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.

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, 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.)

Over to you!

Thanks again for this. As soon as I started listening, I realised I had in fact heard it before and am so pleased to have another chance to hear it. Radio at its best.

Not really.

So nothing came of the poison other than a recall? I’m surprised tbh

wonder when Helen will need to hire someone new at the dairy if the work is picking up again. Glad Clarrie had another chance though and is still being positive

do you think Joy actress has something on someone which means they have to put her in every episode?

when they do the VE Day bits it all sounds so wooden

Jack Archer tried to join the Army when war was declared, but failed his medical because he had a heart condition, so he was assigned a job as a clerk in a supply depot. Not in Ambridge, therefore, but not in the Army either.

It's a bit surprising, because normally if he was unfit for service he'd have been left at home to go on farming, in those circumstances; farmers were important as producers of the food the country had to have and could no longer import.

when they do the VE Day bits it all sounds so wooden.

And it doesn't matter which actor- they're equally wooden.

There was a heat-wave the summer after her father left them when she was 15, so it has to have been in 1990 (which I discount), 1995, which is not "late" 90s, or 1997.

Rochelle said she was 15 in the late 90s. I doubt the SWs bothered checking which years had heatwaves. 1995 is mid 90s not late 90s

Does it make any difference how old she is? She behaves like an angry teenager.

It's more stupid writing. Why would anyone say "they were 15 in the late 90s"?

You'd say "I was a teenager in the 90s," or here, "It was the summer of 1997, when I was 15"

God, that episode was dire. Elizabeth is a terrible actor, so wooden. Her, Clarrie and bloody Joy in the same scene was almost too much to bear.

As a ex criminal lawyer I shuddered when Usha not only offered a lift to Joy, but accepted her offer of a brew.

in real life, once you’ve done your thing in court and spoken to your client, you’re either straight back to the office, or home. The last thing you can be bothered with is more wailing from the family of the client when you’re off the clock.

yes I am horrible 😂

But Joy is so lovely and salt of the earth and kind and wonderful - how could Usha not want to spend as much time with her as possible?

ATM it feels like this is Joys world and we’re all just living in it

Joy isn't horrible but I don't understand why this storyline has become now not just the main storyline but the only storyline.

I also don't understand why several characters have disappeared -Adam, Ian, Oliver, Ruth, Will, Denise, Pip, Alastair [apart from 2 seconds of being a prop in the llama drama]. Have Kate and Jakob been heard since scam week? Alice?

Apart from all the random / new characters it seems as though The Archers has turned into the ‘mother’s apologising for their children’s misdeeds show’

Emma being held responsible / apologising for George
Elizabeth for Freddie - drugs
Joy for Rochelle
Tracy for Chelsea (the car scrape thing)
Helen for Jack (was it Jack?) when he broke the window at the rectory or church

I’m sure there’s been some dads too, but in general, it’s women wringing their hands and being held responsible for their children’s bad deeds. It’s boring.

In three of the above examples, there are no fathers available to be blamed/apologise/administer a sound thrashing to the wayward progeny. But then if a sound thrashing is administered, apparently you end up with Cloive, so what can you do? 🤷‍♀️ The proximity of the Mighty Am might be better exploited, if you ask me.

Whats with all the concern about the mother of Vince? Is she going to become a speaking character. If so, it feels very clunky.

I've actually found the Joy / Rochelle storyline interesting - we discover that Joy wasn't always so lovely (when she neglected R as a child), and also Rochelle's irritating, immature and impulsive behaviour and struggles with relationships are suggestive of a personality disorder (arising from childhood trauma).
But I have found the Rex/Rochelle thing (and the ridiculous cricket team storyline) annoying, and hope that Rochelle doesn't become a permanent Ambridge resident. How could she have been invited to join a cricket team when she's only staying with her mum for a few days or weeks? I thought she was going to take her 'bairns' and do a runner to France with them.

Yes! why does she keep being mentioned? Odd.

She's been a speaking character briefly before, hasn't she?

Vince's mother is just a way of not having Vince there. Not sure why. Instead we have Freddie's account of his virtues as an employer and a good man in a tight place.

Good to see the trustees' mistrust of Freddie brought up.

She has. Which is why I am hoping she dies of her hip replacement. Bab.

Yes, I mean that the stories themselves make that a feature. That we have to have mothers regularly prostrating themselves as a storyline at all, I suppose.

I think the personality disorder part would make more sense if what had happened to her had happened earlier on in her childhood, or more persistently. While it sounds traumatic, I’m not sure a few months when she was 15 would account for all of this, unless she had some type of predisposition to it already.

Hello all, thanks for the new thread .

There’s only one thing weighing on my mind from this week, but I’m thinking about it too much.

Adam and Ian went for a silent coffee at Bridge Farm and offered a flat white and an oat latte.

I like oat milk though avoid it these days for the seed oils and glucose spikes but even then I’d think a latte is a bit too much oat milk. An oat flat white and a latte would make more sense. Who is having the oat one though? They’re a farmer and a chef. I just can’t believe either of them are.