Archers thread #194: Bottled on the Bridle Path! Discuss 75 years of 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 wishthat we'd heard the Reverend Shula preach over the festive period, 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.)

I am all Archered out after the excitement of the 75th anniversary yesterday, the special drama (Truth and Lies), the podcast, you name it. Now it looks as if George is going to pull through, the hype seems a bit overdone. So it's over to you!

True 😀 although I was quite excited in the run up to NYE, mainly because there were rumours of a rampage.

Maybe that is the problem, the SWs thought that WAS a rampage.

We were supposed to have a rampage, we were supposed to have police coming knocking, neither happened.

Instead we have a suggestion that a man in a very in-demand and well paid and respected trade should go and chuck it in and pick cabbages instead.

Yes, @DeanElderberry - that was complete madness. I mean, we know that Akram comes from some sort of farming background (or do we? I may have imagined this), but why this would inspire him to work in the polytunnels is beyond me. Personally, I'd rather be a competent plumber.

I'm just surprised that Akram isn't more in demand as a Plumber in Borsetshire

I have a sinking feeling that Pa Malik is going to become the male version of Joy. Here, there and everywhere.

Catching up and loving people's descriptions of George.
@dotdotdotdash "charmless, self-pitying lout"
@muddyford "Noxious Scrote Junior"
@Madcats "knuckle-dragging misogynist"

By the way does anyone else watching The Traitors see Fiona as very similar to Joy?

I do find it unconvincing how last year's storyline of hostage taking in the abbatoir by Rochelle's pals has been forgotten, (any charges? Conviction? Rex the devoted boyfriend just dumped?). Likewise Joy abandoning her daughter as a young teenager due to domestic abuse, also abandoning a dying /decomposing Alsatian while later claiming to be a cat person, Joy the nude model....so many hints at a past with at least some interest to it but now all abandoned, ignored for New Joy, the childish do-gooder whom no one can resist.

It's like that game of consequences where you write a part of a story and fold it over so the next writer can't see what's already been said!

Maybe (in my alternative TA universe, definitely) someone will do a George on Pa Malik, only giving it some proper welly this time. They can use a brick rather than a bottle in deference to his religious sensibilities, I’m not fussed about that.
Just silence the boring git for good.
As for his missus, advising ‘mindfulness’ for her patients. 😡Make that two bricks, with a third for bloody Ruth.

Exactly. He should be coining it. It's a wearing job for an older person on the whole though.
I remember the plumber, early 50s, who did work in our house in the UK, training up a lad to help as well as re-training as an electrician precisely because of the physical wear and tear.

If the SWs plan at all, then they presumably are looking to have him go back to the land.

The main issue I have with Ruth and Akram waxing poetic, is that in my experience, people don't tend to wax poetic. The dialogue was just ridiculous. In principle, I have nothing against Akram wanting to return to his farming roots. But there's got to be a more realistic way to present this story line, without the poëtics. Please.

Joy is desperately aggravating with her vacuous cheeriness and banal advice. And she was gaslighting poor Fallon for not wanting to do much for Burns night as though the poor woman doesn’t deserve a break!

On Thursday Jazzer said Martin Gibson had found a temp to take over from Hannah. Where has she gone?

It's odd how employees and business persons just vacate the village for weeks with little notice and reason.

Though with Hannah she has her mother to worry about.

I have been thinking this for some time. Lose loads of listeners and then it is easy to reduce the number of episodes. Although that may be a blessing.

Phew! It’s taken me yonks to catch up with this thread.

So, David and Ruth are going to decide who gets the farm, then? I wonder 🤔…

We've seen more than we'd like of our plumber recently (he’s a very nice man but our boiler had to be replaced just before Christmas and then the new one needed adjusting, which wasn’t good news).

His phone was ringing roughly every 90 seconds and he was solidly booked with other jobs. And yet Akram is able to waft around Ambridge like a kind of latter day Fotherington-Tomas ('Hello clouds! Hello sky!) offering his services with polytunnels and suchlike to all and sundry at the drop of a hat. It’s not the first time he’s turned up unexpectedly and offered to pitch in, thus Saving the Day.

Is he really a plumber? Or is he like one of those men who've lost their jobs and still go out every day, taking sandwiches and telling their wives they'll be home at 5 as usual, only to sit on a park bench all day? 🧐

I grew up on a farm, and we never called a plumber, because we were on a farm and had all the tools. So I can believe there is less demand in Ambridge - but less, not none at all. Dunno if he is gas registered - you'd expect lots of boiler calls this time of year.

Pa Malik is actually even more annoying than Joy. I can’t believe I have said that but it’s true. His conversation with Helen (who no one likes but is actually quite sensible) was excruciating. She grew up on a farm- while she is proud of it she (and Ruth in the scene before) would have been rolling their eyes at his over-sentimental idealised version of farming life.

Okay, I must have missed a hefty bit of the Archers before Xmas. Why is Ruth suddenly worrying about inheritance tax and what needs to be sorted by April?

god it is just such lazy bloody writing. The SW should be ashamed of themselves.

Loved loved loved Eddie and Brian. I can't quite believe i warmed to Eddie after all these years! Was hugely irritated that Clarrie didn't tell Will to sit right back down and stop being a knob.

Irritated that Emma didn't slap Will and tell him to sit right down and stop being a knob.

Irritated that George didn't say "but i want to eat nana's food, it's great" and not go with Will to buy sausage rolls.

So so so so bloody annoyed that apparently the off-screen baddie is apparently going to apparently be the culprit.

Lazy lazy lazy bloody scriptwriting (also ditto the burnt food thing. Grrrrr)

Maybe Pa Malik is just not a very good plumber and has bad reviews online.

This is why I just love this thread. In the last three posts we’ve had sausage rolls, inheritance tax and plumbing! 😂

I don't think you've missed anything (anyway, if you did, I did too). I think the production team have finally grasped the nettle and are preparing to tackle (a) the current thorny issue of changes to inheritance tax for farmers and (b) the Brookfield inheritance. David is not far off 70 now so they should be thinking about retirement, or succession, anyway.

I find this whole succession storyline unlikely. I would have thought succession planning on farms takes years, not a quick chat around the table and we’ll pick a kid to inherit it all.