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!

The archers podcast on bbc sounds episode today...they call out a SW for the cricket bat incident!! Come on SW!! Give us some continuity and chat about farm life pleaseeee

She keyed the car of the woman from the chicken factory who was giving Tracey a hard time though so a hose pipe through a letterbox wouldn't be entirely out of character. I don't think the flood was personal enough for her to be the culprit though.

Didn't Tracey and Jazza meet in the cricket pavillion for sex at one time? Perhaps they found the cricket bat somewhere and took it to the pavillion for some reason I don't really want to think about. And then hid it under a bench.

I'm hoping to.

Which one? Quite a lot of the writers seem to have previously worked in TA behind the scenes, notably Keri Davies.

I quite enjoyed Rex telling Rochelle off (that lady must have walked miles and miles in the past week!). Kid goats too!

I still don’t understand why Rex (former rugby pro) and David (who I always assume is built like Jeremy Clarkson) couldn’t simply overpower Saskia and her sidekick.

I wonder whether we’ll get to hear from Anna Toboggan again? I liked her and it would be great if she moved back Ambridge.

Were they trying to imply Carl was on drugs?

a nervous vegan with neurological damage due to vit b deficiency?

Just on the subject of short term excitements, regarding sewagegate, some years ago my brother stayed with us over Christmas and New Year, and when he got home after a freezing cold ten days he found the water tank in his loft had burst and water cascaded through the ceiling, down the stairs, and flooded the house. It took 18 months with driers in the house, and then refurbishing the floorboards, re plastering, etc etc, redecorating, before he could move back in. And this was clean water.
the idea that the residents of sewagegate were back in their houses within a month or so is for the birds. Imagine how long it would take to just get rid of the smell……… totally unrealistic.

Regarding VE Day this from Sheila Hancock who remembers the first VE Day celebrations left me quite tearful.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/03/ve-day-second-world-war-sheila-hancock

Just caught up on Friday’s episode - that River Am’s a liability!

I lived in North Wales in the 1990s when there was severe flooding from a tidal surge. Some residents were still not back in their homes 12 months later and were living in caravans in their gardens. I know that in Bewdley, which sometimes gets flooded from the River Severn, people can be out of their homes for months and months at a time. So as FizzingAda said, totally unrealistic that people in TA would have moved back by now.

Re VE Day I may be wrong but aren’t people more likely to remember someone’s surname than his first name if they’re remembering some local hero from the War. Surely back then people would be more widely known as eg Major Smith than as Reginald, except to close friends and family. Maybe Peggy and whoever else they asked are supposed to have had a one night stand with Reg and only recall his first name.

At the risk of being picky (but I genuinely don’t know), was Peggy actually living in Ambridge during the war years?

Interesting question @Madcats. Lillian, Peggy's eldest child, was born in July 1947 so I suppose its likely that Peggy would have been in Ambridge at least for the latter part of the war. She was born in 1924 so a bit old to have gone there as an evacuee, but I wonder if she was a land girl?

Edited just to add I'm assuming she met Jack in Ambridge, but she may have been married to him when she moved to Ambridge. She would have been pregnant with Lilian in 1946 and if she conceived almost straight away after being married then she may not have been in Ambridge during the war at all, or perhaps for only a few months.

That was the whole house flooded. The Ambridge floods presumably were ground floor only.

@MissMarplesNiece , I think I remember that. I seem to recall people saying that it was ridiculous that people were uninsured, not realising that tenants often don't insure. I was renting in a flood plain and promptly got insurance.

@MissMarplesNiece She would have been pregnant with Lilian in 1946 and if she conceived almost straight away after being married then she may not have been in Ambridge during the war at all, or perhaps for only a few months.

Jennifer was born in January 1945, though.

The bedrooms got off fairly lightly, the water came down the stairs and flooded the ground floor, and of course the burst tank kept filling and jettisoning the water, so it just went on and on til he got home. Everything on the ground floor was ruined, the upstairs not so much.
that was bad enough, I feel so sorry for people who are flooded with river water and worse.

Peggy and her new husband Jack Archer came to Ambridge when she was nineteen and eight months pregnant, so that she could meet his family before she had the baby, and Jennifer was born on 7th January 1945, so yes, Peggy was in Ambridge for the last six months of the war. A tad preoccupied with her new baby, perhaps, but living there.

Speaking of Peggy, June Spencer died almost 6 months ago and assuming (as I do) that she recorded her swansong for broadcast after her death, isn't it about time that we heard it?

Ah, I got mixed up and thought Lilian was the eldest. Christine must also have some memories of the war in Ambridge. She never gets a mention these days and I'm not sure whether she's still alive and at the Laurals.

I think poor Christine has been consigned to the Pit of Forgotten Characters.

Christine lived through the war in Ambridge as far as I know, and was born in 1931, so it ended when she was fourteen.

As I suggested yesterday, I think we’re about to (if such a thing exists).