What would be your favourite period to go back to.
I think pre VW?

I think
As I stopped during the Rob domestic abuse
time, and now when Rob came back and died. I've been reading thge
synopses on the BBC site instead. and posting on facebk and X.
Takes 14 mins to listen, 3 to read :)

I like farming stuff.Re-wilding. Dairy, pigs etc. in 1991 Vanessa
Whitburn became producer and was dire. Others after then bad too. Ex
tv producers turned it into Eastenders on radio and didn't know
listeners coulodn't bloody SEE so made scenes we didn't follow, too
similar voices etc.Also ludicrous stories. From then they had to cover
ISSUES not just village, farming etc. And families. W've had domestic
abuse, gay couples parenting, anorexia, drug dealing, male escorts,
black S African partner, rape, and others. all in small village.
So pre 1991 is best.

On Fri, 24 Nov 2023 18:48:37 +0000, Vicky <vicky.ayech@gmail.com>
wrote:

>What would be your favourite period to go back to.
>I think pre VW?
>
>I think
>As I stopped during the Rob domestic abuse
>time, and now when Rob came back and died. I've been reading thge
>synopses on the BBC site instead. and posting on facebk and X.
>Takes 14 mins to listen, 3 to read :)
>
>I like farming stuff.Re-wilding. Dairy, pigs etc. in 1991 Vanessa
>Whitburn became producer and was dire. Others after then bad too. Ex
>tv producers turned it into Eastenders on radio and didn't know
>listeners coulodn't bloody SEE so made scenes we didn't follow, too
>similar voices etc.Also ludicrous stories. From then they had to cover
>ISSUES not just village, farming etc. And families. W've had domestic
>abuse, gay couples parenting, anorexia, drug dealing, male escorts,
>black S African partner, rape, and others. all in small village.
>So pre 1991 is best.

I think I said all this on umra around about the time of the fiftieth
anniversary but I would have liked it if they had started all over
again from the beginning, but played it fifty years later on Radio 7.

I know there are lots of missing early episodes and probably other
reasons why they couldn't do it consistently but I'd have loved to
listen as an adult to the episodes I heard as a child.

If they had started repeating January 1st 1951 on January 1st 2001
even the days of the week would have synchronised - for the first year
and a bit, anway.

Nick

Nick Odell <nickodell49@yahoo.ca> wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Nov 2023 18:48:37 +0000, Vicky <vicky.ayech@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> What would be your favourite period to go back to.
>> I think pre VW?
>>
>> I think
>> As I stopped during the Rob domestic abuse
>> time, and now when Rob came back and died. I've been reading thge
>> synopses on the BBC site instead. and posting on facebk and X.
>> Takes 14 mins to listen, 3 to read :)
>>
>> I like farming stuff.Re-wilding. Dairy, pigs etc. in 1991 Vanessa
>> Whitburn became producer and was dire. Others after then bad too. Ex
>> tv producers turned it into Eastenders on radio and didn't know
>> listeners coulodn't bloody SEE so made scenes we didn't follow, too
>> similar voices etc.Also ludicrous stories. From then they had to cover
>> ISSUES not just village, farming etc. And families. W've had domestic
>> abuse, gay couples parenting, anorexia, drug dealing, male escorts,
>> black S African partner, rape, and others. all in small village.
>> So pre 1991 is best.
>
>
> I think I said all this on umra around about the time of the fiftieth
> anniversary but I would have liked it if they had started all over
> again from the beginning, but played it fifty years later on Radio 7.
>
> I know there are lots of missing early episodes and probably other
> reasons why they couldn't do it consistently but I'd have loved to
> listen as an adult to the episodes I heard as a child.
>
> If they had started repeating January 1st 1951 on January 1st 2001
> even the days of the week would have synchronised - for the first year
> and a bit, anway.
>
> Nick
>

And as and when the calendar days stopped matching and started to show
discrepancies …. Well, they could put it down to ‘holes in the colander’.

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

Vicky <vicky.ayech@gmail.com> writes:

> What would be your favourite period to go back to.

Early to mid 1980s I think. I can't remember the name of the producer at
the time - the first woman in the job I think - and former producers
seem to be hard to track down, in contrast to the reams about former
best friends. It took on serious wider rural issues as well as farming
matters. It pitched Brian as the face of agribusiness ripping up hedgerows and
using loads of chemicals, in contrast to the Archers (cadet branch) and
their more organic and eco-aware approach. Also introducing the Snells
as the middle-class urban incomers wanting to organise everything on
'traditional' lines. And characters we actually cared about, along with
a strand of subtle wit running through it.

