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!

Ah, excellent birthday untangling! (I do now recall that Alistair and I are contemporaries!)

Is it just the website? I object to seeing my posts in baby pink; I’m not a toddler.

It is the website, and they are tewwibly pwoud of it.

And having My Posts emblazoned across it too - they think we’re toddlers!!

I hate change. I've managed to get my own posts back to green, but it's far too pale. There are a couple of threads in Site Stuff if anybody wants to make their views known.

I don't think I said yesterday that Charlotte Smith came to the June Spencer tribute, fresh from her outing to Ambridge. I really enjoyed the Countryfile episode about TA, and it gave me something to talk to my Mum about (she is a bit Countryfile fan and used to listen to TA, decades ago), so that was good too.

Oh god. I've just seen the My Posts label. No thank you.

I thought it was just my phone being weird so I'm glad you said that.

Edit - ooh pink!

Oh, I’m pink! (Am usually on the app so wondered what you were all talking about.) I like the pretty new colours on the mobile site - but I cannot go back to the Burn your ad-blocker! importuning, so will stick with the less excitingly coloured app.

I'm too tight-fisted to pay for Premium, so the "My Posts" button is redundant. I do have multiple usernames, so I suppose it MIGHT assist were I to have a bout of amnesia.

As I used to say to my family: "Just because you CAN, doesn't mean you SHOULD"

For the moment, my app looks normal.

I've switched the background colours of my posts and the OP's posts to the palest, most neutral colours and now the only irritation is the labelling of Original Poster and My Posts. This is pretty minor and I expect I'll be used to it in a couple of days. It seems pointless, though - change for the sake of change?

Mumsnet tech trying to justify their salary

Oh come on! Ben bought his sweatshirt in Underwoods!! Really? He’s aged 21! And has just finished studying and is looking for a job. No way is he shopping for sweatshirts in a department store…he’s going online or to charity shops for sure.

I liked the Paul-Ruari exchange. It sounded quite natural. And LOL at the embarrassing great-uncle---grandfather duo. I didn't mind this episode.

I wonder whether Martha being dressed as a carrot was a nod to predictions that she would most probably share the cognitive abilities of said vegetable thanks to being pickled throughout much of her gestation.

Alice having a strop about people making a public spectacle of themselves was pretty rich. But then she has the real self-awareness of a carrot herself.

Isn’t it more likely that one of Ben’s older female relatives bought the sweatshirt for him? Birthday / Christmas / Saw this in the sale.?

(It’s true he wouldn’t have gone into Underwoods on his own behalf.)

You’re right @TottersBlandly- it could have been a gift- although he would probably then have said it was a present from Gran/Mum etc. I am thinking Underwoods would sell men’s brands such as Hackett which Ben would very not be wearing…

Paul and Ruarhi made me remember the days when I would also think it was still early and a night out and shots lay ahead at 9:15pm. Sigh. I’m sadly reflecting now on how/when did that turn into thinking ‘oh it’s nearly bedtime’.

I can imagine 'Underwood's finest' being a familiar shorthand for 'it was a present from Gran/Mum/Auntie' among the boys and men of Borsetshire. Who generally don't actually object to wearing a dull but very good quality garment when going down the pub.

I also think both Brian and Justin would have gone to schools that enforced church/chapel etiquette firmly enough that even a lifetime later they wouldn't have started a spat inside the building.

I enjoyed the conversation between Ruairi and Ben, but also the application of Borsetshire fantasy geography to Canary Wharf. In real life it's a 5 minute walk from 'the museum in Docklands' to Canary Wharf, but the city farm (Mudchute irl) would be half an hour's walk - partly through Canary Wharf...

Mudchute is nice, until late 2022 the only home in the UK to a small but steady colony of monk parakeets (killed off to prevent what happened with ring necked parakeets).

They have been frustratingly vague about Ruairi’s financial situation. We don’t know the actual career he was supposed to be following, do we? And he’s been thrown off, or not retained by the graduate training scheme he was on? Presumably that paid for the Docklands flat with a view of the river? Who’s paying for it now?

I imagine he has always had an allowance from Brian, but London life is presumably much more expensive than rent free life in Ambridge - why are we not hearing any pertinent conversation with his dad?

Ha! I’m reading a Cormoran Strike novel (Troubled Blood) and our hero, on his 39th birthday, is unwrapping a sweatshirt - a gift from his sister. 😄

Isn't Brian meant to a Sherborne alumnus? (As is Chatles Collingwood IRL.) I would assume Justin is slso ex-publuc school. So yes, thry should both be aware of how to behave in church.

I was in hospital over Christmas with a woman whose husband volunteered at the City Farm.

I’m quite the expert now.

I took a group of children on a school trip there in 1986 when there was very little in the way of new building there. The inner city children had never seen farm animals before and when one of the pigs had a wee it was the most exciting thing all day. My favourite quote of the day from a little girl was 'That's the first pig's wee I've ever seen'. Happy Days.

Lovely! We were out and about today and saw quite a number of school trips in transit, using the tube and Overground. I'm always very impressed by the cheerfulness and can do spirit of the school staff on trips. I used to be utterly knackered by going on the odd one as a parent helper and I didn't have to teach a class the next day! Did you go to Surrey Docks Farm, @CaptainMyCaptain? We went there a few times when my children were little, a long time ago now. I have a lovely picture of a goat sniffing my son's toes.