Archers thread #204: Is Vince mince? Discuss The Archers here.

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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 have liked to hear more of Pip's and Stella's wedding vows, 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.)

Several people on the previous thread, and probably the spoilers thread, have rhymed Vince with mince, so credit to all of you! As I start this thread, we don't know what's going to happen to Vince, and it's looking as if Sunday night is going to last all week, or a good chunk of it. Ah well. We have to put up with this kind of thing every few years. I cling to my belief that the SWs aren't going to kill off another of Elizabeth's partners in a horrific accident - but of course they could be toying with us!

Josh has returned from Patagonia sounding strangely changed by his time abroad. (Angus Imrie is presumably too busy, or perhaps fed up with the limited storylines given to Josh up to now, so the part has been re-cast.)

Will the Brookfield inheritance row start up again now? I do hope so. Josh has been very badly short-changed by his parents' decision to leave the farm to Pip (and Stella). Surely they could have taken the same approach as Pat and Tony and involved both children (with separate provision for Ben, who's not interested in a farming career)?

Over to you!

If we're going to have siblings squabbling over a love interest again, can't we have the Button sisters? We've done the Grundys and Emma, the Fairbrothers and Pip, and now Archers and Chelsea? Not original.

I don't care how Vince is, about Keira or the baby's name.

Best bit was the apple crumble party idea, rest was not good.
Agree with @EBearhug regarding sibling rivalry over a woman

Just started listening - the first scene is hilarious.

So many questions:
why would Ben expect Josh to be in a village Cat Chat group, particularly as he’s been overseas for several months??

Why did he ask about Brookfield, and Ben answered that Keira was OK. Keira has no connection whatsoever with Brookfield!

Has anyone actually thought to contact Beth and Vince’s other DD? So many mentions of Elizabeth being by his side!

Didn’t he have a mother too? Was she shipped off to an unnamed home when he moved to LL. out of sight, out of mind and all that….

Am I the only one really enjoying this week?!

I don't find it unlikely that the orangery is near or attached to the main house, or that it's all glass. I do find it vastly unlikely that when there's a huge storm on the way which everyone has been talking about for DAYS that they would decide to set up the food in an all-glass venue! Surely they would have adapated a bit?

Where are all the LL staff?? Isn’t the Orangery where the cafe is?

Enjoyed the brotherly piss taking though. Can’t help wondering if Vince is going to lose a leg (bit unfortunate with the story in the news this week) and he and Lizzie will need to decamp to the Dower House if that still exists. I can’t imagine the family flat in LL is anything other than full of stairs. There is a dower house isn’t there?

I’m not sure about a Dower House at LL. There ought to be one but I don’t recall hearing about it - and Julia (and then Julia and Lewis) lived in the main house, as far as I recall.

The Dower House in Ambridge was originally part of The Estate - which is how Caroline came to live there when she married Guy. And after she was widowed, was able to offer her godson Will Grundy a flat in the attic when the Grundys were evicted and moved to Meadow Rise. She sold it and moved in with Oliver at Grange Farm when they decided to buy Grey Gables. (I’ll be annoyed if I’ve misremembered any I this - though I am away from my vast library of two Archers volumes.)

Didn't Peggy and Aunty Chris live in the Ambridge Dower house until they were swallowed up by the mysterious force field of the Laurels? And then Peggy and Kate.

Peggy lived at The Lodge, (formerly attached to Grey Gables). I’ve always understood a Lodge to be essentially a gatehouse, (for a member of staff) rather than a retirement property for the widowed mother of the inheritor of a main house?

Ah, okay.

Yes, the lodge is usually by the gates to an estate.

I'm struggling to distinguish between the Brookfield brothers' voices.

I recorded a podcast at work earlier in the week, and the only reason I know it's not my sister on the recording is because she wasn't there. So Ben and Josh having the same voice is normal to me - but it is very unhelpful for radio drama.

Any other overseas types getting no service from the Beeb?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/error.html

I think if you’re doing a radio drama/soap the ONE thing you need to ensure is that the audience can work out who is speaking. Even if they’re twins!

I think Lillian and Justin are in The (Ambridge) Dower House now? Don’t remember one at LL - presumably there would have once been lots of those additional buildings, including a Home Farm and all sorts, but now we only get buildings at LL when Elizabeth needs a new conference venue or other commercial space.

Was it the old Dairy that they spent lots of time and money converting into wedding accommodation a few years ago? Seems odd that Pip and Stella didn’t get ready there, which would have removed any risk of Chelsea’s stuff being left back at the Bungalow…

@echt maybe a casualty of the headline website coding problem?

When my sister and lived lived at 'home' we sounded similar on the 'phone and similar to our mother. Thinking back we could have been pretty evil with that but we never were.

On R4 news yesterday were saying there's a problem with a programming language on the Internet. BBC is one of the bodies affected, along with the Finnish government. So it may be that?

Yep. It’s just surfaced in the Guardian. I’m on holiday right now, so just caught up. BBC uses PHP.

I quite agree. Angus Imrie's Josh was immediately recognisable, this guy not so much.

It's so long since I heard Josh and he was in it so infrequently before he left that I don't have a problem with new Josh. I had a similar problem catching up @echt, but while one part of the site seems to be down, it was available on another part (google The Archers and click on the bit at the top R4 - The Archers, rather than the Episodes heading underneath). It was very frustrating last night, but a bit disappointing by the time I finally found it and caught up - a lost cat, fallen apples and a couple of hairdressing appointments are a poor follow-up to all that drama. Will it be a huge problem for Ben if Josh gets together with Chelsea I wonder? Joy's lost cat is reminding me of Lynda's lot dog during the great flood. Is the cat Peggy's old hairdresser's cat Ena Sharples? In which case she must be pretty ancient now. Interesting to note that Lily has picked up the baton at LL while Freddie has gone to the abattoir.

Peggy's cat was Hildarogden. She had kittens, one of which is Ena Sharples, Joy's DCat.

Josh was asking about Lower Loxley not Brookfield.

NewJosh doesn't sound like Ben to me. You'll get used to the change of actor.

I thought Josh was Khalil at the start of the episode. Then struggled to tell Ben and Josh apart. Agree the piss take of Tom was funny.