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!

I know nothing about this - but are they allowed to store food, intended for sale in the shop, in a random domestic house? As a customer I wouldn’t be happy about that.

Anyway, this story seems (as so many do on TA) ridiculous and ill thought out. I have some long ago experience of something similar - there was no question of turning us out of the house with two days notice based on a casual conversation. There would be letters: from the specialists, from Hazel, from the insurers … It’s the flood all over again.

Loathing Adam is an entirely reasonable stance and one I have adopted myself.

Yet another stupid storyline on the "spin the wheel" approach to script writing.

Can we please go back simpler times when TA was the every day life of country folk? Now it's the once in a lifetime disasters which happen every day in Ambridge.

Has anyone written to BBC feedback about the storylines? I'm tempted.

Well, in theory insurers would have dealt with it ... but bearing in mind the alleged urgency, when? I hear the evil cackle of Hazel ...

I lived in a rented flat for a while, renting out my flat to a tenant who also rented out the place he owned. We didn’t all live in the same village, but it was all just due to various changes in circumstances and space requirements.

I’m still fed up about the Adam theft story, as I’ve always liked him and felt it wasn’t in character - an incident like that IRL would completely change how you viewed someone but nobody gossips about it in Ambridge. If Alice takes over the farm and Adam is upset, it will show a deep lack of self-awareness. I know a lot of listeners find him annoying, but that kind of dishonesty, and failure fully to acknowledge it, just doesn’t match how I perceived him before. I suppose he could counter any criticism from Brian by talking about Brian poisoning the Am … but I don’t really believe in that either

I enjoyed Mia - she is nice in small doses. Also, although I don’t believe it would work out neatly in real life, I hope the drone footage spells the end of Marky!

Mia - she is nice in small doses

Homeopathic, ideally. I’m more than happy to oversee the dilution process.

If I had to describe Adam, pompous is the first word to spring to mind, rapidly followed by self-righteous and selfish. And (worst of all in a fictional character) dull! I could go on, but life is short. He and the equally-but-differently ghastly Ian richly deserve each other.

You forgot ‘touchy as a shaved monkey’, @Gonners , but I totally concur.

Seemed quite realistic to me. We used to have sheep on tick - we didn't have sheep ourselves, so low risk of infection. Contractors coming in for harvest is how a lot of arable is done these days, rather than paying staff all year and keeping big equipment. And there's quite a lot of rental housing on agricultural estates, though probably not so much renting of houses you can live in yourself. Mind you, my landlord is currently renting his own residence as he sold the flat he lived in and hasn't bought a replacement yet for a number of reasons.

ahhhh every time I come back to this thread I remember how much I love @RegimentalSturgeon

I’ve been a huge complainer on this thread about the soapy drama, so I have been very happy to hear Brian and Stella and Justin talking about farming and board matters tbh. Honestly for me, the more boring the better.

also so happy to see all the fellow Fife followers here too, I hadn’t thought about the overlap between this group and the group interested in the outcome of this tribunal, but it makes perfect sense really 🦖

Lol. I found it unrealistic that she couldn’t play back the drone footage without Ed to show her but I liked their scene together.

Yes Adam can be pompous and is certainly thin-skinned but I still like him! I quite enjoy his gloomy take on things. And much as I love love love Brian, I wouldn’t want to work with him. I think Adam is happier in his minimum wage Bridge Farm role (interesting that we now know HF provides a large chunk of the HF children’s income) and should stay out of the HF situation. He won’t, of course.

Unpopular opinion I know, but I'd like to see Chris and Alice get back together and have a happy life together. I know not realistic where alcoholism involved but I'd take that over some of the rubbish being churned out.

If Brian wants to keep management of the farm in the family then Alice is his best bet out of not a lot of good options. Nice hearing some farming chat lately.

I agree. I think they will. I don't know why so many people on here don't seem to like Chris.

Chris is a bit wet. I think he deserves better than Alice tbh but he is very obsessed with her. I don’t think it would be a healthy relationship if they reunited as she doesn’t seem as into him

I like Chris. I don't like Alice.

I don't like Alice but he seems to. At least, it's written that way.

I’ve been listening only sporadically so must have missed the exact reason why dry rot in the shop was suddenly suspected and then swiftly confirmed by a cheery jobbing one-man-band builder who seems to be able to start work immediately on what in the real world would be a massive and terrifying undertaking costing ££££££, and probably involving a highly specialist firm (and, as others have noted, insurance quotes from several different ones).

Chris reported that areas of flooring were a bit 'spongey'.

But didn't mention the smell. (sigh)

Exactly what I thought. I had it once in a rental, under the sink, and it was the smell!

Not near a big cricket ground?

I have found it quite pathetic but realistic that Brian doesn’t realise his kids are all itching to get the farm and instead thinks no one wants it.

Alice is the most like Jenny so I expect she is Brian’s favourite. I imagine when she’s sober she always dresses nicely, gets an Ocado delivery, gives Brian a nice gift wrapped suitable present for his birthday while Kate gives him some crystals and Adam turns up with a limp pizza.

Also is Alice not Brian’s only child born in wedlock? The two older ones were Jenny‘s children from her first marriage and Ruairi was complicated and only came to live with them when he was older - so not surprising Alice is the favourite.

I find it ironic that Alice has recently seemed to be Brian’s favourite daughter - given how mean I vaguely remember him being to Jenny around the time of her conception.

You’re forgetting Kate, @BridgetofKildare!

Aagh! How could I possibly have forgotten Kate!