DumTeeDum - A show about BBC Radio's 'The Archers'

AI? Why?

This week’s podcast is presented by Stephen and Jacqueline.

We hear from:

Anna from Berkshire, who isn’t impressed with Natasha;
Claire from Clapham, who isn’t too keen on all the Dickensiana;
Lilian who is really, really loving it;
Lizzie a First Time Caller-innerer we think - in which case, Hurrah! who is worried about something that Justin might not have done;
Jacquieline in Christchurch, who has thoughts about Fallon’s business acumen;
Marie in Hampshire who fears that the Kirsty and Helen relationship may be about to go pear-shaped;
And finally Witherspoon, who, among other things, has a question about a cat.

Plus: we have the Week in Ambridge from Suey, a roundup of the Dumteedum Facebook group from Ben, and the Tweets of the Week from Theo.

Please call into the show using this link:

www.speakpipe.com/dumteedum

Or send us a voicenote via WhatsApp on: +44 7810 012 881 (07810

012 881 if in the UK) – Open the WhatsApp app, key in the number and click on the microphone icon.

Or email us at dumteedum@mail.com

How to leave a review on Apple podcasts: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/podcasts/pod5facd9d70/mac

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Duration:: 58m
Broadcast on:: 10 Nov 2024
Audio Format:: other

