Archers thread #201: Tempting fête in Ambridge? Free entry to 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 love to administer Bert's mucus medicine, 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/5538836-the-archers-spoilers-thread-12-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.)

There's a fair amount of stuff going on at the moment but I don't feel inspired to say anything more about any of it for now. Over to you - I hope you all have more enthusiasm than I do!

Because it's been so warm they were early this year and it would be late in a normal year. Blackberries have been ripe for weeks.

But Ambridge has its own microclimate this summer.

It’s really annoying me that the heatwaves and droughts haven’t been mentioned at all. It’s a massive issue for farmers.

@Darker , it is mentioned but the farmers' converations aren't on air. We get Hurt Borrowbin instead.

Has Ambridge moved to Scotland?

Sorry, a bit of a hobby-horse for me but it annoys me the way the news media go on and on as if heatwaves and droughts are UK-wide. Where I live, we have had a below-average summer with a great deal of rain.

Back to the Archers. Glad things worked out for Chelsea!

Well done, Fabreeze ... who probably has absolutely no idea that Lil has persuaded some minion floor-sweeper in his salon to lend out his kit.

I wonder what Usha will have to say about Alan's hair. Nothing, I imagine, as she has gone silent and may have been buried at dead of night in a dark corner of the graveyard, but I'm picturing a Mohican.

Two things about the episode, why didn't Chelsea just take a photo of all the kit from Febreeze?

The other one is the incomprehension by Chelsea and Keira about Lynda's "piffle". I know they're young 'uns. but context? tone? I feel and hope it's an SWs over explaining so the listener can keep up rather than an assumption you people would not get it.

Having said that, a recent thread which had posters queuing up to ask the OP what "braying" meant, instead of just looking it up had me irritated no end. Possibly I was motivated because I knew exactly what it means and have heard it used a fair bit in RL.

Rant over.

echt

The other one is the incomprehension by Chelsea and Keira about Lynda's "piffle". I know they're young 'uns. but context? tone?

I thought the same.
They also couldn't understand "bearing gifts" - seemed to think she'd said something about "gifting bears".

I've been motivated to unearth a book entitled "Balderdash and Piffle" that I've had for years - apparently this was an accompaniment to a TV series, although I never saw that.

Wonder what Chelsea and Keira would make of that fine word "codswallop"?

Chelsea and Keira are thick as 2 short planks and not well read. I imagine they have limited vocabulary and get all their information from Tiktok and social media with all its spelling mistakes, poor grammar and modern slang.

ExOptimist

Chelsea and Keira are thick as 2 short planks and not well read.

I wondered if that was the intended effect.
Lilian needs to try something more esoteric like "gamp" for umbrella or "All my eye and Betty Martin".

I woukd have thought it unbelievable that their vocabulary could be so lacking, but there's a guy at work who had never heard a very common saying last week (annoyingly I can't remember which it was, ) and also had never eaten a fresh cherry. (I forgot to warn him they contain stones.) So there are people who just don't have as wide knowledge of things I consider pretty basic.

God. My late husband called umbrellas gamps. His mother was born during the 1WW, and saw the Marx Brothers in vaudeville in Newcastle. I wonder if a long generation gap produces a longer vein of common knowledge.

My parents, neither of whom were educated past 14, would freely quote catchphrases from Dickens and knew the characters from many of his novels I think it was part of the background "noise", the books commonly read.

I fully intend to gift bears as soon as I am able.

Keira and "Chels" are both fond of the double negative.

Would people really get their hair cut by a random at a village fete?

echt

I wonder if a long generation gap produces a longer vein of common knowledge.

It's an interesting thought.
My father was in his 50s when I was born and I've inherited a knowledge of slang and music halls songs from him that my DH, 7 years older than I am, wots not of.

Disagree that either of them are ‘thick’. They may well have limited exposure to information/idiosyncracies outside their immediate sphere of reference, and maybe aren’t ’well read’ - whatever that means today though; while I agree they probably get a lot of their day to day input from TikTok etc that’s a whole new world and vernacular in itself and it’s lazy to dismiss it out of hand - but I think their main issues are simply being young and sometimes/often the victim of clunky scriptwriting. Chelsea especially has shown great emotional intelligence, maturity and good pragmatic problem solving over the last few years - we know less about Keira ofc. Also do I remember her and Jim bonding over philosophy at some point? which seemed to be illustrating that she had a lot going on for her.

Chelsea is not a "random". She is a local who has already been doing people's hair and is apparently good at it. She also has Instagram, so people can see her work.

I use "piffle" a lot. Not in UK but you can see where I have worked as a trail of ESL speakers have all adopted it wherever I have worked. That and "bollocks"

She'll be unknown to most of the people at the fete both in RL and on SM. I book my next hair appointment when I'm paying for my cut & colour.

Which reminds me - must book my Xmas one!

Back in the early days of the internet, I was on a discussion group focussed on Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books. There was a spin-off general discussion group called "Piffle" based on the fact that Wimsey was good at talking piffle, often as a mask for detection - there was a quote "If anybody marries you, Peter, it will be for the pleasure of hearing you talk piffle" which sticks in my mind. It was good fun, not least because members came from all over the world, but I think it just gradually drifted to a halt as groups like FB got established.

I have never lived in a small village thank god but my parents did, latterly, and based on what I've picked up there over the years I think a lot of Ambridge residents would know at least one member of Chelsea's massive extended family even if they didn't know Chelsea herself, and the horsebox has probably been a talking point. I agree not many would have made a spur of the minute decision to get their hair done at the fete, though, but it would probaby have attracted some people looking in and having a chat about her business.

In the old days she’d have merited a little spread in Jack Woolley’s newspaper …

A Peter Wimsey focused book group, @Sereine? Gosh, I’d love an in person version of that (even better if centred on Ms Vane) - they would be my kind of people! Must look and see if such a thing exists in my relevantly scholarly city … (I pass a blue plaque for D. L. Sayers’ birthplace on pretty much any day I stroll around town. There must be a club …)

Dang… Ends today!

https://www.sayers.org.uk/events-page/2026/8/7/annual-convention-university-of-york

I've never read any Dorothy L Sayers but I was in a wonderful Heyer group that awarded dances with assorted Heyer heroes for those winning the weekly quiz. It was delightful.