Archers thread #190: Carry on, Cleo! Best new character for ages. 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 be delighted to have your wedding reception across the lawn from the local Flower & Produce Show, 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.)

Charlotte Smith must have been delighted to get back to Countryfile and Farming Today. What a pile of piffle tonight. Ah well.

When is George expected back? It can't be long now, surely. It occurs to me that I can't recall whether he's ever spoken on air to Ruairi. As their actors are currently the best (IMO) amongst the younger members of the cast, I hope they will cross swords in some way.

And finally, I can't mention Carry on Cleo without squeezing in one of the best lines ever written (Denis Norden and Frank Muir have the credit): Infamy, infamy! They've all got it in for me! Currently, Lily probably feels this way.

https://youtube.com/shorts/eRnd48yTC5A?si=N05njp3uLfpSjAmI

Over to you!

I take it that Countryfile is an early part of the 75th Anniversary celebrations. It will be wall to wall Archers across the BBC and probably even mentioned on ITV and Channel 4 come 1st January.

🤣
very true! I always feel sorry for the banks after listening

I value my free bank account but I don’t think they’ll sustain them much longer with all the claims being made that they’ll need to insure

OMG thank you so much for this I absolutely LOVED it!!! Everything I love about The Archers - farming, the farm shop, cows, sheep, silage and Inkberrow, which is exactly how I imagine Ambridge. If only the BBC could take a leaf from its own book and focus more on this - the individual farms and farming families and the farming challenges they face (the dairy farmer paying herself 41p an hour 😯) Scrap the dog attacks, Wolverhampton gangsters and social media influencers - there's more than enough excitement in this everyday story of country folk.

Where did the money come from to pay the players

Lilly is so vile. The only reason she fessed up was because she felt bad. Not because she had done wrong or because Linda was suffering. It was all about her.... " I feel awful'

I remember at the time Linda was very much against it but Lilly rode roughshod over her objections. Still don't know why a village team needs a Director cricket.

Is it me or are the plots getting sillier? .and the script writing getting worse.

Vince paid

and as for plots getting sillier - sadly yes

Plots are getting sillier, but let us not forget there was a storyline about Walter Gabriel and his elephant back in the '60s. So it is not new. We just forget the worst of it.

(I only know of that particular plot line from Archers books, as I was not in existence at the time.)

An elephant? Well that could have made the FPS much more interesting

@Bruisername , why do MNers always blame their hormones? (apart from me, obvs)

I’ve been listening to more R4 lately during the day - am astounded how infantilising the presenters can be I listen to far less R4 than I used to.

Anita rani ... talking to the women... like they were toddlers I switched off before Cafe Hope, switched back on for World at One.

Winifred is interviewing a woman who has been completely feckless with money but somehow it’s the banks fault. And Winifred is like - oh I’m the same - spending online doesn’t feel like real money.
I ❤ Winifred

so I’m starting to think my current disgust with the archers may just be grumpy peri ness
It's not your hormones to blame.

@LillianGish , I wonder where Charlotte Smith got the Casey Meats shirt.

I don’t know - I have been getting PMT which I’ve never experienced before. It only twigged recently that one day before I just feel an absolute rage towards anyone in the vicinity. And I’ve certainly had my depression and anxiety rear up as well. Kind of hoping it is hormonal so at least I can have hope…

anyway, enough of my health issues

i I don’t tend to watch or listen to anything farming related on the BBC so do miss the distinct lack of it in the archers!

I’m also confused as to why everything is happening at grey gables and what kind of wedding guest thinks a flower and produce show is a buffet - did anyone gnaw on some potentially prize winning carrots? How small is green gables that the wedding wasn’t in its own area? How boring was the wedding that the guests had wandered off to explore? It would have made more sense if some goats had escaped bridge farm and been responsible for the carnage- and would have offered some excellent sound effect opportunities

Whenever I listen to You and Yours (or Any Answers, for that matter) I always imagine that the recording team must have to be soooo very careful not to scream of FFS at some of the people phoning in.

I am annoyed at the ridiculous Flower and Produce in stripy tents episode. SW has clearly never been to a "Show" (which is a bit sad as you would think they might take a bit of interest in such things).

Was it supposed to be funny?

I think my favourite was a call in about saving money - cost of living crisis etc

one caller spends ages talking about how she used to be a science teacher and her tip is to switch the kettle off as soon as you hear it boil as it won’t automatically switch off for another 10s or so. So you save a tiny bit of electricity.

and then a guy talking about how he was doing everything g he could to save money so that he could add £1k a month into savings

it was so out of touch!

@Bruisername , sorry to hear that. I was not troubled much by my hormones apart from when I took the Pill, which was horrible.

@Madcats , I like both programmes. You and Yours is usually on because it is undemanding. Any Answers is brilliant - I love the FFS element.

When I took the Pill it destroyed my libido. If only I had waited twenty years, menopause did it automatically.

I've just been listening to Saturday's Any Answers and there's a caller who has just come up with these gems, one after the other:

1. "As Mark Twain said (of the US and the UK) ... two countries, divided by a different language", and
2. "Probably there's less gun crime in America than in England".

I do sometimes feel sorry for Anita Anand. 😄

I wish we still had the laugh reaction!!

@Gonners , see, I told you it was brilliant.

I am a long-time Archers listener. These last couple of weeks it has been so dire, I'm only listenening every three days or so. I tuned in today and - nope - no better.

I'm sad that I'm late for the beans on toast discussion, so I'm going to blithely extend it here. Beans simply MUST be reduced to a thick paste before glooping over toast.

In other news for people to be angry at me about I tried my friend's suggestion of beans on salad the other day. It's really not bad!

God I hope Stella chooses the dog in the upcoming standoff.

beans on salad the other day. It's really not bad!
cold or warm?

SaffyRosie
I remember at the time Linda was very much against it but Lilly rode roughshod over her objections.

It was worse than that. Lily and Vince dreamed up the idea of Vince paying Rex and one of Lily's university friends to play for Ambridge; Freddie had grave doubts and said it would be divisive and the team wouldn't be happy, but Lily and Vince went ahead anyway. After the two had been paid for one match, Lily accidentally let it slip to Lynda that Rex would have stopped playing if it hadn't been that he was paid to do it, and Lynda immediately put a stop to the payments. So Rex and whatever-her-name-was-beginning-with-K stopped playing for Ambridge. And Lynda had not even known the payments were happening.

Lily ought to have told this to the team and immediately (in the same sentence) taken the responsibility for the mistake and offered her resignation from the title she invented for herself. But she is a cowardly little person and didn't.

Warm beans, cold salad.

It's not weird to me because I love jacket potato, cheese and beans with a side salad, and would eat that all day every day if I could!

Thanks. Are they Beans simply MUST be reduced to a thick paste before glooping over ... too?

Beans simply MUST be reduced to a thick paste before glooping over toast.

Are you getting help with this?

The reduced to a thick paste is wrong on so many levels.

I had baked beans mixed with leftovers and curry sauce for lunch. It was quite nice.