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!

I'm really behind on the thread but had a catch up on the episodes tonight while doing some decorating.

Two things:

1 Freddie. I'm so disappointed. I really thought he was going to figure out what Rochelle - the VEGAN WORKING IN AN ABBORTOIRE for crying out loud - was up to. But no, instead he gives her an access all areas pass. I know he's not meant to be academically bright but surely he isn't that thick?!

Not to mention how absolutely ridiculous it is that Rochelle was asked to do the tour in the first place, there must be dozens of experienced staff Freddie could have picked for the task. It just feels like the SW aren't even trying anymore. I'm actually offended that they think us listeners would think this is good drama.

2 Tom is a silly arse. But he is entertaining at least in comparison to the Rochelle train crash.

All the other staff are forrin or crooked, but Roadkelle is of no fixed abode from Beechwood, so practically jroyalty.

Well, the writers never fail to surprise me on just what rubbish they can produce.

I have no idea why I still listen - but I just keep hoping it will improve. But I also keep thinking it cannot get any worse but .............

I feel the same @FiveShelties I often listen to a couple of episodes after a long shift midweek as a bit of me time and to wind down but lately it's just utter drivel. Why am I still listening??

And I've just noticed I've done a really weird spelling of abattoir above somehow. I blame my phone 😆

Can I very quietly say that I thought tonight’s episode was quite good?!

The chaotic and incoherent nature of the protestors, the ironic threat of violence from them, the fumbling response, the change of plans and Rochelle’s ambivalent attitude. All sort of counterbalanced the utterly implausible bits, notably Freddie’s gullibility and the new member of staff doing a tour and therefore getting a security pass 😬

Re Freddy asking Rochelle, I know everybody here hates her but in her interactions with everyone apart from Joy she has been cheerful and personable. There will be more experienced workers but possibly like Susan being useless at describing cheese making the other workers aren't front of house?

But yes, it's a rubbish storyline. I quite liked Rochelle and Rex liked her. The SWs could have done this so much better.

More generally the only other storyline is the house share from hell. Fun as that is so many characters have disappeared entirely or are reduced to being cameos or props for these non stories.

I don't think it will be the house share from hell, even though I hope it will be.
Natasha sees Helen as free baby sitting, so she will love that and treat Helen like an au-pair.
Re the Casey meats fiasco.
Live feed into the shopping centre. Exposing Vince( who has never kept quiet about who and what he is ), poisoning?? Well that's nasty and nobody will have sympathy for the protesters for doing that. Saskia and all are more comical than threatening. Stupid story line. Oh and Freddie letting a newbie having an all areas pass and taking people on a tour they hardly know anything about is a bit amateurish. Just crap all round.

Rochelle is a new worker, but a native speaker of English, unlike many of the other workers, and (we assume) quite easy on the eye, as well as having experience from previous jobs of having to deal with the public. Freddie took her on a tour of the entire abattoir when she started and she picks things up quickly. He and Vince know her from outside work. She was also struggling with her ordinary duties. That's as far as I can go to say it was plausible to ask her to take these people around. It wasn't, really, though. Vince would have taken the important potential customers around personally. Second choice would have been Freddie.

But…. She needed a new pass - so apart from her look round she literally doesn’t know the layout of the place (as she currently can’t access most of it), let alone much of an idea of what goes on outside of packing…. Surely (if this had actually been a thing) she would have just got the entire tour lost, even if she did manage to do a comprehensive read through and remember of all her notes. I get the impression this place is pretty huge (it would have to be, and offices are in a separate building which gives you a sense of scale). It’s not like opening a door and having a quick glance in - you’d have to follow the story of the animals around And there’d be plenty of side shoots (which you would want to take as I’m not sure the visitors would want to see sticking and stunning before lunch). And what about infection control, does she know all the donning and doffing procedures for each area too?

Also, the place cannot just be staffed by Vince, Freddie Rochelle and a load of ineloquent migrant workers. There are probably secretaries better placed than Rochelle to do a tour. In a rural community there will be people who have worked there for eternity and worked their way around the place.

I’m sorry, @testyarm - to me it was so incomprehensibly bad I find myself with nothing coherent or new to say.

Perhaps the one positive is that it was vivid enough for me to have woken up still feeling affronted on behalf of all the (possibly admin, probably female) staff who’ve worked there for years, striving for progress in their careers (as @Cantsleepdontsleep points out) only for Rochelle to be given an opportunity they might have longed for. 😡

I could just about see a situation where all the most personable, efficient and English-speaking staff had already been rostered and rehearsed for the big day, making it difficult to find a last minute substitute, but who was she substituting for? Vince was there, Freddie was there, why did they need a slightly odd and inexperienced woman nobody really knows?

