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!

Jazzer was def shifty wasn’t he.

I just listened again. Ambulance heard arriving before Eddie finished his call, which never happens in rural areas.

Jazzer sounded very odd.

Or in the heads of people wondering 'should I have done something different?'

But I can't imagine any of them except possibly Emma wondering anything of the sort.

I assumed the attacker called the ambulance!

well I must be slow on the uptake too but that does kind of make sense

The spin-off was mildly amusing, though a blatant plagiarism of An Inspector Calls. If the interviewing officer vanishes and is never heard of again, Priestley's estate may be able to sue.

That said, many moons ago I had a boyfriend who was an academic psychologist and used to play this game - people would answer a question and he'd just leave a silence that they felt they had to fill. The first time he met my sister, I had warned her and she dealt with it magnificently. It went question, brief answer, very long pause and then (Sis) "Sorry John, that's it. There isn't any more." To his credit, he laughed and apologised.

I don't think Jazzer did it. I think that (like many of us) he was just less-than-upset that it had happened.

Oh please say this doesn’t turn out to be a dream sequence!!!

What did the sound sequence at the end of Truth and Lies denote? More confusion!

And then I woke up and it was all a dream was an ending ruled out in my Year 7 students' essays.

So perfectly OK for the TA writers.

Our ambulance did when DH had a cardiac arrest in the garden. The call handler stayed on the line until the crew fell over my recycling boxes and galvanised watering can collection. It depends how far away they are.

Fallon having cut her hand on glass MUST be a red herring, right?

I have enjoyed today far more than yesterday. They immediately cast listener suspicion on most people, and I did enjoy that. I even quite liked the inspector calls bit, though I would have liked to have been able to listen again to each individual bit on Sounds instead of the app totally ignoring them!

Brian is currently highest in my suspicions. I think I'm biased by quite fancying it being him and watching him get hot under the collar and try to talk his way out of it. His interview was painful in that regard.

And have I understood this correctly - have we just found out that copper Burns had/is having an affair?

Well that’s 45 minutes of my life I’ll never get back! It felt like a guide to various characters in The Archers for people who never usually listen (the kind of commentary I have to regularly give for DH when he tries to tune in!) I suppose it might have been useful for people who want to start listening, but unnecessary for regulars. The only thing that was news to me was Harrison’s affair while up north - are we meant to assume that this was correct since summaries of the other characters were based on known facts? As a list of suspects it felt a bit flimsy - I can’t see any of those people deliberately bludgeoning George over the head with a bottle. The manner of the attack seemed more like the actions of one of Markie’s gang. It couldn’t in any way be deemed an accident - it very much appeared that someone was lying in wait - not done in the heat of the moment like George’s attacks on Ed. I thought Fallon’s cut hand and Jazzer’s reluctance to search a certain area were rather flimsy red herrings.

I’d like to know too please - the episode from today on BBC Sounds is just 12 minutes long so doesn’t include the interviews.

Well, I enjoyed An Inspector Calls - Ambridge Version. For those who want to hear the little snippets during the day, they were taken from AIC - AV, so if you've heard that or catch up with it, you've heard the snippets.

The interviews are in a separate programme called Truth and Lies - available on Sounds.

Without having to listen to it again - does the dream sequence idea make more sense giving the Policewoman seemed to know
more about Harrison’s life than he thought she would (threatening George?). Also that any affair could easily be a manifestation of George’s attraction to Fallon (wanting Butns to be the bad guy and leaving George free to pick up pieces?). I’m awfully ill and not sure how clear my listening/understanding is.

Although if a dream sequence, would David Payne not have made that clear in the podcast (or again did he but I napped through that bit?!)

I thought that was an excellent recap of several years of major Archers storylines for all the new listeners they have been trying to reel in with their many recent trailers. It did make the mini episodes over the day rather pointless, as they were all included, though much easier for those of us not listening all day.

Slightly underwhelmed by George's lack of rampaging. He got drunk and ranted at a few people. I was at least expecting something like the postbox burning, or Alice's brick through the window, a bit of graffiti across the church window or something more rampagey than we had.

Am try to work out whether hypothermia should have finished him off more quickly or if it might have slowed his demise, like they cool down bodies to aid recovery from some surgeries. Obviously he's not actually dead, but in hospital.

I assume the police look at the number which actually called the ambulance originally, in between the extensive suspect histories they managed in less than 24 hours.

I did enjoy WH on the women of Ambridge.

Neil. Eddie (and Mike, mentioned earlier) did not feature!

Grief! Proper Archers, then Inspector Calls, then Traitors, then Hiddleston.

My suspense muscles are aching.

Will have to leave the podcast for another day.

Not sure how readable this will be, but here’s how it all began. The very first episode listed in Radio Times, 1st Jan 1951.

Well I've started to catch up but the rest will have to wait until tomorrow.
I think we all need to appreciate it for the tongue in cheek drama that it is (most of the time). All good fun. Odd that Amber isn't on the cast list for the special 🤔

That’s wonderful to see, @Ambridge - though it was repeated almost word for word somewhere on the radio either yesterday or today.

But this:

… if a farmer wanted a day out, he had a walk round someone else’s farm …

is one of the many elements that’s lacking currently. In the past the interested parties from Brookfield and Home Farm in particular were always carving out time to visit distant farms and farming exhibitions and conferences to find out about innovative farming methods. They seem to have entirely lost that habit - apart from Helen occasionally going on safari to look at cows. (And Stella, sometimes, but she isn’t a landowner.) I just don’t get the feeling that any Ambridge farmer sees themselves as part of a community of peers nowadays.

I quite enjoyed Clive's "dad told me". Could have done with a few more in-jokes about silents. Might listen again tomorrow and make notes.
I thought T&L was a bit silly but I don't mind the excuse of it being not-entirely-of-Ambridge. Unusual that it was given that context by the continuity announcer, they don't normally give context.

I thought Jazzer might have been smoking weed or inhaling nitrous oxide (at a stretch, he seems too old for nos). I like his redemptive arc and don't want to go back to his previous version.