> I think pre VW?

Ah, The Beetle Must Go! Except that, when she did, things just got
worse. Always keep a hold of Nurse...

> As I stopped during the Rob domestic abuse
> time.

Me too, in effect. I'd done boycotts before and I listened
intermittently afterwards but the Helen/Rob thing did it for me. I
didn't listen to TA to be depressed by unpleasant characters (and heaven
knows I watched enough oid episodes of EastEnders in researching my
masters dissertation a couple of years ago, sheesh that was
miserable!). But I'm done with it now. All a load of new characters I
can't find any empathy for. I'm done with it.

Rosie

On 24.11.23 18:48, Vicky wrote:
> What would be your favourite period to go back to.
> I think pre VW?
>
> I think
> As I stopped during the Rob domestic abuse
> time, and now when Rob came back and died. I've been reading thge
> synopses on the BBC site instead. and posting on facebk and X.
> Takes 14 mins to listen, 3 to read :)
>
> I like farming stuff.Re-wilding. Dairy, pigs etc. in 1991 Vanessa
> Whitburn became producer and was dire. Others after then bad too. Ex
> tv producers turned it into Eastenders on radio and didn't know
> listeners coulodn't bloody SEE so made scenes we didn't follow, too
> similar voices etc.Also ludicrous stories. From then they had to cover
> ISSUES not just village, farming etc. And families. W've had domestic
> abuse, gay couples parenting, anorexia, drug dealing, male escorts,
> black S African partner, rape, and others. all in small village.
> So pre 1991 is best.

I think there was some good stuff during the Beetle era to be fair - I
know that not all would agree with me - and even I believe that deadding
of Nigel was a step too far.

Sometime during the Beetle era one of the makeovers was from an everyday
story of countryfolk to contemporary drama in a rural setting (that
might have been SoC but I thought it pre-dated him) and with that change
came far less rurality and countryside in favour of urban stories (which
are rarely urbane) and with a few trees thrown in for good measure.

Apart from Rob, the suggestion that Brian would poison land was in my
view so far from the truth as to wreck the space-time continuum, the
failure to maintain organics properly at Bridge Farm and in more recent
times the abandonment of Archers as central characters mean that the
locale has changed out of all recognition.

--
Kosmo Richard W
www.travelswmw.whitnet.uk
https://tinyurl.com/KRWpics

krw <krw@whitnet.uk> wrote:
> On 24.11.23 18:48, Vicky wrote:
>> What would be your favourite period to go back to.
>> I think pre VW?
>>
>> I think
>> As I stopped during the Rob domestic abuse
>> time, and now when Rob came back and died. I've been reading thge
>> synopses on the BBC site instead. and posting on facebk and X.
>> Takes 14 mins to listen, 3 to read :)
>>
>> I like farming stuff.Re-wilding. Dairy, pigs etc. in 1991 Vanessa
>> Whitburn became producer and was dire. Others after then bad too. Ex
>> tv producers turned it into Eastenders on radio and didn't know
>> listeners coulodn't bloody SEE so made scenes we didn't follow, too
>> similar voices etc.Also ludicrous stories. From then they had to cover
>> ISSUES not just village, farming etc. And families. W've had domestic
>> abuse, gay couples parenting, anorexia, drug dealing, male escorts,
>> black S African partner, rape, and others. all in small village.
>> So pre 1991 is best.
>
> I think there was some good stuff during the Beetle era to be fair - I
> know that not all would agree with me - and even I believe that deadding
> of Nigel was a step too far.
>
> Sometime during the Beetle era one of the makeovers was from an everyday
> story of countryfolk to contemporary drama in a rural setting (that
> might have been SoC but I thought it pre-dated him) and with that change
> came far less rurality and countryside in favour of urban stories (which
> are rarely urbane) and with a few trees thrown in for good measure.
>
> Apart from Rob, the suggestion that Brian would poison land was in my
> view so far from the truth as to wreck the space-time continuum, the
> failure to maintain organics properly at Bridge Farm and in more recent
> times the abandonment of Archers as central characters mean that the
> locale has changed out of all recognition.
>

A child might be heard to enquire: ‘Mummy, who or what are these Archers
then?