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates potential savings will vary not available in all states. It took a lifetime to find the person you want to marry. Finding the perfect engagement ring is a lot easier. At BlueNile.com, you can find or design the ring you've always dreamed of with help from Blue Niles jewelry experts who are on hand 24/7 to answer questions and the ease and convenience of shopping online. For a limited time, get $50 off your purchase of $500 or more with Code Listen at BlueNile.com. That's $50 off with Code Listen at BlueNile.com. This is a dumpty-dum production. They shall grow not old, as we that are left to grow old. Aid shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. [Music] [Music] [Music] And we will remember her. We've just heard the news of the death of June Spencer, at the grand old age of 105. June was a well-established radioactive in 1950 when she signed up for a five-episode pilot run of a new radio program called The Archers. When the show proper started, in January 1951, she played two parts, that of Peggy and that of an Irish Baker's assistant, Rita Flynn. She left the show in 1953 to raise her family, but returned as Rita in 1956, then as Peggy in 1962. As a townie moved to the country, she was an ideal character to help educate the non-contrastide folks listening to our favorite docu-drama. We saw Peggy through her two marriages to her two jacks, the first her alcoholic pub landlord and father of her three children, Jenny, Lillian and Tony, and then with brumby businessman, owner of Grey Gables, Jack Woolley. June retired from the cast of The Archers in 2022 as her character Peggy went to live in the laurels, pivotal to many storylines over the years it's been strange to have a silent Peggy for the last few years, and even sadder to know that her light will soon finally stop shining in our beloved ambridge. Rest in peace, June Spencer. Now, this is Dumpedidam, a weekly podcast about The Archers and the goings on of Ambridge. I'm Jacqueline Berto, who loves nothing more than clearing a field of rampant rambles. And I'm Stephen Bowden, I'll be your guide for this virtual podcast. State of the art technology enables me to take you where you want to go today. Wait, go today. Tell me where you want to go today. Oh my goodness, where is this going? I'll end as you are lovely Dumpedidamers. Yes, well, or maybe you should just keep circulating. Welcome to Dumpedidam, a place to talk about the things that are happening in our favourite Borsettshire village. This week's scripts were written by Nick Warburton, who is channeling his inner Dickens for better or for worse. Coming up, we have calls from Anna, from Berkshire, who isn't impressed with Natasha. Claire, from Clapham, who isn't too keen on all the Dickensianna. And Lillian, who is really, really loving it. Lizzy, a first-time caller in a row, we think, in which case, Herar, who is worried about something that Justin might not have done. Jacqueline in Christchurch, who has thoughts about Fallon's business acumen. Marie in Hampshire, who fears that Kirstian Holmes' relationship may be about to go pear-shaped. And finally, with a spoon, who among other things has a question about a cat? Plus, we have the week in Ambridge from Sui, a roundup of the Dumpedidam Facebook group from Ben, and the Tweets of the Week from Theo. So, let's go straight into the week in Ambridge from Sui. Don't have the people? It's Sui Queen or Tart here, and a roundup of this week in Ambridge. Excuse my voice. Wealth has been another week all round, and your too long didn't read summary is that Justin had an epiphany on his personal road to Damascus, while channeling Dickens' Christmas Carol. All the M people told him to buck his ideas up, including Meghan, Fallon's mum, Miranda, just in X, and remember last week we had personality transplant Martin Gibson, and then we had an AI programmed by Robert Snell. He didn't close down the rewilding, and was hacked off at the entire village wonders what the hell he's up to. Savvy Lillian hasn't sent him packing. There's still time. Eda costed a local MP at some sort of fun run to try and get George Moo to a younger fenders institute, which everyone, I think, who knows something about it says, will be much worse for George. Ed did not skip the opportunity to offer her some tree surgery, which led to Emma finding out that George is in a bad place. So, to make it up to him, she turned up to the prison with puzzle books, which George metaphorically threw back in her face, and demanded they sent him more money, and grateful little beep. Fallon left the tea room, and Natasha and Helen gave a speech, saying how great she was. What a shame they didn't do that six months ago. Harrison had a cake goodie bag as he had to go and do some policing. The EV station has offered her an even smaller unit, which is kept around the corner, and therefore she has not signed the contract. Tom told Natasha she had been far too nice, and she told him that she wants to sell up some at Orchard and run the tea room. We might even get a fistfight at this rate, or we can only live in hope. It has occurred to Helen that she might need a survey to buy the Beechwood house. She told Kirsty she wanted to keep the curtains, but didn't offer any money for them, which would have been a good idea. Kirsty wants to have them at Willow Cottage, which begs the question, what is up there at the moment? Well, we'll just have to wait and see what happens next week, and I'm sure I will not be alone in morning departure of June Spencer. I am very glad that today of all days, Peggy's rewilding project has been extended for another five years. I'll talk to you next week then. Thanks for that great round-up, Suey. So Stephen, what have you been up to this week? I haven't really been up to very much this week. I was struggling at the beginning of the week with the end of a cold that I'd had at the previous week, and I hope by now my voice has recovered and it won't show too much. I did try and run up the same hill I ran up the previous Sunday on this last Sunday. When I got to the talk and checked my time, it was exactly the same time as it had been a week before, which is, I suppose, given that I'd had the cold, not too bad, and at least I wasn't stiff and aching the next day as I had been the previous week. That's a result, and I will have another go at running up the same hill tomorrow to see whether I can improve things. Very good. You're lucky to have hills to run