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Post by Steven on Nov 28, 2007 13:21:33 GMT
I realise this is geeky beyond all measure, but since they started podcasting The Archers recently I thought I'd have a listen, and...I really like it. Now that I've got the hang of who's who and got over the initial struggle of telling the characters apart when you've only got voices to work with, it's entertaining me far more than Hollyoaks is right now.
So, um, is anyone else as sad as I am?
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Post by jamiek on Nov 28, 2007 13:33:19 GMT
The Archers is amazing - anyone who doesn't know this is quite simply a fool.
Ed Grundy getting over an addiction to crack by making milk into cheese is the best road to recovery a soap has ever done!
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Post by Nicholas on Nov 28, 2007 13:59:45 GMT
The first time that I heard the Archers, I was only half awake - Sunday morning omnibus. I really thought it was a spoof - I've been hooked ever since. I hate almost everybody in it, especially the women, who nearly all sound the same. I used to like Clarry Grundy but she has turned into a whining bag, and so the only person I like at the moment is Lynda Snell, who I think is much more sympathetic than the SWs intend.
However awful it is, it seems to be impossible to stop listening once you start. Be afraid.
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Post by Cherubic on Nov 28, 2007 14:05:08 GMT
I had Radio 4 on the other week and this came on. Maybe I've been watching Hollyoaks for too long, but the plots was so ordinary. Some cows got out of a field so a man (the farmer?) dropped his phone, and then another man offered to babysit for a woman and fix her washing machine when she revealed that she WAS POOR!
Not one person was raped in it! Not one baby was lost! Not one person expressed uncertainty towards their own parentage. I might have to listen again for some more of this radical soap plotting. I am worried though that there is a point in every semi-educated benders life when he becomes the kind of person that listens to radio 4. And I'm not sure I'm quite ready for that yet.
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Post by Steven on Nov 28, 2007 14:15:24 GMT
Not one person was raped in it! You weren't listening for long enough - one of the big storylines at the moment is Kathy having to give evidence at the trial of the man who raped her.
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Post by jetsetwilly on Nov 28, 2007 14:37:33 GMT
Radio 4 is the only radio I listen to now, because I am officially an old fart. The last time I listened to the Radio One Breakfast Show, Chris Evans was presenting it, for God's sake. Between The Archers, Front Row, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue and The News Quiz (with Sandi Toksvig!) I'm entertained for hours. Of course Mark Lawson is always better when you don't have to see his strange shiny face.
The Archers is great, though no episode is as good as the mighty theme tune. I love the cliffhangers, which generally involve someone gasping or saying something in a slightly hysterical voice. "You do realise that if we don't have that cake ready, the old folks will HAVE TO HAVE THEIR TEA WITHOUT!" (Dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dum...)
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Post by Nick on Nov 28, 2007 15:15:17 GMT
Kathy's rape!
The only time I ever actually went to the trouble of listening to The Archers rather than just catching it in the background in my parents' house/cars where they seem to be listening to it ALL THE FUCKING TIME was when Kathy was raped, after which she just sat around in shock/crying a bit (crying still works on the radio). But I vaguely remember this happening ages and ages ago, although my personal chronometer doesn't really work any more. How long ago did it happen?
ALSO, is Tamsin Greig still in it?
ALSO, when I was a little kid I used to get really excited when the theme music at the end got all the way through the tune and to the 'BOM BOM BOM BOM ber-ber ber-ber' bit before it started fading out. Does that still happen, ever?
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Post by gravedigger on Nov 28, 2007 15:22:34 GMT
I can't STAND the music on The Archers. When I was really little and staying at my grandparents house, they made me go to bed at that time, so I've got bad memories of it. It's like I've been conditioned to hate it.
But Tamsin Greig? Really? Huh.
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Post by Steven on Nov 28, 2007 16:00:39 GMT
Tamsin Greig's still on the cast list on the show's website, but I haven't heard her in the month or so that I've been listening. Perhaps Debbie's on a nice holiday somewhere.
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Mr Kenneth
Jane Asher
Hang on! Twenty-six planets? Innumerable Daleks? I make that Pimm's O' Clock!