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

krw <krw@whitnet.uk> writes:

> On 24.11.23 18:48, Vicky wrote:
>> What would be your favourite period to go back to.
>> I think pre VW?
>> I think
>> As I stopped during the Rob domestic abuse
>> time, and now when Rob came back and died. I've been reading thge
>> synopses on the BBC site instead. and posting on facebk and X.
>> Takes 14 mins to listen, 3 to read :)
>> I like farming stuff.Re-wilding. Dairy, pigs etc. in 1991 Vanessa
>> Whitburn became producer and was dire. Others after then bad too. Ex
>> tv producers turned it into Eastenders on radio and didn't know
>> listeners coulodn't bloody SEE so made scenes we didn't follow, too
>> similar voices etc.Also ludicrous stories. From then they had to cover
>> ISSUES not just village, farming etc. And families. W've had domestic
>> abuse, gay couples parenting, anorexia, drug dealing, male escorts,
>> black S African partner, rape, and others. all in small village.
>> So pre 1991 is best.
>
> I think there was some good stuff during the Beetle era to be fair - I
> know that not all would agree with me - and even I believe that
> deadding of Nigel was a step too far.
>
> Sometime during the Beetle era one of the makeovers was from an
> everyday story of countryfolk to contemporary drama in a rural setting
> (that might have been SoC but I thought it pre-dated him) and with
> that change came far less rurality and countryside in favour of urban
> stories (which are rarely urbane) and with a few trees thrown in for
> good measure.
>
> Apart from Rob, the suggestion that Brian would poison land was in my
> view so far from the truth as to wreck the space-time continuum, the
> failure to maintain organics properly at Bridge Farm and in more
> recent times the abandonment of Archers as central characters mean
> that the locale has changed out of all recognition.

I did like those early non-rural episodes though. You know, like the
storyline with the ballet-dancer torn between two men or the one with
the shot-down bomber pilot stuck between life and death or, my
favourite, the one with the nuns in the Himalayas.

Rosie

Rosie Mitchell <rcmitchell@golgonooza.co.uk> wrote:
> krw <krw@whitnet.uk> writes:
>
>> On 24.11.23 18:48, Vicky wrote:
>>> What would be your favourite period to go back to.
>>> I think pre VW?
>>> I think
>>> As I stopped during the Rob domestic abuse
>>> time, and now when Rob came back and died. I've been reading thge
>>> synopses on the BBC site instead. and posting on facebk and X.
>>> Takes 14 mins to listen, 3 to read :)
>>> I like farming stuff.Re-wilding. Dairy, pigs etc. in 1991 Vanessa
>>> Whitburn became producer and was dire. Others after then bad too. Ex
>>> tv producers turned it into Eastenders on radio and didn't know
>>> listeners coulodn't bloody SEE so made scenes we didn't follow, too
>>> similar voices etc.Also ludicrous stories. From then they had to cover
>>> ISSUES not just village, farming etc. And families. W've had domestic
>>> abuse, gay couples parenting, anorexia, drug dealing, male escorts,
>>> black S African partner, rape, and others. all in small village.
>>> So pre 1991 is best.
>>
>> I think there was some good stuff during the Beetle era to be fair - I
>> know that not all would agree with me - and even I believe that
>> deadding of Nigel was a step too far.
>>
>> Sometime during the Beetle era one of the makeovers was from an
>> everyday story of countryfolk to contemporary drama in a rural setting
>> (that might have been SoC but I thought it pre-dated him) and with
>> that change came far less rurality and countryside in favour of urban
>> stories (which are rarely urbane) and with a few trees thrown in for
>> good measure.
>>
>> Apart from Rob, the suggestion that Brian would poison land was in my
>> view so far from the truth as to wreck the space-time continuum, the
>> failure to maintain organics properly at Bridge Farm and in more
>> recent times the abandonment of Archers as central characters mean
>> that the locale has changed out of all recognition.
>
> I did like those early non-rural episodes though. You know, like the
> storyline with the ballet-dancer torn between two men or the one with
> the shot-down bomber pilot stuck between life and death or, my
> favourite, the one with the nuns in the Himalayas.
>
> Rosie
>

There were three nuns on holiday in Brighton and … whaddya mean? I can’t
relate that one in a family newsgroup?

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

On 25/11/2023 12:44, Rosie Mitchell wrote:

> But I'm done with it [TA] now. All a load of new characters I
> can't find any empathy for. I'm done with it.

