Archers thread #204: Is Vince mince? 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 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!

Me too..! Although I did think ‘thank fuck I’m not in Cat Chat’ and it made me feel a little more fondly towards some of the WhatsApp groups I find annoying.

I thought Ben added Josh to cat chat as a wind up, which struck me as a very brotherly thing to do. Obviously young men don't want to be in the neighborhood lost cat group, even in the Archers.

I'm not really clear why Ben and Josh were cleaning up the orangerie though - why is it their problem? And how come everyone has forgotten how hateful Vince is? (Well we know why, because the SW have).

I guess they’re doing it to show support for their poor aunt, who’s facing another dreadful accident to a partner?

I mean - despite the production team declining to provide the sounds of a busy group of employees - I imagine Elizabeth had staff working on the clear-up, and the Brookfield boys weren’t really needed. But it might have helped Lily to have them close by while her mother was at the hospital.

How come David, Vince, and the Brides were under the limit?

Vince was vile to Ben and Chelsea in the past. Have they forgotten that?

Re the helping clear up, it's the sort of thing families do. I doubt that Elizabeth has many employees.

Because it was very early on - when it was all over it was only 6:30 in the evening. So a glass of champagne with the meal but not time for much else.

@BeaAndBen , it still seems unlikely.

I get the family support thing I suppose, but then given the whole village is mobilising to find bloody Joy's cat you'd think a few more Archers would have pitched in.

Pah! Amateurs. I would have been several drinks deep by then especially if I’d had to spend the day with that lot.

I’d have needed a strong drink after the vows.

I don't think I've ever drunk more than the welcome drink and the toast at a wedding, but I have in at evening dos.

At a wedding in a stately home, I think they would have had bottles of wine on the tables. Surely David, Vince and the ghastly bridal couple would have had more than one glass.

The idea that Josh and Ben would be clearing up the broken glass of the Orangerie with a broom and a roll of bin bags is, frankly, laughable. Where were the loss adjusters and the builders called in to make the rest of the building safe?

And I also found it impossible to tell who was speaking.

I'd probably have retched. Bleugh!

I doubt that Elizabeth has many employees.

Lower Loxley encompasses:

A high end wedding and events venue.

A residential conference centre.

A (relatively) vast stately home theme park including a treetop walk, various seasonal attractions for Halloween / Bonfire Night, Christmas, New Year - an ice rink for example, self employed specialists like the hawk woman.

A luxury cafe, restaurant, function room. (The Orangery) requiring chefs, waiting staff, cleaners …

Guided tours of the house. Even if she uses volunteers someone has to manage them and do all the admin, promotion, Health & Safety, content creation …

Plus land, cottages, vineyard, etc, etc, etc.

It really isn’t just Elizabeth and whichever twin isn’t busy doing all the work with a single housekeeper and admin assistant.

Brad and Chelsea work in the Orange part-time, or did, and there's someone who Freddie shadowed, and Fallon does events. That's it.

There's Jessica in the falconry and the ghosts of Lewis in Fallon's art barn, not to mentionTitcombe in the gardens and Mrs Pugsley in the house. Rex has pigs there. Wasn't there a manager called Gillian at some point?

I thought it was a rerun of the Great Sewage Clean-Up, where professionals never set foot in Ambridge. (The bit that made me feel sick then was Helen deciding that cheese on the upper shelves of a trolley hadn’t got "splashed " and was OK to sell).

There’s also the rare breeds and birds of prey (is there someone called Geraldine who looks after those?) Not to mention the art gallery and shop. When you see it all written down like that @TottersBlankly it really is a huge undertaking. The Stately Home bit is the least of it.

Geraldine was a manager.
I don't think Lewis, Titcombe and Mrs Pugsley are still around.
Jessica would be a freelancer.

The Lizard has several siblings and a mother; and a massive extended family. Why the hell is she confiding in J*y?!?

of course they had to shoehorn bloody Joy in this week. I was suprised it needed a separate storyline, though. Isn't she a qualified loss adjuster?

Harrison and Lily are for keeps, aren’t they…

So Vince is conscious and with it enough to worry - but they don’t know what’s wrong with him… I mean, surely Elizabeth could have told us that he has three broken ribs and a gash down to the femur, for starters?
And they will have said “There’s been some internal bleeding but we think it’s stopped, we’re doing a scan to look for X and Y…” (or whatever).
It’s really off the way the script is keeping us on tenterhooks about his condition, when we know the cause of it already!

And still no mention of his DDs.

Well, normal service has been resumed, though I could have done without Joy's pussy.
I agree the boys all sound the same now. I expect we'll be treated to lots of naming of each other when they meet.
Thinking of Harrison's deeper tones when expressing emotion that came over a bit pervy when taking with Zainab, it reminds me of Brine's "sexy" growl. Maybe they get taught that at radio acting skool.

(This thread title is making me smile every time I read it!)

I suppose this whole storyline has been set up to push Elizabeth over the edge and force the trustees to hand over to Freddie. If there's any justice in the world he will tell Lily he can't do it without her and they will run the place together.