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 if you ever hung about the football threads you know it will always be the former and never ever in a month of Sundays the latter 😂

My understanding of "sassenach" is that it means outsider? so used by highlanders to mean lowlanders, and all Scottish people (Scots?) to mean everyone else which effectively usually means the English? and has morphed into an insult-ish?

As a person born and living in Scotland I despise anyone using "Sassenach" to mean everyone who isn't Scottish, or even worse as an insulting term for English.

As for any other use according to the dictionary it means "Sassenach adj. and n. English; an English person. Sassenach is derived from the Scottish Gaelic word sasunnach, literally meaning 'Saxon', and originally used by Gaelic speakers to refer to non-Gaelic speaking Scottish Lowlanders"

As just about everyone in Scotland is a non Gaelic speaker, regardless of where they live, it seems rather pointless.

And don't get me started on Scottish Government's attempts to pretend Gaelic is a national language leading to the absurdity of Gaelic street signs in Edinburgh.

Does Chelsea work for the Bridge Farm tearooms? It’s nice to have her back in the cast, anyway.

I’m glad Natasha seems to be considering my suggestion that families would pile into Bridge Farm to eat cake and look at baby animals. Baby goats are cute!

A quick shout out to Henry’s goat if he’s managed to get Pat’s herd pregnant the week he arrive at Brookfield too!

I do like the tearoom sl too and the goats!!

i hope they don’t go down the topical route - I don’t need gender politics or toxic masculinity or protests on campus etc etc. the world is a pile of shite at the moment and I need a bit of escapism - I’d even take Joy and Mick over topical inserts

Sara Coward, the actor who played Caroline Bone who married Oliver, was in an episode of Rumpole on Tuesday.

I miss the "old" TA, when Caroline worked at Grey Gables with Jack Woolley, Higgs and Jean-Paul.

Natasha is gruesome. She'd be awful to know in real life.

Noooo Rex!!!

oh dear. This has totally made me realise that I intended him just for me 😄

And another one just 🙄 at the speed of all this abbatoir/saskia nonsense. Whatever happened to a satisfying slow burn?

Although - is Rochelle actually in a cult as opposed to an activist group? It seemed very emotional at the end there.

while I love hearing Brad and Chelsea, I hate the over scripted educational pieces they do from time to time. Siblings do not speak to each other like that, especially ones of that age. theres so many more natural ways of weaving in that kind of stuff.

Right - listening on catch up so I can fast forward the VE Day lesson (had a very interesting discussion with dd the other day about the Japanese occupation of China - she had come across it and looked it up and was shocked they weren’t taught it at school - hopefully we will get similar education around VJ Day)

surely Rochelle knows Vince is going out with Elizabeth given joy and Liz are besties

Still think Rochelle sounds ten years younger than she’s supposed to be and much closer to Rex’s age! Not sure why they had to make her 40s if they wanted her to behave 30s

Saskia sounds like this is her first rodeo🙄

see what you mean about it sounding like a cult. So weird

and how long would it take to meet up and get the camera - there are 24 hrs in a day(eta unless there are actually only 15 mins in a day in ambridge)

Indeed! Or indeed in Aberdeen. And didn't the Orcadians say, to the SNP's suggestion that Gaelic be mandatorily taught in schools, that since Norn wasn't an option, they'd rather have Mandarin?

A vegan animal activist cult manipulating Rochelle might be quite entertaining...was Saskia referring to the commune? Other than that the characters are new and random, this could be quite exciting and/or ridiculous!

I was all oh nooo too. Why can't they have Rochelle finding her way again, settling down and being normal?

And, if we believe Vince that his abattoir is well run, what is the point of targetting him?

I mean personally animal rights and animal welfare are very high on my list of things I care about but realistically there's no point in targetting a business like Casey Meats. Tbh, realistically businesses like Casey Meats aren't the bad guys.

@IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle I mean you’re right that that’s a good point in itself, which I think frequently about much modern drama/literature/fiction tbh, but worth restating - it’s not necessary in this day and age to have any kind of romantic entanglement to substantiate a dramatic storyline is it? (The same reason I gave up on S2 of severance tbh - there’s enough going on already without the need for additional romance with no real utility for the plot). If they insist on centring Rochelle and running with this activism storyline, there’s already plenty to explore, so why bring Rex into it at all? Not to get all heavy handed but it’s just regressive isn’t it. (Mutters to herself about the patriarchy)

I suppose you could argue that someone who has been shown to be slightly vulnerable/unstable (if we rely on what the SW have been telling us) then it might be the case she’d be the kind of person who may pursue relationships above and beyond her own mental health…? But also, she seems to have enough going on with the secret activist mission and navigating the relationship with her Mum, so it just seems like shoehorning too many things into one characters SL, when we are already missing hearing from a lot of others.

@Bruisername lol to the ‘rodeo’ comment, enjoyed that 😄

Poor Rex's sole purpose seems to be Disappointed in Lurve, but for it to turn out to be a narrow escape and therefore a good thing in the long run. I seem to recall that at one time he was quite keen on Pip, but she (temporarily) preferred his ghastly brother before latching on to poor Stella, and so he dodged a bullet there. I suspect him of fancying Kirsty, a woman so stupid that she cried when Tom left her at the altar and subsequently married Philip Moss. Rochelle was just a logical progression ... can Helen be far behind?

He certainly likes the older lady

will ignore him liking pip as that’s just too awful

Do we know how old the Fairbrethren are? Pip must be in her mid-30s by now and I assume Toby is older and that Rex is the elder brother. I have no basis for those assumptions, though!

I thought someone said he’s early/mid 30s

if he is in fact 40-42 then he should just go for it with kirsty!

Now you know I’m a BOOP personified but my god this vegan warrior storyline is stretching my credulity. And my credulity is incredibly elastic when it comes to Ambridge. I’m prepared to give it about 2.5km leeway. But this? Literally unbelievable.

I thought the vegan connection sounded a bit cult-y too.

We calculated Rex is approaching 38. Rochelle is between 40 - 42.

Didn't Rex get dumped by the ghastly Scottish vet?

45

have to say when he’s talking to Freddie they sound the same age. I really struggle with ll the characters as they all sound a lot younger than they are!

When they're young, they often sound middle-aged but they regress into sulky teenagerhood at the age of about 30.

We know that Rex celebrated his thirty-second birthday (on air) on 11th July 2019, and will be 38 on that date this year.

When Rex was 28 in 2015, Toby was 23. So he is going to be 33 this year (or he already is).

At the risk of sounding a bit “aspiring grandparenty” we seem to have a lot of characters cantering into their 30’s and 40’s hellbent on being either celibate or childless.