But not, we hope, with umra.

john

John Ashby <johnashby20@yahoo.com> writes:

> On 25/11/2023 12:44, Rosie Mitchell wrote:
>
>> But I'm done with it [TA] now. All a load of new characters I
>> can't find any empathy for. I'm done with it.
>
> But not, we hope, with umra.

Aw! Well I still pop in and out of here from time to time depending on
whether I can be arsed to run a usenet server. I'm having a gnus moment
now since I really don't get much useful email these days. I can
remember when email seemed really cool, or would be if there were more
people I knew had access to it!

But I'm part of the foundations of umra, and while the number of Umrats
particularly foundational ones through departures to fresh pastures,
physical and metaphorical, is now greatly diminished I still regard
umrats as friends, even though I have had unseemly spats with some of
them, and indeed the whole community, in the past. I don't have spats
any more, or if I do it's only rarely, as I'm now old, mellow, wheezy
and creaky.

Rosie

In message <87bkbi3su0.fsf@golgonooza.co.uk> at Sat, 25 Nov 2023
12:44:55, Rosie Mitchell <rcmitchell@golgonooza.co.uk> writes
>Vicky <vicky.ayech@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> What would be your favourite period to go back to.
>
>Early to mid 1980s I think. I can't remember the name of the producer at
[]
>> I think pre VW?
>
>Ah, The Beetle Must Go! Except that, when she did, things just got
>worse. Always keep a hold of Nurse...
>
I did invoke that poem at the time: I wasn't keen on the Beetle, but
expected worse would follow (and was right).

Nowadays, of course, we even have to explain to youngerrats why she was
nicknamed the Beetle. (Can't remember when I last saw a beetle - even
the later imitation - other than on one of those car restoration
prog.s.)
[]
>knows I watched enough oid episodes of EastEnders in researching my
>masters dissertation a couple of years ago, sheesh that was
[]
I like Patrick Moore's verdict on EE. Personally, I've never forgiven
BBC/RT for the feature about it before it started.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

he was eventually struck off by the BMA in 1968 for not knowing his gluteus
maximus from his humerus.

In message <hsqdnYJk6IB5Zvz4nZ2dnZfqnPqdnZ2d@brightview.co.uk> at Sat,
25 Nov 2023 13:51:34, krw <krw@whitnet.uk> writes
[]
>times the abandonment of Archers as central characters mean that the
>locale has changed out of all recognition.
>
Sadly, that's probably true of quite a lot of villages, too.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

he was eventually struck off by the BMA in 1968 for not knowing his gluteus
maximus from his humerus.

In message <878r6lbpel.fsf@golgonooza.co.uk> at Sat, 25 Nov 2023
19:31:46, Rosie Mitchell <rcmitchell@golgonooza.co.uk> writes
>John Ashby <johnashby20@yahoo.com> writes:
>
>> On 25/11/2023 12:44, Rosie Mitchell wrote:
>>
>>> But I'm done with it [TA] now. All a load of new characters I
>>> can't find any empathy for. I'm done with it.
>>
>> But not, we hope, with umra.
>
>Aw! Well I still pop in and out of here from time to time depending on
>whether I can be arsed to run a usenet server. I'm having a gnus moment

(Surely you don't have to run a usenet server to just partake? I'm
pretty sure I don't!)

>now since I really don't get much useful email these days. I can
>remember when email seemed really cool, or would be if there were more
>people I knew had access to it!

It's now the other side of the hill, isn't it, sadly!
>
>But I'm part of the foundations of umra, and while the number of Umrats
>particularly foundational ones through departures to fresh pastures,
>physical and metaphorical, is now greatly diminished I still regard
>umrats as friends, even though I have had unseemly spats with some of
>them, and indeed the whole community, in the past. I don't have spats

Glad to hear it (I may have been one of the offenders, long ago; if so,
sorry). Nowadays, I put spats back in time with their other meaning,
some sort of shoe topping favoured by gangsters?

>any more, or if I do it's only rarely, as I'm now old, mellow, wheezy
>and creaky.

Me too - I finally gave in and bought (yesterday) one of those
compartmented pillboxes, rather than having to try to remember whether
I'd taken the various pills at times of day. (I think I _was_
remembering, but it's easier.) 99p from Home Bargains, by the way - as
opposed to over sick squid from Tesco; sure, the Tesco one was probably
better quality, but over sick squid for basically 14 small plastic boxes
rankled.
>
>Rosie
John
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

he was eventually struck off by the BMA in 1968 for not knowing his gluteus
maximus from his humerus.

