Thread: The Archers - BBC radio story of everyday country folk Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Spoiler alert: Today's episode featured a sexy sexagenarian who is cheating on her boyfriend with his half-brother and had trouble keeping up with her 80-something mum (with a stick!) who planned to climb a flight of 199 stairs while on holiday.

If you are new to this 60-plus-year-old racy agricultural drama on BBC Radio 4, I wholeheartedly suggest you catch the omnibus on Sunday. The programmes are broadcast Sunday through Friday at 7 PM GMT.

As I don't own a digital radio and am not presently in the UK, I hear it on bbc.co.uk/radio4 - daily episodes are re-broadcast at 2PM GMT the following day as well as being available on "Listen Again" or as a podcast from the Archers website, an easy click away from the main Radio 4 homepage.

I have been listening to it every week for about ten years. The Archers

[ 04. January 2013, 19:44: Message edited by: Firenze ]
 
Posted by Curious (# 93) on :
 
Is Paul a half brother? Whatever, I love this soap! Very sad this time of year with the memorial of Nigel's death.
I've been a listener on and off since I was a student (we couldn't afford TV so radio was my friend).
 
Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
I've been a listener, on and off, since the fifties - but more off than on in the last two years. Not only as a result of what they did to Nigel, but because of the way the programme has stopped being based on the characters and is now plot driven.
Long-time, well-known characters do things that are quite "out of character" to illustrate whatever 'issue' is currently on the writers' minds, while new ones are parachuted in for the same reason and then written out never (or rarely) to be mentioned again. Apart from the HorrorBins, who seem to be staging a takeover.

And farming has really taken a back seat.
Pretty well the whole of the UK has experienced rainfall sufficient to interfere with most agricultural work but, in spite of Ambridge being located in one of the wettest areas of the UK, the Am hasn't even threatened to overflow. The writers clearly don't get up early enough to listen to "Farming Today".

Sorry for what has turned into a rant, but the EastEnderfication of the iconic Archers really upsets me.
 
Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
I used to pass by the village of Inkberrow occasionally, where the original for the Bull in Ambridge is situated. When the programme started, what happened at the real pub was used for the Bull in the Archers, but they moved away from that many years ago. The Old Bull still has pictures of cast members up on the wall, though - or at least, it did when I was last there, and is a very pleasant place to break a long journey.
 
Posted by M. (# 3291) on :
 
I used to be an Archers' Anarchist but gave up some years ago*. It was quite fun for a while, though.

M.

*And gave up listening to the Archers, too, when I realised that it didn't matter if I missed a week or six, it always seemed to be the same storyline going on.
 
Posted by ElaineC (# 12244) on :
 
Many years ago - nearly thirty in fact , before there was daytime television and all you had was radio, I used to listen to the Archers every day.

When my five year old daughter was told Mummy was going back to work, her response was 'Mummy, how are you going to manage without the archers!'

Needless to say I have survived.
 
Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
I swore not to listen again when it became clear that they felt killing off a character was a good way of celebrating an anniversary, and that they way it was announced to the actor was not kindly done, and I told them so, and have stuck to it.
 
Posted by Trisagion (# 5235) on :
 
What Roseofsharon said. I decided I'd had enough when Shula's first husband, Mark Hebden, was killed off. I keep trying again but I find it all thoroughly unconvincing.
 
Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
If you think "The Archers" has gone bad, looks out "Ambridge Extra". The saving grace is that it's only on 4 Extra.
 
Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 
I've steered well clear of Ambridge Extra - am I right in thinking that it gives even more prominence to the ghastly Yoof of Ambridge?- and have more or less given up the main programme because I find myself shouting at it so much. Only consolation last time I switched on was that the appalling and feckless Ed Grundy's chickens seemed to be coming to home to roost, but as always everyone seemed to be- inexplicably- rallying round him. Didn't mind that they'd killed off a character to mark the 60th anniversary, except that it was the wrong one- it really should have been the deradful Helen Archer, but pretty much any character under the age of 35 (or most of the ones over 35 come to that, except Nigel,the one they actually did kill) would have done at a pinch.
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Extra seems to be for fanatics of Clive and his ilk; I only listen to it sporadically out of sheer curiosity and to hear a deviation on the signature tune of its parent programme. As someone who was born in LA and wishes his ancestors had stayed in Angleterre, I have a morbid attraction to this offshoot.

