moving parts/automation has further inductions, training and certificates to do.

For starters.

I think you may be onto something 😬

I seem to remember that Keri Davies is/was a fan of folk songs and associated festivals etc.

I’d prefer to hear about lambs/calves/piglets but I can cope with a few clips of accordions, bells and sticks.

I hope the church celebrated Palm Sunday!

Ohh yes - good work picking that up!!

Btw, the way Rochelle speaks - saying “us” for me, etc. Is that a regional dialect? I am not British but have lived here for a long time and have never heard that before.

Yes it's a north eastern dialect

@Newmeagain yes "us" is a Geordie/NE England
thing

Thank you @FortyElephants and @TabbyM

i really don't understand why Rochelle and Joys accents annoy me so much because I love the Geordie / NE accent.

Rochelle makes my slapping hand twitchy.

It feels a bit forced? Same with Harrison

reminds me of Brit actors in the 90s who would put on an RP accent because that’s how Americans think everyone speaks here (exception being Daphne of course!)