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!

Yet another episode of the bloody Joy and Rochelle show tonight. I'm pig sick of them and their Geordie accents. Surely the SW can't think that listeners care about them or this storyline?

I assumed this was a hamfisted effort to show Rochelle's change of heart as she realises that Saskia's care for her is just transactional, whereas Joy really does love her even though their relationship has been broken for a long time. It did all seem very sudden though!

Re: the Malik photos - if this doesn't end up recurring as a theme/warning/PSA later about doctored or AI photos, it will be even weirder. Especially because they were so heavy handed with the storyline, but in the end Azra's reaction was off-air and only briefly mentioned!

I am very happy at the Helen vs. Natasha storyline which I'm sure has plenty of mileage in it.

I wish Rochelle would tell Saskia to eff off in fact Rochelle can eff off with her too. I agree too much Joy and Rochelle, nobody's invested in them especially me.

Re the Malik photos, to add to the weirdness the mini Maliks must have told Joy about it before Sunday as Joy asked Zeinab if Pa Malik kept the secret.

Why? Setting aside the general weirdness they barely know Joy.

I’m I imagine any real animal rights activists are mortally offended with their portrayal here - why on earth have the writers decided to make Saskia so controlling, almost sinister? Couldn’t Rochelle just be involved with normal activists?!

I'd almost stopped listening, however have dipped in and out. What is going on? No mention of The Archers, it's The Joy Show.

it feels like they re trying to make Joy the heart of the show and that’s not going to work for me so if this is the future they may aswell change the name to Geordie Am

Oh God you’ve just given me a terrible thought. Is Joy destined to be a replacement for some of the older characters who have gone/due to go ( Shula, Jenny, Jill , Peggy) and we will therefore see a new dynasty established (Rochelle and her kids , her marriage to Rex etc). ??!!!

Seriously, does anyone know of a way I can give feedback to the SWs?

Whilst I didn’t like the way the Rob death/bridge of doom SL dominated the episodes (and they continue to have too few plates spinning and focus on one ‘big’ story) at least those were heavy in good characters/actors

at the moment we are stuck with characters who are of no interest and are deeply irritating.

BBC feedback

It’s such a weird programme at the moment. I don’t understand where it’s heading. Your brain has to be set to two speeds when you listen- tune in for Helen and Tash and then zone out for anything to do with Rochelle. I don’t dislike Joy in the same way as, say @Bruisername and could cope with her as just another character but at the moment she is front and centre of every episode and that’s just overkill eg why did we have to hear that she left the cricket early to go and make lunch for Mick. Yes it explained why she wasn’t there for Rochelle’s injury but it was just too much information!

My brain was searching for an image of 'unfurled' and came up with a picture of Rochelle spread eagled on deck in a bikini. 🤔

It's supposed to be a big storyline, but it's just so badly formulated. Where are Saskia's group based? How did Rochelle end up there - I mean who runs away from home in the NE to join a commune in Borchester? Have they been targeting Casey Meats all along - it just felt as though Rochelle chanced upon it when she ran into Vince in the village shop? The whole Joy/Rochelle thing is supposed to be mysterious, but it just comes across as very poorly plotted. And above all it's so dull and dreary when almost the entire episode is devoted to one or both of them trying to push this leaden storyline along. It doesn't sound like the Archers when all you can hear is two (now three) blow-ins you care nothing about trying to prop up a creaking plot. I think the best we can hope for is that the attack (or whatever is being planned - I neither know or care) happens quickly, results in the disappearance of Rochelle (death, prison, exile - anything will do) and then we can move on to something else and forget this ever happened. If Freddie is a hero and it move along the LL inheritance plot then it will have been worth it. That is actually something we have been quietly invested in for years, requiring no spurious exposition, but affecting multiple characters we already love/love to hate and referencing much-loved characters now sadly no longer with us. Putting Freddie in the driving seat at LL would unlock so much new drama and it would be character driven (in the way putting Helen and Natasha in the same house naturally generates drama).

I could manage with Joy in small doses but my dislike for her has grown because she’s being rammed down our ears.

and I can see that Rochelle is going to end up being the hero of the hour at the abattoir and she’ll end up with that restaurant job and the village will all love her.

the sw are extremely arrogant people it would seem

My heart sinks when I hear Joy and Rochelle.

It won’t come as any surprise given my previous posts but I too cannot stand Joy. I’ve never been a fan tbh, but since the more recent push to promote her to the leading character in virtually EVERY episode, I’ve started to feel the urge to switch off, which is new. I used to listen to the film but I don’t now because quite frankly I can’t face a repeat of Joy cooing and over-emoting all over the shop.

It sounds like they are making sure they put every caricature of the accent in as well. I’m sure Rochelle did an ‘eeeee’ last night

they did the same to Harrison and I think Natasha is narrowly avoiding it so I hope she sticks to her guns!

I'm fed up of 'big' storylines. Can't we just have a few gentle potter episodes?

Why do the characters in TA always make such stupid decisions too? No one in real life would do what they do.

They could have done the sabateur/county lines/child gone rogue with so many of the established but not much seen youngsters already present - Henry, Jack, Mia, Brad, even Keira or poppy (how old are they now?). Even Kirsty who could have gone full on animal vigilante after her trauma with Philip and the horses, transferring her need to make things better with horses to standing up for animals (i’m glad they didn’t do this though!). Some have wondered if A proper slow burn storyline showing how easily someone who seems quite rational can be into effectively joining a cult. Parachuting in Joy and Rochelle with a hopeless backstory isn’t interesting or exciting. The only benefit to not using an established character that I can see is that they can cause a big disruption and then be parachuted off to the ether, which seems to now be the SW’s preference to dealing with consequences (it was very uncomfortable with rob, but there isn’t any rush to a happy ending for the Archers - assuming longevity of the program is still a primary objective).
if Rochelle goes back to her missive and uses the time she has had in Ambridge to recruit one of the aforementioned then maybe this storyline has legs…

I wonder why Freddie appears to have literally no interest in anybody of either sex. Given his future regarding LL he really could do with hooking up with somebody. Either an unsuitable person causing Elizabeth to have an attack of the vapours or a thoroughly suitable person also causing Elizabeth to have an attack of the vapours when she sees a future in which she could be sidelined as chatelaine.

Even Kirsty who could have gone full on animal vigilante after her trauma with Philip and the horses, transferring her need to make things better with horses to standing up for animals

😂Philip's "horses" weren't actual animals, though!

Or perhaps Lily will have the heir and she’ll be all bossy with Freddie because her child is the heir and then later in life he’ll meet someone and have a child this enraging Lily

Kirsty started out as a GM crop saboteur, so it would not be totally mad to hear her getting involved with other things.

I would like Freddie to meet someone. I assume he doesn't get invited on nights out with the packers, and it doesn't sound like he goes our with his sister and her housemates, and Jonny's not around any more - what do all these young adults do in the evenings?

Now that would be a very interesting take on things.
But it requires long term thinking and planning and doesn't have the bish, bash, bosh of a storyline that's over and done with and never mentioned again.
So if the SW carry on like they are it'll never happen.