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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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JanglyBeads · 26/04/2025 21:38

Yes the Rex Rochelle bit was all weird.

IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle · 26/04/2025 22:39

Leonard could have been as young as 4 or 5 on VE Day. Hanging bunting could have been no more than give a small child a piece of bunting to play with. That would make him 84 or 85. Any younger than that he'd be unlikely to remember.

I was 4 when JFK was shot. I don't remember it but I know someone the same age as me who does. VE Day would be more memorable?

noodlezoodle · 26/04/2025 22:43

Godesstobe · 26/04/2025 09:22

Will Jill and Peggy be going up Lakey Hill in the 4x4 on VE Day? I am assuming one of them will be killed off as the embers of the beacon die away.

Probably Peggy, as what will happen to Leonard if Jill dies?

I don't think it would be realistic for David and Ruth (who may have died herself given how long it is since we heard her!) to continue offering bed and board to him indefinitely after Jill's death. He may be striding up Lakey Hill, mending stiles and tearing down notices today, but he could be quite different in a year's time. Maybe I am unusually selfish but, looking after the ever increasing needs of my own elderly mother has convinced me that I would not willingly take on the care of an unrelated old person, however lovely.

Ooh - Jill and Peggy dedded by stampeding cows, set off by an off the lead dog?

testyarm · 26/04/2025 23:55

Sorry to change the subject but I just had to pop on and announce that I saw Rob Titchener (Timothy Watson) on stage recently — in “A Man for All Seasons”. It was a bit of a shock hearing his voice and then working out who he was! He was excellent actually, as was the whole production.

TottersBlithely · 27/04/2025 08:36

Ambridge Royalty don’t get trampled to death! 😮😂 They stop breathing in their sleep, gently and instantaneously, maybe in their favourite chair, maybe with joyful music in the background.

Doris Archer (although, now I come to think of it I can’t conjure up a recollection of her death, or Dan’s - but they were definitely regal).
Phil Archer
Betty Tucker (sort of)
Joe Grundy

EBearhug · 27/04/2025 08:38

Wasn't Dan up Lakey Hill with Elizabeth?

TottersBlithely · 27/04/2025 08:49

Remind me? It’s entirely gone from my memory, which is frustrating.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 27/04/2025 09:21

This is what Wikipedia says, FWIW. I've taken root on the sofa to watch the Marathon or I'd make the massive effort to move rooms and consult The Archers Encyclopaedia or The Book of The Archers. I think I dimly recall Doris's death and it's possible that's what enticed me into listening on and off in the early 80s, which rapidly turned into total addiction. Learn from my example, kids - just say no! [Not that they seem to be tempted, tbh.]

Daniel "Dan" Archer (Harry Oakes, Monte Crick, Edgar Harrison and Frank Middlemass), son of the elder John Archer, was the first owner of Brookfield when the family bought it from Squire Lawson-Hope. He was patriarch of the Archer family. The character survived the deaths of the first three actors before finally being killed off in 1986. Elizabeth witnessed his fatal attempt to rescue a sheep in difficulty on Lakey Hill, despite her pleading with him not to.
Doris Evelyn Rebecca Archer (Gwen Berryman MBE), née Forrest, Dan's wife, mother of Jack, Phil and Christine Archer and sister of Tom Forrest. Her death was discovered by Shula in 1980 when she and Christine were visiting Glebe Cottage. Doris was a stalwart of village life and provided a listening ear to an ever-growing Archer family from the 1950s to 1980. She was originally a kitchen maid at Manor House, the ancestral home of the Lawson-Hope family, and she became lady's maid to Letty Lawson-Hope.

Frank Middlemass - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Middlemass

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TottersBlithely · 27/04/2025 11:22

Thanks, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g- I still can’t picture it, although I would have heard it at the time. Did Dan just keel over with the effort?

So, it appears the activist cult deliberately targets people with few, if any family ties? Partly so they’ll be grateful for a surrogate ‘family’ but more because they have less to lose so will be less resistant to committing outrageous acts?

