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.

Erik? Because he doesn’t live in Ambridge?

He doesn’t even live in the UK, does he?

I like the fact she has something / someone outside the force field.

I think Stella and Ruth have a connection though, at least when they first met, there was a convincing friendship there. If there had been more, again I would have found a middle aged woman discovering another aspect to her sexual orientation to be more interesting than Pip discovering she was the world's first lesbian!

He's a FWB and in between she just gets on with her life. I can see the attraction of the set up.

I hope Erik doesn’t come back, I can’t bear his voice. Robin Fairbrother on the other hand…

Rex a catch, haha that's a joke, he'd win the Boring Drip of the World competition. A taxi driver who lives on a boat, hardly amazing

He drives a taxi to supplement his income as a farmer who didn't have the luxury of inheriting land but really wants to farm. He had the ingenuity to live on a boat to overcome the rural housing crisis. His passion for rewilding shows he has a hinterland. I also get the impression he's fit and handsome.

I find it sad that Kirsty goes wherever Erik happens to be for a booty call. She deserves better.

You’d rather have here laundering some local man’s overalls in Ambridge for the rest of her life, @BeatriceBatchelor? She’s apparently happy to be escorted all over Europe by an attractive but undemanding man. Erik is her hinterland.

I agree about Rex he's not a drip. He has pigs and helps runs the re-wilding, the taxi driving is for extra cash. I admire someone with that work ethic and living on a boat is something that appeals to me. A bit bohemian.

I can quite understand Kirsty seeing Erik on and off but being completely independent in between. I used to be a bit like that and maybe I still should be.

100%

I am! It's as if the SWs have decided there needs to be at least one rude mechanical in the role Walter Gabriel/Joe Grundy/Bert Fry used to fulfil so have given Bert a voice and he's milking it for all he's worth. I think 95-year-old Carol Tregorran would have been a better and more original candidate, but instead they've decided to play her 20 years younger which is equally as annoying.

Steven Hartley and Anthony Head can come back any time as far as I'm concerned. Especially Anthony Head. He can pop round for a coffee if he likes.

I agree about Rex he's not a drip. He has pigs and helps runs the re-wilding, the taxi driving is for extra cash. I admire someone with that work ethic and living on a boat is something that appeals to me. A bit bohemian.
Work ethic is fine but Rex is a drip when it comes to how he interacts with other people.

New thread. https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/5518503-archers-thread-198-josh-sent-to-patagonia-pip-stays-put-wrong-way-round-discuss-the-archers-here

Thanks, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g . How are things with you this weekend?
Hope Gaspmother is OK.

I find it sad that Kirsty goes wherever Erik happens to be for a booty call. She deserves better.

weekending in various (mainland) European cities is exactly the kind of FWB i'd want in her shoes though.

Maybe he is her booty call.
I'd be happier being someone's European city break booty call than have a suffocatingly needy partner in Ambridge.

Rather than re-invent characters like Bert I would much rather they had a new resident (maybe a parent who has been persuaded to downsize to a granny annex so the (grand)kids can afford to buy somewhere in Ambridge).

I tolerate Rex because I enjoyed Robin F and hope he returns (has he ever met his grandchild?). By my reckoning Robin is 82/3 and will also have been considering who/how to pass on the family wine business. The inheritance storyline for this could be glorious, especially if the SWs remembered that Toby has a daughter here (does he still have a home in Ambridge)?

In a decade we COULD have Freddie with Lower Loxley, Ruari at Home Farm, Henry(?) at Bridge Farm, Lily running Grey Gables, wayward teens Rosie at Brookfield and Martha at the Stables....

It has the makings of a Jilly Copper novel!

Robin Fairbrother was born on 6th February, 1953, so he is now 73. He was an unpleasant and predatory (but silent) individual when he came to Ambridge in 1987 and had an extra-marital affair with Elizabeth (born 21st April 1967, so at the time he was 34 and she was 20) before chucking her over to go back to his wife who was expecting their first child (Rex); he was a slimy and unpleasant individual when he came to Ambridge in 2018 but had the advantage of being voiced by Anthony Head.

I don't think there is any "family" wine business; the wine shop was his own creation. I'd expect him to pass it on to his preferred son, who actually works for it, rather than the one he despises for being a mere pig-man and no use at anything. He doesn't value Rex, and wasn't impressed by Rex dropping everything to look after him when he had a stroke while Toby ignored him: that just showed that Toby wasn't sentimental, apparently.