up then far cheaper than gym membership. You've got one hill nearby. I've got lots of hills. A very famous one about to come into focus again next July when the Tour de France arrives. I was just looking at the route, and it goes there's a day from Samuelo to Mule de Breton. Yeah, I go through San Guen. Maybe I'll pop over and visit again. Indeed. Maybe you should have a big dumb to dumb get together here in July next year. It's been quite fun. It's usually a good day, although it's crowded, crowded for 24 hours, but then after that everybody moves on to the next one, but it's a good day, it's a Friday, so it will be a long weekend here. That's good. Shall we move on to our calls now? Okay, and first up after the regular sound will be Anna. Hello, Pusca. Hello, Jacqueline, Stephen, and all Dr. Dammers. It's Anna from Berkshire here. I made a plot prediction last week, and after listening to Tuesday's episode of The Archers, looks like I got it wrong. I was predicting that Ian would be taking over the care and running it, but Natasha suddenly announced that she will be doing that instead. It would be interesting to see that what I didn't like so much this week was what Natasha said to Fallon at her leaving do on one play night. I really didn't like her. Oh, well, you know, I'm still disappointed about you leaving and how you resigned. You know, I'll forgive you this time. I'm basically ad-libbing what she said. And I've talked to myself, why do you keep saying that to Fallon? You already had the chance to express your feelings very clearly. Fallon received them. So why does Natasha feel the need to keep basically almost calling Fallon a disappointment at the same time as pretending to chew her on and sending her on in her way? And that two-faced behavior, I find, really frustrating from Natasha. And maybe that's what some managers are actually like that seems so unreasonable to do that. Why not just say to her, I wish you all the best and leave it there. I get it. It's a rival cast. She's doing something different. Obviously, it could take away some of your customers. Who knows? We haven't even started up yet, but who actually knows? But why not just be happy for someone else, Natasha, and wish them, well, why do you have to keep saying, oh, I'm not really happy with how things ended. This is not a relationship in that way. It's a working relationship. Fallon, like any employee who works on do you has a right to work there or not. They could leave. I think what Natasha is gonna miss is Lord in it all over. Fallon, that's what she's gonna miss. And she's not gonna have that opportunity to do that to Fallon anymore. And that's what she's disappointed by. Thank you so much for listening to me again. Keep up all the great work you do for the pod. Bye. Thank you for that call, Anna. I think that Natasha is just one of these people who can't leave unsaid what's in her mind. And so when she's in a conversation with somebody, she'll say all the right things. But if there's something going on in her mind about what she really feels, she'll end up saying that as well. And it will then ruin the mood completely as it did with Fallon. I thought that that was a really poor piece of judgment on her behalf. And I think if she does start running the theorem herself, she's going to end up doing the same to Chelsea. And Chelsea is not going to just sit there and take it. And I can see Natasha getting into fierce morale with Chelsea on a regular basis. And given the staffing situation at the moment, how desperate they are for people, Natasha won't be able to sack Chelsea and Chelsea probably needs the money so won't war. And so you'll end up with this really bad vibe in the theorem. And that will drive traffic elsewhere. And let's hope that Fallon can get things sorted. Because by the end of the week, we realize that there's some problems coming up. Let's hope that Fallon can get things sorted so that when Natasha's inect management style does strive people away, there's a vegan, dairy-free, meat-free alternative right on the edge of the village. I agree with all of that. But one of the questions that has risen in my mind is about Natasha and her customer relationship with customers because she doesn't suffer fools gladly. And she may see customers as being over fussy or over particular. And rather than doing the customer service, grin and bear it, she might actually drive people away with her own serving style. I've seen it in the past that somebody who's very assertive in another realm as a free retirement job runs a cafe and they actually nobody wants to go because she's an assertive person. Bad stuff, bad stuff relationships and bad customer relationships. But in fact, picking up on the Natasha, she said all those over effusive things. And then she said the things that she said as well to put Fallon down. So I feel I felt like that she was really being so too faced. And even Tom pointed that out to her. But Tom has been an absolute twit about it because he annoyed me so much this week and his way he was talking to the way he's talking to Natasha about Fallon and trying to correct what she was saying and what's she going over the top. And then her refusal to talk to Tom at the end of that evening where she threw in that thing, I'm going to sell some orchards. A very interesting insight into their relationship. And obviously spotted by Megan Kirsty's mum that there was something sniping around them which was also an interesting observation. Yeah, it's been an interesting Natasha week. She's not somebody I can warm to at all. And this latest storyline has definitely put me off her even more. And my only fear is that it will all work out well and she will flourish there whereas we've got poor Fallon, not quite flourishing. No, but at least, well, we'll get on to Fallon a bit later on. Meanwhile, we'll have Claire. Hi, this is Claire from Clapham Hill. I'm calling on a Wednesday evening to say, "Oh my God, please." Who's idea where this mad Christmas carol thing, the Johnson Valley, to bear me the kind of ghosts of Christmas past, President Viewjust. And what's the AI thing anyway? Oh, it's so peculiar. It should be enough for Lillian to tell Justin that he's being a pain. I've used a careful language there. I wanted to use a different word. Yeah, so strange. And where has Kirsty's mum suddenly popped up after all these years? How bizarre. Maybe just to remind us what happened between Kirsty and Tom, who knows? That seems unnecessary. Yeah, all these random