Archers thread #197: Runs, Ambridge, runs! 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 find it credible that Kate, who changed continents twice to get away from her own children, has now morphed into Grandmother of the Year, 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.)

Well, Finlay may have made good his escape, but we're all still stuck inside the Borsetshire forcefield. The cricket team is rising phoenix-like from the ashes but will now be The Bull's team, not Ambridge's. Will Alice and Rex make a go of things? Will George cope with a month off the booze? Will the real Brian Aldridge re-appear? Will we hear a bit more about farming? We did get a lambing scene the other night, which was good.

Over to you!

P. S. The pointless new AI title generator MN has introduced in spite of absolutely nobody ever asking for it wanted to call this thread something like Discuss The Archers here, no spoilers. I won't be following its suggestions.

I’m wondering who’ll get Oliver’s horse.

Is it Keira, or Poppy who’s been having riding lessons recently? (No idea if it would be the Wrong Sort of Horse.)

If Duke is a heavy hunter he's probably just a bit too big for either of them, they being fifteen and thirteen respectively.

Well, Oliver can sell Duke (to the Stables or Maurice, I don’t care) and buy a suitably dainty ride for a young lady with the proceeds …

@WitcheryDivine Helen and Tom are just like Peggy in that they think Tony is weaker and pick on him accordingly.

Now that is an interesting observation. Helen is Peggy reincarnated.

So...an 80yo with decades of riding experience heads out on his familiar horse, who spooks and rears, he doesn't fall off, and he's suddenly lost his nerve?

A far more likely conversation:
Oliver (to Duke): Get on, you big ninny!
Lilian (to Oliver): [cackle] Oy, Oliver, well sat!
Oliver (to Lilian): Cheers! 17 hands and scared of a tulip: can you believe it?

But we’d already heard Oliver moaning about his own general decrepitude. (Only today admittedly!)

Maybe in a different mood he’d have reacted differently - but I wonder if this is the beginning of Oliver being written out? He’s been an oddly spare part since Caroline’s death - neither moving in with the Grundys (in his own home!), nor the whole financial fiasco at Grey Gables has ever seemed the least bit believable to me - and it’s hard to see a point to him. (I mean in terms of storytelling - he’s obviously perfectly nice.)

Lily’s clearly never leaving the village again, so she’ll be on hand to eventually run GG. Clarrie is much too advanced in years to be cooking and catering for her landlord and I don’t see Ed and Emma being ready to housekeep for him. Surely the Green Card Fairy would see him right?

life is definitely speeding up. Barely seems a couple of months ago thag we were in the middle of the Ambridge cricket scandal

So she can maintain maximum insufferability. It’s a life long quest. Levels of insufferability must be constantly topped up

😂sums Helen up perfectly! Pam should be telling her and Tom to back off.

And I used to quite like Lynda but she's being insufferable this week. The final straw was mithering an octogenarian hotel owner into giving up his free time to Do Good. Busy farmers too!

I have long despised Lynda ... that voice! Robert needs to build a new patio.

I have always despised Lynda, too.
She’s always credited with ‘getting things done’ but she is a bully and a snob.

I don't think she would get away with it in real life. I wouldn't let myself be bullied into things like that.

The problem is, she gets things done that don't actually need doing. It's all about her needing to be in charge. We had a Lynda in the village - pillar of the CofE, interferer extraordinaire and all-round PITA. She was eventually banned from running the Sunday School (for excessive enthusiasm about Hell) and flounced off to plague the United Reformed bunch. She's dead now: goodness, how sad.

Michael Cochrane (Oliver) is apparently only 78. I thought he was much older than that. He's made a good living out of playing all sorts of posh older men for many years now. Probably not ready for retirement (he was in Beyond Paradise last week) but perhaps the production team are belatedly realising that having a cast stuffed with older characters/actors is not ideal.

I agree. I thought last night's episode sounded particularly stuffed with older characters. It's not age per se, it's just that their voices are beginning to sound old - with exception of Carol Tregorran of course who is actually supposed to be very old and frail. I also agree that Oliver no longer has a real role - he's sold Grey Gables, moved in with the Grundy's though seems to have stopped being a mentor to any of them, he just pops up affably from time to time. In many ways he would have made a better partner for Miranda - vocally they sound quite similar and both enjoy riding. He would have had no qualms about moving into Home Farm and could have continued renting out his own house.

I think Michael Cochrane has always sounded "old" because of his accent rather than his voice.

TA has always had a posh bossy older woman who helps things happen, gives a range of other people someone to sound off to and to sound off about, and to generally act as the grit in the oyster - Aunt Laura, Marjorie Antrobus, Lynda. They need someone to do that job, and if Lynda wants to step back they'll have to get another one. I don't see any likely candidates among any of the current cast.

Helen is pretty good in the Telling Other People What To Do area, but only when it's for her personal benefit.

I usually give Helen the benefit of the doubt given what she's been through in life but pressuring Tony to get rid of his animals I can't excuse. It's a small herd, they aren't going to put the farm under. They've survived far greater strains. After all her parents have done for her. I bet she'll get the farmhouse as well 🙄

Helen does not have a heart of gold.

I know this for a fact.

😃

Do. Not.

👀

She’s worked this farm her entire life!

Indeed.

Poor Tony. His family are bastards.
Please please please can Pip die.

I have many reasons for not wanting a bad-ending breast cancer story on TA. But oh, how I long for Pip to be gone.

So conflicted.

And I know she's from the Dopey branch of the family, but surely everyone knows about genetic risk.

The results of my sister-in-law's biopsy after an operation to remove a breast cancer came today and seem hopeful. So yes, I have skin in the "cancer" game. But my S-i-L is not a very dislikable fictional character.

They missed with Ruth; is it too much to hope they might manage to do the job properly with Pip? After all, trying to make Ruth sympathetic by giving her a nasty disease didn't work, so they could try something different this time.... Everyone will stop disliking Pip every time she opens her mouth if she just stops opening it.