Tuesday 23 November 2010

Tum-ti-tum-ti-tum-ti-tum

I listen to the Archers. Not always; twice a week is usually enough to keep up, as the storyline isn't exactly fast-moving . I'm not the only Archering MNW, either, as I recently discovered, together with Alis's revelation that they use a one-moo-fits-all cow noise for anything from bovine birth to death.

My year is puntuated with the regular activities of the Archers; lambing in January (awfully early - they lamb much later round here), with much shivering and complaining in the lambing sheds, through summer and the single wicket contest (I've no idea what that means, but that's what the Archers do in the summer) to, finally, the infuriating Linda Snell's annual Christmas pantomime (every village has its Linda Snell. In our last village, she lived next door. Enough said).

One one, level, the Archers is deeply boring ("It is Monday moring, and Phil is opening his post." How my children used to hoot with derision at lines such as that one), but on another, it's wonderfully reassuring; a kind of aural security blanket. So long as people are making cherry yoghurt and delivering calves and drinking down at the Bull in Ambridge, life can't be that bad.

6 comments:

  1. And now I've gone and looked up the Archers and I feel much more worldly for it.

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  2. I wouldn't bother, Nevets. It's a very English thing.

    And Tim (if you're there?) I apologise for deleting your comment. My post appeared accidetally on both my blog and the MNW one. Most weird!

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  3. And as long as the Grundys are trying to get something for nothing (nicking Christmas trees, I ask you) you know the medieval peasant spirit is alive and well!!

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  4. Are the Grundys nicking Christmas trees? I'm a little out of touch sicne Helen started being such a pain over her pregnancy. I think something nasty is going to happen to that baby...

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  5. Helen's baby - yes, I agree. I've harboured dark suspicions about it from the beginning. I'm sure the scriptwriters will want to show Helen being taught that she can't control everything. I wonder what they'll choose? We know it's not Down syndrome as she's been screened for that. Maybe the baby will just be one of those that cries a lot and she'll realise there's nothing she can do and will undergo a personal epiphany. One can only hope so as she's such a royal pain in the arse I always feel like switching off when her whiny tones come on!!

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  6. She could lose the baby altogether, but then she's already lost that gamekeeper boyfriend. Or she could lose it and then shoot herself? It could be that they're as fed up with her as we are! But then poor Pat and whingey Tony have already lost one child...

    I give up. We'll have to wait and see. But it didn't sound too good this evening, did it?

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