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.

Ah, but Carol is an actual witch, isn't she?

Extreme old age is all a bit close to home for me at the moment. My Mum, now 93, doesn't have dementia, but she is very frail and sounds it. It sticks in my craw to have Carol Tregorran voiced by an actor who may be 20 years younger than the character (we couldn't find this out upthread, but there's no way she's in her 90s) and sounding as if she could go for a brisk walk up Lakey Hill and back every morning. Me too @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - well said. My mum is 89 - lives independently, doesn't have dementia, but is much frailer than she was and also sounds it. She has lots of pensioner friends so I often find myself hanging out with them when I go to see her and there's definitely a marked difference between those closer to 80 and those approaching 90 and over. Even those who have been hale and hearty up to and including their early 80s definitely start to slow down in the latter part of the decade and beyond.

I noticed with both my parents that 85 was a turning point for different health reasons.

Yes, same here. My Dad had a big down turn at 88 and died a year later. Mum went downhill after that.

Re Carol being a witch - I think she and John had moved to Bristol years before I started listening in the early 80s, but I never had the impression she had any such tendencies in the 1950s and 60s when she was first in Ambridge. Must retrieve my books of reference later and see what they say about her.

The SWs and the actors have examples of people in this age bracket to draw on to see what old age looks and sounds like - Jill, for instance, who in reality records her lines from her care home yet in Ambridge is often caring for Rosie. On the rare occasions we now hear her, you can hear her age in her voice (rather like Vanessa Redgrave’s increasingly quavery introduction to episodes of Call the Midwife) - even if Carol’s actress is much younger can she not ACT older?

Didn't Jack Woolley have dementia?

Edit: sorry, this has already been mentioned.

I was kind of joking about Carol but there’s something in that garden that’s worrying me… 🧙

Maybe Carol will disappear and no one can find her until 6 months later when Shula comes back to reclaim the cottage, cuts back the garden and finds Carol decomposing in the hedgehog beds.

That works for me!

Ref causes of death, we also have

Peggy - old age
Greg - by his own hand

And we may have some undead, like Lewis, who seems to have been forgotten about, and may be wandering the corridors of LL. according to the ‘characters’ page he married Julia. I have erased this from my memory.

Agree that a men’s health storyline is due.

Doesn't Hannah's mum have dementia? Obviously sufficiently silent and distant from the main cast not to count, though.

Siobhan Hathaway died of cancer.

Khalil had leukaemia and survived.
JennyDarling died of a heart condition.
George had a fractured skull but recovered within days.

Rob died of a brain(?) tumour.

And didn’t Joe Grundy die of old age nothing else?

Well, she is knowledgeable about and has occasionally proffered herbal medicine – not always bothering to find out what conventional medication the person she is pressing it onto might be taking, which is not all that ethical. I am fairly sure Jill is on levothyroxine, and ought not to take St John's Wort, for instance, but Carol didn't bother to find out whether she was.

I don't think Holland & Barrett would be all that happy about everyone who uses of suggests herbal medicine being classed as a witch! And the witches I have known mostly haven't been all that into herbalism.

I wasn’t being serious about Carol really being a witch, just riffing on something someone said about her in passing a few weeks ago. 🙂

Well, if we're going to include people who've made amazing recoveries from serious illness or other traumas:
Daniel Hebden-Lloyd made a full recovery from juvenile arthritis (possible, I imagine, but it just seemed to stop being mentioned after a bit and was no obstacle to his joining the Army)
Jazzer - ketamine overdose doesn't seem to have led to brain damage as initially feared
Ed - complete recovery from drug and alcohol abuse
Kenton - thyroid problems? Never mentioned now
Jill - thyroid problems - ditto
Elizabeth - congenital heart problems, which only cause her issues when the SWs remember (rarely)
Chris - born with a cleft palate, so successfully treated that it's also mostly forgotten
Helen - clicky hips as a young child, totally healed
Adam - no PTSD from being kidnapped as a young child, rather surprisingly
Emma - leg badly hurt in crash when Ed took Will's car without his consent, no lasting effects
Ruth - never mentions check-ups or long-term medication following on from her breast cancer treatment
Brian - full recovery from epilepsy which came on after a Grundy cow kicked him in the head

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

I am baffled as to what happened there.

What I tried to post was

Brian - full recovery from epilepsy which came on after a Grundy cow kicked him in the head

Brian – as is common, suffered a single post-operation epileptic-style incident, which did not recur.

What on earth are the SWs up to? When Oliver began to tell Miranda about Brine's affair with Caroline I assumed it was while she and Oliver were together, so properly his information to tell. But to gossip like this????? Entirely out of character.

So good to see that GP appointments can be got so easily in the fabled land of TA.

Is Miranda moving on from Brian with Oliver?

I simply cannot bear to listen to stammering Pip confide in swooping voiced Ruth.

Well, @echt ... given the number of people in Ambridge who are actually able to speak, or even warrant a mention, Azra must be twiddling her thumbs 90% of the time.

I somehow just assume that Oliver has prostate cancer (well managed).

I was anticipating that for Alan, @WitcheryDivine. Felt it would have more of an impact since we’ve known Alan since he was relatively young and vigorous and a bit of a renegade. And it would bring Usha back into the story.

I’m impressed with those of you who were shipping Oliver + Miranda a few days ago! They do actually sound really good together. In tune. Brian and Miranda have always sounded strangely fractious towards each other.