"J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> writes:

> Me too - I finally gave in and bought (yesterday) one of those
> compartmented pillboxes, rather than having to try to remember whether
> I'd taken the various pills at times of day. (I think I _was_
> remembering, but it's easier.) 99p from Home Bargains, by the way - as
> opposed to over sick squid from Tesco; sure, the Tesco one was
> probably better quality, but over sick squid for basically 14 small
> plastic boxes rankled.

I'm one up on you. I have a box with seven boxlets each with three
compartments so I can do am, pm and bedtime pills.

Rosie

On Sat, 25 Nov 2023 21:57:57 +0000, Rosie Mitchell
<rcmitchell@golgonooza.co.uk> wrote:

>"J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> writes:
>
>> Me too - I finally gave in and bought (yesterday) one of those
>> compartmented pillboxes, rather than having to try to remember whether
>> I'd taken the various pills at times of day. (I think I _was_
>> remembering, but it's easier.) 99p from Home Bargains, by the way - as
>> opposed to over sick squid from Tesco; sure, the Tesco one was
>> probably better quality, but over sick squid for basically 14 small
>> plastic boxes rankled.
>
>I'm one up on you. I have a box with seven boxlets each with three
>compartments so I can do am, pm and bedtime pills.
>
>Rosie

B has a 7 day x 4 times a day box with compartments. I have an
upstairs box with 4 sections for first thing that I keep up to date,
refilling daily, and 2 downstairs boxes, a 7 section and a 4 section
that I refill when they are empty. Also 4 other bottles of pills
downstairs that I take daily at different times.

In message <87zfz1a42i.fsf@golgonooza.co.uk> at Sat, 25 Nov 2023
21:57:57, Rosie Mitchell <rcmitchell@golgonooza.co.uk> writes
>"J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> writes:
>
>> Me too - I finally gave in and bought (yesterday) one of those
>> compartmented pillboxes, rather than having to try to remember whether
>> I'd taken the various pills at times of day. (I think I _was_
>> remembering, but it's easier.) 99p from Home Bargains, by the way - as
>> opposed to over sick squid from Tesco; sure, the Tesco one was
>> probably better quality, but over sick squid for basically 14 small
>> plastic boxes rankled.
>
>I'm one up on you. I have a box with seven boxlets each with three
>compartments so I can do am, pm and bedtime pills.
>
>Rosie
>
The one I declined at Tesco had, I think, AM and PM compartments for the
seven days. The 99p one from Home Bargains has seven strips (in an
overall frame with the days of the week along its edge), each with four
compartments, labelled (in print and Braille!) morning, noon, evening
and bed.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Advertising is legalized lying. - H.G. Wells

J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>
>
> Nowadays, of course, we even have to explain to youngerrats why she was
> nicknamed the Beetle.

I remember as a new-rat 25 years or so ago drafting a post that read “Why
is VW referred to as the Beetle?” when suddenly it dawned on me. Then she
killed John.

On 25/11/2023 19:31, Rosie Mitchell wrote:
> John Ashby <johnashby20@yahoo.com> writes:
>
>> On 25/11/2023 12:44, Rosie Mitchell wrote:
>>
>>> But I'm done with it [TA] now. All a load of new characters I
>>> can't find any empathy for. I'm done with it.
>>
>> But not, we hope, with umra.
>
> Aw! Well I still pop in and out of here from time to time depending on
> whether I can be arsed to run a usenet server. I'm having a gnus moment
> now since I really don't get much useful email these days. I can
> remember when email seemed really cool, or would be if there were more
> people I knew had access to it!

Ah yes! When we first got email at work it was a phased implementation
starting at the top and working its way down. I've no idea who's bright
idea that was. Before sending anyone an email you had to phone them up
to see whether they had email.
>
> But I'm part of the foundations of umra, and while the number of Umrats
> particularly foundational ones through departures to fresh pastures,
> physical and metaphorical, is now greatly diminished I still regard
> umrats as friends, even though I have had unseemly spats with some of
> them, and indeed the whole community, in the past. I don't have spats
> any more, or if I do it's only rarely, as I'm now old, mellow, wheezy
> and creaky.
>
You've set up as a firm of solicitors?

