The Archers

Kate54

I take it all back! Apparently The Archers is returning to five days a week in August and still hopes to revert to six days at some point. Great news (as long as the story lines improve)!

That's good to hear and I, for one, am very happy with the story lines.

So Shula has feelings for Neil then. It’s about time she stopped being so boringly virtuous. I wouldn’t like to be in her shoes when Susan finds out though. (I thinks Mrs Carter already has her suspicions!

Shula and Neil? Where do you think this will go?

And Alice returning to cause havoc?

Might become interesting next week!

I do hope you're right Greeneyed.

I don’t think they will get rid of TA. It still has a huge following. It’s one of these progs you can listen to as a child at your mother’s knee, then pick up where you left off 40 years later. Not much of note really happens.

Chewbacca

Not only are we down to just 4 episodes a week but each episode has been reduced to just 12 minutes. I blame Brexit.

I agree Chewbacca. I believe the Beeb are using Covid as an excuse, but I think they've been looking to get rid of the Archers for some time. It's much easier to just use someone reading a book or often banal "celebrities" chatting and giggling. Bring back our fifteen minutes five days a week! (Did there uses to be a Saturday edition?)

Who is going to look after Ben’s collie, Bess, when he begins his nursing course? It lives outside because it’s a working sheepdog only they no longer have any sheep. ?

Great news indeed!

I take it all back! Apparently The Archers is returning to five days a week in August and still hopes to revert to six days at some point. Great news (as long as the story lines improve)!

Thanks Nannarose. I'd stopped listening not long after the explosion while Lynda was still recovering. I read the BBC synopsis of Philip's character where it says he remains adamant he had done nothing wrong:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/2tvpnKf4dzG0xQdpcMC48QR/philip-moss

I loved Scott & Bailey. Such great chemistry between the three female leads - four if you count Julie Dodson (Pippa Heywood) The "Fred West" story and the Gill Murray kidnap which followed were excellent.

I've been rewatching Happy Valley on Britbox. More superb writing from Sally Wainwright. In her early career she was a scriptwriter on TA.

I too at one point thought that Philip had done the 'personality switch' that TA characters sometimes have to fit storylines. However, on reflection I thought it was quite realistic, as Philip gradually drifted into it, excusing himself at each step.

And yes - Scott & Bailey - excellent series. Whenever a good series ends IMHO too soon, I say 'well they quit while they were ahead'. However, sadly that storyline is being played out too often in rural areas.

I felt the writers went too far in changing Philip's character. When he first appeared in TA he was an all-round nice bloke and a good friend to Shula and Alistair. No one can think that modern slavery is a righteous thing. I suspect the writers lifted the story from Scott and Bailey, a gripping couple of episodes featuring the wonderful Ellie Haddington as an evil hill-top farmer keeping casual labourers prisoner in her barn.

Kirstie was a good friend to Helen during the Rob saga. She might have been a bit more awake to what was happening a little earlier than she was but she did try to persude her to get out before the fateful events at the Bloody House of Custard and I shall never understand why she didn't. Well, I do but that's another story concerning SOC.

I like Roy and, as you say, NannaRose, the nasty stuff with Usha is long behind him. I remember an episode where he was in his car with an amorous Tracy Horrobin, trying to put her off him by listing his boring interests. I can't remember what they were now apart from liking Radio 4 but can remember thinking That's the man for me! Maybe he is the man for Kirstie.

Hmm. Accents. There are a lot of similar voices and we could do with Joe Grundy around still to tell us who they are: Hello, Tom Archer. Hello Rex Fairbrother, Toby etc. It's the "rude mechanicals" who often don't sound right to me - the Grundy brothers and the Carter siblings. They don't sound as though they grew up in the same families or in the same part of the country to one another. Professor Higgins ears, I'm afraid.

