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!

Anyone listening to Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti on Front Row? She’s talking about her new play ‘Marriage Material’. And about TA.

I remember feeling cheated when I realised she’d stopped writing for TA. I obviously can’t recall exactly which episodes she wrote - between 2012 and 2019, including Helen and Rob - but I know at the time a few of her episodes impressed me.

Bruisername
Still odd he never mentioned meeting Lillian

Even odder that in spite of her having spent a lot of time visiting Peggy recently, he clearly didn't even know who Lilian was and had to ask what relation she was to Peggy.

Crispin not knowing who Lilian is was … gobsmacking. Hard to get one’s head around …

Actually i think it’s odd Lillian hasn’t mentioned meeting him and none of the family who visited her seemed to know who he was.

i suspect him not knowing who she was was to signal that he didn’t really listen to Peggy

I'm starting to think there are no actual human scriptwriters, it must be some kind of AI bot, because they seem to have no idea whatsoever about human relationships.
Peggy presumably was close to the awful "Father Crispin" if she asked that he would conduct her funeral, she was a 100 year old woman with children, grand and great-grandchildren, there is no way that she wouldn't have mentioned her daughter Lilian to him. Surely if Lilian visited her almost every day he would be likely to have met her anyway. It's just yet another thing that would never happen in real life.

Maybe she wasn't actually close to Father Crispin, but DID NOT want Alan to do it. And specified that he was not to be inside the church!

I guess that the scriptwriters, including Keri, are urbanites who have little experience of extended country families.

As well as a farming consultants for the scripts, they clearly also need "aged parent" and "extended families" consultants.

I'm sooo bored of everything to do with Peggy and her blasted funeral. And the re-writing of Peggy's character.

Kate was foul tonight.

I knew Hugh Dennis would be good as Father Crispin. He's about as loathsome as the evangelical vicar played by Darren Boyd in Rev, for those who saw that.

New thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/5351848-archers-thread-187-send-not-to-know-for-whom-the-bell-tolls-it-tolls-for-peggy-discuss-the-archers-here

I suspect you're being unfair, and that this is just indicative of his character. He didn't sound like someone who has any interest in his flock's personal life, or indeed anything but himself. So if he saw Lilian frequently he didn't particularly notice, and if Peggy told him all about her he just switched off and didn't take any of it in.

In fact, he's so unsympathetic that I'm wondering whether it's going to turn out that Peggy's left everything to him and we're going to have an undue influence storyline.

"Inmates from The Laurels"

😅

Hugh Dennis's father was a bishop so I’m sure he’s been around plenty of vicars in his time to be able to play one convincingly.

I agree that it’s all most odd. We’re being told constantly that Lillian was the devoted daughter who went up to see Peggy every single day, shared everything with her, rang up for a chat when she wasn’t actually there, and now there’s a huge hole in her life because that’s all been whisked away at a stroke. And yet she’d never encountered Crispin, he’d never encountered her, and doesn’t even seem to know who she is.

Plus, Peggy - one of the world's truly great will-shakers - said not a single solitary word about either Crispin or the dementia charity bequest. I find that vanishingly unlikely given her previous discussions of her will revisions.

I think she chose Crispin purely because he isn’t Alan.

and wasn’t there some sort of rift between Kate and Alan years ago or am I imagining it?

she chose Crispin purely because he isn’t Alan

There are worse reasons 😂

I did an Open Farm Sunday many years ago.

The only thing I can really remember about it was the trailer ride around the fairly pristine farm, during which the driver pointed disparagingly across the valley “that isn’t ours; it’s a Grundy Farm!”

When I pop my clogs can you all please ensure Alan doesn’t do my funeral too? Ta.

I'm sure St Stephens is at least an average size church - despite Peggy's" popularity " I'm surprised Kate thinks it will be standing room only, presumably the last big funeral would have been Jennifer ?

I have been to funerals which were standing room only. I didn't mind standing, but I would have liked an order of service. They had a large heavy duty gazebo/marquee-without-walls by the church entrance (I was standing because of the A303 was most of my route there, so i arrived before the start, but not very early before.)

I hope they are planning to print more orders of service than they think they need.

The average capacity of a church is about 200. Peggy was over 100 years old and has 2 surviving children, 8 grandchildren and 11 grandchildren. They will be accompanied by partners or spouses. Her sisters-in-law, great-nieces and great-nephews will attend.
There could easily be more than 200 in the congregation.

The parish church where I lived as a child uses the village hall for the people who don't fit into the church.

I'm not really religious but is Crispin a COf E vicar or is he Catholic? Because if he is C Of E then surly you just call him vicar not Father Crispin. In any case he was very rude to Alan and you can see (hear), him smirking when he was talking.
Kate can be very beastly when she wants. What does lovely Jakob seen in her.🤷‍♀️

With the boxing, kettlebell and “muscular” Christianity references and it’s almost like they’re implying Peggy was Andrew Tate-ified. Another earnest PSA no doubt!

he's one of those "so high Anglican that he may as well be Catholic" types, isn't he?

he was absolutely vile to Alan, both when they were alone and in front of Kate & Jakub. Kate enjoyed it i think, but she's horrible. Jakub seemed very uncomfortable with it all. Holding a grudge and boycotting the local church over not wanting to aggrandise the starry twins is very un-christian.

Alan is being a bit daft, of course there will be plenty, too many, people there. If they're not related they have to be there performatively by way of doffing the cap to the village matriarch. And it was very clear during her lifetime that she had no time for Alan at all. I don't know why he's being surprised. Urgh.

@Nettleteaser101 , you wouldn't call him vicar, as he's not your vicar. The 'Father Crispin' is acceptable but seems a bit old-fashioned.

Anglocatholics (High Church, smells-'n'-bells Anglicans/CofE) often go by "Father" and "priest".

When I used to go to church - CofE High church - we had a Father.