Archers thread #199: Kaboom! The Aldridges are self-destructing, and it's GLORIOUS. 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'd drop everything to help Helen create a new cheese on national minimum wage, 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.)

If you haven't heard last night's episode (Friday 22nd May) you really must. It's episodes like that that keep me addicted. Funny how often they involve the Aldridges, the most dysfunctional and also by far the most interesting family in Ambridge. Also very well acted on the whole. How lovely to hear Tamsin Greig in TA, but I wonder if we ever will again.

Some cracking posts towards the end of the last thread, which is here: 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

Over to you!

Yes, or in some old barn conversions somewhere.

The skin care thing is just like Helens organic baby food idea. SWs seem to think theres a gap in the market 20 years too late!

Ofsted has a lot to answer for.

Though I was actually enjoying the flutter of conversations around it - Ian as PTA, all the parents. It felt like a brush with the real world.

Beat me to it! Please oh please oh please. I promise to be very good. Ideally Finlay would be in Ambridge at the same time and they could have a nice chat.

Mine too, as it does strangely often. Toby Fairbrother made Scruff Gin with some sort of botanicals, didn't he? Then rather implausibly sold the business for a tidy sum.

I had some lovely gin earlier in the year when it was on special offer at Ocado. Flavoured with blood orange, which probably wouldn't be a viable crop in Borsetshire even in our recent sweltering temperatures.

I suspect that the SWs have been staying somewhere down in the South West recently and encountered Bramleys stuff in their hotel room:
https://www.bramleyproducts.co.uk/pages/our-story

I first saw this stuff in a couple of gastro-inns about 10 years ago and now seems to be available far and wide.

Botanical dog shampoos etc are a recent addition (and I can see that going down well at Grey Gables and Little Underwoods etc. etc).

Anything for dogs seems to go well right now (freezers seem to overflow with ice-cream for dogs).
Sawyers Farm has lots of small units. It’s where Natasha moved Summer Orchard to, and where Maurice produces Tom’s sausages.

I still think of Maurice with shameless lust - but I guess he must be getting on a bit now?

My best friend has tried out various of these "cottage-industry" sorts of crafts as they've become trendy: making rugs out of rags; bath salts and soaps and botanical oils (well over 20 years ago!); of course also interestingly flavoured gins. She has knitted and crocheted all along, and in the last few years added leatherwork. She has an astonishing ability to pick up any new craft skill to a level that the items are good enough to sell in about a week (possibly enough transferable skills accumulated over the years!), and has an artistic eye.

She tried to monetise the first few ideas when she was about 20, but quickly discovered the basic problem: working by herself, by hand, she could never pay herself enough to make a living, because people simply don't want to pay enough for, e.g., a rag bath mat to cover the amount of time it takes to make one (if you're not an exploited child in, say, Bangladesh or wherever these things are outsourced now). It's a shame, because if she had been born 100 years earlier, she might have made a go of it during the Arts and Crafts movement!

The "botanicals" idea is only going to work if Natasha immediately markets them as a top-end luxury brand. OK, she has a background in cosmetics marketing, but that seems a very risky proposition. I don't think the idea is as mad as some others think, especially since the farm (and Natasha herself) already has expertise in complying with food standards for ingredients, production, packaging, and testing (there's a good chance that the same company they would use for testing the cheeses would also do the cosmetics), but there's bound to be significant start-up costs for the right sort of packaging machinery etc., unless that can be outsourced somehow (does one send big ice-cream buckets full of hand-cream to the local packaging facility?!).

It’s not a mad idea as a product ,its just a mad idea for Natasha and Tom .So its either going to be a huge success thanks to the Ambridge Business Fairy or a massive financial loss at a time they can least afford it ( hoping its the latter!)

But Natasha has won awards and acclaim for her business acumen.

So why would the SWs now launch her into a venture they plan to write into failure? That really wouldn’t make sense.

Maybe she wasn’t the success she claimed to be? Just cos you have one business success doesnt mean you cant fail at another venture.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g , they could both be in Ambridge with you and me, the four of us together in the Bull chatting.

