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.

@echt, voices change with age. If you listen to old episodes, the characters sound much younger. Not just Jill but characters like Elizabeth too.
The Carol actor, according to my internet research, was born in the 1980s.

Typo for AND death?

1980s? Playing an elderly lady?

@Sidebeforeself , the internet searchy wotsit might not be correct about her age. I'd have said she was older. The actor looks older to me.

Mia Soteriou

(apologies to MS if she's reading this and is not 'about my age')

I highly doubt Mia Soteriou was born in the 1980s! Pretty sure I’ve been listening to her since that decade, or at least the early 90s, and she had an adult voice then.

(She seems to have been careful to keep her age off the Internet. Probably with good reason.)

Im confused. I havent listened for a while so may be v wrong but wasn’t Carol played by Eleanor Bron? Born in the 30s?

Eleanor Bron is long gone, @Sidebeforeself. She’s been re-voiced.

Sorry thats what I meant..she was an actor born in the 30s so how can they replace her with someone born in the 80s!

But also Elenor Bron has definitely been in it since I have been listening to.I think I started listening around 2000?

I can't help wondering if George is playing with Ruairi, having worked out in his mind what actually happened. Ruairi's extremely hostile attitude to him when he went round to the Aldridges' to make his big apology is not something that he could easily forget.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g "Is Anna going to move to Ambridge and end up with Stella, she says hopefully, fantasising wildly that this could drive Pip to leave the village ..."
and
@SiobahnRoy "Delurking to ponder whether Anna is back to throw a spanner in the Pip/Stella works...

Loving this idea.

For those of us who don't look at the cast lists, it would be nice that if an actor is mentioned by their real name that their Archers name is also given.

They pretty much have been given.

I would guess that Carol is going to be asking for Helen's help a lot in the future. Helen has been very obliging, calling round with soup, telling Anna she doesn't mind helping, just ask anytime etc
Always a mistake being too nice and available as I know to my cost!

I don’t think Helen being primary carer would be sustainable, would it?

I guess she could invite Carol to move in with her and the boys if they get the place on The Green. (Though I’m ridiculously excited at the possibility that Ed n Emma might get it.)

Glebe Cottage is surely too small for Helen and two growing boys to squeeze into.

They made sure to remind us Carol is over 90; and the house she lives in is needed for a new story. I suspect the poor woman is condemned to go to bed one night sometime soon and just not wake up ever again.

But still…. Isn’t Helen ‘so incredibly busy’? Where does she have time to be looking after elderly neighbours (maybe she’ll palm
her off on Pat and Tony too, and they will consider plans for thier old age….)

Carol Tregorran left the village and the programme in 1990 and next appeared on air, played by Eleanor Bron rather than her previous actor Anne Cullen, in July 2014.

Helen pissed me off when she talked about Dane. She admitted it isn't working so why on earth doesn't she just finish it? Is it because she thinks she'd look like a horrible person if she ended it? I thought she was now supposed to be strong minded when it comes to men, but no. She's a middle aged woman who stabbed someone, surely she can summon up the courage to tell him it's over.

Anna Tregorran was a barrister, but a rather bad one, and so she has gone into teaching how to be a barrister instead of doing it.

(She didn't get Helen off: Rob's previous wife did that, after Anna had failed to persuade her to come and give evidence and Jess decided to turn up after all and was miraculously allowed in court without proper notice having been given.)

Dane could be feeling the same way?
Some relationships just drift on half-heartedly, the two just meeting up for a bunk up now and then.

Thanks! That explains it

Is Harrison still doing telly? When did we last hear Elizabeth?

Ok - that was … surprising. And well written. (I mean the Brian bits.)

My mum had one of those alarms that hang round the neck. When she died and I sorted her belongings I put it in envelope and posted it back to the supplier. Unfortunately I never thought to take the battery out, and it went off in the Post office sorting room and caused a bit of an incident!

Yes, I know.

That doesn't mean that all older characters have to have reedy voices.