Archers thread #193: Christmas in Ambridge! Don't expect any wise men (or women). 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 love a couple of acquaintances to clean and tidy your house without your permission, 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/5457344-the-archers-spoilers-thread-11-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.)

What do we think - best Christmas ever followed by a nice quiet New Year? No, me neither. We have the tractor run to look forward to , and then whatever they've got lined up for the 75th anniversary of the first ever episode - New Year's Day 1951. I can't imagine that anybody involved with the programme then expected it would still be on the air 75 years later. I wonder what they would make of the current direction. The lack of farming content would be a surprise, given that was the whole reason for devising the programme in the first place.

Over to you!

i switched on my VPN then reinstalled sounds (Germany so maybe proximity helps?) and it works for me.

That was - ahem - a damp squib. Have reinstalled Sounds so i can listen today. So far the Woman's Hour thing was ok.

ETA: oh it's the BBC app. I use Nord VPN. The BBC spend a lot of time/energy trying to foil Nord VPN but after a few days it's ok again. Usually.

Mike Tucker (Roy's Father)

She was drunk, Tom told her not to drive and tried to take her keys but she refused to listen and drove anyway. She knocked over Mike and failed to stop leaving him injured in a ditch.

She then told Tom who insisted they go back and see who/what they hit and who agreed to say he'd been driving as he was sober.

Pat and Tony found out about this so it is rather rich that the Bridge Farm lot are so awful to George given Helen committed a similar crime, and the family colluded in the cover up.

Brian and Amber on The World at One! Now.

Excellent!

Thanks - it's at 35:35 for anyone catching up.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002nv16

I vote we club together and buy the BBC a dictionary. 'Horror unleashed' is not an altercation, and an obnoxious drunk shouting in a pub is not a 'rampage'. Clickbait.

or 'just' a severe brain injury for George - lots of scope for further anguish for Emma dealing with social services, residential care, pip...

Was glad to hear Lilian mention Auntie Chris!

I share your concern. What I love about The Archers and what keeps me listening (when I have long since given up following any other long running soaps/serials) is that it lasts 12 minutes which I can listen to at a time convenient to me thanks to Sounds. It’s a short commitment I can slot in around anything else that’s going on, but like @TottersBlatantlyTowardsTheBaileys I have a horror of missing anything in case I miss a vital detail. New Year’s Day is not a time I can be glued to R4.

I can only go by the Magnetic North map published by the BBC, but that's the map they have on the wall in the studio so it's likely to be the map the editorial team and scriptwriters are working from. https://www.reddit.com/r/Ambridge/comments/sptvcf/ambridge_map_in_the_archers_recording_studio_bbc/#lightbox (click twice to get the larger version of the map and cursor around a bit to see the things I am talking about here at a size you can read).

On foot, you come out of the Bull, turn right towards the Am, cross the bridge by the church and then take the footpath (dotted line on the map) past the graveyard and Church Spinney, which cuts the corner to a farm track leading only to Grange Farm. If you are scared of a footpath in the dark, you keep going along the road past the church and a row of cottages including Glebe Cottage on your right, past Ambridge Farm on your left, and then turn right into the farm track.

The first route involves about 200 yards on the public road from the Bull, over the bridge and as far as the short-cut footpath, after which there's about 500 yards of footpath and farm track. The second involves about 700 yards of road between the Bull and the farm track, and then about 250 yards of farm track.

There is probably pavement at least from the Bull to the church and the row of cottages, and may even be street lighting; after the cottages there is probably neither.

George would certainly know the footpath route, and I think wouldn't be afraid of it; it would be no darker than walking along the road, and less dangerous because you wouldn't meet any cars. On the other hand, at this time of year it's sure to be muddy and slippery.

Oh they're playing one of those 5 minute snippets now.

Emurrr and lady cop who is really quite patronising.

It's Rashomon style multiple accounts innit

Well - that’s clarified things somewhat.

Thanks, BBC …

Was the slap to George’s face on the 29th Dec Emma not Amber then?

Can these drop in snippets only be heard live? I can't find them on BBC Sounds

Ooh. The interviews are going to be good (somebody has dug into the archives). They referred back to Ed’s old drug habit and his pesticide years (Emma’s interview).

I wondered whether George was going to go up in flames (David A facilitating a Wicker Man type montage), but I think we are to being asked to believe that somebody bopped a very drunk George over the head with a bottle of chardonnay on the doorstep of Grange Farm.

Susan, Neil, Chris, Ed, Jazzer and Emma (and Keira) weren’t at the pub (David and Alice too).

I missed it! How can we listen again? Can’t see on catch up!

I would be very surprised indeed if these aren't extracted from the 45 minute special due to go out straight after TA tonight. (Mind you, I'm often wrong.)

Now that it's been broadcast, I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the snippet and the continuity announcer's lead in made it explicit that George is in hospital and has been very severely injured. The police are interviewing lots of people who might have wished to harm him. The first snippet was an interview with Emma who was desperate to be at his bedside. No mention of Keira.

Didn't Emma slap George a long time ago when he said some absolutely horrible stuff about her because of her affair with Ed before and during her marriage to Will? He was claiming that he was relentlessly taunted about this while he was at school.

It says upthread that they are extracts from tonight’s 7:15 drama, so perhaps we’ll have to wait until then, @LMAlcott .

I heard the first one by accident as I happened to be listening to the usual 2pm repeat from yesterday.

In the chaos of everyone leaving The Bull and heading over to the fireworks just about anybody could have slipped away, although given that people tend to want to be with their nearest and dearest at the moment of the countdown some people's absence would have been noted. Was Fallon working? Would anyone have noticed if Harrison wasn't there?

All this broadcasting of bits and pieces is really annoying me, like a PP I want to listen at the normal time without missing anything important. So far I've only heard Brian reminiscing about his affair(s).

yes.

Kinder all round to kill her, too.

Ah, thank you! That makes more sense (re the slap).

Was that on “The World at One”? If so, I must listen. I imagine Brian’s attitude to his affairs won’t be the same as many people on the Relationships board here would hold. Very self-justifying?

edited to add that I don’t mind all the extra bits once in 75 years, broadcast on a Bank Holiday, but understand why many others would.

We've just had another one. Brad this time. They're enjoyable to listen to but adding little we don't already know because the Inspector is confronting the 'suspects' with things they've done or said in the past. I am increasingly inclined to think she is a Priestleyesque inspector as it is impossible that the police could have pulled together all this background in such a short time unless the Inspector is a superfan.

Charles Collingwood was actually taking the line that making Brian into a serial philanderer was a wonderful boon for him because when he was first introduced Brian was a very boring character with a happy marriage to Jennifer and nothing very interesting to do or say.

Well, it was the actor rather than Brian the character, and he was just happy for an interesting story-line. I think it was on WATO, or as I think of it Twato