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've just bought eight white cotton pillowcases. And two new duvet covers. 144 new pillowcases would be bliss, as long as the pocket part is nice and deep.

Are there many Plumbers married to GPs?

Phew. Had my flak jacket handy in case Joyless won.

Another new character. It would be nice to hear more of the long-established ones.

I suspect we’re not supposed to ask, @Lalgarh!

(Though it’s seemed vanishingly unlikely from the start.)

Good attempt at establishing a Rural burrrrr.

If he'd had the farm that long surely David (farming the area for 3 generations as he said) would know who Mulligan daughter was?

And Oliver let Zanab look in the personnel files?!!!!!!

Of course he would. This whole storyline is ridiculous, even for The Archers.

Brookfield was leased to David's father's father's father's father's father at least, so rather more than just the three generations David claimed, unless David means only "we have owned" when he says they have farmed the land for three generations.

Did he include Pip in that? Because he should have: she is a different generation from him, and she is farming at Brookfield.

The whole thing is really ridiculous, it's so that( I predict) they can have a reason for the Maliks to suddenly buy a farm, which is even more ridiculous. Clunky hints about that tonight with Akram being an incredible milking man and khalil liking animals so much. Of course in Archerworld those couple of things instantly qualify you to be a farmer with 120 acres. Does azra even like animals?

Didn't Akram say his family had had a farm? Something about it not being as big as David's.

No doubt his fathers inheritance will cover it 🙄

That was really odd. The first scene with the Mulligan daughter almost convinced me she was being played by the Zainab actress. In the second scene she'd gone full Mummerzet and sounded totally different.

It's not been a good week so far.

@RuttleTuttle , given how common a few surnames were where I grew up, it was usual to refer to them by first name or first names. They weren't very imaginative with first names either. There's more variety in first names now but there are still duplicated names.

We generally used Firstname Surname or Firstname Middlename, depending on what would identify the person. My mother was quite confused when she was new to the village because she didn't realise that a name like Tom James didn't mean he was Mr James. Even middle names were picked from a small pool.

If the surname was unusual, they might have been 'Mulligan'.

@DeanElderberry , the steak was ordered 'well done' because the Grundys are the rude mechanicals, as if we didn't know.

Maybe (I know it might be unusual but hey) it is possible to prefer well done steak to medium rare steak?

tsk, @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime, is that a plea for tolerance and understanding - don't you know me by now?

I was just offering a possibility; some people do like their meat incinerated/carbonised. Just because I don't that doesn't mean they are wrong. Misguided, perhaps....

If you'd grown up (not) eating steaks you couldn't cut with a knife, you'd have gone vegetarian young too.

There was a medical student in my year who was engaged to a plumber.
I don't know if they did eventually marry but she was planning to become a GP.
I found we had so many medics and vets in the family that a plumber or builder would have been a lot more useful.
You don't need that many second opinions.

I have completely gone off Lilian. That was really nasty of her ☹️.

Lilian is an idiot. But we knew that. And there is no shame in being a plumber or improbability in a GP being married to one. Very sensible, I would say!

I didn't understand why she did it.

This caught me out too! She sounded if anything a bit Manchester in the first scene.

What’s to become of Esme Mulligan then? Was that her name?

Come to think of it surely a knock down priced farm for Stella to take over and potentially take Pip away from Brookfield?

I must have missed that bit, I was making cooking! In that case I'd say it's almost certain they'll buy it. Funny how there's been no previous mention by the Maliks of any farm, but that's the SW all over.

Her accent was all over the place! I thought she sounded exactly like Zainab, then after that some random other intonations came into her voice.