Archers thread #203: It's Affair Cop! 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 would love to attend Pip's wedding with Natasha and the starry twins, 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.)

Starting the new thread a bit early as I'm not sure I'll have much internet access for the next few days. Fill up the old one first. And then - over to you!

(Credit for the thread title goes to @TripleSulko.)

I agree.

I hate seeing cats and dogs dressed up.

And horses too, come to that.

It's just so unnecessary

AgentKim
Although it looks cute, I think dressing up a cat or dog is cruel. I understand a coat and little snow shoes in the winter, but any other sort of clothing on animals isn't very pet friendly to me.

I agree.

Snow-shoes for puppies in Norway is apparently standard, and I feel that pavement-shoes in hot countries in summer ought to be. I was taught as a child that if you wouldn't like to walk on a pavement with bare feet because it was too hot for them, you ought not to take your dog for a walk on it because his feet would hurt in the same way. I've not yet seen sun-shoes for dogs in England, but this past summer I feel they would have been a good thing; vets were getting dogs brought in to them limping because of their burned feet after walking on pavements.

Judi Dench joins calls by The Archers cast to keep show in Birmingham | The Archers | The Guardian

Not a Beatrix Potter fan then.

I just picked it up from a link on her socials…Yes, it does like it was set up by a listener.

Just being my usual nitpicking self. They're Martyn and Lynda.

Not sure, TBH.

I'm aware of her work, but have never read anything she wrote.

Did I have a deprived childhood? 😂

I was much more into Enid Blyton!

So!

It will all be happening now this Saturday afternoon.

Tomorrow night's episode is going to be very interesting - I hope! 🤔

Yes, I know it's not really taking place this afternoon, but I can't help imagining it happening in real time 🙂

Weddings always seem to take place on Saturday afternoons!

Animals wearing clothes are a part of childhood, surely.
And wandering through wardrobes.

I loved Enid Blyton books as a child too, but I read a lot.

No actual animals were irritated by being drawn in clothes by Beatrix Potter, whereas actual animals can be seen being resigned and fed up when they are dressed up as dollies and put into dollies' prams in sunbonnets.

In extreme cases cats have clawed their way out of this sort of ignominy, leaving lacerated ribbons and people in their wake.

Putting a horse in a straw hat with holes for the ears as a defence against flies and heat is reasonable; putting a cat (or a toy poodle, and the word toy is a bit of a giveaway there) into a bonnet that has no particular function except amusing a human and making the animal look silly seems, well, unnecessary.

What's the weather like in England outside Borsetshire? Ireland is all blue skies and sunshine with very little breeze.

That's where you're wrong. They were furious!

@DeanElderberry , clear blue sky here in Everyshire (nowhere near Knowsley but if anyone is up that way a big Hi to ..., ..., ... and everyone else who knows me)

As far as I remember the animals on the other side of that wardrobe were never drawn by Pauline Baynes wearing clothes. Reepicheep wore a sword-belt with a sword on it, but not clothes.

What other, lesser artists may have done since I don't know. Aslan in trousers?

Aslan in trousers That's set me off laughing.

Wind in the Willows, Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland ...

Paddington. Though I suppose coat and boots have already been deemed justifiable.

I agree the episodes seem to be ending very abruptly. I can normally tell when the music is incoming.

I'm liking Freddie more and more at the moment.

Lovely blue skies here in the North West. Maybe the tractor will be struck by lightning ⚡️

Don't know where you are in the North West just now.

Here in Lancashire it's looking very grey, and it's raining!

I wonder what's happening in real time in Ambridge?

I forgot about Paddington! Shame on me. I'll have to eat a marmalade sandwich to make up for it. Even Babar and Rupert wore clothes.
The Moomins were Swedish-Finnish so they were a bit less prudish, I guess.

I wonder if a dead bride will be too shocking? If Pip died immediately after the service, Stella presumably wouldn’t have to look after Rosie as she would just go to Tobee. And Pip doesn’t really own anything at the moment so that’s a dead end too. Stella dying adds nothing to the wider landscape so may be there is no point in killing either off- apart from the fact the demise of Pop would please us all. So, who else could die for maximum effect? May be Jill as it would underline the longevity of the show.

Or may be the SWs will consider a death to be in bad taste for an anniversary and it will all go off smoothly with a bit of behind the scenes farce provided by Freddie. That would be really disappointing…No, it’s going to be up to Josh to provide the twist.

I’m sad about Hannah btw. I don’t particularly like her but her life is so sad and dreary, it seems mean to heap redundancy onto her on top of a mother with dementia and no love life (apart from a FWB arrangement with Tom years ago - how desperate must she have been?!?)

He did have his sausages.

Actually I suspect it may simply be that it is a great deal easier to draw clothes than it is to draw animals without them but in poses generally adopted only by the human species (and perhaps some of the great apes). Pauline Baynes was rather good as an artist and was able to make a mouse look humanish without a pair of breeches and some boots, but she was special.

I have a wonderful vision of Ernest Shephard dressing up a Mole in a pinafore and posing him on a stepladder with a feather duster, or a Water-Rat in a blazer and causing him to row a very small boat, so he could draw from the life.

The animals Shephard drew for Winnie the Pooh are toys and can be dressed however anyone wants without their feelings being hurt.

Apart from the Frog Footman and the Fish Footman (who both have human legs) the only animals wearing clothes in Alice in Wonderland seem to be rabbits, plus the March Hare. I do wonder why that was; if a rabbit can be clothed, why not a Dodo? or a Dormouse?

In the Moomin books, Snufkin, Little My, Mimble, Toffle, the Muddler, Thingumy and Bob, the Fillyjonk, Misabel, Toft, Too-Ticky, and Emma the Stage Rat wear clothes; the Hemulen famously wears a dress that he inherited from his aunt. Even Moominmamma wears an apron, and Moominpappa a hat. So the full nudes are Moomintroll, Snork Maiden, and the Snork; and whoever heard of a troll wearing clothes, I ask you!

Sadly, I think we are stuck with Pip. Having killed off Nigel, Mark H-L, Sid, Nick, Rob (and probably a few others I have forgotten), they have rather overdone the “poor child has lost a parent” SL. I like Stella so I’ll be cross if she is deaded.

I suppose Leonard, driving Jill and Aunty Cardboard to the ceremony, could crash the car, or maybe something happens to Jim or Oliver? They can’t keep pretending that the retired actors and those no longer with us are bustling about in the background.

If I were a flamingo in Alice (or through the Looking Glass) I'd feel pretty miffed at being used upside-down down as a mallet.

The sheep in Through the Looking Glass has lots of clothes and shows every sign of knitting more. Beatrix Potter was a brilliant artist, and unsentimental about her animal characters.

... the animals on the other side of that wardrobe were never drawn by Pauline Baynes wearing clothes. I shouldn't have read that twice.