Well on the plus side, at least that's all over and done with now so we can move along to other things - preferably the disappearance of Rochelle, I would be quite happy for her to go on the run and never be heard from again. Last night required a suspension of disbelief in too many areas, from Rochelle being asked to lead the tour and given an all-areas pass, to the return of Vince and the convenient gathering of various Ambridge notables at the abattoir, to the speed with which Rochelle managed to summon Saskia never mind the actual nature of the attack. We could literally hear the penny dropping for Vince re the hidden camera (why hadn't this been immediately removed?), Helen recognising Saskia was like the exposition scene at the end of Scooby Doo and the presence of Rex and only led me to wonder again what Rochelle was doing shacking up with a pig farmer in the first place. DH overheard a snatch when he came into the room and asked me what on earth I was listening to which crystallised just how far TA has strayed from its origins. It has gone the way of the TV soaps I long since stopped following for the same reasons. What's rather sad is that now Schroedinger's Rochelle is now well and truly out of her box we can never go back to that delicious time when her eternal absence gave Joy a little air of mystery for us to endlessly ponder. Rochelle's reality has been such a disappointment which has effectively stifled all other life in Ambridge to such an extent that we scarcely recognise it. I'm reaching a point where I'm starting to feel I miss TA more by continuing to listen than if I stopped altogether.

In all the chaos I couldn’t figure out who was who and thought Rex had the broken bottle

the police warned about animal activists so it’s absurd Vince didn’t beef up security - or have any at all

Leaving aside the implausibility of the whole SL, the scene of violent affray, involving large numbers of people (activists and guests) whose voices we don't know, was not exactly made for the radio.

I don't think this is the end of Rochelle unfortunately. I imagine she's going to convince everyone that she was conned by the evil activists and was basically an innocent party who tried to stop them at great risk to herself. Didn't the male activist hit Rochelle? In RL Rex and Freddie would be angry that Rochelle has played them for fools, but in TA at the moment I expect they will forgive her and promote her/marry her/make her Chairman of the cricket team.

And what happened to our (excellent) idea that Freddie was going to be the hero of the hour and so come into his inheritance? All I can recall is Freddie whining that his wrists hurt. ( I was watching the snooker at the same time as listening so "recollections may vary". I can't bring myself to listen again.)

PS I can't leave the implausibility aside btw. I'm just grateful Joy and Mick hadn't been added to the guest list. If Harrison now turns up to investigate and it emerges he has been living undercover in Borchester all along, I am afraid that will be me done.

Do we know if Joy knew that Rochelle had been mixed up with animal rights extremism before? I'm not a very forgiving person and if my neighbour's daughter was responsible for me or my family being violently attacked and I found out Joy knew Rochelle was an animal rights activist I would absolutely ostracise Joy. I might talk to Joy (in a few years) if she had known nothing of Rochelle's history.

@JoelenesParrot Excellent letter. I’m doing mine later today and will post here too.

@Godesstobe’s excellent phraseology prompts:

Whither Rochelle - will Ambridge promote her, marry her, make her Chairman of the cricket team? Meanwhile farming in The Archers withers away.

I'm sending mine today as well. These days I listen more by accident than design and even DH who's been a big fan doesn't listen as much.

I’ve not listened yet but is this storyline even more ridiculous than Neil suddenly remembering he was a Foundling, scam week or poonami?

I had high hopes that somebody would be trampled to death; how disappointing!

Helen recognising Saskia was like the exposition scene at the end of Scooby Doo

That made me laugh! You’ve nailed it @LillianGish

I still can’t get over how shit saskia’s little speech was

this is a complete police matter given the poisoning threat but no doubt it will be sorted internally🙄

It has gone the way of the TV soaps I long since stopped following for the same reasons

Lillian you’re so right there. For some time I’ve been thinking of Brookside and its eventual descent to a 'plague' SL - but maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that and given the SWs any more terrible ideas.

I have a feeling that Joy knows more than she’s letting on about wor Rochelle's links with Saskia & co - she still sounded shifty the last time she was supposed to be telling Mick ‘everything' - so I have a very bad feeling that there’s an extended period of Joy-centred episodes coming up (again 😫) as she weeps and wails about Abbatoir-Gate.

But we’ve got to get through the whole tiresome thing of Rex, Freddie, Vince etc raging/breast-beating about how they could have been so taken in by Rochelle, which won’t be fun either. And I'm sure R will do her best to try and claim it wasn’t her fault.

It was like a Whitehall farce performed by amdram. Awful.

And I'm sure R will do her best to try and claim it wasn’t her fault. No doubt, but we've all watched enough police dramas to know Rochelle phone Saskia practically the minute she got the all-areas pass and there will be a record of that call from from Rochelle's phone. It was effectively an inside job - the fact that the gang turned up and were let in within minutes was down to Rochelle. No one forced her to make that call.