people like the guy you bought the batteries and the Kirsty's mum showing up, like we haven't got enough people that we'd never hear from anyway. Yeah, mad. But yeah, keep up with the work. I wonder what you think of it. Bye. Wild Claire, actually quite enjoyed this week. I haven't found just a very disturbing week. I've had worse weeks in the in the bridge, I have to say. I find it quite fascinating. I am kind of half adjusting fan because I think he's been turned into such a dick dastardly kind of character. I like that toiling of mustaches and black silk-lined cape. So I've quite enjoyed the silliness of it. I think it's the relief after all the problems with the Alice storyline that gave me personally and before that, the Robin Helen storyline, all these ongoing things. I've actually quite enjoyed seeing the development of Justin being manipulated because that's exactly what he was, that whole AI thing with the lovely Rex as an AI voice was definitely Robert Snell being a very clever chappy. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. So I don't feel this him as you. I'm not a Dickens fan, I have to say. I think it was forced on me a lot as a child. My parents were very definitely Dickens fans and I think it switched my brain off. Haven't David Copperfield which I love? I am a Dickens fan. Bleak House is my favourite of all his novels. But I have to say I really didn't enjoy this week. The whole Christmas Halloween thing. It's too much of a fantasy storyline. There was all these mysterious happenings, so Miranda mysteriously turning up with a double booked table, never explained. Meghan losing her phone and her purse, and then suddenly magically finding it again, never properly explained. The whole AI thing. Just total fantasy. And I don't believe that the arches is the right place for fantasy. I don't think that it should stray away from a really realistic, albeit dramatic, version of life. That's what the arches is. It's real people in a real setting and it's not some soapy fantasy where these are things happen. So I just think that that was not a good idea. I think it's all right to be clever for Christmas shows and the occasional thing which clearly is outside reality. But for the regular program, no, you shouldn't be doing this sort of thing. I'm not happy with it. Okay, fine. Well, I just took it all as a bit of fun really, I suppose. But the ending, Justin changing his mind and giving the use of bot just land from the five years that the platform went. All a good outcome, as far as Kirstie and Rex, and not having to sell the Longhorns, et cetera, is a consent. But are you still? And I've said this for weeks and weeks now. I don't trust Justin, as far as Falan and the EV charging station is concerned. And I think that his deaconess' willingness will reappear. Or maybe not. I would agree with you. He is probably behind the constant moving of Falan from one of the better locations, now it sounds like a dreadful place. I thought there were only three units on the EV charging station when Justin was talking to Brad. If two of them were well located and one of them is poorly located, at least there's nowhere worse for Falan to be offered. No, she can't be off-legged further down the line, can't she? I agree. I thought there was three units. But a lot of parking spaces, if I remember correct. They're charging spaces. I think there's 30 of them. That's ridiculous. A ridiculous number of charging stairs. That's enormous. If they're all full, the electricity grid in Borsicher will blow out. That's what's taking the time to build these places. I will at some point go by the one in stone world that's being developed and see how that's getting on. I think that's a model for this one. Oh, that sounds like a very good bit of research, Stephen. I'll leave you to do that. Meanwhile, we'll hear from somebody who has a slightly different view on this recent Dickensian stuff, or at least he's more in line with you as well with me. Hi, Stephen, Jacqueline and all dumped it on us everywhere. Wow, wow, wow. I've just listened to Thursday's episode. How brilliant. I know a lot of people are finding the Scrooge thing a bit tedious, but I actually think it's really brilliant. I think that it's brilliant and clever how they've actually brought all the currents together to make it happen. And just in's reaction to the video with just very, very Scrooge-esque, I just love it. I think it's wonderful. I really, really do. I'm a massive fan of this. Anyway, hope everybody's well. And thanks again for the podcast. Really enjoying it still. And speak soon, everyone. Bye for now. Thank you for that call, Lillian. And I agree with you that it was cleverly done. And I don't have any criticism of Nick Robertson's writing of these episodes. And in the past, I have been a bit unhappy with some of his stuff. I just don't think that he should have been writing this sort of storyline. I think that it's not what the archers is about, but I've said all that once. And I won't say it again, or at least I'm tempted to just keep on repeating it because it has bothered me all week. That's fine. You can be bothered by it, yes. But I think, from a point of view of actually listening to the character speaking, I felt that Justin was, I mean, his frustration with the computer, it all felt very normal. And then kind of stream of consciousness as he was dealing with it obviously has to be done like that because it's the radio. I thoroughly enjoyed his frustration with the computer. The fantasy that Robert was leading him through somewhere and speaking to him very definitely because we knew it wasn't a real live website that was up and running. So I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I agree with Lillian, really, it was the pleasure of hearing Justin reacting to things that made it a good week for me. It just, she listened to me. It just seems so random to be doing this in the first week of November and to be deploying the plot of a Christmas Carol a month and a half before Christmas. That's very true, very true. It shouldn't be at least a month later, but then again, maybe then, they're leaving space for the Christmas show, which Alan, yeah, Rene mentioned. Well, there's plenty of time to put on and all singing all dancing Christmas show. I sure it'll be the Christmas Carol, aren't I? It might be. They could do a version of the Muppet Christmas Carol. Yes, exactly. Singing and dancing all around frogs a lot. Yes, I would have thought, I'm not sure who would