TottersBlithely · 27/04/2025 11:43

Rochelle resenting her mother’s (apparently) close friendship with Helen would be interesting in other circumstances. It’s all part of the arrested development, stuck in adolescence persona they’re building.

Gonners · 27/04/2025 12:36

@TottersBlithely Ambridge Royalty don’t get trampled to death!

What about Grace, crushed by a falling beam in a stable fire? If that hadn't happened there would have been no Jill, and none of her bloody offspring and descendents.

TottersBlithely · 27/04/2025 12:40

Oh dear! I did actually mean the ones who reach old age! (Poor Betty didn’t get there - but she’s probably only Royalty to me.)

Sidebeforeself · 27/04/2025 14:07

Ruths Mam nodded off permanently in the car didn’t she?

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 27/04/2025 14:25

Gonners · 27/04/2025 12:36

@TottersBlithely Ambridge Royalty don’t get trampled to death!

What about Grace, crushed by a falling beam in a stable fire? If that hadn't happened there would have been no Jill, and none of her bloody offspring and descendents.

But Grace was not Ambridge Royalty; her father George Fairbrother bought a farm there in 1951 and had been living in it for about four years at the time of Grace's death in 1955. He left the village for ever in 1959, and his son Robin, who was born there and lived there for three years, only came back once – to seduce Elizabeth (while he was married and his wife was pregnant with Rex).

The Fairbrethren are jumped up nobody blow-ins with no reason to be in Ambridge at all except for Sean O'Connor wanting the name to be known when he produced a play about Grace's actor Ysanne Churchman getting the sack.

Gonners · 27/04/2025 14:42

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime The Fairbrethren are jumped up nobody blow-ins with no reason to be in Ambridge at all except for Sean O'Connor wanting the name to be known when he produced a play about Grace's actor Ysanne Churchman getting the sack.

Arf! Harsh but fair.

ArmySurplusHamster · 27/04/2025 15:10

only came back once - to seduce Elizabeth
‘Is your journey really necessary?’

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 27/04/2025 15:54

Gonners · 27/04/2025 12:36

@TottersBlithely Ambridge Royalty don’t get trampled to death!

What about Grace, crushed by a falling beam in a stable fire? If that hadn't happened there would have been no Jill, and none of her bloody offspring and descendents.

Indeed, and what about poor Jennifer?

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AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 27/04/2025 17:41

I didn't think Jennifer got trampled to death?

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 27/04/2025 17:48

Grin No, but she didn't die peacefully in her chair either.

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CaptainMyCaptain · 27/04/2025 17:56

I've just listened to Friday's. How dare Leonard and Joy just decide to move David's signs on his land!

BeatriceBatchelor · 27/04/2025 18:05

I think Rob the actor and the character were a huge loss to TA. If the SW took inspiration from Timothy Watson's Wiki, they could've turned Rob into Rochelle's partner in crime:

In 2016, Watson told Radio Times' David Brown, "I support Compassion in World Farming. I hate mega dairies, they're appalling things. I've got no interest in country pursuits, I've never held a cricket bat, even though as Rob I've managed to cheat during the single wickets in Ambridge. And I hate hunting. I would probably have been standing with the hunt saboteurs instead of falsely accusing one of assaulting me. So the real me probably wouldn't fare too well in Ambridge.

Radio Times - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Times

Bruisername · 27/04/2025 18:06

Now wouldn’t it be glorious if Rob had been head of the cult. But instead they had to kill him off prematurely and end all future possible drama

Madcats · 27/04/2025 18:19

Bath gets a lot of West End previews and I sometimes take advantage of their “bums on the front rows” short notice offers.

I’ve seen Lee, Fallon and Rob and agree that it was a shame to “Rob”. Admittedly he was playing a villain, but he was exactly right.

I’d hoped you lot would have reported back about slaughterhouse raids this weekend; I do hope it doesn’t drag on for too long.

Gonners · 27/04/2025 19:00

Timothy Watson seems to mostly do video-game voices, but he has a terrific voice and a wonderful face for a stage villain.

IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle · 27/04/2025 19:08

Oh bore, bore, bore. The Maliks and their tedious wedding photos are back.

The mini Maliks sound different- still annoying, but different.

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