My late paternal grandmother was a cattle rancher in northern California for a brief period of time a hundred years ago after she graduated uni with a degree in nutrition/ home ec before she was married. There are still a few elderly ranchers on my late father's side of the family. As I have been riding horses since age eight, I rather like the characters of Shula and the Carters. I had a neighbour a few decades ago who was a farrier...
 
Posted by The Weeder (# 11321) on :
 
Please remember that 'The Archers Are Real- There Is No Cast'. I have a car window sticker proclaiming the fact, and am a member of The Archers Anarchists and also an inmate of the Borchester Asylum. We inmates are having a day out, to see the Book of Mormon, as long as we can get enough gin down Matrons neck, to render her incapable of noticing that she is alone in the asylum.
 
Posted by Doublethink (# 1984) on :
 
You have to understand how it is for the rest of us.
 
Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by The Weeder:
'The Archers Are Real- There Is No Cast'
Or there wasn't, until New Year's Day 2011. Now Ambridge is full of strange people calling themselves by the old familiar names, but behaving more like actors with bad scripts.
 
Posted by Anselmina (# 3032) on :
 
Yeah, that's how I see the Archers - now for some years. The Pod people from outer space have obviously invaded Ambridge and taken over the bodies of the original inhabitants.

It's sad, because it's what ruined the other soaps for me, too. You get into certain characters, get to know them etc. Then the writers are compelled to introduce an 'issue', and somebody becomes Jekyll and Hyde, or undergoes a complete schizophrenic personality change. It used to be a case of 'gosh, how exciting, So-and-So behaving like that! How unexpected!' Now it's simply a case of waiting for the 'storyline' to take over the character.

I don't care anymore when they get married or have children, or something good happens; because you know she'll be bonking her husband's brother before the cake is cut; or the kid'll grow up to be a teenage hooker or get done for shoplifting by its ninth birthday. And I've given up keeping account of who's the father of which teenage-mum's baby. I'd have to draw a chart just to remember who's married to who - for now.
 
Posted by Jigsaw (# 11433) on :
 
Born in the 1950's, I grew up in Archers country. (roughly Worcestershire and a bit of Herefordshire). The actors playing Tom Forrest or Walter Gabriel would often open our village fetes.
I miss those days, but the countryside has moved on. Teenage pregnancies, drug dealing, child neglect are all a part of rural life nowadays. Listen to the song "Country Life" by the band Show of Hands for an illustration.
That said, wild horses wouldn't drag me to listen to Ambridge Extra and I'm sick of how the R4 trailers constantly refer to it to entice the mainstream Archers Adicts (and even Archers Anarchists) to get us to up its audience figures.
 
Posted by Anselmina (# 3032) on :
 
I've lived in Archers' country, too. And lived mostly in English country areas, so I know that there isn't a perfect idyll out there. I guess what tires me about the soaps is the issue or plot-driven, rather than character-based, approach.

The writers have their hands tied - competition for ratings, only a small pool of families to inflict with various diseases, divorces, bigamous marriages, incestuous relationships, unwanted babies, murders etc. I can see it's necessary for one person to marry, divorce and have inappropriate affairs any number of times in order to go through the gamut of human experience necessary for serial drama TV. And for that agonizing process to run contagiously through the whole cast. Especially for those soaps that go out every hour on the hour (I exaggerate, perhaps [Big Grin] ).

And there are times when a story-line picks up an issue and does something usefully provocative with it. John Saxbee isn't the only cleric who likes to use the occasional soap opera as sermon illustration!

I just don't want to be depressed day in day out with yet another tragedy happening to the same tragedy-stricken group of people! I know that 'real' people can really be that stupid or unlucky. But I already live in real life. It's just nice - at least occasionally - to have something that edifies, encourages or restores one's faith in humanity. I don't always need to see someone's life being ripped apart in order to be entertained!
 