Posts: 248
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Post by Mr Kenneth on Nov 28, 2007 16:09:27 GMT
Ooh! I've been toying with the idea of an Archers thread for ages! I love it and it's my hangover cure on a Sunday morning - the weekday episodes are simply too short! It's also fun spotting the weekday cliffhanger points as they would have been, every 15 minutes.
There are non-Hollyoak-style farming stories, but they add texture. There are plenty of similarities too.
The stories are increasingly driven by the teen and young characters They have the official longest running gay couple in broadcasting history in Adam and Ian (they've done lezzers as well). They've got an anorexic character (not bulimorexic admittedly) They've done raunchy sex with a steamy shower sex scene, which upset the tie-neck blouse-wearing Radio 4 listener fundament. There are small child characters equally as hateful as Tom Cunningham
And much more. It might be fun to draw character equivalents between Hollyoaks and Archers to help people out. I'd start with something like:
Tom Archer = Tony Hutchinson (Irritating entrepreneur who inexplicably gets a steady flow of girlfriends) Pat Archer = Ashworth Mum (always 'coping' with drama e.g. daughter with eating disorder) Helen Archer = Hannah (eating disorder, brooding boyfriends with secrets)
Any other thoughts?
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Mr Kenneth
Jane Asher
Hang on! Twenty-six planets? Innumerable Daleks? I make that Pimm's O' Clock!
Posts: 248
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Post by Mr Kenneth on Nov 28, 2007 16:16:52 GMT
Tamsin Greig's still on the cast list on the show's website, but I haven't heard her in the month or so that I've been listening. Perhaps Debbie's on a nice holiday somewhere. Debbie (Tamsin G) predominantly lives in Hungary where she runs a large-scale farm, which is a satellite of Brian's Alrdidge empire. She comes back here and there to wind Adam up and make him feel that Brian prefers her because she's not a gay. TG just started being on telly a lot with Green Wing, Love Soup etc and so Hungary came calling for Debbie.
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Post by Steven on Nov 28, 2007 16:21:53 GMT
There are small child characters equally as hateful as Tom Cunningham Jamie, by any chance? Man, he's annoying.
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mcflooze
Su Pollard
Uhhhhh.....
Posts: 255
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Post by mcflooze on Nov 28, 2007 16:45:18 GMT
I usually only hear this once a year, when my dad drives me home after a weekend of culture in Stratford (Upon Avon, not the one in London. No culture there). And I am always hooked and swear blind I'm going to listen to it regularly, but I never do. However, since there is now a thread where you lovely, funny people discuss it, I will blatantly have to make more of an effort.
Honestly, since I discovered Lowculture my social life's taken such a dive. All I do is watch telly purely for the pupose of coming on here when I'm at work.
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Post by Rad on Nov 28, 2007 17:41:29 GMT
I studied The Archers and EE for some research last year, as some of you may recall. It was hard going because I kept drifting off and losing the thread (I was listening to the omnibus to make it 'easier'). I really struggled with getting into it, but maybe that's because I can only listen to things for about five nanoseconds before drifting off somewhere else.
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Post by Cherubic on Nov 28, 2007 18:40:04 GMT
When is the omnibus on?
And now I think about it what frquency is Radio 4 on.
I can see me listening on a Sunday morning in bed this weekend, going downstairs and suffering Hollyoaks will be too much effort after this week.
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Post by Rad on Nov 28, 2007 19:01:48 GMT
Sundays... I don't know what time or frequency, I just listened online via the radio player thingy where they keep shows for a week.
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Post by Nicholas on Nov 28, 2007 19:08:14 GMT
Tamsin Greig's still on the cast list on the show's website, but I haven't heard her in the month or so that I've been listening. Perhaps Debbie's on a nice holiday somewhere. Debbie (Tamsin G) predominantly lives in Hungary where she runs a large-scale farm, which is a satellite of Brian's Alrdidge empire. She comes back here and there to wind Adam up and make him feel that Brian prefers her because she's not a gay. TG just started being on telly a lot with Green Wing, Love Soup etc and so Hungary came calling for Debbie. In fact, she mostly quite literally just phones in her performance these days! She was on yesterday, worrying about the cows or something. God she's irritating. And while I'm here, what about Gay Adam? Comes back from an entire life in South Africa (or somewhere) to be the only gay in the village and instantly MEETS AND MOVES IN WITH the love of his life. Sorry about the shouting, but really! The Archers omnibus is on Sunday morning at 1015, which can be a bit on the early side depending on the night before. Frequency? Online, I would think, or Dab or digital tv. Longwave is always a laugh in a historical-context-sort-of-way.
