Archers thread #185: Some farming would be nice. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

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Over to you!

No. No this is not “cute”. It’s not “exciting”. It’s nauseatingly wrong and awful and massively disfunctional and inappropriate

this is about Henry checking his moms phone and Natasha Getting involved. Yuck yuck yuck.

I haven’t heard tonight’s yet but I found it weird yesterday that Henry was talking in that matter of fact way to Zainab. 14 year old boys are notoriously usually barely able to form a sentence when talking to older girls.

Henry's 14 going on 54, though. In manner, I mean.

Exactly. No child, especially a teenage son, should be getting involved in his mother's love life. Can't any of the Beechwood numbskulls see how wrong it is? Why Helen thought she should tell her son she's online dating is beyond belief. I really hope the SW don't think that's normal behaviour.
It's like she's starting to treat Henry like a friend, not her child, if she involves him in her dating life it's surely going to mean they're overly enmeshed and will give him all sorts of issues.

It’s abusive. And it’s been passed off as “concern”. No. It’s controlling and it’s made my skin crawl.

Any topical insert due on cutting down famous trees?

I already hate the new manager. Making me miss Joy and Pip a very teeny tiny amount. Is he actually a con man? I’m not sure his manner is suited to the type of customer grey gables is looking to attract (not the accent but the overly friendly nature)

henry is such a weird kid. Far too mature and perceptive and passive. If he doesn’t end up a completely unhinged as an adult I would be very surprised. Helen shouldn’t have even entertained the conversation with him - he shouldn’t even have known she was on an app. This is a very odd PSA on online dating if that’s what it is. And agree it’s deeply inappropriate.

and he said most English teachers are ok. Is he a teenager?

Mature and perceptive? No, psychotic and abusive. He’s Rob writ small. It’s nauseating. And any Family that has experienced abuse, normalising that is just horrific

Did the manager excuse himself to go to the loo? ( Kettle was boiling and oven on so I missed some bits). I thought he did and my immediate thought was he's gone to snort some cocaine. Family member has had temp hospitality jobs and apparently it's rife among chefs.

Well mature and perceptive in a way that this age seems so abnormal I can’t disagree with the psychotic

if the sw haven’t been teeing this up for an abuse sl in the future with Henry as the perp I will be very disappointed all the red flags are lining up!

I already hate the new manager.

Me too. He's awful.

I already hate the new manager.
Me too. He's awful.

Add me to the list. He reminded me of larger-than-life Paul the vet nurse, who was simply dreadful. Thankfully the SWs seem to have forgotten all about him.

Nothing but ill will come from the Great Dane’s arrival.

Nothing but ill will come from the Great Dane’s arrival.

Unless he murders Ian.

He reminded me of larger-than-life Paul the vet nurse, who was simply dreadful.

Paul would be a better front of house person at a GG type hotel than the Great Dane. Paul is personable and polite. He was good with the clients. The Great Dane sounded a bit, dare I say it, common

I’m not sure his manner is suited to the type of customer grey gables is looking to attract (not the accent but the overly friendly nature)
I'm the type of customer they are looking to attract.He isn't

@IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle ... No, no, a thousand times no! I thought we had heard the last of Paul, so please don't remind the scriptwriters of his (presumed) existence.

So, we heard nothing from Ian during the crisis at Bridge Farm, despite Helen being his best friend and his husband working there.

Nothing from Oliver in the sewage crisis when people were looking for temporary accomodation or in the "geeza job" Clarrie crisis, despite Oliver having the potential to solve both problems

But they're both back to facilitate the arrival of another pointless newbie. Rochelle at least had an existing connection to the village.

I know we needed. Roy replacement at grey gables but they have overdone the new characters lately. I also don’t believe it’s taken this long. A silent would have been much better

I thought he was loathsome and over-familiar.

I was about to say that I suppose loathsome and over-familiar is better than neutral and dreary? But then I remembered Paul ...

He may not have presented quite the persona one would anticipate for GG - but I’m assuming the SWs have a spreadsheet for important new characters; and as the last one, Rochelle, had a negative impact on the village, I’m guessing Dane must be a force for good.

(Oh good Lord, surely not for Helen? Lee was bad enough; a sort of harmless guinea pig of a man. Now we have a gigantic puppy. Close your eyes Helen! Don’t look at him!)

I thought he sounded devious. But I don’t trust overly friendly people who ask too many questions!!

I've no objection at all. I just think the TA SWs introduce topics clumsily and in a lecturing way.

I didn't like the new manager, way too much of a cheeky chappy. All that questioning also enabled the SWs to re-introduce old characters. Ham-fisted backstory.

We heard nothing from Adam either. It’s ludicrous.

I just wonder who the sw think their audience are

I think they simply don't care any more. It's all about them and their ideas.
I had the misfortune a few months ago to listen to one of the podcasts, with Emma Freud sucking up to the scriptwriter dealing with the Neil story.
When the SW was asked how it came about she said somebody or other had either read or heard or written a story on those lines and she thought it was so brilliant she just had to get it into her script.
So I think they come up with what they imagine are exciting storylines then attach them to whichever character they think it might fit, if it's not suitable for an existing one, however unrealistic that might be, they bring in a completely new character to stick it onto. I'm sure that's why we get existing characters behaving in an uncharacteristic way and all these new people coming in.
In the past I imagine they tried to write in order to develop characters and then think of storylines which would be in keeping with those characters.
These days I think they make up storylines, and then just throw them at any random person.