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!

Oh I adore Feargal. He was one of my teenage crushes. He can’t act bless him but it was good to hear him as he’s been passionate about clean water for yonks.

My dad, and Grandad were "dead centre" jokers too.

I love Fruitgum Sharpstick (no idea where that's from vmbut that's what DH and I call him) saw The Undertones a few times (last time about 10 years ago) and saw Feargal at the Rock Am Ring on the 90s. A Good Heart is such a great pop sonng

Someone please enlighten me. What is a Dead Centre of the island?

A cemetery!

Coarse. Pretty much fishing for fish you don't eat, just throw back i.e. not salmon or trout.

But I don't get it?

It's a centre for dead people. That's all, I'm afraid.

Isn’t it also a play on being the central point of the island etc?

Credit where credit is due, I enjoyed an episode! And the Undertones-I might remind myself what 80’s/90’s records DH and I own (which I would dearly love to sell, now that LPs are a thing again).

Presumably we won’t be treated To anything further re the Gills?

The current absence of Brad is a perfect example of what is wrong with TA at the moment.

Weeks of Brad getting stressed about supporting George's drone business alongside his studies, culminating in him telling Tracey that he isn't enjoying university and wants to drop out. We've all become emotionally invested in Brad's problems and we are all pleased when it looks as though Jim will be able to step in and advise Brad while teaching him how to do the cricket scoring. And then ... nothing.

The whole SL is just dropped and our emotional investment is just left hanging. If and when we ever hear from Brad again we will no longer care as much as we should. There's no continuity and we can't be expected to care very much about characters who are so obviously simply picked up and put down at the SWs' whim. They just don't feel as real.

Much though I like Feargal Sharkey, I have never enjoyed the insertion of real people in TA. None of them can act - not their fault, they're not actors - and the uneasy collision with reality interferes with the suspension of disbelief that is necessary to enjoy any imaginative work.

However, what I like and what TA is giving me at the moment seem to be getting further and further apart, so I fully expect the Morris dancing to be choreographed by Darcey Bussell and the VE Day celebrations to be attended by the entire bloody cast of Tenko. (One for our older contributors there.)

Godesstobe, you are spot on the money with this post*. We are being picked up and dropped again time after time, and it's hard to stay interested in people who may walk out for weeks and leave us wondering what happened next.

*Edited to add, the one before the one just before my answer. Sorry.

@Godesstobe Completely agree. I was same re the storyline concerning Natasha’s overspending. I wasn’t emotionally invested, but I thought it was a good storyline that could go in lots of directions. Then it suddenly stopped and now they can magically afford a house.

@Godesstobe Bloody loved Tenko,me.

To be pedantic, the cast of Tenko would be hanging on for VJ day.

Victory over Japan Day https://g.co/kgs/GNK6mzP

Yes 🙌 @BeatriceBatchelor The “dead centre” of something is the exact middle. In rotating machinery, it is the part that does not revolve. So the word play is on appearing to point out the dead centre, as in the “very middle”, of the relevant place (island, town, etc) but pointing to the place where the dead (may they rest in peace) are centred. My Dad has been making this joke for decades. It took me ages to get it.

Pedantry entirely justified here @CaptainMyCaptain . You are absolutely right.

One of my father's favourite Dad jokes was to ask "Would you like a pair of teeth before your meal?" (Needs to be said out loud.) We all groaned when he said it but we all now say it ourselves, including my children. I can see it being passed down to my grandchildren as a memory of a great-grandfather they never knew.

In the same way I have inherited the following silly little rhyme from a great-grandfather I never knew:

The rain it falleth every day,
It falleth on the Just and the Unjust fella,
But mainly on the Just because
The Unjust hath the Just's umbrella.

Apart from the poem, all I really know about him is that he was a staunch Methodist, but the poem tells me that he also had a sense of humour, which I might not otherwise have suspected looking at his stern 19th Century face in photographs.

I've only just realised there's a new thread - I thought everyone was being very restrained. Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Thanks for the new thread @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

I totally agree how awful some of the switching and dropping but with things like Natasha’s spending I’m hoping that it was seeing the seeds for a later story.
Like Alice’s alcoholism it built slowly. It was evident years before it became a full storyline. That is exactly what I want but for the most part it’s so clunkily done these days.

Stupid question - is Helen's sole source of income the dairy? Or does she get a share of something else from the main farm - if the dairy can't support 2 part-time minimum wage employees it can't be turning a significant profit

Brad, jazzer and Chelsea - yay. And Brad seems to have learned how to say no, or at least 'later'.

And Freddie's is on the case, at last

I despair. The abbatoir's security camera is 'in a blind spot' so they can't tell who's been up to no good? And Vince thinks it’s ’just a prank'?

🤦‍♀️

Happy now, @Godesstobe? 😄

It was the new an unauthorised camera that was in a blind spot for the CCTV.

I am not sure how Rochelle could have discovered that, so it will require a lot of suspension of disbelief if she turns out to be the one who planted it.