Archers thread #188: New Order, please! 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 love to spend time with Martyn Gibson, 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.)

In some haste as we are going out for the day. I was asked weeks ago to put I've Killed the Vicar in as the new title but I agree with more recent comments that Peggy's funeral feels like old news now. Great line, though. Sorry not to have used Markie Malarkey, though. I've settled on something that will only make sense to people who were also youngish in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Here's a clue. If a certain person appears in tomorrow's episode the title will be relevant.

Over to you!

Yes, it was Upton who put in complaints saying he felt “unsafe” and “upset” etc. because Peggie had said he shouldn’t be in the women’s changing rooms. I find it hard to see how a 6ft+ ex-hockey playing male can be “unsafe” against a 5ft+ petite female, but he painted himself as the victim nonetheless.

Hoping against hope that the TA team avoid this whole issue like the plague (notwithstanding my plague reference upthread ) as it is just so complicated and they would make a terrible hash of it on current form.

surely joy will find a way?
what about mick's van as temporary shop?
the barn?
the village hall?
the cricket changing rooms?

hate the bbc app

No one would be expected to close and clear a shop in 24 hours - even for emergency works (unless it’s a leak of some kind). And where is the great roster of volunteers- surely they would all pitch in and help pack up. Storage is the main problem as while there is no shortage of spare barns in Ambridge they need to be dry and without mice…

Is there a committee that actually oversees the shop. A casual listener would think that it’s Susan’s own business.

It was nice to hear Kirsty the other night although that’s possibly an indication of how I have been beaten down after months of Joy/Rochelle/MarkeyandthePirate.

Frankly, the idea of Rex mooning around on his barge missing Rochelle is laughable.

Was the script written by a three year old? You can't turf out a tennant and a business with a day or two of notice! It's not like there's been a flood or a fire....

Is this just a contrivance to get Chris and Alice to get back together? Prediction: she has a regretted ONS with Chris, accepts Brian's job and then discovers she's upduffed....

MathiasBroucek
Was the script written by a three year old?

The script was written by Sarah McDonald Hughes, who has been writing professionally since 2009 or so and surely must be over thirty, I should have thought.

Maybe Marky will buy Home farm from the proceeds of stolen meat and dangerous dogs. That'd probably finish poor Kenton off.

I really hope Vince doesn’t buy it

She could still run the farm while upduffed surely. Many farming families do.

A cafe in a park near me was closed with 15 minutes notice when structural problems were found. It was closed for a couple of years then re-opened partially for take aways with scaffolding inside and is now fully open but still scaffolded outside.

Hazel being a terrible landlord would be quite fun and of the times (Awaab's law coming in this autumn, though that only applies to social housing).

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime could you please remind me - wasn't Chris bought off with a cottage in the divorce, but then maybe he didn't take it for Martha's sake? Why isn't he somewhere better than a rented flat, did he not get any money?

I’d forgotten Chris lived over the shop.

Gosh it was so lovely to hear so many of the Aldridges together.

The Scandi vet lives in Chris's cottage.

Chris owns The Rookery (I think that's what it's called) and rents it out to Jakob.

Odd, isn't it. If I owned a nice little cottage I'd rather live there than in a poky rented flat up a narrow twisty stair* above a shop my incredibly nosy Mum runs with the assistance of a number of almost equally nosy volunteers.

*this idea of what the flat is like may be a figment of my imagination, admittedly

The stairs were certainly a problem. With Tomtashes twin pram

Would that still apply if it meant having your ex-spouse as a next-door neighbour?

Yes, I think so, if we were on good terms and co-operating well with bringing up our only child.

They are now, but not at the time!

One of the strange things about Ambridge is how much people rent houses and let out ones that they own, and pay to run their sheep on other people's farms instead of on the land they own, and employ other farmers to harvest their arable.

Is Alice Brian's favourite child?

He really loathes Adam, doesn't he?

I know people in real life who let out their own house and rented somewhere else because they needed to move quickly for work. I don't think this applies to anyone in Ambridge to be fair. Maybe Chris receives more in rent for the cottage than he pays for the flat.

I think employing other people to harvest is partly about who owns the expensive equipment and also about not employing people full time when they're not required.

Quite possibly.
Adam - step son, 'borrowed' from the business, have clashed multiple times
Debbie - step daughter, lives in Hungary, (TG too busy to be a regular)
Kate - wild child, unreliable wrt managing the farm
Alice - late younger daughter, academic, good degree, has stopped drinking (?)
Ruari (sp) - not showed an interest in farming, too young at the moment

I think I would also be a bit dubious if my step son had embezzled £5000. I think Adam is lucky he dis not end up with a criminal record.

Well, given the way that Adam has never failed (since he came home from Africa) to pick fights with Brian, argue against whatever Brian wanted done, talk to Brian in a truly horrible way, try to force his own pet methods onto Brian's farm, and generally throw his weight around, I'd say that loathing him was a reasonable reaction to him and his behaviour. If Jennifer had not invariably taken her son's side against her husband on every possible occasion, and threatened Brian with divorce unless he was nice to her darling, Brian might well have sacked Adam many years ago. If he'd been my employee I would have.

Brian didn't even sack him when he caught Adam with his hand in the till: he allowed Adam to resign and walk away.

Yet again, what insurers should be dealing with is left to a team of volunteers. Insurers would have organised ambient, chilled and frozen storage and possibly even a retail space. They would have paid out for for loss of business. It's CrapGate all over again.