Posted by Anselmina (# 3032) on :
 
Actually, I must apologise to poor Sir Kevin. This is heaven and he's sharing Ambridge with the world and I'm crapping all over it! [Hot and Hormonal]

The Archers is still a great institution, and well worth a listen! The spirit of Grace lives on!
 
Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
I'm the one that should apologise, as I set off the anti-Archers grumble. I think it's probably only the old fogies like me, still mourning the demise of Nigel, who are going on about how good it was 'in our day'.
As in so many other areas, change is difficult.

If you come to it new then the programme can still hook you, and get you involved in Ambridge life - even if it's not life as we knew it.
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
As an architecture school dropout, my favourite part of the site is the illustrations of various buildings and locations in the series. Some of those houses I would quite like to live in, particularly the ones which had nice gardens and no thatched roofs!
 
Posted by The Weeder (# 11321) on :
 
I have loathed the Archers since first arriving in the U.K. aged about 7.

My parents listened every evening, and then to the Sunday Omnibus. Actually, I am not sure the actually listened- just had the programme on, as a symbol of their Britishness. To be fair to them. having been born in Dublin, but before the Easter Rising, and being Proddy, they were legally and emotionally British rather than Irish.

We three children loathed it, and used to howl whenever our least favourite characters spoke. As that was almost everyone, that quarter of an hour was very noisy indeed.

I keep up now via Kieth Fletts musings, and, as I am an inmate of the Borchester Asylum, the hefty doses of gin from Matron keep me, and my fellow patients, safe from hearing the programme. Matron in the sluice room at the moment, so I have access to her computer.
 
Posted by Percy B (# 17238) on :
 
I have resumed listening regularly, having been on and off for years.

I clearly am not as discerning as some here, as I actually enjoy listening.

By the way does St Stephens keep a patronal festival?

[ 10. January 2013, 20:32: Message edited by: Percy B ]
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
You know, I'm not sure. Why not ask a parish priest? That's what I would do.
 
Posted by Clint Boggis (# 633) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
If you are new to this 60-plus-year-old racy agricultural drama on BBC Radio 4, I wholeheartedly suggest you catch the omnibus on Sunday. The programmes are broadcast Sunday through Friday at 7 PM GMT.

As I don't own a digital radio and am not presently in the UK, I hear it on bbc.co.uk/radio4 - daily episodes are re-broadcast at 2PM GMT the following day as well as being available on "Listen Again" or as a podcast from the Archers website, an easy click away from the main Radio 4 homepage.

I have been listening to it every week for about ten years. The Archers
I follow how people are using the Raspberry Pi educational foundation (non-profit) tiny computer where I've just read Radio 4 Matic about someone using it in a converted radio to make BBC Radio 4 programmes play at the right time depending on your time zone. At the mention of the Archers and listening abroad, I thought of you Sir Kevin!
 
Posted by Percy B (# 17238) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
You know, I'm not sure. Why not ask a parish priest? That's what I would do.
Not sure how to contact Alan.

Who are Ambridge's church wardens at present. Last time I remember knowing it was Neil Carter and Shula Hebden.
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
I believe Shula Hebden-Lloyd still is.

My but that girlfriend of Matt's is really becoming a lying old skank, isn't she!
 
Posted by Percy B (# 17238) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
I believe Shula Hebden-Lloyd still is.

My but that girlfriend of Matt's is really becoming a lying old skank, isn't she!
Loved the Whitby adventure, and it became more topical with news from st Mary's Whitby being reported nationally at about the time Peggy was there.
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Lillian seems to be spending more time with Matt this week and only getting 'phone calls from real live female friends....
 
Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
Lillian seems to be spending more time with Matt this week and only getting 'phone calls from real live female friends....
That was a very odd 'end of the affair'.
Any idea why she stayed with Matt? It certainly wasn't clear from her 'goodbye' telephone call to Paul
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Hell if I know! Maybe she likes the idea of being his mistress!
 
Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on :
 
Matt is obviously reprehensible but normally Lillian quite likes that. (Oooh, you are awful but I like you...)