My first thought with 'botanicals' was those non-alcoholic spirit things. I can't say I liked it but non-alcoholic drinks have a market.
I accidentally bought some cans of alcohol-free G&T. The unopened ones went in the food bank. Tinned G&T isn't great but the zero-alcohol one was almost undrinkable.

Isn't the botanical skincare market saturated? Milk-based skincare could be a better direction.

Anything for dogs seems to go well right now (freezers seem to overflow with ice-cream for dogs). I saw peanut butter for dogs the other day. Can Dogs Eat Peanut Butter? | Blue Cross

Invitations to give Nuffield keynote speeches surely aren’t based just on personal claims of success?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/5hxrPHGWJbQBCRmpvmdr6Sn/natasha-archer

In case you didn't spot the link below this thread: The Archers, - elderly care storyline | Mumsnet.

Maybe Natasha should build a borehole and flog the rejuvenating spring waters of Ambridge.

My first thought with 'botanicals' was those non-alcoholic spirit things. I can't say I liked it but non-alcoholic drinks have a market.

That would be a far far far better market for Natasha, what with the premium fruit juice already being in her portfolio.

More and more people are stopping consuming alcohol, and are crying out for premium or high end drinks so that they don't have to sit in the pub drinking their fifth J2O or whatever while everyone around them gets more or less bladdered. I know that when I'm not drinking for whatever reason, i really really want more choice than sparkling water, fruit juice, fruit juice with sparkling water or some kind of soda.

Agree. I’d just as rather drink water as a ‘soft’ drink. Everything else makes my teeth go fuzzy and feels like a waste of money somehow!

There was a fascinating BBC2 series some years ago which gave a handful of aspiring entrepreneurs a chance to try and break through with various 'kitchen table' products or inventions they’d been developing, usually in a very, very small-scale way and often for years.

One of them was a woman who'd come up with some sort of super-nourishing, non-irritant skin cream for eczema sufferers, iirc, free of any nasty additives. She made it in her kitchen. I can’t recall whether she was one of the ones who eventually made it through to the final point of getting a deal for production, promotion and marketing with a company - but the whole process was fearsomely competitive and lots fell by the wayside.

(One of the few who did make an actual success out of it was a university professor in architecture whose idea was for silk scarves printed with scans of fossils and minerals. Liberty snapped them up and the business seems to be thriving - they still have them in stock at very prestige prices)

Ah, I've just checked and that series was 2011. It was competitive then so I can't begin to imagine how difficult it would be now to start a skincare brand from scratch and make a huge financial success of it…..looking at you, Natasha 🫵

It’s true the non-alcoholic drinks market would have been a much better idea for Natasha, since she already has the infrastructure.

The one thing I thought of with the beauty idea is that Chelsea is right there, ready and waiting for any logical extension to her hairdressing venture.

@TottersBlankly Thats not what Natasha looks like in my head! You are right of course, but I would like it to be a storyline that she is a bit of a fantasist simple because her success was so implausible.

Mmm … Thing is success is what attracted Tom to her so rapidly. I do hope Summer Orchard isn’t being ditched simply because the SWs are bored and can’t be bothered to research how it might grow.

I’d just as rather drink water as a ‘soft’ drink. Me too.
I'm ok with tonic water or bitter lemon and I like the occasional ginger beer, but don't like the sugar-free drinks.

Soft drink with food just seems wrong. I don't like it if I'm eating out and my companions try to pressurize me into drinking a sweet drink with my food.

Maybe Carol Treboggan could launch her own skincare botanicals.
9Teas elixirs for batty oldies.

A lot of peanut butters contain palm oil which is bad for dogs. I buy mine Lidl 100% peanut butter, which is extremely cheap! They get it on a lickimat in the morning so I can drink my tea in peace.

I buy me Lidl peanut butter. It's about half the price of the fancy brands.

I can't stand sweeteners so that rules out a lot of soft drinks for me. I have Fever Tree tonic water for preference. My brother introduced me to the idea of having tonic water and elderflower cordial which I do enjoy, with a lot of ice and possibly a bit of cucumber. It tricks my brain into thinking there might be gin there.

I love tomato juice too. Is that old-fashioned now? It used to be offered as a starter decades ago. A small glass of tomato juice, a small glass of orange juice, a bowl of thin soup or half a grapefruit. Those were the days.