Thanks for asking. Not great, to be honest, but I'm home at the moment, despite the best efforts ot the brainless fools who trespassed on the East Coast main line the other night and caused multiple cancellations yesterday. Seriously considering advertising which days I've chosen to travel so others know to avoid them. I seem to have a great knack of picking a date and route where there will be a problem.

The travelling to and from the Isle of Gasp sounds difficult. Is your brother living far away too?
It's a long and tricky journey for you without the disruption.
My knowledge of Scottish geography is pretty poor - I'd thought you would be travelling to Glasgow.
I'm sure you have considered all options.

A friend used to travel to Aberdeen and she flew, but that was without a journey from the airport to an island.

(Apologies if it sounds like teaching grandma to suck eggs, the helpful journeys 'back home' suggested to me were usually just annoying as they were not helpful.)

Sympathies re your Scotland trip, GaspOde. Messy trains would have been the last thing you needed. At least you weren’t locked in one of the carriage loos like somebody on X who the algorithms thought I should have on my feed.

The kids will all be back at school next week, if they aren’t already, so hopefully trespassing can be paused until the summer.

Posting here so as not to derail the current thread

(Is sliced bread a good thing? I have never been sure.)
It's good if the alternative is starvation.
It depends on the quality of the bread and most bread is not good,

A piece of good bread, as is or toasted and spread with butter would make me feel very happy. Add some very salty chips and I'd be in heaven.

A piece of good bread, as is or toasted and spread with butter and honey would be a treat.

White sliced bread is inedible but as a young child I thought the plasticky thin white sliced bread spread with some pale margarine looked exotic. I only ever saw it on the rare occasions we went to a cafe.

Good because nobody is going to get cut with the bread-knife.
Bad because you can't cut yourself a doorstep to toast under the grill with cheese, for tea when you come in massively hungry after a long walk.
Good because it is always going to fit into the pop-up toaster.
Bad because it goes stale quickly and after about the first day you need to toast it anyway.

......

You see what I mean?

I don't eat bread very often. I used to keep some sliced bread in the freezer for toast - useful for guests.
The toaster died so I used the grill. No longer have a freezer.
The bread knife hasn't been used for years.
I don't think I've eaten chips for about 2.5 years and when I do the chips are probably more than enough but I could take a bread roll and some butter with me.

Tins with ring-pulls are good. No more struggling with cheap tins that only open with a new butterfly opener.

Sliced white bread is vile. I used to stay in digs. B&B but for months.
Every day I was given white toast and I ate it out of politeness despite detesting it.
One day I was given porridge. I just couldn't. I would have tried but my face said it all. It was made with milk and was like eating sick. It was such a shame as the extremely nice landlady was very proud of it.

Not as bad as kale and mankwold croissants or whatever the te rum served though I suppose.

RuairiDonovan
Tins with ring-pulls are good. No more struggling with cheap tins that only open with a new butterfly opener.

Up to a point. That point is reached when the ring-pull comes off and leaves you with a half-opened tin and an incredibly tough egde which you can't easily open using a tin-opener.

Yesterday I ended up resorting to a pair of pliers to prise the lid off a tin of tomatoes to go into a sausage stew.

It's happened to me once and I cut my finger. Fortunately it was a superficial cut.
I have a few pets so I open a lot of tins.
I think the price of the tin might indicate the ease of the opening of it. I can't say I've made an in-depth study.

Pouches are convenient but I have a very clever naughty cat who can open doors. He can snaffle a pouch without opening it. They're also quite expensive and can't be recycled.
At least, sliced bread bags are recyclable or reusable.

Good job I paused the radio. Time for TA.

SPOILER ALERT

26/03/2026 20:35
Off topic but might be of interest: https://www.s4c.cymru/clic/programme/948029413 Rural crime

I doubt anyone watched it but it was about some stolen cattle.
There were almost no clues, only a lorry with fake plates, but they managed to get some using CCTV footage...

You can guess from the fact that they made a programme what happened.

The officer investigating noticed that after a few miles the suspicious lorry was followed by a vehicle. That didn't have false plates.
They managed to use mobile phone evidence to find out who was in the gang.
The cattle were found something like 120 miles away.
The cattle were stolen to order to replace some that had died.
The tags had been replaced with the dead animal tags.

The compensation the cattle owners got was pitiful.
THE BASTARDS who did it got off lightly.

Back to
The Ambridge Fertliity Fairy seems to have been sprinkling her magic.