> Rosie

--
Ric

Joe Kerr <joe_kerr@cheerful.com> writes:

> On 25/11/2023 19:31, Rosie Mitchell wrote:
>> John Ashby <johnashby20@yahoo.com> writes:
>>
>>> On 25/11/2023 12:44, Rosie Mitchell wrote:
>>>
>>>> But I'm done with it [TA] now. All a load of new characters I
>>>> can't find any empathy for. I'm done with it.
>>>
>>> But not, we hope, with umra.
>> Aw! Well I still pop in and out of here from time to time depending
>> on
>> whether I can be arsed to run a usenet server. I'm having a gnus moment
>> now since I really don't get much useful email these days. I can
>> remember when email seemed really cool, or would be if there were more
>> people I knew had access to it!
>
> Ah yes! When we first got email at work it was a phased implementation
> starting at the top and working its way down. I've no idea who's
> bright idea that was. Before sending anyone an email you had to phone
> them up to see whether they had email.
>> But I'm part of the foundations of umra, and while the number of
>> Umrats
>> particularly foundational ones through departures to fresh pastures,
>> physical and metaphorical, is now greatly diminished I still regard
>> umrats as friends, even though I have had unseemly spats with some of
>> them, and indeed the whole community, in the past. I don't have spats
>> any more, or if I do it's only rarely, as I'm now old, mellow, wheezy
>> and creaky.
>>
> You've set up as a firm of solicitors?

<languid grin>

Rosie

On Sun, 26 Nov 2023 07:38:37 -0000 (UTC), Wenlock
<wenlock.house@googlemail.com> scrawled in the dust...

>J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Nowadays, of course, we even have to explain to youngerrats why she was
>> nicknamed the Beetle.
>
>I remember as a new-rat 25 years or so ago drafting a post that read “Why
>is VW referred to as the Beetle?” when suddenly it dawned on me.

Thanks for the r brain could not find it.

>Then she killed John.

1998 - I suppose that was soon after I arrived here too.

Previously, in 1994, she killed Mark Hebden, which is when I wrote to her
(a real letter, we didn't have internet then).

I was thinking in terms of soaps, and they're tendency to marry off the
widowed. The husgod had died 5 years previously and I put in a plea that
she did not marry Shula off too soon.

I explained my own situation (and maybe suggested some possible
storylines), as well as pointing out that, statistically, widowed fathers
(with young children) remarry within 2 years, but with widowed mothers it's
more like after 9 years.

--
Penny
Annoyed by The Archers since 1959

On Sat, 25 Nov 2023 19:28:01 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk>
scrawled in the dust...

>In message <hsqdnYJk6IB5Zvz4nZ2dnZfqnPqdnZ2d@brightview.co.uk> at Sat,
>25 Nov 2023 13:51:34, krw <krw@whitnet.uk> writes
>[]
>>times the abandonment of Archers as central characters mean that the
>>locale has changed out of all recognition.
>>
>Sadly, that's probably true of quite a lot of villages, too.

Certainly seems to be true in my Kentish village. I don't recognise most of
the names in the village Facebook forum.
--
Penny
Annoyed by The Archers since 1959

On 26/11/2023 13:24, Rosie Mitchell wrote:
> Joe Kerr <joe_kerr@cheerful.com> writes:
>
>> On 25/11/2023 19:31, Rosie Mitchell wrote:
>>> John Ashby <johnashby20@yahoo.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> On 25/11/2023 12:44, Rosie Mitchell wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> But I'm done with it [TA] now. All a load of new characters I
>>>>> can't find any empathy for. I'm done with it.
>>>>
>>>> But not, we hope, with umra.
>>> Aw! Well I still pop in and out of here from time to time depending
>>> on
>>> whether I can be arsed to run a usenet server. I'm having a gnus moment
>>> now since I really don't get much useful email these days. I can
>>> remember when email seemed really cool, or would be if there were more
>>> people I knew had access to it!
>>
>> Ah yes! When we first got email at work it was a phased implementation
>> starting at the top and working its way down. I've no idea who's
>> bright idea that was. Before sending anyone an email you had to phone
>> them up to see whether they had email.
>>> But I'm part of the foundations of umra, and while the number of
>>> Umrats
>>> particularly foundational ones through departures to fresh pastures,
>>> physical and metaphorical, is now greatly diminished I still regard
>>> umrats as friends, even though I have had unseemly spats with some of
>>> them, and indeed the whole community, in the past. I don't have spats
>>> any more, or if I do it's only rarely, as I'm now old, mellow, wheezy
>>> and creaky.
>>>
>> You've set up as a firm of solicitors?
>
> <languid grin>
>

