(26 Posts)
R4 Mon 13-Aug-12 08:56:55

I've been on holiday so I have been playing catch up. Not the usual measured daily dose for me but a quick-fire getting up to speed. Trying to keep up with Adam changing his mind every two seconds is exhausting.

Why is he considered such a good manager when he is incapable of making a decision, is permanently grumpy and is always too busy to communicate with anyone (Brian, JD, Ian, Lillian etc etc. The only exception is Debbie: he can find time to speak to her but then she is too busy to talk to him LOL).

I was really hoping that they were going to write him out but that looks decreasingly likely if they have just written out Harry.

heronsfly Mon 13-Aug-12 11:25:04

I have some sympathy for Adam, he can be a bit of a wet weekend all of the time some of the time,but Brian and the wonderous Debbie made all those plans without a whisper to Adam, and I dont think anyone could forgive that sort of backhanded planning, dont think he should have cheated on Ian though.

harrietspy Mon 13-Aug-12 11:27:57

Adam's infidelity seems so out of character - maybe it's the bump on the head... I caught up with the omnibus yesterday so I know about Adam, but what happened to Harry? (Missed previous week entirely!)

R4 Mon 13-Aug-12 11:52:19

That was last night / today's repeat. Fallon is back from Edinburgh sans Harry who ran into an old flame and has re-united with him. Twas written in the stars / Fate conspired / yadda yadda.
Moike is not best pleased.

ppeatfruit Mon 13-Aug-12 15:09:25

Yup Harry's gay (I did wonder with the way Fallon was always throwing herself at him to no avail grin)Aaah poor Fallon having to put up with Jazzer all the way back from Cumbria lucky she had Kirstie to keep her company.

ppeatfruit Mon 13-Aug-12 15:12:26

Well when the shxx hits the fan about Pavel and Adam (Ian 'll be soo mad) he's probably going to change his mind again and run off to Poland with his Pole grin

CuttedUpPear Thu 16-Aug-12 19:25:02

How can Harry be gay? He loved that girl from Poland and was all mushy over her!!

What is occurring?

Someone bring me up to speed about what happened in Edinburgh please, I missed a week.

heronsfly Thu 16-Aug-12 20:08:20

I really hope Jazzer ends up with Fallon grin

R4 Thu 16-Aug-12 20:11:34


I think the full answer is on AmEx. See the other thread for my general grumpiness and annoyedness about that.

I am starting to wonder why I listen to TA: I don't particularly like any of the characters, the plots are gettng ridculous and now the action sees to be happening elsewhere. What's left to like? sad

CuttedUpPear Thu 16-Aug-12 20:21:42

Can you link the thread plead R4?

R4 Thu 16-Aug-12 21:30:16

This one, that you are being the AmEx 'expert' on!grin

CuttedUpPear Thu 16-Aug-12 22:24:14

Ahahaha I only listened twice, it was too draining for me!

CuttedUpPear Thu 16-Aug-12 22:27:21

Still don't know how come Harry can be suddenly gay - or is it bi?
[grumpy face]

R4 Fri 17-Aug-12 08:47:24


See my earlier comment about ridiculous storylines and add to that 'characters acting out of character'. How am I supposed to care about them if they chop and change with the wind. A few months ago Elona was worrying about her jailbird husband somehow finding his way back to the straight and narrow. Now she is spending money like water and effectively forcing him (who has history for being easily swayed by the less moral) into doing dodgy jobs for Matt. It's not coherant.

CuttedUpPear Fri 17-Aug-12 08:53:04

Even my 15yo DS said to me the other day "Have they got someone different writing TA? Do they usually write Eastenders?" which I though was a really lucid comment seeing as he is borderline ADHD and never comments on anything other than Minecraft!

CuttedUpPear Fri 17-Aug-12 08:54:00

Am going to venture over to Mustardland to see what they are all saying.

Wish me luck, I haven't been there for years.

seeker Fri 17-Aug-12 09:01:21

And what's happened with Alice? And Nick and Will going ti have a baby? There are whole plot lines just dropped. It's all beginning to soundalike a spoof- a cross between Eastenders and Cold Comfort Farm.

CuttedUpPear Fri 17-Aug-12 09:03:39

Gosh I have found some stuff out - I haven't listened to TA much in the past fortnight but still - I am shocked that all this is happening in AmX without my knowledge.

Cut n pasted from Mustardland, credit to the author.
^Now in every single one of those AmEx segments, highly significant and life-changing events have taken place in the lives of characters not very far off the very heart of TA, but barely referred to in Ta proper when the AmEx chunk is over. How on earth listeners to either kind alone are meant to believe in EITHER element of The Archer brand after that, I do not know. If you incrementally erode the credibility or allow your soap audience to exercise searching critical faculties as AmEx has made us do, you risk stripping away any semblance of that necessary 'suspension of disbelief' that makes soaps just about acceptable. It is drawing attention to the artificiality of it all in a very unhelpful way.

