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!

There should have been a tropical insert to remove the reference to Bondi beach.

Are you two doing some kind of punning joke? Seriously?

It would be a topical excise.

That would be too taxing for my tiny brain.

Oh really? You seemed to be trying to make a (very poor taste) joke:

I thought tropical deletion wouldn't do, so I suggest a tropical replacement. Is Sydney not sub-tropical?

OK, reporting you now.

And you are a genius! Thank you. I knew it existed and couldn't think of it.

(and what on earth was wrong with my previous posts? I am now as baffled as a regiment of surgeons.)

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime , I wouldn't say genius. I didn't use words that suggested a silence in the programme because I felt such a silence would be intrusive. I do feel that they should have had the actor or actors of that scene to re-record the lines.

Well, given that exsert is a verb that means to thrust out, it was the wrong word, but is that really a reason for my posts to be cast into the outer darkness? I did ask for the right one!

UserNom, are you able to explain why you reported me, without repeating the actual offence I unwittingly committed?

We’re supposed to think that TA happens in real time, so it would have been artistically sound to excise or alter the Bondi Beach reference, but it seems excessively precious to feel it should have been removed on the dubious grounds of ‘good taste’. But TA ceased to bear much resemblance to a professionally produced programme long ago.

Yikes what happened here?

Ok the BB reference was unfortunate timing but given the lead times for recording I doubt anyone even remembered the line. Sometimes we need to stop looking for offence where there was none intended.

Hear, hear.

You did not see what was written. As it happens, I quoted one of the posts as text. Look back to my earlier post.

The one of mine was a joke about a word having two meanings. Not sure why that was considered offensive.

No I didn't see earlier posts, I was only referring to the BB reference in the script rather than posts on this thread. I think it can be easy to accidentally offend or upset with posts or texts as we naturally apply our own feelings to the words. I know I do it all the time! I'm sure no harm was meant.

As much to the point, Lily was heading for Perth, not Sydney, so Cottesloe would be more appropriate.

Yes I agree and also why was it news when Helen said to Tom and Tony about Chris spitting up with his girl friend, he was only with her 5 mins. As if they were bothered.🤷‍♀️

The trouble with Joy is that I think she was introduced to be the ‘new Lynda’, but was given no time at all (in village years) to bed into the community and no plausible back story.

Lynda and Robert had the B&B so it made sense for them to be in the Bull, in the shop…caring about the community/village. Robert had an interest in birdwatching, Lynda am-dram and then we shouldn’t forget they had dogs and llamas!

Joy just turned up, without any obvious explanation why a divorced jobless middle aged lady would move to a rural executive house from the urban north-east.

I will never fathom why we were subjected to months of “Joy and Mick” at the start of the year. It just annoyed me. It felt as if each of the writers wanted to get her involved in something without realising that she was getting involved with everything!

I am still struggling to understand the Joy character. How old is she? What are her sorces of income? How did she afford an executive home in Borsetshire? How does she fund the maintenance of said home?

The bizarre back story with the daughter did not explain any of this. There was no high paying career, lottery win, super wealthy ex or deceased partener with life insurance (or did I zone out for that?)

IIRC, Joy was portrayed initially as very much a gossip, a busybody and a tiresome 'nosy neighbour', provoking loud cries of dismay from eg Kirsty because she was forever prying into what didn’t concern her, and rabbiting on endlessly if you were unlucky enough to be trapped in conversation with her.

Then there was the unfortunate incident when she lost her head over Tony (incredible as that seems) and had to be put straight.

They’ve pivoted a bit now, especially since the dire Rochelle interlude, as she’s been crowned the universal Good Fairy of Ambridge, and I don’t think we’re supposed to think of her as annoying and tedious any more. But some of us think she hasn’t changed at all…

The ‘no visible source of income’ thing is incomprehensible.

It’s quite impossible to take anything about her seriously - so her ubiquity is infinitely multiplied.