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.

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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!

Surely if you were going to sabotage a large concern like the abattoir you'd need to spend a great deal of time case(y)ing the place to work out the best means of attack and laying plans, especially if other people are involved, She's only been there a few days!

As @OverArmourer says we're obviously supposed to be thinking it's Rochelle. If it is, it's a really stupid SL. It might have worked if it had been done as a slow burn over several months, but because it has been squeezed into a few days it is just ludicrous. It's like the Neil the Foundling SL which was also squeezed into a stupidly short timeframe. The SWs seem to think listeners have the attention span of a goldfish.

But the idea that Rochelle is intending to sabotage the abbatoir has been signposted so obviously that I suspect it is a bluff. I very much hope that there isn't a turn around by which Rochelle is innocent and saves the day, becomes the hero of the hour and stays in Ambridge forever, turning her life around, reuniting with her bairns and becoming everyone's favourite confidante, before marrying Freddie and becoming chatelaine of LL.

Whatever happens at the abbatoir, I'd like Freddie to be the hero. That would change everyone's minds about him and he could finally come into his inheritance.

I very much hope that there isn't a turn around by which Rochelle is innocent and saves the day, becomes the hero of the hour and stays in Ambridge forever, turning her life around, reuniting with her bairns and becoming everyone's favourite confidante, before marrying Freddie and becoming chatelaine of LL.

I read that with ever-increasing horror thinking 'but I thought @Godesstobe is a sane person?' before realising that you had in fact written 'isn't' not 'is'. Phew.

Even if it's not Rochelle, it's ridiculous that Freddie hasn't brought her name up under suspicion yet other than thinking she's some sort of gold digger going after Vince 🙄

The thought has crossed my mind as well that she will turn out to be the hero of the hour saving the abattoir (and the cricket team). In which case I still simply can't get my head around someone who is vegan aiming their sights at a career in a meat factory.

But it's equally possible in Ambridge land that someone can swan in, plan a sabotage, dodge all suspicion and execute said plan all in under a month.

The more I think about it all, the more it annoys me. And what do we have for light relief currently? Yet another "Save The Bull" story. 🤦‍♀️

I'm still not convinced Freddie knows Rochelle is vegan. I get that in real life he would have noticed her struggling to find suitable sandwiches at the cricket teas, and that, even if he hadn't, Joy would have ensured that the entire village knows Rochelle's dietary principles. However, we haven't heard any of this, so maybe in Ambridge land he doesn't know.

Like others, I can't believe Vince has dismissed the hidden camera as a prank. What kind of harmless prank involves employees deploying hidden cameras at their workplace ? How has this man managed to create his meaty business empire if he is so lacking in curiosity and commonsense?

I agree that Vince thinking a hidden camera on his business premises is a prank is yet another totally unrealistic line from the SW. Of course in real life no one would think that, it would be taken extremely seriously.

But presumably it's a plot device so that our hero Freddie can find out all by himself exactly what's been going on, save Casey Meats and redeem himself for ever more.

It's yet another example of the SWs having no clue about how to write business people - see also Justin and Martin G. I meet a lot of successful business people in my work, They aren't always likeable but they are never stupid....

This may be a BBC thing. I once met Greg Dyke when he was DG of the BBC and he said it drove him round the bend that all business stories on the TV news were considered from a consumer perspective. He was also engagingly funny about whether really did have a "big job" - in his previous jobs he'd had to raise money as well as spending it and the former is rather harder than the latter....

Yep - it’s like they think the only path to financial success is nastiness

dh manages a business and he has to make tough decisions that can have a negative impact on people- but he tries really hard to do right by suppliers/customers/employees. It’s not just about shareholder value if you are building a business for the long term

there’s no way Vince hasn’t had security issues related to animal rights before and they just dealt with an employee stealing from them so his cavalier attitude is bizarre

I had 2 family members work at a medical research lab that was almost constantly picketed and threats made to staff (including to their home addresses). They said it was not that big a deal at the time.

I also knew someone who had a big meat production company and they said it was terrifying. They had those mirrors on sticks checking for explosives under the vehicles (including their own cars.) as standard.

Vince would not be so off hand about a camera. But he is conveniently out of the picture. I want Freddie to save the day!

Part of the outrage with profit making at water companies is a question about whether something like clean water supply should be a private and profit making business surely? See also social care, affordable housing, energy, health.

Yes - imo water is a public good and the way it was privatised/regulated has been disastrous. It’s a natural monopoly after all. However I do think the consumer should pay towards it.

Do think that society expects the state to take on abit too much though

I was just wondering how much Rochelles wages are in the meat factory, as she told Freddie that she wanted to get a place and have her two kids come and stay. Must be good money.

I thought she was using that as the excuse for wanting to get promoted quickly into the butchery?

bit odd that you’ve only just filled a vacancy and then discuss with the boss how you can create that vacancy asap

Apologies if somebody made the connection weeks ago but I was just wondering about former resident animals rights activist, Mia. I am surprised she isn’t home for Easter (been visiting Unis recently so I know that many students are home).

A quick google confirmed that she is at Newcastle University.

It’s a bit of a stretch, but so are most of the plotlines.

@Bruisernametheres nothing wrong with the consumer paying but I agree privatisation has come home to roost. I don’t know if the expectation is too great. Probably. But then if the basics were properly covered then some of the ill effects and some of the expectations may fall away. I get particularly aggrieved by privatising social care as pretty much standard. I cannot see much benefit of this.

I don't agree with social care being privatised how it is, but it is arguably not as fundamental and vital to life as clean water.

No water? you die. It should never be in private hands.

I perhaps should have said that part of my job is dealing with problems when things go wrong in care homes or with home care. So I’ve probably seen more than most people- maybe. I also know 2 care home owners. One is an actual millionaire. The other is just rich. That’s not cause and effect I realise. It just seems a bit screwed up to me. The work is so important. Some owners are getting rich and the staff are so poorly paid.
anyway sorry for the derail!

EBearhug
I'm prepared to forgive Jazzer for Sassenach, because it led me down an etymological thought path about it probably being related to Welsh Saesneg (English).

According to my Highland relations it is a rude way to describe Lowlanders! They regard its use by eg Glaswegians as slightly amusing, given where Glasgow is.

Sowsnek, or sowson, from the Cornish end of things.

I'm not. It's so cringe- making, whoever uses it and the way he does is particularly so.

I think I would forgive Sassenach (or at least Sasunnach, which I have a feeling is the Gaelic spelling) in someone speaking Gaelic to another Gaelic speaker.

I'd love to know how TA hive mind works. Why, for example, do the SWs suddenly think their listeners want Martin to become a character and start having feelings? Have people been writing to Feedback in their droves begging for Martin to be given more airtime? Have they conducted market research that has revealed that a majority of listeners are desperate to know about Martin's hidden depths? If not, it's simply incomprehensible.

I'm mildly amused by the ghastly Gibson's wife having run off with the gardener. It's vaguely Lady Chatterley-esque, in a poundshop way.

Why, for example, do the SWs suddenly think their listeners want Martin to become a character and start having feelings?

Have the Adam, Ian, Oliver, Ruth and Will actors left and they haven't told us so they have to overuse who's available?

I wonder whether some actors get paid more than others , so it’s a case of who can they afford to have in each episode?