Now, yes, each of the AmEx SLs is in its own way very decent stuff - as very many posters have corroborated - so why the heck they were not woven into TA proper, is anyone's guess. As they have been handled, all the team seem to have succeeded in doing is divide audiences, produced rancour and a sense of betrayal in many, and led to increased distrust of the TA team's integrity and skills.

Was that really what they intended? Just seems amazing editorial hubris and miscalculation.^

seeker Fri 17-Aug-12 09:03:39

No, not Alice. What's her name-the vicar's daughter.

CuttedUpPear Fri 17-Aug-12 09:04:39

Um here it is in full, sorry:

^1. Alice /Chaz / Chris triangle that pretty nearly broke the marriage up, compromised the business options Chris was intent on and showed Alice as an almost criminally irresponsible and naive woman.

2. Jamie's mates as well as Jamie being not just on the edge but actually involved in criminal activity, that his mother was utterly ineffectual, and that in essence Jamie was saved form himself by this very same Natalie, who has since been turned into a silly little air-head from being a very serious and ambitiously intelligent young woman.

3. Fantastic crisis in the Shula / Alistair/Daniel relationship over a nasty, sexually promiscuous and scheming girl who first takes on Daniel to get to his step-dad and then pretty nearly wrecks the marriage by lies, wrecks the relationship between Daniel and Alistair, reveals Alistair as weak and susceptible and a deeply troubled man.

4. Massive revelations about TVIOA's ancestry, affecting his marriage, Amy's relationship with him, her won self-image and renders her deeply troubled too.

5. Matt turns out to be a crafty operator BUT revealing and then frightening off a crooked dealer network that imperils his biz. And what do we have in current TA? Matt being the crooked dealer in a particularly unpleasant and unscrupulous way. Ahem.

6. Huge events in SA that have totally changed the whole JD/Kate/Phoebe/Hayley/Roy set up, in which drink, near misses with Jo'burg under-life - including a hilarious bit of VERY poor research on SA school holidays that caused triumphant laughter on the AmEx boards.

7. Start of the Edinburgh h trip, major last minute change of personnel - Kirsty - major change in direction of trip, major change of sexual identity for Harry later revealed in a letter shoved through the Tucker door - I mean, as if!! ^

R4 Fri 17-Aug-12 09:18:45


Well said that MustardLander. Spot on. I just hope that someone On High is listening.

I was so fed up yesterday that I didn't bother listening but then realised that I missed the AS results so Listen Again-ed. Half the program was Adam moaning and the other half was Jamie moaning. What fun! Not to mention Kathy's moaning (talking of characters acting out of character: remember she used to be a teacher? why has she got no idea how to handle teenagers?).
I am rapidly going off TA - this is from someone who has been listening for over thirty years. sad

IAmSheWhoMustBeObeyed Sun 19-Aug-12 10:21:21

Am listening now and agree with all of the above. Some of these plotlines are ridiculous and whereas in the past I could miss a week and still be able to enjoy everything when I came back, now it's almost incomprehensible.
Still, can't wait for the shit to hit the fan with Adam/Ian/Pavel.

Acekicker Sun 19-Aug-12 16:23:58

reveals Alistair as weak and susceptible and a deeply troubled man this one I'd disagree with, didn't we always know this, especially after the gambling problems?

The rest are spot on, the South Africa storyline in particular really annoyed me - although it didn't even really resolve itself within AmEx even - I was sure shots were fired and then they were all back home waving Phoebe off. I'm also cross they dropped that storyline to give us the roadtrip and now NZ - I liked Lucas' family and wanted to hear more about what happened over the move and Kate's affair.

ppeatfruit Mon 20-Aug-12 11:41:04

I totally agree with Iamshe and acekicker it's becoming very annoying esp. as the S.W.s are giving too much work to jamie who can't act to save his life so is painful to listen to. BTW my DF was a secondary teacher and couldn't handle us as teenagers but then he used the slipper at school and didn't believe in it! hmm I met quite a few of our DDs' teachers who can't handle them? can anyone?

NetworkGuy Mon 20-Aug-12 20:20:50

I must have been in hospital when things went wrong between Daniel and Alistair, though knew the girl seemed to be leading A astray... just missed anything juicy grin sad


Sorry, have heard perhaps 3 or 4 segments in past month, not been keeping to same routine since left hospital, and have no major impetus at present to get back into listening...

Would never claim to be an avid fan, and only vaguely remember some of the now passed on characters, but have heard it for as long as I can remember, as a bit of regular tum-te-tum-te-tum... most days of the week...

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