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Discuss your favourite podcast, radio show or The Archers episode.

Archers thread #184: It’s a shambles! And we don’t mean Casey Meats. Discuss The Archers here.

992 replies

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/04/2025 12:03

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

Archers 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. Grin

Archers 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!

Archers 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. Hmm

Over to you!

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Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/04/2025 20:19

WitcheryDivine · 14/04/2025 20:13

I missed the end of the last thread but I presume everyone was saying how wonderful Kenton’s dancing in the pub idea was?

Ha ha ha! No.

OP posts:
Gonners · 14/04/2025 21:00

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g (from the previous thread):
"Jazzer has the accent of someone who's only recently moved south of the border but I'm not sure he's ever lived in God's Own Country at all. We never get him mixed up with anyone else, though."

According to Wikipedia, Ryan Kelly was born in Glasgow but moved to the Midlands aged 3 and then went to school in Coventry and Hereford and to Bristol Old Vic Theatre school. So assuming his parents were from Glasgow, he's probably multilingual!

Gonners · 14/04/2025 21:08

Oh, and speaking of folk dancing, there's a great video of The Unthanks tootling around about 15 years ago. I've taken the www. off the beginning of the link to stop it intruding on the thread.

youtube.com/watch?v=KBrv7RlL8Z8

LillianGish · 14/04/2025 21:20

He loved referring to the cemetery as the Dead Centre of the island - there's a road leading directly to Père Lachaise as you come out of the Metro near our house which my son always refers to as the dead end (even though it in fact leads to a T junction in front of the entrance to the cemetery). Personally I'm loving the undertones of butchery in your shambles reference @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/04/2025 22:13

I see what you did there, @LillianGish! Grin

OP posts:
Ambridge · 14/04/2025 22:24

He loved referring to the cemetery as the Dead Centre of the island

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g I think we’re also related as that was my dad's joke too! (albeit related to a different locale)

EBearhug · 15/04/2025 00:07

Feargal Sharkey, chalk stream expert! I was quite excited about hearing him.

EBearhug · 15/04/2025 00:09

I don't think the Am is a chalk stream, mind you, but that's why I know of Feargal's expertise.

OverArmourer · 15/04/2025 00:32

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/04/2025 20:07

A virtual sister! Just what I've always wanted. Most of my Dad's jokes were so bad that it wasn't always obvious he'd been making one.

Feargal Sharkey, eh? (Haven't listened yet.) If the old thread had lasted half a day longer I could have looked for thread title incorporating a line from Teenage Kicks or the even more terrific My Perfect Cousin. You should all be very grateful this hasn't happened.

A good ‘ha!’ these days is hard to find Grin

Or have they jumped the sharkey?

Nettleteaser101 · 15/04/2025 04:53

Thanks for new thread Gasp.

BeatriceBatchelor · 15/04/2025 07:10

Wouldn't a security guard get in trouble for tipping off protesters that a famous guest was staying at GG so they could go and bother him?

Madcats · 15/04/2025 07:22

Curses! All this Feargal talk has lodged “A Good Heart” earworm in my mind.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 15/04/2025 07:29

BeatriceBatchelor · 15/04/2025 07:10

Wouldn't a security guard get in trouble for tipping off protesters that a famous guest was staying at GG so they could go and bother him?

In the real world, yes. But this is AmbridgeWorld.

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Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 15/04/2025 08:16

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 14/04/2025 19:47

Is the Am really a trout-fishing river? I don't think anyone has ever fished there for trout before. They used to stock the Home Farm fishing lake with trout for those who wanted to do fly-fishing, didn't they? But the fisherman in Ambridge used to be Mike Tucker, and I really can't get an image of him casting a fly over the river. Coarse fishing seems somehow more his style: sitting for hours contemplating the water and waiting for a bite.

He didn't say he was going fishing in the Am. He didn't explain his presence at GG at all, so we will never know, and that's probably for the best.

Keri Davies is fanatical about music, as I recall, and has worked as a DJ alongside his scriptwriting work, so I'd imagine it was his idea to get FS to make a guest appearance. Makes more sense than many, given his tireless campaigning to stop the water companies polluting our rivers.

OP posts:
WitcheryDivine · 15/04/2025 08:23

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/04/2025 20:07

A virtual sister! Just what I've always wanted. Most of my Dad's jokes were so bad that it wasn't always obvious he'd been making one.

