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.)

Agreed - I suspect Ruairi was meant to be their metrosexual (even that’s probably too old a reference!) or at least to appeal to a new young audience but then, like Debbie, he got a career outside of TA so they fell back on Pip who had never shown any signs of being anything other than straight. For a main character whom we’ve seen growing up it’s a bit hard to believe.

The only believable comment about her relationship with Stella was Josh when he told her that it wouldn’t work because she was flaky. As for poor Rosie, I feel sorry for the poor child: she’s obnoxious because her upbringing has made her that way.

Why did the DM use a quote from a ‘listener’ who had clearly never heard of Adam and Ian?

And yes, this time I heard Pip saying If I have to lay in bed.

I’m fed up with this. The Archers is about class stratification. What the hell is the point if the writers are too poorly educated to grasp that?

I also can’t understand why the wedding is not being held at Brookfield so I am wondering if LL is somehow connected to/the cause of the doom that is predicted to ensue. Maybe David will push someone else off the roof! I also agree that Pip is not convincing as TWFL. @DrBlackbird has it in a nutshell with: Recently it feels that the approach is to come up with ‘an event’ and then build a SL around it. Rather than building the story of TA itself.

We know the Maliks are observant Muslims which combined with the frosty relations between them and Ruth & David and the lack of evidence of a relationship with Pip and Stella it seems highly unlikely they would be at the wedding.

Also why (the hell) are Pargetters handcrafting the entire wedding? This is not how I imagined the luxury Lower Loxley wedding offering. Where the jeff are all the LL staff?

Am I just Bea No Mates or is a guest list of 200 on the high side?

200 guests sounds reasonable for a theoretical farming heiress who’s supposed to be at the centre of a close and thriving community - and who has longstanding wider connections from school and university and work.

Not really for Pip and Stella though - when they almost never leave the village and don’t appear to have any friends outside it. Will Stella just invite all her new colleagues?

Yeah I don’t get the invitation to the Maliks either. Unless snobbery because she’s the GP? But then Ruth always seems so desperate to become best friends with anyone new - first with Stella, and now Azra. That seems complete nonsense to me - people in a rural community (like my grandparents and many of my cousins) tend to have their circle of family, friends, neighbours etc already in place, and while they may be curious about outsiders moving in, and very friendly towards them (I don’t want to fall into the stereotype of certain families remaining outsiders for generations, but even without that) the locals just don’t need the incomers’ friendship in the way Ruth seems to. And why would they?

So is it only Ruth who’s like that? Pat Archer, who like Ruth is also a blow-in but married in, seems more reasonable: perfectly friendly to newcomers, but not desperate to be best friends with them. I can’t think of anyone else who does that.

Didn’t hear latest trailer for The Wedding this morning. In what way did it foreshadow that DOOM was on its way? Not that I’d be too sad if it were. Whole thing, right from having it at LL not Brookfield to lack of spark in P’s and S’s relationship, is so unbelievable it’s v hard to care anyway.

I think Ruth used to be besties with Usha too when she first came to Ambridge.

I think the 200 guests is far too high.
Farming is still pretty patriarchal and I suspect many would be dismissive of a lesbian wedding.
I probably wouldn't go but that's because I don't think the marriage will last, and because I don't like them.

Didn’t hear latest trailer for The Wedding this morning. In what way did it foreshadow that DOOM was on its way?

You'll need to check out the spoiler thread @polyhymnia

When we first planned our wedding we found it hard to get down to 100 and that was with only one side of the family each. 200 guests is just prohibitively expensive.

Think a shoe horned conversation where Elizabeth offered the use of LL for free if they covered costs as a wedding gift would have been helpful as it makes no sense not to have at least discussed using their own venue.

They must have a team of event waiters and staff anyway - they always make it seem like they run the whole thing in the family but they can’t really.

Everything around Pip is inconceivable esp her being TWFL.

Has Stella ever referred to having travelled a bit? Wondering if Josh’s new squeeze could be an ex of Stella’s. Bit of a leap- clutching at straws here…

I think Ruth is so unlikeable she wants to be friends with anyone newly arrived who hasn't yet cottoned on to her frightfulness. The besties don't seem to stay that way for all that long.

What's TWFL, please?

The World's First Lesbian

@JoelenesParrot , Stella is more than 20 years older than Josh.

This is a genuine question - why does everyone here hate Ruth so much? She's not even close to my top 10 Archers character shit list. David's a pillock but I've always found Ruth tolerable.

200 is a big wedding these days given the costs involved. Even more so given children aren’t invited.

@Every1ElseInKnowsley Yes- and she’s quite a bit older than Pip but that hasn’t been an issue. I did say I was clutching at straws…

I suspect it might be because she has always been such a bad parent, showing blatant favouritism, offering her sons no support, and encouraging her daughter to be rude and unpleasant to older adults.

This is Mumsnet, after all!

@JoelenesParrot , And Josh might also like his women to be older than him.
Brian and David said 'girl' but they're both much older.

@Somnambule , I've always liked Ruth. I don't like her hushed concerned voice.

Our wedding was so long ago that I only have very hazy memories of it but I think we had about 35 guests. That felt like plenty, tbh. 200 would have been huge. No evening do. I don't think they were expected back then in the same way. Register office ceremony, photos (shudder), meal at a hotel, toasts, speeches (of which I can remember nothing at all), job done, and we headed off for our honeymoon.

Weather very calm here in London. And yet in Borsetshire if the weather forecasts have proved accurate it should be heading for hurricane force. Remarkable.

(I wish I'd heard the trailer. I like a good trailer.)