Archers thread #192: Village of the Dammed. Discuss the beavers here. Throw in the odd word about the Archers if you must.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

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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.)

I'm more excited about the arrival of the beavers than anything else going on in Ambridge at the moment. I hope there will be a webcam.

Bets on how much of next week is set in the castle or on the way there/back? I'm bracing myself for at least 50%.

Oops missed the new thread. Glad to see I’m not the only one celebrating Tom’s week of pulling up sprouts and being a miserable tosser while Natasha goes to drink single malt with her father in law.

Phoebe is terribly dull and always has been, I hope some crisis is not going to bring her back to live in Ambridge.

The utter ridiculousness of yesterday really annoyed me, but also reminded me of one afternoon my mother ordered me to take three of my aunties out for a drive (they were visiting and she needed her dear sisters OUT of the house for a few hours) and it took about an hour to get away while they all dithered between what thickness of cardigan, jacket or no jacket, which handbag, and maybe just one more wee before we leave. To be fair, none of them proposed moving cattle in the middle of it all.

At the same time, I did admire the whole Tony Fights Back vibe, I hope the people who do the holiday win some sort of cash bonus and that Tom resents it for ever.

My fil runs an identical business to Bill in the same part of the country - Cambridge educated and wears nothing but tweed. I don’t think Car dealerships are the business the SW’s think they are.

I thought that this just shows how selfish everyone is who are going on the trip. Firstly the one who organised it is late and overslept, Tom and Natasha just wanted Pat and Tony to look after the twins and farm because they had worked so hard all year round and deserved a holiday no matter that Pat and Tony are getting on a bit. Everyone else was late.
I felt for Jackob, if that was me I would say Im not going you lot drive yourselves.

I'm celebrating it too, but it really is totally irrational that Natasha is going on the Archer family holiday whilst Tom, as a member of the family, isn't.

I completely agree @GoodQueenWenceslaus. who is going? Ruairi, Natasha, Justin, Hazel, Jakob, none of them blood relatives… it’s completely illogical - why introduce such a bizarre stipulation in the will and then not stick to it? I’m beginning to wonder if anyone will be going anywhere after yesterday. I haven’t watched Traitors so if this is intended as some self-referential hommage by the BBC then it’s completely lost on me, it just feels highly contrived and not very well executed.

I don't agree - out of Tom and Natasha, she has prepared her business for her absence.

He has not done that, and in addition wanted to leave a micromanaging list to a man who taught Tom all he knows. And then he started the wheedling about how the Twins need their mum? I would have punched him and walked out over his supine body in my high heels wheeling my case behind me.

Tony was an arse, first for helping with the cows but mostly for not actually telling anyone he was doing that.

Tom, Natasha and Lilian should have just left without them all.

Forgot to say amazing title @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g.

Reminds me of a very old thread on here where a poster was unable to hold it together when a colleague said proudly: “My wife is a beaver leader!”

I had to think quite carefully about the wording.

<Re-reads title. With more care.>

<Applauds. Belatedly>

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - thanks so much.

I liked that episode - particularly the Tom hoisting!
@Maggiebell my ds is with a violent woman currently on electronic tag who lied and tricked him into getting her pregnant. The baby has arrived (paternity unknown by her own admission). We are safety planning with him. It’s very worrying. And baffling tbh.

I also have a big family. And that level of faff was completely believable. It gets no better when you’re actually on the holiday.

Do we know what Amber’s reaction to George’s proposal was all about?

Also a traitors homage will require a dedding, a murder to be precise.

I think the continuity announcer made a double entendre on Friday evening.

Oh dear god how long do we have to put up with this interminable holiday, that hasn't even started yet 🙄

Helen and Findlay the Scottish sheep farmer?

It’s too much to hope for, isn’t it?

😁And so far from Ambridge.

Maybe the whole non-Archer attendance is exactly because there shall be a dedding. Glad Lilian stood up for Tony and completely ignored what might happen to Tom. I'd have told Tony to take the bloody train though.

I don't think that 'new characters can't be middle class thing is true - where does Jakob fit in? Joined in 2019. Azra joined in 2023. Amber is surely middle class with that level of affluence, even if she didn't continue her education (yet) and has a retail job in agri supplies.

Hang on. How many bedrooms are there, and how many bunks in each? I thought they said four, of which three are allocated to the women (Helen and Leonie, Lilian and Kate, Hazel on her own because nobody would want to share a room with her); where will the men be sleeping? And where will Phoebe go? Presumably with Kate, and everyone has to swap around.

And who on God's green earth agrees to be separated from their luggage on a trip like this one, and why?

Nooooooo! Please don't wish Helen on us north of the border! Hands off Mark Bonnar, ye wee hussy!

Jakob - on a vet’s salary, is still renting six years after arriving. Azra has been given an admittedly lovely plumber. Amber has been given a joke cockney dad and an incomprehensible back story.

(Whereas J*y - deserted by a useless husband and left to bring up a child alone - was able to buy an executive home in a place to which she has no conceivable connection.)

Sorry, @FizzingAda - I think it would be perfectly lovely for Helen and her boys to spread their wings. And if we were to hear from her new partner even once a year I’d be content.

What do you mean bunk rooms? I thought this was a luxury holiday?

Come to think of it why did no one suggest breaking the journey at Shula’s, isn’t she near Carlisle? Haven’t listen tonight so apologies if they’ve all ended up with the Ecru One.

So did they.