He's their clerk, isn't he?

john

On 25/11/2023 13:51, krw wrote:
> On 24.11.23 18:48, Vicky wrote:
>> What would be your favourite period to go back to.
>> I think pre VW?
>>
>> I think
>> As  I stopped during the Rob domestic abuse
>> time, and now when Rob came back and died. I've been reading thge
>> synopses on the BBC site instead.  and posting on facebk and X.
>> Takes 14 mins to listen, 3 to read :)
>>
>> I like farming stuff.Re-wilding.  Dairy, pigs etc.  in 1991 Vanessa
>> Whitburn became producer and was dire. Others after then bad too. Ex
>> tv producers turned it into Eastenders on radio and didn't know
>> listeners coulodn't bloody SEE so made scenes we didn't follow, too
>> similar voices etc.Also ludicrous stories. From then they had to cover
>> ISSUES not just village, farming etc. And families.  W've had domestic
>> abuse, gay couples parenting, anorexia, drug dealing, male escorts,
>> black S African partner, rape, and others. all in small village.
>> So pre 1991 is best.
>
> I think there was some good stuff during the Beetle era to be fair - I
> know that not all would agree with me -

Yes, I agree, at times, my main problem to her was that there was simply
too much good stuff going on. I remember hearing her being interviewed
once, IIRC, it was about the storyline about Kathy's rape. She was
making the point that bad things, such as that, aren't purely factors of
urban life but that they also happen in apparently idyllic villages like
Ambridge. I would have to agree with her about this and her comments
were equally applicable to the other main stories running at the time, I
think it was Ruth's almost-affaire with Sam Batten, and the Grundy love
triangle.

Any of these could happen somewhere like Ambridge and, in the most
part[2], were well done. My problem was that it was highly improbable
that all three crises would happen in one small village[1], all at the
same time!

> and even I believe that deadding
> of Nigel was a step too far.

Very much so. If she really felt she needed to push him off the roof,
it would have made a far more interesting storyline to have left him in
a wheelchair. That would have still allowed her pretty well all the
major drama and family tension that killing him off gave her. She would
also have had some really interesting lines that they could have explored.

[1] Even less probable, when you remember that it's only a subset of
the Ambridge inhabitants who live within reach of the hidden mics.
[2] The main exception being that Sam Batten was so wooden that he made
a very unconvincing love interest for Ruth.
--
Best wishes, Serena
I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure.

On 25.11.23 21:57, Rosie Mitchell wrote:
> "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> writes:
>
>> Me too - I finally gave in and bought (yesterday) one of those
>> compartmented pillboxes, rather than having to try to remember whether
>> I'd taken the various pills at times of day. (I think I _was_
>> remembering, but it's easier.) 99p from Home Bargains, by the way - as
>> opposed to over sick squid from Tesco; sure, the Tesco one was
>> probably better quality, but over sick squid for basically 14 small
>> plastic boxes rankled.
>
> I'm one up on you. I have a box with seven boxlets each with three
> compartments so I can do am, pm and bedtime pills.
>
> Rosie
>

I think I should consider myself lucky that I only have to take pills
once a day.

--
Kosmo Richard W
www.travelswmw.whitnet.uk
https://tinyurl.com/KRWpics

On 26.11.23 15:11, Serena Blanchflower wrote:
> Very much so.  If she really felt she needed to push him off the roof,
> it would have made a far more interesting storyline to have left him in
> a wheelchair.  That would have still allowed her pretty well all the
> major drama and family tension that killing him off gave her.  She would
> also have had some really interesting lines that they could have explored.
>
Wassiname from Crossroads did that. These days they would not allow an
able bodied actor to play the part.

>
>
> [1]  Even less probable, when you remember that it's only a subset of
> the Ambridge inhabitants who live within reach of the hidden mics.
> [2]  The main exception being that Sam Batten was so wooden that he made
> a very unconvincing love interest for Ruth.

Well I am rarely convinced that Ruth is not also pretty wooden - so if
they had ever actually got together and there were two sticks rubbing
together there would soon be a conflagration.

--
Kosmo Richard W
www.travelswmw.whitnet.uk
https://tinyurl.com/KRWpics