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

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

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Over to you!

I'm really hoping they do it all off air... it's far too soon for us all to be subjected to another wrangle with the courts, etc. Although I'm much less invested with this storyline (not sure whether that makes it better or worse 🤦‍♀️).

I am heartily sick of arrests/prosecution/ courts/ prisons.Farming! ! I want farming! Baby animals! Conversation about barns and crop rotation! Local produce shows and tractors!
Im off for a lie down

I want more farming too.

This Rochelle storyline is 😴.

TA really is like y6 wrote it a storyline at a time.

Usha seems to be kept very busy in Ambridge ... she hardly needs to bother with any other work!

I don't understand why Usha is expressing admiration for Rochelle. It did she just say that to make Joy feel better? I find it alarming when a 40yo seems so incapable of rational thinking and moderating her emotions and actions, not admirable.

usha was talking about Rochelle as if she were an idealistic teenager as well

its very bizarre

A couple of things…

my brother was once bailed to my address. I knew the situation (a very mentally ill wife and the police had to do something having arrived to carnage) - but I thought twice about it. No way I’d take a stranger in.

Rochelle with a pig farmer is utterly ridiculous.

my mum was care assistant in a very rural dementia ward. She did nostalgia/ remembrance activities with them. She was born in the war in a city so was really surprised at how different the rural experience was. Notably around rationing - which wasn’t such a big memory for the farming families she was looking after.

Why can't Rochelle be bailed to her mother's address?

Aside from everything else this storyline is far too soon after George's.

Compare and contrast?

everyone will have sympathy for joy unlike emma

Because the offence happened in Ambridge I assume the court intends to disrupt her networks and keep her away from the victims' home area

Why can't Rochelle be bailed to her mother's address?

Because Idiot Dayveed would be round with a shotgun.

One man’s idiot is another man’s hero

god yes, i get strong Kevin the Teenager vibes from her!

Not that i want to trivialise it but the PSA about Men's (or soldiers') Mental Health was jarring.

gosh David taking a shotgun to Rochelle would really help us out in terms of disposing of awful characters tho...

Joy didn't cover up and lie about anything. That's what people were annoyed about- not simply that she's George's mother. Emma's actions could have sent Alice to jail.

My feelings exactly - dragging out an unsatisfactory story in an unrealistic way. And all the VE day stuff feels so contrived too - just have a party on the village green and be done with it. They've dragged out Peggy beyond her sell-by date too in an effort to give her a big send off - she doesn't need it, her death will have enough ramifications anyway. She already has as much history and backstory as any character could ever need without having to fabricate more in her final moments.

There were two hugs in TA last night!! Is that a record?

I wanted Mick to pushback on Rochelle when she was blathering about Joy's neighbours and friends being part of the problem - there are abattoirs all over the country, why pick the one where her 'mam' lives? Selfish, childish twat

Offhand, I can think of very few characters who wouldn’t be better for a faceful of buckshot.

We're really supposed to like Joy aren't we, and think she's a vital part of the village, the way Usha was going on at her.
I had hoped she would leave after all this, but it seems very unlikely now. I don't find her likeable at all, she has no depth( because the SW weren't bothered about fleshing out her backstory), is nosy, a gossip, I have no idea why the villagers apparently like her so much.
I just hope when Rochelle is dealt with( unfortunately looks like she won't get banged up), joy, Mick and she can go into the background and we can actually hear from other characters. Hearing them so much recently has really put me off the Geordie accent, the Archers might as well be set in Newcastle. Do many there say 'us' instead of 'me', all the time like Rochelle does? I don't think Ruth does. It's extremely irritating.

I like the accents! All of them, real
and made up.

Longtime lurker requesting some info! I’ve been out of action and am quite behind. Listened to the episode where Rochelle is working at Casey’s and just vomited in the toilets. Last episode before that I caught was when Joy left her own home when Rochelle came back.

What’s happened in the meantime? Has Joy been back? Anymore on this backstory (They hashed out the fact that Joy legged it when Rochelle was 15, I know that, but anything else?)

I’m one of the minority who are invested 🫣

At Christmas, Joy asked Rochelle if she was still in ‘that group’ or something like that. I think she knows about her activism and kept quiet about it when she got the job at Casey’s. So in a way, not dissimilar to Emma and George.

That's a reach!! It's not in the least similar

The Talented Mr Shakespeare by Wilf Scolding (aka Kristiffur). On Radio 4 now.