Archers thread #184: It’s a shambles! And we don’t mean Casey Meats. 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're looking forward to Morris dancing on the radio, or other unusual views.

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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.)

Right, to business. I can't say I'm delighted that the focus is on Rochelle and Casey Meats at the moment, because I'm not. All far too peripheral to Ambridge and too new. As I say ad nauseam, more farming storylines please, and where are all the long-standing members of the cast? The discussion about inheritance tax in The Bull the other night was a bit clunky, but what a refreshing change to hear two familiar voices, both farmers, talking about farming-related stuff, even if BBC balance meant they had to be challenged by two non-farmers, and even if it is months after the Budget introduced these changes. Ah well.

I was tempted to put one of my Dad's terrible jokes into the thread title as an oblique reference to George's coffin-making idea, but it wouldn't have made sense to anyone else. He loved referring to the cemetery as the Dead Centre of the island, so I was pondering something about Grange Farm becoming the Dead Centre of Ambridge. It could happen yet. Emma and Ed could provide willow branches and Clarrie could sit in the kitchen weaving them. Surely it must be similar to knitting?

Finally, if the SWs are lurking and looking for new storylines, it's been very dry recently and there have been lots of wildfires in rural areas. There was a bad one on Gaspmother Island a few days ago. Many farmers are very worried about this at the moment, as reported on Farming Today last week. But what am I thinking! This is a story that only works in a rural setting, so in the current incarnation of TA, it's not soapy enough.

Over to you!

@Blueyseviltwin I also cannot get past what a ridiculous choice it is for Helen to live in a normal detached house with her brother rather than a farmhouse with her parents where her son can be with his goats.

Well if you're Helen it's the obvious choice. It has the dual benefit of ruining Tom'n'Gnash's lives by taking half their space away and turning their "first real home" into a place of conflict, plus it means that Pat & Tony will have to beg her to go and live with them, forever, rent-free.

It's unbelievably vindictive of Helen. Natasha will be nervous every time she sees Helen holding a knife.

It’s the most ridiculous SL at the moment, and that really is saying something!

Can somebody remind me why Helen and her boys can’t ask Kathy Perks whether they can move into April Cottage (vacated by Tom/Tash and the twins)?

Didn't she think it too small or something? (Because obviously 7 people in a house won't be...)

Also agree that the Helen thing is utterly bonkers. I was going to ask who would ever make such a senseless decision but then I remembered…..Helen.

Yes, the idea was put forward but Helen said it couldn't possibly work because it was far too small for her and her boys.
But how can it possibly be smaller than boys having to share a room and all sharing living space at the Beechwood house.
The sharing storyline is so ridiculous. No one in their right mind would leave the farm and squeeze 7 people into one house. At one point she said something about having to leave the farm or she'd never get her own place. But moving in with Tom isn't getting her own place.
Plus she's had months and months to find somewhere to rent/buy.

Yes - she was insulted when tash suggested it

her dogged independence won’t let her compromise on finding the perfect home 🙄

it’s such an obvious plot device it’s pathetic of the sw.

no doubt there’ll be a falling out and it will be blamed on tashtom despite them having the patience of a saint when it comes to Helen

Helen said Saskia is mid fifties and Rochelle is mid forties so we would have to meet a younger member of the group

It's a clumsy storyline. Before the sewage spill there might have been some logic in her staying put while she looked for a new place to live, but since she and the boys have already moved out it makes no sense whatsoever. I suppose this is the dogged bit of her being doggedly independent - she's doggedly determined to move back in come what may. I can't decide if the SWs have done it so we can be treated to various shenanigans between her and Natasha and their respective children or if it's so she can remain living next to Joy while the Rochelle drama unfolds (she's already being drawn into that by having met Saskia).

Nooooooooooooooooh! One is more than enough.

Because Kathy has met a psychopath and been buried in the Mojave Desert. She hasn't yet been missed, and probably never will be.

So Rochelle moved into a squat at 15 and then at some point married and had 2 kids. Who she now never sees.

She maybe missed the communal life and moved out to another squat and managed to find herself embroiled with a bunch of PETA [as it's the BBC we must point out that other activist groups are available]. She was excluded from the group for some transgression - maybe not doing her bit? running away from the action and putting it in jeopardy? giving names to the police?

