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!

Her latest cheese design has a photograph of herself printed in the rind.

Or is it a cow

So it sounds like Rochelle is here to stay this time. Marvellous. And Joy definitely isn't happy about it.
Spare us , please.

Joy on her own I can tolerate. But Mick and Rochelle are just awful.

Khalil the vet? If he decides that what he wants then SW will really have the show evidence of him studying and working hard to get the grades or it just won't wash. It's harder to get into than medicine. His Mum is GP so it's not out of the question to think he can be academic enough but at the moment he really isn't coming across that way. To be fair to him though, perhaps his cancer treatments have held him back at school, although I can't recall what sort of age that happened?
Lynda noticed his reaction to death was about more than just being upset about an animal.

He had cancer twice so he will have missed quite a bit.

agree that his reaction stems from deeper issues and it’s interesting to explore. A child facing death is not natural and must be so traumatic. I hope they don’t ’resolve’ his trauma in a trite way

he doesn’t have to be a vet - he could be a vet nurse like Paul.

Oh but he is Lynda's new project now. And she has decided he will be a vet.

I could not be less interested in Joy, Mick and especially Rochelle. It speaks volumes that their stay at Home Farm - somewhere we’ve been dying to peek into for years - was so uninteresting. They are uninteresting individually and uninteresting as a group - I always feel as if they’ve wandered in by mistake from another radio studio. Even the attempt to generate high drama by the SWs with the Rochelle mystery has me reaching for the off switch because it feels so disconnected from the rest of Ambridge. I’m beyond caring - they are completely irrelevant.

Agreed. I'd far rather hear from Adam/Ian/Brookfield etc... The writers have been focusing on new* characters far too much recently.

*or newish... e.g. I know Joy has been around for a while, but she still feels new compared to characters who have been in play for decades! New characters need to be trickled in gradually...

Thanks for the new thread Gasp0de. I've a lot of catching up to do.

Oh no Rochelle ,mick and Joy nobody cares about them.
Poor llama I hate when they kill any animals off on TA.

You wait for ages for an Ambridge death and when it comes it’s A RUDDY LLAMA, not Lynda effing Snell ( many other stiffs-in-waiting are available).

Perhaps Lynda and Robert can get Quails and let Kahil look after them. In my ( always think the worst of people)mind, I had a feeling Kahil might of accidentally caused Constanza's death.
Don't know why Mick thought it was his place to say Rochelle was welcome to stay so that Joy could hardly say no.
Mick is so out spoken and interferring I.e the winnebago in the car park, he knew Jolene didn't want him there but he stayed until the last minute. Reporting Emma even though he had only been in the village a short while and now saying Rochelle is welcome even though it's not his house. What on earth does Joy see in him? He must be really good in the sack even with his smelly trotters! Ugh makes me sick to even think that let alone write it down.
Helen all day thinks what a fantastic mum she is and designing new cheeses and flicking her long hair,and how to look busy without doing anything.

Helen is constantly exhausted from doing nothing!

I just hope the sw finish their little GCSE project soon so we can get rid of Joy/Rochelle/Mick

She's going to branch out into little triangle cheeses with Montbéliardes on them! La vache qui ne rit jamais! (The Never-Laughing Cow doesn't sound as good)

Eid/Ramadan is like Christmas in its importance, it'd be weird if it wasn't mentioned. Most people do something 'for' Christmas like seeing family and eating nice food.

Was it implied that Mick deleted Rochelle's many messages to Joy? He might turn out to be a two-faced bastard.

I thought the implication was that Joy was ignoring her

I thought it was implied that Joy has either not contacted Rochelle or just hadn't mentioned the flood. Which would be weird to not tell your daughter something as major as that.

Mick is clearly someone who can't pick up on non verbal cues. He's put Joy in a position where she can't really say no now. I'm fed up of the poor attempt at mystery. It's irritating rather than intriguing.

I too find Joy/Rochelle/Mick completely uninteresting. Also annoying the way Joy kept repeating fairly normal words back to Rochelle (Stay, bath etc) as if she’d said something utterly bizarre.

I must be in a minority then because I find Joy, Mick and Rochelle quite interesting. Joy and Rochelle are more complex characters with an interesting back story.

There's an article with Charles Collingwood on the BBC news webpage, sorry can't do a link to it. He's looking quite old now 😕

He has some sweet stories. They do accidentally I assume refer to him as ‘Aldridge’ at one point which rather makes his point!

My heart absolutely sank at Rochelle's return. Apart from anything else, I’m afraid I find her flat, slightly aggressive way of speaking very irritating. And so much for her dramatic exit, flouncing out in a temper because of what she perceived as her mother’s interference. Looks as though the lure of free bed and board allows her to overlook all that when everything goes pear-shaped.

She’s clearly troubled and she clearly inherited her mothers lack of brain

why on earth would Joy suggest she move in with her ex husband? Bizarre

when they auditioned did they specify they wanted someone to be as stereotypical geordie as possible? If she says bairns again I may have to throw my radio at something

If she says bairns again I may have to throw my radio at something……and calling everyone ‘man'.

why on earth would Joy suggest she move in with her ex husband? Bizarre

Indeed. Seemed like Joy was suggesting anywhere but here. She doesn't want Rochelle in Ambridge that's for sure.

R4 does have a tendency to exaggerate a Geordie accent. See also, Home Front. Although perhaps a hundred years ago it was more typical to sound like that.

(have not yet read the next page so hope nobody got there first"

[sings] - I talk to the cheese, but they don't listen to me....

Paint Your Wagon

caught up with the thread now.
I don't think Kahil will have killed Constanza, but i think it may have been her time and this is just a useful route into some convoluted storyline. He may open up to Lynda which will be nice (I have a soft spot for her, she is abrasive but when push comes to shove she is supportive.)

Rochelle. Please in the name of all that is holy, get rid. I hate her voice/intonation. Really loathe it (and I'm partial to a Geordie accent.) See also Joy's Performative Geordieness. Gets on my wick.

Rochelle gaslighting away there about how she said goodbye, and why would people think she'd be at the wellness event. And Joy - not contacting her is probably a defence mechanism against Rochelle's horrible behaviour. Is the father of those sodding bairns really an ex- or has Rochelle just left? I guess she's jobless and sofa surfing and her friends have had enough of her for now. Mick seemed to me to be agreeing that of course any child of Joy's is welcome in his life, through gritted teeth. She saw how hurt Joy has been over the years and may want to nip that in the bud.