Archers thread #186: Eavesdropping on a home for the terminally confused. 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'd swipe right on Dane, the new Grey Gables manager, 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/radioaddicts/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/radioaddicts/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.)

Thanks to @WitcheryDivine for the title inspiration. Over to you!

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g ... Just listened to the omnibus for 24th August 1980....

Thank you so much for that link! Amusing that even back then, Eddie was very much Eddie. But poor Clarrie ... so lively and up for having fun. If her father hadn't been such a miserable old git, she might never have married him (where him = Eddie, not Jethro, obviously. Note to scriptwriters: have you done incest yet? This is not a suggestion!)

And Tony has been Eeyore for 45 years.

I did laugh at the length of the church service scene. I suppose it was the Sunday episode, but still ... in 1980?

I’ve grown to love Lillian and I wish she was my aunt.

Thank you for those episodes @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g, they were a joy to listen to. Much more realistic content and dialogue than anything that's offered now.

The current crop of SWs should be forced to listen to them, show them how it can and should be done.

Another forgotten gem

Feel free, it was a chance Google result!

Thanks, Gasp. That archive episode was hilarious. The excruciating slowness of the church service! The silences! Auntie Cardboard….and even a classic ‘hello, you two’!

I’d totally forgotten about Tom Forrest doing the introductions to the film, too.

I am ashamed to say that I never paid much attention to Bath Olivers, but the local cheese shop has attempted to make something similar:
https://www.finecheese.co.uk/heritage-range-bath-squares?

If you do a quick google there are some online stockists (and the Fine Cheese Co do mail order across the country).

30th anniversary edition:

Single episode, so under 15 mins. New Year's Eve Party at Brookfield. Lots of old hands, including Dan Archer. 1st January 1981.

This is most of an omnibus - 26th June 1983. Just under 47 mins.

The uploader says:

The Bull landlord Sid Perks discusses holiday plans with daughter Lucy. Clarrie Grundy is upset that Eddie is paying too much attention to the barmaid Susan Horrobin, who is just being introduced to the series. Phil Archer is hoping to sell Willow Farmhouse, having bought the farm from Mike Tucker. Shula works for the land agentshandling the sale. Walter Gabriel is enjoying his new video recorder after his recent windfall (an accumualtor bet at the Derby). His son Nelson is in financial difficulties, as usual. Mark is hoping to rekindle the romance with Shula. Peggy dabbles in spiritualism, a very controversial subject with many of the listeners at the time.

I particularly enjoyed this one. Nelson Gabriel is my favourite Archers character of all time.

Clunky as many of these early 1980s episodes are, they've reminded me how I became addicted. There's time for the characters to develop because a lot of the time they're not saying very much, so it's more like getting to know people in real time. There's a far stronger sense of place too. So many scenes in The Bull.

I love Nelson too.

Rolling my eyes at the Helen & Dane stuff. Do people of their ages, with experience of previous relationships, really behave like school kids with their "does he like me" after one date. And how the heck does someone find Helen amazing, and actually say that out loud to someone?

What is Ian's job these days. I'm confused. Has he still got the pizza van? Where does he go to sell the pizzas? Who helps him with that? When I've been to festivals & shows there's usually more than one person doing the catering on a stall - they get pretty busy, especially if they're any good.

I think Ian has been appointed Head of Mindless Wittering On.

Another random discovery on YouTube. Very early Neil. Carol Tregorran before she started sounding oddly like Eleanor Bron and then lost her voice altogether. The uploader thinks this might have been 17th January 1975. There's a priceless line when Phil asks Doris (his mother) if she's heard from Kenton, who seems to have joined the Merchant Navy, and remarks how they never have to worry about him, in comparison to Shula, who seems to have been causing concern. How times changed later on!

I think Ian has got a woman doing the pizzering for him whilst he mithers about at GG.

Wonderful old episodes!! Maybe we should send a link to the mention of Neil's mum and dad to Feedback....

Oh, that would be epic, @JanglyBeads. Or it ought to be. In reality, even if they acknowledged the information, they would carefully explain to us that they’re writing for a new audience now - who want a relatable back story wrapped up in two weeks - so it’s their job to provide one.

Or just tell us patronisingly that of course Neil called his foster mother his mother.

More difficult to explain away the recent "everyone in Ambridge has always known he was an orphan" on-air schtick....

Hmm I'd then write straight in pointing out that if they're all about the younger generation maybe they'd like to consider that it may be rather triggering to anyone who's care-experienced to invent a false backstory around that theme....

Good point, Asking!

I don't remember much. But I do remember that Neil was young and needed assistance (from the chap who did the turkey adverts?? <or am I confused>).
I also think it is perfectly plausible for him to call a long term foster carer Mum. It isn't the 'done thing' these days, but not unlikely back in the day.

I guess it’s also because he implied he was in and out of care homes so would have been reasonably old when he got to the foster placement. Perhaps he was the only child they fostered but seems unlikely

i wonder if they’ve realised how ridiculous it was and that’s why it’s been dropped

My son made a stop at a charging station near Cambridge recently. They didn't need to charge but their daughter was tired of being in her car seat so they decided to stop. He said it was off a main A road - sorry, I don't know which one - and was like a petrol station without the petrol pumps. It has about 100 chargers but wasn't very busy. There were loos and cafes and a small version of a big supermarket. He said it was all very high tech - eg sales at the supermarket were all automated. It felt like an advert for technology. He didn't feel it was in any way a destination stop like Gloucester Services and he is not tempted to return.

Bruisername
I guess it’s also because he implied he was in and out of care homes

He didn't just imply it: he downright stated that by the time he was five he'd been in several different care homes. The synopsis for the day this steaming pile of ordure was unleashed on the innocent (and guilty) listeners, 1st January, 2025, states that Neil's account to Hannah was that he was in nine children's homes before he was five and that he was then fostered by the couple he called Mum and Dad. By then he'd made his way down the country from Southport via Liverpool and Birmingham to Worcester.

So it was in Worcester, not Birmingham, that his foster-parents Sandra and Dennis were said by him to have lived. And he was one of many children they fostered, because he said it was a bit like living in a train station with other foster kids coming and going and that he lived with them until he left school and started in Ambridge as a farming apprentice.

Not just in and out of care homes: in and out of care homes in quite different parts of the country: this would have all come under the County Councils. It's a longish way (130 miles) from Southport to Worcester, and different authorities are rarely keen to take in children from other counties without an excellent reason: it's a matter of funding.

So if he was 5 I can understand why he would call them mum and dad although I always understood that wasn frowned upon because you never knew if the placement would have to end

but the rest of it is so ridiculous that it doesn’t bear thinking about. I only hope it never gets mentioned again

I absolutely haven't listened properly recently.

However, if (big if) he had any bouncing in and out of care (eg going back to birth mum or other relatives) then if the carer moved around a child could end up with different authorities. Not convinced this happened in this case however.

Children bouncing in and out of care can still be a big issue, as each time they return to care their previous carers are probably full so they go somewhere different.

He was a foundling so no family to bounce around with