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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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AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 01/05/2025 17:12

NetballHoop
It would have been slightly more credible for the cricket bat to have turned up in the Aladdin's cave that is the Lower Loxley loft

which was completely emptied near the beginning of this century when the roof had to be replaced not just once but twice: first because of dry-rot and then again because of death watch beetle.

That attic was also extensively searched for valuables by Elizabeth when she wanted money to convert the Old Dairy into bedrooms for wedding parties; she didn't find any, so if any turn up now they are recent.

IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle · 01/05/2025 18:19

Bruisername · 30/04/2025 21:26

I assume that’s where she’s going - Natasha will do this tea cheap and then next time she’ll go to Fallon and piss Natasha off

I hope so.

NetballHoop · 01/05/2025 18:37

Thanks @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime I'd completely forgotten all of that.

Bruisername · 01/05/2025 18:54

I wish on this thread we could focus on the characters and whether we agree with their actions etc etc

but instead the sheer absurdity of the sw means we can’t!

Bruisername · 01/05/2025 19:15

Gosh - the abattoir don’t employ many people if Rochelle was the first person he asked when he has zero idea. Would rather not have heard all of that detail either. And do they not have any security? And all of those in felpersham shopping centre hearing this - groundbreaking 🙄.

Freddie is pretty thick isn’t he? And Rex turning up too. Could it be any more obviously fiction 🙄

At least there was a little farming chat with David. And thank goodness Helen was there - she seems to be the only practical person there

wish we didn’t have to listen to all these new people. Definitely got the local gcse drama class in for that. The quicker this sl ends the better.

IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle · 01/05/2025 19:16

Oh fgs this is appalling. I'm not sure I can bear listening to any more of this drivel.

Well it looks like the end of Rochelle.

IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle · 01/05/2025 19:17

And thank goodness Helen was there.

That's a sentence you don't see often.

Eastie77Returns · 01/05/2025 19:18

This is comical

Gonners · 01/05/2025 19:19

It made me laugh too.

Bruisername · 01/05/2025 19:21

IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle · 01/05/2025 19:17

And thank goodness Helen was there.

That's a sentence you don't see often.

That’s just another indication of how absurd the episode was!!

I'm a vegetarian and very pro animal rights but if I saw that come on in a shopping centre it wouldn’t impact on me at all. Most of the population are meat eaters so would they have a problem with a school being supplied with meat?

and the poison thing - given her wittering on you could just take that as meat is poison. That has to be the most bizarre animal rights protest

I'm not sure it’s as bad as scam week in its absurdity but not far off

ArmySurplusHamster · 01/05/2025 19:25

Gonners · 01/05/2025 19:19

It made me laugh too.

Me too. But as I had a gobful of cold sausage, reserved specifically to accompany the episode, there was an element of risk involved.

Eastie77Returns · 01/05/2025 19:26

Genuinely couldn’t stop laughing, the whole thing was absolutely ridiculous. The protestors sounded like a bunch of Sixth formers.

I didn’t understand who they live-streaming to either and the whole “let’s see their faces” was so silly. Vince, David etc have never hidden who they are so what exactly were the protesters revealing?

Oh well, at least we won’t have tortuous weeks of Helen trying to remember where she met Saskia.

IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle · 01/05/2025 19:26

I'm a vegetarian and very pro animal rights but if I saw that come on in a shopping centre it wouldn’t impact on me at all. Most of the population are meat eaters so would they have a problem with a school being supplied with meat?

I'm not fully vegetarian but eat very little meat apart from wild venison and occasionally game birds. I am very pro animal welfare and animal rights but targetting a well run (and we've no reason to believe it isn't) which services local farms isn't the way to promote it.

Bruisername · 01/05/2025 19:29

Some woman in a balaclava waffling on is very strange - normally they show the slaughter etc

no doubt it will be national news by tomorrow and Vince’s business will be closed down unusually fast🙄

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 01/05/2025 19:30

On the basis of the waffle from that wunch of bankers, Casey's Meats may find that their orders increase.

Trivium4all · 01/05/2025 21:05

That was utterly weird, from Freddie asking the random newbie to lead a tour, just because she has a sore elbow, to balaclava'd protestors threatening violence with broken bottles while broadcasting, to all bystanders seemingly forgetting that they have mobile phones in their pockets. TBF, Saskia has sounded like a very disturbed person most times we've heard from her so far, so maybe she thinks that meat-eating people with meat-eating children in school will actually be shocked at the revelation that the meat their children will be eating will be...locally sourced?! Utter fruit loops, the lot of them!

Bruisername · 01/05/2025 21:17

Helen did a silent 999 call. I suppose that is something she would, sadly, know how to do

northwestgirl · 01/05/2025 21:18

they missed an opportunity for a PSA there

northwestgirl · 01/05/2025 21:20

how about this for some R4 metafiction- Ed Reardon's creative writing class take on the challenge of writing the archers

NeedNotSparkle · 01/05/2025 21:32

northwestgirl · 01/05/2025 21:20

how about this for some R4 metafiction- Ed Reardon's creative writing class take on the challenge of writing the archers

Imagine what Ed would say about this drivel!

Halfhardy · 01/05/2025 21:33

northwestgirl · 01/05/2025 21:20

how about this for some R4 metafiction- Ed Reardon's creative writing class take on the challenge of writing the archers

Genius!

IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle · 01/05/2025 22:05

northwestgirl · 01/05/2025 21:20

how about this for some R4 metafiction- Ed Reardon's creative writing class take on the challenge of writing the archers

Maybe Ed Reardon could be in the Archers.

PassivAggressivHaus · 01/05/2025 22:10

How about Justin Idiot builds a little airport in the Ambridge area...
That would make me Shappey.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 01/05/2025 22:28

Grin I see what you did there, @PassivAggressivHaus. A series like Cabin Pressure comes along once in a lifetime, I feel. I don't expect TA to hit those giddy heights (once a decade, maybe), but at the moment it feels a bit more like one of those tedious 6.30 comedies or afternoon plays I turn off almost immediately.

It is a massive relief, as already mentioned by others, that we're not in for weeks and weeks of waiting for Helen to remember that she briefly met Saskia and then not grasping the significance. These are the tiny scraps we are now grateful for. Hmm

Very good letter, @JoelenesParrot. I will try to get something off to Feedback too.

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PassivAggressivHaus · 01/05/2025 22:52

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g . Cabin Pressure was "Brilliant!".
Maybe we could have a long-married couple and Amy their dog move into April Cottage so we could keep asking if the same actors are playing more than one character. Grin
Oh wouldn't it be lumley.

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