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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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.)

Over to you!

He sounded like a youth club / holiday camp activity leader.

So annoying that we’re couldn’t even have two older characters without a new random one thrown in.

I would expect the new manager to be suave

i know Roy wasn’t but he had a nice manner about him which this new guy doesn’t have and I don’t see how they can have him presenting differently to guests

Yep.

Flash Harry!

Welll

My first thought is that everyone will hate Dane, Lily will pick up the pieces and find herself given a trial as the new manager when Dane is moved on.

Second thought is that he will date Helen. Too much of a coincidence otherwise isn’t it?

Good suggestion about the cocaine, that would totally make sense.

I too agree that what Henry was doing was less controlling and more indicative of him not trusting his mum an inch with choosing a man. Yes it could become controlling behaviour but he was just googling the guy I think, not interfering in any other way. It’s sad but totally understandable that he is worried about what decisions she’ll make next. (Not saying he was right - obviously not - but can see why he’s worried.)

@IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle do you really live in a castle? I get the reference but I always wonder.

Grey Gables was refurbished months and months ago; why do they need yet another "temporary" manager? (Good point about them faffing about until Lily has graduated, albeit an unlikely appointment IRL).

Equally why is "Head of Food" doing the breakfast service from 6am? Shouldn't he be on the road selling pizzas every night at this time of year?

I misread the comments about Great Dane, earlier, and had high hopes that there was a giant dog running amok at Gay Gables. Oh dear! I wonder who interviewed him if Oliver didn't appear to have met him? Time for Ian to have an affair, me thinks.

On the plus side, at least they have remembered that there is somewhere beyond Beechwood where they could base some storylines AND the return of Oliver and Ian. I've missed them.

Yes it’s unbelievable that since Roy left they have made zero progress on getting a replacement

Believable that a corporate chain have sent in a successful manager to get the place started up. Unbelievable that they’ve waited months/years, and that they’ve been happy to have the place run by an elderly man not employed by the company.

When does Lily graduate?

Well I hope they’ve been paying him - Co owner or not. If they haven’t then they’ve probably broken the NMW law!

I thought Ian only took the head of food position on a temporary basis?

Not in our lifetimes, I suspect. Does she even go to Yooooni any more? Do they have exams at Felpersham? She seems to be permanently hanging about GG. So many questions ... so little interest in the answers. 🙄

It’s struck me that we could have had the Grey Gables story over Xmas, back in the Spring (using the excuse that GG needed a temp manager because their’s needed surgery/cancer treatment).

Then we could have dispensed with Rochelle altogether.

On the positive side, Dane is hopefully indeed very temporary. Perhaps he's running a county lines operation on the side, high on his own supply. Harrison might have tracked him down. Pitchforks at the ready.

I think he’ll be interested in either Adam or Ian, and will have an affair with one of them.

He comes across as very unappealing

I don't think he's their type.

For me it was the very white trainers on a country walk that did for me. No coming back from that.

Yes. That too.

The whole Grey Gables set up is unbelievable. Who is running this supposedly upmarket venue and why do they have no idea about how to do it?

The idea that poor, ancient Oliver has been the manager since Roy left is just ludicrous. Why haven't they recruited a new manager before now, and why have they only recruited a temporary manager? Who did the recruitment and why did they think someone like the Great Dane, with his horrible over-familiar style, was the ideal person to interact with the kind of guests you'd imagine GG would attract?

I'd be happy to see a new permanent manager who could become a permanent character. But why a temporary character? That's the last thing we need.

I cannot imagine any of the existing characters (male or female) having a romantic relationship with Dane, apart possibly from Fallon (who as we know has terrible taste in men) or Joy (given he sounds all too similar to Mick).

Dane has only appeared once and that's already once too often for me.

Yes and who even owns it and why did Oliver need to sell but not sell then reinvest and why Ardil and then why not Ardil and what a mess of a storyline.

The idea that Henry is going to model himself on Rob and become controlling is an interesting one and I wouldn't mind seeing it developed (slowly) over the next few years.

But that isn't what I took away from him monitoring his mother's online dating. He reminded me forcibly of a boy I knew very well as an adolescent. His divorced mother had a string of relationships with frankly horrible men and as a teenager the boy was constantly anxious about who she was going to bring into his life next. He was also very worried about his mother and her infallible ability to fall for men who were going to make her unhappy. As a result he pretty much moved in with us each time his mother formed a new relationship. (He's now a lovely man in his 30s with no controlling tendencies at all as far as I can see.)

I understand that with Henry but she hasn’t even met this guy - Henry had to snoop to find out and that is far too involved. His relationship with his mother is all sorts of wrong.