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.

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.)

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!

That chat between T and Gn was glorious.

Once again, where does Joy get her money? She has just told Rochelle that she has a bit put by to help R buy a place. So where does all the cash come from?. Hope Helen and Natasha have a big barny and Helen gets chucked out with her suit cases and kids behind her. I cannot understand why she is not staying at the farm which is next door to the cheese factory and goats.🐐😳

I had to fast forward Joy and Rochelle as it was so clunky.

I had assumed she meant help to rent

rochelle made a sarcastic comment about joy being generous which made me wonder if there is a story behind the money because at the moment it’s inexplicable

I'm fast forwarding because I find animal slaughter distressing but I suppose if posters say they want more farming then it's fair enough to show what happens to the animals when they've left Brookfield or Berrow. Though I dont think that's the SW's motivation, they just want drama.

I've almost stopped listening, and follow the storyline through this thread. 13 minute episodes are just too long at the moment. I gave up yesterday during the "hilarious " incident when Henry had polished the floor and, great surprise this, Natasha and then Tom slipped. Slapstick radio, those scriptwriters are really spoiling us!

other than hearing the kids the other day we don’t hear anything about farming

it feels like they are moving more urban as they move up the food chain. Wonder if they will build a big supermarket to move some of the action there

other than hearing the kids the other day we don’t hear anything about farming

I know and posters are always making a plea for more.

I don't get the Natasha hate - to me she's a wonderfully acted, well rounded character with many flaws and many good points. Like me 😊

I wouldn't have been so good humoured had I fallen in my hall after some kid had been let loose with the polish!

The chat between Tom and Natasha was lovely, they actually sounded like a married couple. And, yes, that vase is definitely doomed!

I’ve never polished my floor 😬

I loved Natasha and Tom moving in last night - I could have done without the slapstick, though I thought it was a perfect illustration of Helen as the Thin Controller thinking she's being helpful by doing things her way (likewise with the furniture moving). Henry clearly doesn't want to be there - he would rather be at Bridge Farm with his goats - but instead spent part of his holiday vacuuming and polishing for someone who actually wanted to vacuum and polish for herself in her new home. But I love the dynamic between Helen and Tom, Tom's dealings with his sister always hint at the trauma we know is under the surface and somehow recall the loss of the other sibling - the John-shaped hole that is always there. This configuration rather showed up the defects of all the Joy and Rochelle stuff where everything needs to be spelled out, nothing can be taken as read. With Helen, Tom and Natasha there is sub-text while Joy and Rochelle require pages and pages of foot notes.

Ohhh - that’s nice, @LillianGish!

This storyline is vying with the "let's play sardines at Beechwood" nonsense for the prize of this week's stupidest story.

But it's a gift of a SL for AIBU? scenarios, and I love listening to the Natasha and Helen characters.

The whole idea is preposterous and it is quite obvious that it is not going to work.

Nice euphemism ;)

Apologies for bringing down the tone, I couldn't help myself.

@Bruisername , but do you live in an executive home?

Well all jokes aside, if the floor was newly laid - which I assume it must have been as it was ground floor - then why did it need polishing and not just a good clean?

my extremely house proud mother never had wood floors and I’m now wondering if it was because of the polishing! I always assumed it was because she is from a country where tiles are more prevalent

there's a case going through German courts at the moment (or maybe it's finished now) at appalling, illegal and downright disgusting conditions and actions in a pig slaughterhouse. It is absolutely awful listening to the details - and i am now checking the origin of all my meat very carefully. The lowest rating for animal welfare i will buy is 4 (of 5) preferably 5 though. Anything less and we eat something else.

I have no issues knowing where my food comes from, but i expect the highest of standards in looking after the animals right up to their final moments.

While I'm here: i give the vase 2 days. I give the Beechwood "communal living experiment" 3 days.

Saw mention on Twix that Rochelle's kids may be in the comune (hostages or with the father). Interesting take. I am leaning towards she is not allowed to see or go near them. Or that they don't actually exist.

ETA: all the talk of floor polishing is taking me back to my army brat and soldiering days. We had to "bumper" the lino floors in army quarters when we moved out. It involved tins of pink polish (looked like shoe-polish tins, but the contents were pink) which you then smeared on the floor, and attacked with a heavy metal polisher on a bevelled long broom handle (for 360° movement) with a floor polishing cloth underneath.

And then in the army polishing every floor ever because - it teaches you character building or something. Imagine my joy on my 3rd posting when we got an electric floor polisher (the night shift had to do all the cleaning too. We couldn't have cleaners because we'd have had to keep them prisoner in my job)

So mick went to visit the address in joys address book and he was funny about it after. I assume it was benny who answered and just said she didn’t live there anymore.

but that’s an interesting thought that they are in the commune. Would explain why Joy doesn’t see them either.

I don’t imagine the commune as a house in town which I thought it was - I imagine them glamping in a field or living in an abandoned farmhouse

To echo Nettleteaser, where is Joy's 'bit of money put by' coming from? She works in the shop which, as Rochelle was pointedly told by Susan, is a volunteer position. So her only income is surely from a pension - state pension? Is she really 66 or older? She hasn’t been in any sort of paid employment since arriving in Ambridge in 2019 (to her brand new superior ‘executive home') so if she was pension age then she'd be over 70 now. And even then, a full state pension isn’t exactly huge.

If she has some sort of private pension, where did she work and for how long to get any significant pension entitlement? Given that the errant husband dumped her it hardly seems likely that he made her any sort of useful settlement.

It's SO irritating and makes NO SENSE.

Wasn’t the over-polishing of the floor deliberate sabotage on Henry’s part?

sorry to but in again with the floor polishing - does anyone else remember these? (the picture will take time to load)

Inheritance, Lottery win, Premium Bond win? Huge insurance or criminal compensation payout? Proceeds of lengthy career in crime?

It is intensely irritating. All it would have taken is the normally garrulous Joy to drop into conversation soon after she arrived some reference to how lucky she feels to be able to buy this beautiful new house and it's all thanks to Auntie Mavis remembering her in her will and she never expected anything more than Auntie Mavis's lovely necklace that belonged to her Nan because Auntie Mavis was always very frugal and never seemed to have two pennies to rub together, but after she passed ovah [short respectful pause] it turned out Auntie Mavis had a huge amount saved up as a result of never spending a penny more than she needed to and it all came to Joy, who's never been more surprised in her life, and shed a little tear thinking how much more comfortable Auntie Mavis could have been all those years, but how kind of her to think of Joy and Joy thinks about her every day and sheds a few more tears.

Exactly, Gasp! (I'm slightly unnerved by your channelling of Joy)

You needed a lot of ‘pets’ in there and maybe a mention of the ‘bairns’

Very true. In my defence, I'm not from the North-East - although I've watched every episode of Vera, come to think of it.

Yes her use of pet and love is a lot less affected