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!

Are there no relief milkers in Borsetshire?

Am I the only one who thinks Leonard sounds like Wallace?

i feel like a Grundy would happily take on some milking work - George?

this dead farmer sl is a load of old shite though isn’t it? And why do we have a new character with a weird voice/accent? Was her little speech supposed to be moving? Did this woman not go to school with any of the villagers? Why are they trying to make us care about a new character? Does Ruth only help people she likes?

given her job I suppose she can work anywhere

I'm regretting listening again tbh

I've only ever heard it es-may and not es-me

Oh they covered themselves by making the daughter useless and having no access to his money

i always imagined the NFU would have a benevolent find at least

Looks like selling the Mulligan place might take a very long time.

How old is Esme supposed to be though? I assumed Mulligan was about 75/80 so his daughter would be 45/50( even though she appears incompetent) , old enough to be Ben and Josh's mother! So not a potential wife in the slightest!

I noticed Ruth being all over Esmé with offers of things they could do for her, and Leonard being the voice of reason about perhaps not going OTT about helping.

I assumed Mulligan was about 75/80 so his daughter would be 45/50
I know a farmer in his mid 60s, his DD is about 12.
There's a younger DC. The farmer's wife is younger than him.

@TheCrasher ... Yes, and Brine is 59 years older than Ruairi.

@Gonners , the chap I mentioned is married to the children's mother, and neither were previously parents or married. They married before starting a family.

I think that Esme is in her late 20s. She's made a good impression on her future MIL already.

Ooh, I hope Pip will dislike her. Silently.

Mulligan's wife died 8 or 9 years ago. If she had died surprisingly young( if he had married and had a child with a much younger woman) surely it would have been mentioned in the last couple of days?

STOP CALLING HER ESMY, you insufferable witch. Had they never heard of diacritics in the filthy northeastern swamp you crawled out of, in your clarty doongereez? FOAD, Rooth.

No offence intended to actual denizens of Prudhoe or thereabouts.

So you think the Mulligan parents named her with an é, eh? I can't remember how she introduced herself and life is too short to listen again.

@RegimentalSturgeon , Esme said it as Esmy. Ruth wear a boilersuit, and is lovely.

How did she introduce herself? I have never heard it pronounced the way Ruth pronounced it!

She's Esme on the TA episode.

Whatever Esme said didn’t grate on the ear, make my teeth itch, or my toes curl, so I can’t think she was (mis)pronouncing it the way Rooth repeatedly did.
The short-arsed besom has form for wearing dungarees, quite apart from otherwise also being a thundering see you next Tuesday. The only thing she would look good in is her shroud.

Over.

why has pip not stepped up?

How dare you! It is Esmy. There's nowt wrong with being northern.
I am absolutely disgusted that you could be so vile about Ruth.

I've never met anyone called Esmé - or, for that matter, Esme. Or a Meriel, for that matter ... though I did have a foster-cousin called Muriel, if that helps?

She's making Fat Rosie's tea.

With any luck she's slipped on the lard-droppings and will never speak again.

We need the laugh emoji.

I'd have posted 'supper' but some strange people disapprove of the word or think it's a cup of cocoa and a biscuit.

Actually the character said Ezmay.

I would have used the word dinner because I would imagine it’s a substantial meal

i was reading an article about how Duchess of York used to insist on a chicken, side of beef and some other meat every night when the girls were young (most went in the bin) - I can imagine that’s what pip is doing

A former colleague named his daughter Esme - she's probably secondary school age now. And I knew a Meriel at home, a guide leader.

Dinner is midday.
None of it will be binned and it will be pasta and pesto followed by GreatGran's millionaire shortbread. Slabs of it.