No, they are not related. Kirstie isn't related to any of the Ambridge families. I am quite fond of her, and thought the 'Philip' storyline a good slow-burner.
Having said that, she probably isn't a good judge of character - she used to see the best in everyone, and didn't spot Tom's doubts, or Philip's duplicity. I think she may swear off men for a long while!
She is a fantastic friend though, and I do think TA portrays friendships very well - although I haven't forgiven the SWs for dropping Amy.

Roy is, I'm sorry to say, a bit of a drip. He seems to allow folk to walk over him, and rarely takes the initiative. He may have left his racist past behind, but IMHO remains easily led. I'm not sure that he & Kirstie would be good for each other, although there's a real 'Harry met Sally' vibe there!

As for accents, I think they are realistic. I live in a part of the country that used to have a very distinctive accent, and it is disappearing.

I haven't listened for ages since lockdown and must catch up. The last time I tuned in I thought Roy and Kirstie would end up together. Is that still possible? They're not blood relations are they?

I was starting to get confused as so many of the young men sounded alike. Bring back Walter Gabriel's accent!

Perhaps they are just the sort of people who can only criticise in real life too

Heaven forfend, PippaZ. !

Kate54. I think the production of big TV shows go ahead because they have the budget which allows cast, competition and production crews to "bubble" together in communal isolation - away from family and friends - for the time it takes to make the series.

I doubt that's practical for the TA production formula. Many (most?) of the cast are bit part actors and have other jobs. Many are elderly and need to be extra careful. Production must be quite a logistical challenge at the moment.

PippaZ I’m not sure! It just seems odd that a) nothing has been said about this for almost a year and b) many, many other Radio and TV shows, including complicated things like Strictly, have managed to resume.There may well be Covid restrictions on scripts, plots etc but surely now not the number of weekly episodes?

Ah! That's what's happening, Chewbacca. I'm just reading pithy comments on ML and making up my own story!

Phoebe? Because she's wasting a valuable Oxbridge PPE degree ferreting about on the internet worrying about her sad father? It was all going well for Roy until Lexi became Handmaiden Ofadamian.

Isn't Roy in the process of being love-scammed by Lola/Layla? Phoebe has been ferreting about on the tinternet, trying to track her down. And why does Phoebe always sound as though she's about to burst into tears?

Thanks, Galaxy, for the update about the pig people.

I've had a hop over to Mustardland to see what's happening at the moment, a halfway house for keeping up to date and not having to listen.

I see there are reweeded longhorns on the loose about to skewer reweeded campers ... or Roy or some hairy-handed trucker he's been chatting to on Tinder. Hopefully, Ben will have completed Bandaging 101 by then.

Yes it's fine to criticise it if you love it.
Also never go on the MN archers thread if you dont like criticism of TA

Love this!
And, if TA is part of your life for most of your life, then they are like family that you can criticise, but have to close ranks if anyone else does.
And watch out for Ben disappearing once he becomes a nurse. Amy dropped into the ether long before Usha.

Kathy & Jamie were far too ordinary to be kept in - I am uncertain as to how long Lee can last, although he does have the most bizarre physio practice!

But isn't it the point of "The Archers". It can do these things far closer to real-time than other dramas can. The good thing is, while we are waiting to see what happens, different storylines distract us, just as real-life would if this were happening to someone we knew.

I never understand why people listen to or watch programmes they can only criticise. Perhaps they are just the sort of people who can only criticise in real life too.

I dont think Hannah has been on air since covid, but she has been mentioned. She is now running one part of the operation whilst Neil does the other, sorry I cant remember the specifics of who runs what

Galaxy

To be fair if I was married to Chris I would have turned to hard drugs let alone alcohol. I am fairly sure the writers are currently producing 5 episodes per week with a view to that starting soon.

T'was always an odd match but then so are most marriages and partnerships in Ambridge.

Speaking of Carters, can someone update me please on what happened at HMP Porkhurst? Last time I listened there was a power struggle going on between Neil and ambitious Hannah. I thought she was after his job - something about tailbiting - the pigs, not Neil and Hannah. Was that ever resolved or is it another dangling thread?