Archers thread #202: How are you finding your visits to Ambridge? Fill in your feedback forms 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 think working as a hotel receptionist is a perfectly reasonable career choice for a graduate from a family with a stately home, 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-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.)

Over to you!

WheresThatCatGoneNow

Is it just me who thinks like this?

I doubt it.

I didn't believe her.

Not just you.

I think she just dumped the bat in the hedge. Neither are coming across well.

Harrison and Lily in bed together 🤮.

Is brian related?

Finding TA soooo simultaneously brain numbingly boring and outlandish at the moment I might give up. I'm fuming they passed up the chance for lily to bear brian's heir and really put the cat amongst the pigeons, and I'd buy that before i'll buy anyone moving in with their ex MIL 🤣

Brian is not related by blood but he's just as connected to Lily as Alistair or Justin. Jennifer was Lily's first cousin once removed. Also, Lily's known him all her life and (crucially) he's old enough to be her grandfather.

Brian is the husband of Lily's mother's first cousin.
(Compares to what Daniel Chatto is to Lady Louise M-W)

Her first-cousin-once-removed-in-law.

Anna should know that if you are looking after a person whose mobility is limited by age or illness you should always leave them alone with a friendly visitor, however briefly, in case there is something they need to say without being overheard by you.

They have such limited privacy and agency.

Another episode with no Archers!

I fear I may have to stop listening again….I left during the Helen/Rob era and rejoined a while ago but first I was intensely irritated by George and Amber, then Harrison and Lily and now Anna and Carol might have just pushed me over the edge!! 😳🤣

Can't they ded the old witch? Off-air.

If this was a dear beloved character it could have been incredibly moving instead it feels entirely performative. As if Carole has been resurrected for the sole purpose of dying. She did at least sound a bit more like a confused old lady so perhaps she has been given some direction, but I actually found tonight’s episode rather dull. I have recently discovered Clarkson’s Farm (late to the party as usual) and am getting my farming fix on there instead since The Archers seems to have given up completely. DH was astonished at my knowledge of the benefits of no-till drilling and my fascination with the agricultural minutiae - something which is entirely absent from The Archers these days.

I agree, Anna was unbelievably obtuse in not taking the hints. (Although I don't really like Carol, she seems a very difficult, awkward person who, as others have stated, thwarts Anna at every turn).
Personally I would be happy with a totally Tregorran-free Archers. I did like the interaction between Khalil and the Snells.

Sorry, no, the life of a bat doesn't matter just as much as the life of a person.

I have a sort of horrible fascination with the Carol/Anna dynamic because Carol is only too reminiscent of the way my mother was towards the end of her life when she was gradually developing vascular dementia - though in her case she was always loudly proclaiming that she wanted to die rather than being afraid of dying like Carol. She would never have sat up all night cradling a bat, but she could other stuff that was just as illogical. She could be just as infuriatingly demanding, contrary and cantankerous for no reason, and I hear so much of that in Carol. Which I suppose at least shows the actor is doing a very good job.

I thought tonight rather moving, and actually splendidly acted, despite objections that Carol's voice sounds too young for her age. I don't think Carol has dementia; I think she is just very, very scared, and doing what scared creatures do, i.e. lashing out in somewhat absurd ways, made worse by the unintentionally patronising ways of those about her, which also rings true, from my own experiences of finding myself taking a patronising tone, unintentionally, towards my elderly mother (also not suffering dementia), whose worry was ostensibly about not being able to remember Euler's constant, but presumably more to do with an awareness of losing dignity. Baby bats, Euler's constant, it's pretty much the same thing, isn't it? But what is there to do, other than dumb jokes, and displacement activities such as hugging sad baby bats?

I found this episode very moving too. Very good acting by Carol. Her fear of death convinced, as well as her wanting to keep up a good front before Anna. For once the SWs are doing a top job in conveying just how exasperating Carol can be, but still engaging our pity and understanding.

Loved the Scrabble game too. The Khalil actor's voice has broken nicely - it is lovely.

I found this episode very moving too. Very good acting by Carol. Her fear of death convinced, as well as her wanting to keep up a good front before Anna. For once the SWs are doing a top job in conveying just how exasperating Carol can be, but still engaging our pity and understanding.

Loved the Scrabble game too. The Khalil actor's voice has broken nicely - it is lovely.

I found this episode very moving too. Very good acting by Carol. Her fear of death convinced, as well as her wanting to keep up a good front before Anna. For once the SWs are doing a top job in conveying just how exasperating Carol can be, but still engaging our pity and understanding.

Loved the Scrabble game too. The Khalil actor's voice has broken nicely - it is lovely.

Jesus. Multiple uploads all over the shop.

I found the episode very moving also. I have recently lost my own DM, and the decline started 2.5 years ago with a fall needing a hip replacement. I remember doing the Respect form with Mum before her operation and also her requesting various funeral things from her hospital bed.
We then recently re-did the Respect form and finally finally got DF (who is relatively fit) to do one too.
It has so helped us now that 6 months ago I made mum and dad sit down and calmly discuss funerals for 15 minutes at home when they both felt OK.

Carol has been so fiercely independent that she has kept pushing Anna away when it could have been an opportunity to get closer.

It was well done and full of negative nostalgia moments, but also reminiscent of one of those BBC radio plays, all about people I'd never heard of before, rooted only in the brief chunk of afternoon drama that prompts me to get out of my chair and into the garden, pausing at the off switch.

All very well if you like that sort of thing, but not the Archers. Because no Archers.

I wonder if Kahil will post something about the Snells Band B,and requests will come flooding in. Lynda and Robert do not deserve the way their business has gone so quickly down hill.
Saying that, Robert is 80, Im not sure how old Lynda is, but it is time to retire but only because they want too, and not because of some nasty women. How can one person, no matter how many platforms she uses ruin someone's reputation so quickly. Can't the public see its a vendetta just by looking at the users name.
I do feel very sorry for Lynda and Robert.
Not so much Carol and Anna.

The DNR reference was interesting. Anna was very glib about something very important. It reminded me of when Dad was in hospital. Like Carol, he would never agree to a DNR and when he was unconscious the doctor tried to get me to sign one. It was post-Covid and at that time the doctors had got used to doing what they like and basically ignoring patients’ wishes. Anyway, I wouldn’t sign it and he said he was going to sign it anyway and I had a v awkward conversation with him which ended with him writing on the form that he was signing against the family’s
wishes and known wishes of the patient. Dad would have expected the kitchen sink to be hurled at him in spite of his age and medical conditions. Fortunately Dad he rallied that time and lived a few more months, dying naturally, but I always thought that had there been a case for resus during his treatment and it was refused then the hospital enquiry/inquest would have been interesting from a legal perspective.

I was disappointed to have to listen to the Scrabble game last night. Soo predictable that Khalil had the letters for Monty. Honestly! I would have preferred to have been on a date with Lily and Harrison (not literally)…