Saskia is grooming her to do things to be allowed to get back into the commune. My feeling is that this is Saskia's carrot to Rochelle, and that they won't let her back anyway (they tend to vote on things like this when you have communal living. Here in Deutschland, for eg, when you want to move into a shared house they do what they call "castings" where you are literally invited and have to convince them all that you fit into the vibe. I can imagine a commune would work like that.

And yes, she is reliant on the bus so how did she get home after nets? and why did Joy say she'd been at Casey Meats? Also baked cauliflower is lovely, but - meh.

I don’t think it has dawned on the SW’s that rural buses don’t exist outside a couple of buses on market day.

I’ve a strong mental image of a clapped out old transit van, decorated like the Mystery Machine in Scooby Doo cartoons. I can’t decide whether it is transporting undercover cops or the vegan cult, but it does enhance my enjoyment of the current storyline.

Happy St George’s Day (I bet The Bull will have forgotten).

The Helen storyline is obvious nonsense but at least it is an Archers storyline.

There were times during last night's episode when I could have been listening to any generic radio play. Rochelle means nothing to me and Joy has only been on the scene a short while. They have a whole cast of characters they could have used instead of importing one.

We have two buses a day going through our village - morning and evening; that’s it. And we're on the rural fringes of a large commuter town that feeds into London. There isn’t even a direct bus that goes to the railway station although a huge percentage of the population has to travel there and back daily (I've lived here for years and the bus routes that do exist are mind-bogglingly impossible to divine from what purport to be the timetables).

Our buses (village near a commuter town) Start at 6, and finish at 7pm. We have one every 30 minutes until 8, then 3, then after 4 one an hour, last one around 7 (this was introduced last year, previously the last one was at 6pm). coming back from town (station) they are in the same schedule. My last bus used to be at 18:10 and my train arrived at 18:09 so we never got it (leading to a complicated ritual with DH about who took the car to the station and when)

We have zero busses after 7pm on a Friday until 6am on a Monday. None on Public holidays. It is infuriating. Taxis have all but ceased to exist. A Rochelle here would be madly cycling around to get the (one per hour) train to anywhere.

and why did Joy say she'd been at Casey Meats?

Maybe so that Helen could start a few conversations about how it is odd that a vegan is working in a slaughterhouse?

I'm wondering about the furniture situation. Is Kirsty taking over Roy's furniture and leaving hers for Helen and Tom? Otherwise how does Helen have enough beds etc? Don't any of them want to choose their own stuff?

My last bus used to be at 18:10 and my train arrived at 18:09 so we never got it (leading to a complicated ritual with DH about who took the car to the station and when)

Haha, Brefugee, that’s my life too…

(btw is it just me or is it weird that everyone always religiously gives 'Casey Meats' its full name? Most local businesses I’ve ever known have been shortened pdq, so it would be 'Casey's' to all and sundry. Or maybe it’s just that I find Joy's way of saying it supremely irritating 🤬)

I am viewing the Rochelle SL as completely separate to the archers tbh

they do seem to be writing this through a ‘living in London’ lens when it comes to logistics

agree @Ambridge i don't know why they don't just shorten it to 'Casey's' too

Helen often demonstrates impeccable manners and I think that’s what she was doing when she asked for the FF sandwich. I think she read the room and saw how mortified Joy was by Rochelle’s rudeness and pretended a FF sandwich was exactly what she wanted. I expect she has them in the freezer for the boys at Beechwood but this is a woman with an eating disorder who is very careful about her food. The last thing she would have actually wanted would have been FFs…

I suppose it's just possible that we now know why Joy moved to Ambridge. It seems to be somewhere not too far from the commune and also not that far from wherever it is that Benny and the children live. In spite of this, she had not managed to see any of them until Rochelle teleported in on Christmas Day, presumably booted out of the commune for wishing someone a Merry Christmas or some other heinous offence.

Helen can show very good manners and empathy. It makes her lapses into solipsism more baffling but she is a rounded, well-written and acted character.

Joy has been around for 6 years. I know that’s considered a blow in by Archers standards but she’s not a newbie per se.