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Post by Cherubic on Nov 28, 2007 20:00:13 GMT
But I want to lean over in bed, switch on the radio and lie back and think of simple country fold. Online, DAB and digital TV can fuck right off.
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Mr Kenneth
Jane Asher
Hang on! Twenty-six planets? Innumerable Daleks? I make that Pimm's O' Clock!
Posts: 248
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Post by Mr Kenneth on Nov 29, 2007 16:24:59 GMT
But I want to lean over in bed, switch on the radio and lie back and think of simple country fold. Online, DAB and digital TV can fuck right off. Then you'll need 93.5 in London, Cherubic I often find I sleep through most of the omnibus after a heavy night, as it is on quite early. But the good thing is it stops you from having that really shallow hangover sleep with some tune from the night before going round and round in your head. Instead, your head is washed clean with chatter around whether Phil and Jill will ever successfully hang the eroneously oversized family portrait or whether Emma will set about splitting up Ed and Fallon. (Emma's such a slag!) Re Adam, not only did he return and instantly shack up with the love of his life, but he also managed this in a small Borsetshire village with a population smaller than a London tube carriage. Maybe Ambridge is like Harry Potter's Room of Requirement.
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Post by QuincyMD on Nov 29, 2007 16:47:08 GMT
It's never been the same since John Archer got killed by his own tractor.
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Post by Nick on Nov 29, 2007 17:22:07 GMT
It's never been the same since John Archer got killed by his own tractor. I remember that, too! I can't remember what sound effects they used, though.
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Post by Nurse Dunkley on Nov 29, 2007 17:28:19 GMT
It feels like the only two certains in my life are death and the day I start listening to The Archers full time. It's in my blood, my parents are absolutely hooked on it. Mum is self employed and organises her day so she is in the car or her office when the afternoon episode is on. Once I was late to my own school awards ceremony because they were driving round the block in order to still be near the car radio when the mystery horse slasher was revealed at the end of the show. When all the gaying began my Dad would make really loud and shoehorned statements of support whenever I was in the vicinity before checking out of the corner of his eye to see if I'd heard, which was nice.
Lynda is amazing, in a sort of Norri Cole/ Virginia raven busy body way. Is she organising one of her plays at the moment? I may have to start downloading the podcasts if she is.
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Mr Kenneth
Jane Asher
Hang on! Twenty-six planets? Innumerable Daleks? I make that Pimm's O' Clock!
Posts: 248
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Post by Mr Kenneth on Nov 30, 2007 0:12:30 GMT
Lynda is amazing, in a sort of Norri Cole/ Virginia raven busy body way. Is she organising one of her plays at the moment? I may have to start downloading the podcasts if she is. I like Lynda too. No, there's no panto this year. She's thinking of doing a Christmas Concert instead. Lillian's good for a laugh as well. Every soap should have a borderline alcoholic, fifty-something good-time gal.
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Post by proudtvaddict on Nov 30, 2007 15:22:06 GMT
I haven't listened in a while but my favourite Archers fact is that when Brian was having his first fit many many years ago they used piles and piles of photographic film which the actor had to rustle in order to simulate the sound of him writhing in some bushes. (I think he was on a picnic or something rural like that) I know this because I saw it on a documentary about the Archers. I have no idea or memory of why I was watching said documentary. Tbh it removed some of the magic. My parents are at war over the Archers- my dad thinks it's load of faux cosy crap whilst my mum is addicted. He turns it off whenever it comes on. If they ever get divorced it'll be because of this.
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Post by Nicholas on Dec 4, 2007 19:05:01 GMT
I tend to stop listening to the evening episodes by about Tuesday, as I'll probably be awake in time on Sunday to hear the rest of the omnibus.
This evening, I have just heard David say to Ruth "Sorry - I didn't realise you were inseminating". Amazing.
Now listening to Cathy and Kenton in Vienna. I think it's Vienna - it could be Birmingham, to be honest, for all that it matters.
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