Feargal Sharkey, eh? (Haven't listened yet.) If the old thread had lasted half a day longer I could have looked for thread title incorporating a line from Teenage Kicks or the even more terrific My Perfect Cousin. You should all be very grateful this hasn't happened.

I LOVE My Perfect Cousin! The way he enunciates HATE University Challenge cracks me up.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 15/04/2025 08:27

I've got a cousin called Kevin
He's sure to go to heaven
Always spotless, clean and neat
As smooth as you'll get 'em
He's got a fur lined sheepskin jacket
My ma said they cost a packet
But she won't even let me explain
That me and Kevin we're just not the same

Oh, my perfect cousin
What I like to do he doesn't
He's his family's pride and joy
His mother's little golden boy

He's got a degree in economics
Maths, physics and bionics
He thinks that I'm a cabbage
'Cause I hate University Challenge
Even at the age of ten Smart boy
Kevin was a smart boy then
He always beat me at Subbuteo
'Cause he 'flicked to kick'
And I didn't know

Oh, my perfect cousin
What I like to do he doesn't
He's his family's pride and joy
His mother's little golden boy

His mother bought him a synthesiser
Got the Human League into advise her
Now he's making lots of noise
Playing along with the art school boys
Girls try to attract his attention
But what a shame, it's in vain, total rejection
He will never be left on the shelf
'Cause Kevin, he's in love with himself

Oh, my perfect cousin
What I like to do he doesn't
He's his family's pride and joy
His mother's little golden boy

Trying to think who might be the Kevin in TA. Tom?

OP posts:
WitcheryDivine · 15/04/2025 08:28

I imagine Feargal leapt like a salmon at the chance to publicise this kind of campaigning on The Archers. He’s been doing this stuff for ages, a long time before it was “cool” 😁

WitcheryDivine · 15/04/2025 08:33

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 15/04/2025 08:27

I've got a cousin called Kevin
He's sure to go to heaven
Always spotless, clean and neat
As smooth as you'll get 'em
He's got a fur lined sheepskin jacket
My ma said they cost a packet
But she won't even let me explain
That me and Kevin we're just not the same

Oh, my perfect cousin
What I like to do he doesn't
He's his family's pride and joy
His mother's little golden boy

He's got a degree in economics
Maths, physics and bionics
He thinks that I'm a cabbage
'Cause I hate University Challenge
Even at the age of ten Smart boy
Kevin was a smart boy then
He always beat me at Subbuteo
'Cause he 'flicked to kick'
And I didn't know

Oh, my perfect cousin
What I like to do he doesn't
He's his family's pride and joy
His mother's little golden boy

His mother bought him a synthesiser
Got the Human League into advise her
Now he's making lots of noise
Playing along with the art school boys
Girls try to attract his attention
But what a shame, it's in vain, total rejection
He will never be left on the shelf
'Cause Kevin, he's in love with himself

Oh, my perfect cousin
What I like to do he doesn't
He's his family's pride and joy
His mother's little golden boy

Trying to think who might be the Kevin in TA. Tom?

Not sure but I can imagine George singing it - about Brad?! Not in love with himself but he prob could get degrees in maths, physics and bionics.

Hortus · 15/04/2025 08:55

Talking of Brad, did all his doubts about university just disappear? Surely we should be hearing from him, he must be revising and doing exams soon, a very stressful time for him especially as he was finding it hard?

AzurePanda · 15/04/2025 09:00

@Hortus not least because for many it is exam time.

Bruisername · 15/04/2025 09:01

He’s probably dropped out and not told anyone. couldn’t possibly have someone like him do well at uni

TottersBlithely · 15/04/2025 09:02

You must have missed Brad telling George, during his last prison visit, that he would have to resign from his position as substitute drone footage operator because of study pressure. He said as he'd be paying off his student loan forever, he couldn’t risk leaving university with nothing. George was remarkably chilled about it. And immediately turned to new cardboard opportunities.

Bruisername · 15/04/2025 09:03

It’s amazing how booming George’s business became

Madcats · 15/04/2025 09:43

"Alexa, play me music by The Undertones"

The old ones were the best!

Brefugee · 15/04/2025 09:54

CaptainMyCaptain · 14/04/2025 19:28

Feargal Sharkey is genuinely involved with fighting for clean rivers and waterways.
I don't think there's anything cynical about it.
https://www.cpre.org.uk/stories/feargal-sharkeys-mission-to-protect-englands-rivers-and-streams/

Edited

He is a VERY keen course (sp?) Fisherman, IIRC. I don't think he's short of cash.