Only when he exceeds his monthly quota of Evil Points (getting sent to jail for embezzlement, driving sweet elderly gentlemen into an early grave) does she get (temporarily) itchy feet.

I think this is reasonably in character.
 
Posted by gerbilfodder (# 17526) on :
 
I have been listening to the Archers since the first epsiode in 1951, when I was one year old and sitting in my pram in the kitchen. I have a good memory for early infancy even if I can't always remember what I did yesterday. [Big Grin]
 
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Welcome to The Ship, gerbilfodder.

( Mrs Dale's Diary - now there was a catalogue of crime and passion).

Firenze
Vintage Heaven Host
 
Posted by gerbilfodder (# 17526) on :
 
I remember Mrs Dale's Diary too, although not as well as The Archers
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Would that ever come up on Radio4 Extra?
 
Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
I have my doubts that Radio 4Extra could broadcast it. The last episode of The Dales as Mrs Dale's Diary became in 1962 was broadcast in 1969. Only twelve complete episodes exist in the BBC archives and as it was broadcast every weekday it is unlikely that many home recording exist.
 
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
I'm mildly surprised it survived as long as 1969; it always seemed so quintessentially '50s.

It comes to mind that the BBC ran a radio soap set in a shared house in an urban setting in the late 60s/70s, doubtless in an attempt to be groovy, fab and happening. But, lacking mangel-wurzel crop failure and dark doings in the cowshed, it didn't last....
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
What in the world is the mangel-wurzel crop?

[Confused]
 
Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
Joshua Bowman had a mangel -wurzels for a head (about 90 seconds in).

[ 26. January 2013, 08:29: Message edited by: North East Quine ]
 
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
What in the world is the mangel-wurzel crop?
Absolute agricultural mainstay. you'll be saying next you've never heard of Worzel Gummidge or the legends that are The Wurzels .
 
Posted by Trisagion (# 5235) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
What in the world is the mangel-wurzel crop?

[Confused]
Occasionally Wikipedia is your friend.
 
Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I'm mildly surprised it survived as long as 1969; it always seemed so quintessentially '50s.

It comes to mind that the BBC ran a radio soap set in a shared house in an urban setting in the late 60s/70s, doubtless in an attempt to be groovy, fab and happening. But, lacking mangel-wurzel crop failure and dark doings in the cowshed, it didn't last....
That was Waggoner's Walk. Dark doings a plenty but it was never a roaring success and I seem to remember it was killed off in 1977 by a nuclear strike. I'm sure I heard that at last a good use had been found for nuclear weapons.
 
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
That's the one! Though I don't remember the ICBM strike on Hampstead. Or was it a meltdown at the Frognal Lane nuclear reactor?

Stirring times.
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
I am somewhat unaware of the ancient history of this great programme: I am still under 60 and I only started to listen to it in the 21st century. This is my second thread on the subject.

Whither Lillian? Will she and Matt actually buy the run-down old building and convert it into flats? Will all of the other characters survive another year? Is Ambridge Extra really worth listening to?
 
Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:

Whither Lillian? Will she and Matt actually buy the run-down old building and convert it into flats?
There is speculation elsewhere that Paul will turn out to be the builder that gets the job of converting the papermill. As he is being creepily stalkerish in his pursuit of Lilian there are all sorts of possibilities for that little trio
quote:

Is Ambridge Extra really worth listening to?
.
I've not listened to it myself, but it started off concentrating on the hidden lives of the Yoof of Ambridge, and wasn't much liked amongst regular TA listeners, as there were odd things happening in Ambridge that listeners didn't understand unless they also listened to AE (which we'd been promised wouldn't happen).
Recent episodes have received a warmer welcome, as they followed the adventures of Joe, Jim and the two Berts on their jaunt to Liverpool with Bob Pullen's ashes.
Now that job's done it may go back to following the Yoof.
 
Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on :
 
Personally I like the badger storyline. This is classic Archers stuff. Thank goodness for Linda Snell.

Also there is clearly something not-quite-right about new guy more-Brian-Aldridge-than-Brian-Aldridge Rob. Perhaps Matt will recognise him from his time in PRISON.
 
Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 
I think his charm will eventually win over Ruth, despite her hostility to all that he stands for, and it'll be Sam the Cowman all over again.
 
Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
Ruth only fell for Sam-the-Cowman because David was dallying with Sophie-from-the-past. I don't see a repeat of that storyline.
 
Posted by Percy B (# 17238) on :
 
Yes, the badger storyline is more classic Ambridge.

And what is Joe up to?
 
Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Ruth only fell for Sam-the-Cowman because David was dallying with Sophie-from-the-past. I don't see a repeat of that storyline.
When the women of Ambridge start to fall for slaughterers and pigmen, you'll know they have cracked the country code.
 
Posted by Jigsaw (# 11433) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Welcome to The Ship, gerbilfodder.

( Mrs Dale's Diary - now there was a catalogue of crime and passion).

Firenze
Vintage Heaven Host

 
Posted by Jigsaw (# 11433) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:


( Mrs Dale's Diary - now there was a catalogue of crime and passion).

Firenze
Vintage Heaven Host [/QB]
For Firenze:
"I'm worried about Jim"
(this will make absolutely no sense to most other Heaven dwellers, but I couldn't resist posting it)
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
I guess Lillian cannot be an adulteress because she is not actually married to poor old cuckolded Matt, but she keeps getting sluttier and sluttier and seems to be completely devoid of conventional morals when it comes to matters of the heart. It does spice up the scripts a good bit!

Why not have here walking up to an illicit meeting at a "love hotel" with her lover while wearing no pants and no brassiere on a windy day in a short skirt and nearly transparent top? Oooh, that is a troubling image... My eyes, my eyes!
 
Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
What would be the point of going braless and knickerless on radio?
 
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
And when did this thread cross over into Archers fanfic/ porn?
 
Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
I'm with Matt on this one. I think Lillian would look good in a smart winter coat.
 
Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Ruth only fell for Sam-the-Cowman because David was dallying with Sophie-from-the-past.
Don't you believe it. Underneath that sensible Northumbrian grazing expert, shepherd's pie maker aand harassed mother of typically repellent Ambridge teenaged daughter, there's a woman who has needs that David just can't fulfil...
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
That was a bit before my time as a listener, but it sounds fascinating.
 
Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Albertus:
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Ruth only fell for Sam-the-Cowman because David was dallying with Sophie-from-the-past.
Don't you believe it. Underneath that sensible Northumbrian grazing expert, shepherd's pie maker aand harassed mother of typically repellent Ambridge teenaged daughter, there's a woman who has needs that David just can't fulfil...
Didn't we all get audible proof that David could fulfil her needs in the conception-of-Ben episode? In a hay-stack IIRC.
 
Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 
That was round about 2001, wasn't it? It's been a long time since then.
 
Posted by The Weeder (# 11321) on :
 
Please stop- I do not want to be reminded that the awful pair actually MATE.
I feel quite sick as I prefer to think their repellant brood came out of a test tube.
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
[Killing me]

[Projectile]
 
Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by The Weeder:
Please stop- I do not want to be reminded that the awful pair actually MATE.
I feel quite sick as I prefer to think their repellant brood came out of a test tube.
I didn't actually hear the episode, but I can imagine it-

DA: series of indistinct grunts within which sounds that might possibly be interpreted as 'milk quotas', 'NFU', and 'sod it, what about a quickie?' can vaguely be discerned.

Sound effect: Rustle rustle rustle of hay and removal of Economical Outfittings for Agricultural Employment

RA: 'Ooh Daavid! Oooh Nooo! Oooh Nooo! Oooh Nooo! Oooh YEEES !'

Up grams Barwick Green and fade to Brian Perkins...
 
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
So not an everyday story of country folk, sheep meat quotas, fowl pest control and hints on sugar beet cultivation, but a (drystone) wall-to-wall rutfest then?

[ 06. February 2013, 19:50: Message edited by: Firenze ]
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Who the hell is Brian Perkins? He is not coming up in my Who's Who. I vote Lillian for Slut of the Year: she has no redeeming social qualities except of her pocketbook which keeps poor old Matt interested and out of gaol. Do they still copulate? Is his half-brother in danger of transmitting a social disease to him via her if that is the case?
 
