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! Well Brian gave the little kids new pencil cases this evening for back to school tomorrow, so the infants have at least been on school holiday…

Glad to hear Tracey has official mumsnet nice ham.

I was genuinely worried on Friday that Azra would decide Fletcher was such a good listener he should be the official face of the mental health campaign. Perhaps lend him to depressed farmers for 20 mins of uninterrupted grumbling.

Interesting to hear another scammer in the village that ISN'T Eddie Grundy!

I must admit my heart sank at the thought that they're introducing another komedy incompetent shyster, presumably to replace Joe. The SWs seem to think it's hilarious, I just find it tedious.

Excellent to hear Bert at last

Badly written and badly acted. Waste of air time.

Yes what a load of rubbish.

Genuinely shocked to hear Bert.

And then disappointed.

I caught Nick Warburton being interviewed about something over the weekend, possibly with the actor who plays Alan (though it could have been a dream, I suppose, as it was early!). He sounded older than Oliver so presumably he has been writing for Ambridge back in the days when they hired producers and editors who cared about accuracy.

It was this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002tzl8

Nick Warburton is about 78 years old.

By a strange coincidence, I'm involved in a play with him in Cambridge (he is one of the directors). I only recently made the connection to The Archers. I'll be seeing him all week, so if there is one good Archers-related question you want to ask him, suggest it here and I'll see if I'm brave enough to ask him (no promises)...

(Anyone with half-decent search skills can probably work out what the play is, but I'll avoid too much self-promotion)

Totally bollocks episode. It does my head in about the recycling of the Grundys.

@DadDadDadI have sooooo many questions, but:
Will Freddie ever start running Lower Loxley (or at least have somebody recognise that he inherited it a while back)?
Was it a conscious decision to stop
mentioning the Hunt and the Shoot?
Are there any plans for more babies in Ambridge?
[Lily/Freddie/Ben/Rex/Johnnie(ok he’s AWOL) don’t appear to date, Josh is departed for the forseeable… Fallon doesn’t want kids…. ]
Why did they keep Home Farm empty for so long (and now Peggy’s home)?
And as for Peggy’s will….why was nobody not a little bit peeved!!!!

@DadDadDad If you get a chance to casually ask if the unrest and dissatisfaction of long-term listeners over the awful "continuity" of storylines bothers the SW - that would be great.

My goodness, it's the BBC. They can't talk about hunting or shooting! Countryfile won't even cover gundog working tests, even though they are run with dummies not real game.

I think you need a tough-headed journalist to ask those sort of questions, and I'm guessing he won't be in a position to defend any editorial decisions or give away plans for future storylines! I was thinking more gently asking if Fletcher the budgie was his idea for a story. I would also wonder how he finds writing for Lynda Snell as I think she must be quite a fun character to write for.

If NW is late 70’s, he probably knew plenty of budgies owners growing up.

Porridge ran from 1973-77 (albeit with plenty of repeats), so “Fletcher” was probably Nick’s choice.

There seems to be a hefty cohort of kids that keep stick insects or reptiles if my local garden centre is anything to go by.

About 26:40 in.

I also thought the production team were consciously replacing Joe Grundy. Unlike everybody else, I rather enjoyed that episode. David Sterne, the actor playing Bert, was Larry Bishop, the farmer with the invisible dog, in the first series of The Detectorists. Asking told us on the spoilers thread that Bert Horrobin previously spoke in 2012 and was at that time voiced by Martyn Read, who has since died.

Clutching at straws re Khalil having to go to school and do homework in the Easter holidays - I don't think we've been told how old he is. He must be fairly close to Henry in age. Henry is now 15 and will be taking his GCSEs in the summer of 2027. Could Khalil be in year 11 now, taking his GCSEs this summer and therefore attending revision classes over the holiday? I believe many schools do run these. Having said that, if Khalil was in an exam year I'd have expected Azra to mention it ...

Honestly!

Written by an urbanite who imagines how a country buffoon would speak.

Rubbish and somehow insulting all at once.

To be fair, you could say that about most episodes and many of the actors.

Well, yes; this week is written by Shaun McKenna, who is something of an unknown quantity but might know when school terms are happening.

He did five weeks last year and they were not awful, and this is his first week this year. He was a core writer for Home Front, and was born in April 1957, so a little younger than Warburton but not exactly a spring chicken.

Madcats
presumably he [Warburton] has been writing for Ambridge back in the days when they hired producers and editors who cared about accuracy.

His first script for TA was broadcast on Sunday 7th April, 2019, at which time Jeremy Howe had been editor for six months or so. So no, Warburton has never had to worry about such details as continuity or feasibility or where various dwellings are within the village.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g Henry is Y10 and could well be doing revision over the holiday for first round of gcse mocks, which might count as homework (my DS was revising over the holidays).

Khalil however seemed to have actually been on his way to school last week when popping in to see Robert and Linda.. .

i thought Khalil was same age or year younger than Henry but I could be wrong…

Azra, despite being a highly educated person herself, appears to be strangely unconcerned about her daughter's education or career, apart from mentioning her lack of ambition to a passing budgie, so I doubt she'd be mentioning if her not particularly academic son was doing GCSEs.
Although I don't see why he would have been going to school otherwise.

In my mind, Bert H hadn’t left his sofa for a good decade. I assumed that the Editor had forgotten all about him when Jazzer was moved into the house (no longer needing the Cricket House loveshack).

It would have been more fun to reintroduce elderly Fairbrother snr than pretend that a former (substantially) silent invalid has been out and about.

Grrr

Bert was one of the people who was asserting he'd been a customer at The Bull since forever, wasn't he? Him and Neville Booth. He quite often seems to be at the Bull, in fact, scrounging drinks.

And so it starts to unravel. Can we really see Ruairi ending up in prison? It would have to be that, given how seriously hurt George was. Brian would be lucky to avoid prison himself for perverting the course of justice.