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!

I rather like the Maliks but would like Susan to push Bert down a well and then jump in after him.

Looking at how some of the Horrobin children have turned out, it seems possible that something went badly wrong in their early lives. Ivy is always talked about as a saint, which probably means she was like Clarrie, or Joe Grundy's sainted wife Susan, i.e. a downtrodden workhorse who did everything in the house, thus making it possible for her husband to spend his time when not at work pleasing himself. As far as I know, Bert has no criminal past, but he may have been like Joe and Eddie, ignoring any laws and rules he found tiresome. He clearly likes a drink. He may well have been a bad-tempered parent. Given his age and his children's ages it would be very surprising if he hadn't hit the children, or at any rate the boys, when they were growing up. It would have been unusual if he hadn't. Maybe he or Ivy or both had dodgy relatives setting the children a bad example.

The BBC has some information on the Horrobins who've spoken. Clive is the worst by a country mile, but Keith is a nasty piece of work too. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/32WMzv0N6QWnjQXK8sz8VmY/keith-horrobin

I don't think Stewart has ever spoken, but IIRC he also has a criminal record, possibly from early life. Gary is the only brother who's managed to keep clear of the law (I think). He now lives and works elsewhere and doesn't appear to come back to visit (who can blame him?).

Oh, @Gonners, turns out you have feet of clay after all. Brad I can sort of see, I suppose, although one could shoot snipe off him, but Chelsea? Really?

Thanks all. Good info. Possibly he was more horrible to Susan as the elder sister than he was to Tracey. That can happen.

Chelsea has gumption galore, though.

Chelsea and Brad seem to be written to counter the comedy stereotype of incompetent grifters that the male Grundies had become.

When we first heard Bert in 1984 (played by William Eedle back then. Eedle played three or four small parts that year) he was working as a lengthman. And someone else can look it up to find out what one of them was, because I am not going to! (grin) Presumably not a railway lengthman because there is no railway in Ambridge, so he must indeed have been working on the roads. He was said to be a friend of John Higgs, Jack Woolley's chauffeur, who used to go and play cards with him over a pint or two.

When Clive was playing for sympathy from Amy in Ambridge Extra he claimed Bert took his belt to him, but it seems to have been a one-off and because Clive had been messing about in Bert's shed and broken things; we were never told Bert made a habit of hitting any of his children, and I think Susan, in "my brothers aren't so bad and anyway it's not their fault" mode, would probably have said something about it if he had.

We heard Ivy (played by Cynthia Cherry) in 1989, being remarkably unpleasant to I forget which Archer woman it was who tried to do something helpful for her about her housing, which Ivy assumed without listening was "charity" and "interference". We were made aware at that time that Ivy was accustomed to visiting members of her family in prison and wanted her children not to go the way her siblings had, so her side of the family might well be where the bad examples followed by three of her children (Keith, Stewart and Clive; there was also suspicion that Gary shoplifted) came from. Until she was rehabilitated recently Tracy was also reputed to be of a criminal tendency, but since she didn't live in Ambridge we only heard about her being like that rather than hearing her doing it. Tracy didn't speak until her recent arrival in Ambridge in 2011, having managed to work and be part of an important storyline at Bridge Farm silently in 1999, when she was going out with Owen the chef. (Yes, that Owen.) In fact until Tracy arrived in 2011 and then Keith surfaced in 2012 to commit theft and arson, of the Horrobins only Susan and Clive were speaking parts really, and Susan was the only regular one.

I prefer listening to Nasty Bert to having to endure scenes with the Maliks esp Akram who speaks in cliches while trying to say something profound; or Joy/Muckie/Rochelle. Don’t forget the year we have had…

All the more reason to have good characters rather than any of the above.

Presumably not a railway lengthman because there is no railway in Ambridge, so he must indeed have been working on the roads.

Hollerton Junction isn't far, though.

But in that case why not house him in Hollerton? In the days before everyone had cars, not living near work was a lot more nuisance than it is now. I don't think the Horrobins are particularly noted as "an old Ambridge family", though they might be a great deal more of one than the Fairbrothers ever were (not difficult!), so they'd have no particular need to be there in one of the very few council houses in the village.

Hoorah; the flat above the shop is almost finished!

Goodness knows why they imagined we'd appreciate having Bert speak after all these years.

I wonder who was arguing about the combine?

@Madcats , Goodness knows why they imagined we'd appreciate having Bert speak after all these years.
I imagine they don't want the likes of me to appreciate it.

I wonder who was arguing about the combine?
Someone hoping to mow down Pip and Fat Rosie, I hope, or a nasty holidaymaker Doberman-owner.

Definitely a townie. A DFL.

We had a two hour journey take three hours today due to tractors and trailers with great rolls of hay. Not complaining, it is what it is.

We've had lengthsmen in several villages we've lived in . Employed by the parish council to keep the place looking good, I think. The MO serms to be feet up on the dashboard while reading the Daily Mirror.

These fancy new combines are enormous. Luckily they tend to be busy harvesting at dawn; or at east a couple of hours before we ventured out on our recent "middle of nowhere holiday".

I don't think we've had a proper farm accident for a while, have we? I have a fairly lengthy list of possible victims.

And they'll none of them be missed? (grin)

There's Bert instilling beer into little Martha's mouth
And trippers with sheep-chasing hounds (they're likely from the south) -
We've got 'em on the list — we've got 'em on the list;
And they'll none of them be missed — they'll none of them be missed...

Heh!

I wish Jolene would be scooped up by a combine harvester. I thought Fallon was excellent, the way she told her to keep her nose out. And Jolene's fawning on Harrison - creepy and vomit-inducing.

It seems weird that nobody in a farming community is talking about the drought. Livestock have to be kept inside because there’s no grazing. Crops haven’t grown. But nothing from the farmers?

Indeed, @Abra1t. I noted a day or two ago that Today was talking to farmers about it - and we had the previous heat wave weeks ago - I’m surprised the SWs haven’t managed to insert something.

Seems a bit more urgent than trying to get us to question the Horrobin sisters’ parentage.

(I don’t need, or care about, detailed recording schedules - I am merely expressing my personal disappointment.)

But the weather in Ambridge has been completely different from RL so how could they mention a drought?
But I understand what you mean.

It feels as if Bert has been voiced with the sole purpose of becoming a replacement for Joe Grundy who was, let’s face it, irreplaceable. He is now being given a backstory after the event. I think the SWs have forgotten the value of the silent character. There have been some great silents over the years, now everyone has to have a voice.

Oh....no it still doesn't feel right - anytime anyone mentions Bert I think of Bert Fry :-(

Oh for heaven's sake!

When he said he was going to look for somewhere to rent, Fallon sounded alarmed and told Harrison he doesn't need to move out and Harrison says "guess we'll help each other it through it together."

So are we going to have to put up with months of him moping around using the weird gutteral voice he adopts to convey he's upset?