Posted by Spike (# 36) on :
 
Brian Perkins was a Radio 4 announcer, much parodied by the excellent "Dead Ringers".
 
Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
quote:
she has no redeeming social qualities
She drives her mother to the Laurels regularly, she's a concerned and caring aunt to Adam, she's a doting mother to the worthless James....
 
Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 
Lillian's fun. She's a tart with a heart, and underneath it all a certain (if fallible) moral code. I find her a much more attractive and enjoyable character than either of her siblings (and especially than her brain-dead ageing sloane doormat of a sister, Jennifer).
Tonight's Brief Encounter episode was quite entertaining.
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Yes, I admit it was! She is still a piss-poor excuse for a girlfriend.
 
Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 
But look at what's available in Ambridge, especially among the middle-aged and upwards. Matt's damned lucky to get her and should have realised it.
And leaving aside the question of a sexual or romantic relationship, in any list of the Archers characters of either sex that you'd be happy to have a drink with, Lillian has got to be in the top flight.
 
Posted by birdie (# 2173) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
quote:
she has no redeeming social qualities
She drives her mother to the Laurels regularly, she's a concerned and caring aunt to Adam, she's a doting mother to the worthless James....
Also, I was really impressed with how she spoke to Peggy about Bethany, Mike & Vicky's new baby daughter. She's all right, is Lillian.
 
Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
Lillian stood by Matt when he was in prison. She became disillusioned with him because of his poor treatment of elderly and vulnerable tenants. Her affair with Paul wasn't driven by hormones, but part of a reassessment of Matt.

Don't knock Lillian.
 
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
The Archers haven't been the same since the death of Grace. Thread closed to provide fans with pause for thoughtful reflection.

Ariel
Heaven ****
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Apparently we had some, then!

I liked today's storylines about the death of Scruff the dog and the retired architect at Lower Loxley, Lewis. OK, so Lillian is a "tart with a heart" but I am still getting tired of hearing about her dirty weekends with Matt's half-brother and the constant, if not pathological, lying about losing earrings and crap like that!
 
Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
Apparently we had some, then!

I liked today's storylines about the death of Scruff the dog and the retired architect at Lower Loxley, Lewis. OK, so Lillian is a "tart with a heart" but I am still getting tired of hearing about her dirty weekends with Matt's half-brother and the constant, if not pathological, lying about losing earrings and crap like that!
I think "I lost an earring there" is one of Lillian's euphemisms.
 
Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
Any thoughts on the current plot re Alice / Christopher?

Should someone with a Masters degree in engineering, but virtually no experience expect to get a high-flying job straight away?

And should a spouse who goes for a job interview expect their spouse to be supportive and rational, even if they think the job would be a bad idea, as opposed to sulking and getting drunk?

If the genders were reversed (husband contemplates moving abroad in search of a better job, wife sulks and drinks herself into a stupor) wouldn't this storyline seem ludicrous?
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
I think people with newly-minted Masters Degrees in any field should expect to get a good job right away. My wife expected that would be the case, but it wasn't.

I do think Alice was a bit selfish and short-sighted going all the way to BC to find a better job: she did have a job and could have been promoted in a relatively short time.

I hope the writers don't kill off Chris!
 
Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
Your wife has experience though, Sir Kevin - she's not a wet-behind-the-ears twenty-four year old.
 
Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 
But Alice has a huge sense of entitlement: most of the Ambridge yoof think the world revolves around them but she has the additional curse of being the spawn of Brian and Jennifer. Much as I dislike her, the poor girl never stood a chance.
 
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Your wife has experience though, Sir Kevin - she's not a wet-behind-the-ears twenty-four year old.
Tell it to our creditors! She doesn't have a permanent position with a pension and health insurance: because we are not yet in the UK (though I would love to sell up in ten years and retire to Land's End) health insurance payments are absorbing an obscene amount of our earned income and forcing us to sell shares!

Ooops! Typed too fast!

[ 09. March 2013, 20:52: Message edited by: Sir Kevin ]
 


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