be Kermit. I think Kenton would be the great gonzo. Definitely, yes, definitely. Lillian would be the big bird. No, Lillian would be Miss Piggy. Yeah, you're right, actually. Yes, true. Who would be big bird then? No, big bird's sesame street rather than the Muppet show. Oh my goodness, where you see it? I'm muddling your pool, but it just shows my lack of knowledge, isn't it? I've actually never seen them up at show Christmas. The Christmas Carol? Well, never seen it. It'll be on television at some point over the period. I'm sure. Anyway, let's move on a call from somebody who may be a first time choronera. I certainly don't remember hearing from Lizzie before, but here she is. Hi, this is Lizzie. I'm fading in about something that happened last week. It was when Justin was in the car with Narsen and the car broke down. He mentioned that he had called the call out guy out, they were waiting for him and then the car magically recovered itself and they drove off. I want to know, do you think Justin phoned out the call out service to cancel that call out? Or did he just forget all about it and drive off? I want to know. Well, Lizzie, welcome. If you're a first time choronera, I don't recognize your voice, but if we've phoned in it, it certainly hasn't been in the last year since Stephen and I have been doing this together. But thank you for that thought, because that was exactly my thought. I couldn't help myself. What about calling the breakdown people? They didn't even mention it in passing. They just moved on and breezed on. And I felt that it was very typical of Justin, of his kind of privileged and titled attitude to things that he wouldn't even think to mention that, oh, I better cancel the breakdown. I think so. We don't know. We'll never know. I think this shows how wonderful some of our listeners are just picking up on those tiny little details. Absolutely. But to return to my theme, this was fantasy. That was the first of the fantasy episodes. And so you can't expect that sort of thing to be properly addressed. This was not realistic and therefore realistic behavior like possibly even Martin saying what about cancelling that call to the repair guy didn't happen. So I hope our editor-in-chief who does the newsletter is going to be entitled in this week's newsletter, Stephen does not do fantasy. But yeah, a very good question is the absolutely brilliant and please call in again. Please do, yes. Now we'll move all the way around the world to New Zealand. Hello, dumpty dummas around the world. It's Jacqueline Corning from Christchurch, business acumen. I thought it was very puzzling that Fallon who recently ran the tearooms quite successfully was being a bit of a sock when it came into the EV charging station, paying the same rent for a smaller unit. And what world does that make any sense? It sounded like she was having to reject her whole seating plan. And she got a month or weeks rent free. She was okay about it. I thought that was very daft and I hope she gets her act together. I was thinking maybe a signage and vista for Fallon could be Linda. She offered her alone recently. And I thought that could be quite a good sort of business relationship. Kirstie and Helen, being best friends, surely Kirstie has made Helen aware she wants to buy the house quickly so that she can buy them always. And the other thing about all surveys in Kirsten seemed all a bit unrealistic. What happened with Piggy's house? Can someone remind me, please? I thought she left it to Helen and Henry and cut out all the other grandchildren. But she's in the laurels Kate no longer lives here, so I was a bit confused about that. I think that's it. George sounded quite wasted to me. Oh, that was hideous. So, yeah, because that's probably why he needed the extra cash. The ungrateful slide and we haven't heard that tone of voice for a while. That was all of that random. Okay, everyone. Have a great week. And thanks for the brilliant part. See you. Bye. Thank you for that call, Jacqueline. As far as the lodge is concerned, which is the place that Piggy lives up, I think she sold it when she moved into the laurels. But we don't know who she sold it to. We certainly have heard anybody being in it. But I think that was a simple answer. She sold it rather than leaving it because I think, yes, she had at one point promised it to Helen. I guess things move on from there. Your call came in after the Thursday episode. And at that point, Fallon had been moved from the initial unit at the EV charging station to the second unit that was smaller and the one that Jolene looked around with her. And at that point, yes, she was being a bit wet and Jolene had noticed how wet she was being in terms of settling for a month's free rent in exchange for the smaller unit. But by Friday, she'd been moved yet again to this third unit round the corner tucked away. And that had been enough. That was the final straw as far as she was concerned and she didn't sign the contract result of that. So I think her business acumen finally is showing through and she's going to step back and think hard about it. But I think this is then gonna run her into real problems with the whole relationship with Harrison and all the stresses around there. I think this is going to build up to some sort of crisis. But I think in the end, she might go around to Justin and shout at him or something like that. And given how Justin can be swayed by a dodgy AI built by Robert Snell and using Rex's voice, I think that Justin might also nowadays be open to being yelled at by Fallon. And he may revert to getting her the initial one, the prime coach she first thought she was getting. So maybe it'll come through in the end. But I agree with you that during the week, she was certainly being a bit wet. She was being a bit wet, but she's showing that she's unsure, isn't she? She's very good at showing us but not necessarily Harrison because he apparently was surprised that she hadn't signed the contract. He came back with bubbly and flowers. Now let's talk about Harrison. Nobody called in about Harrison this week. He's sounding very wobbly to me. He's got these issues at work. He had to leave the farewell party very early and suggests that whatever is going on, he's not enjoying the work. I don't know whether he will see much more of him in the coming weeks, but I think they're building him up quietly in the background to have some sort of crisis. He's really not enjoying his return to full-time working. No, no, not to talk because he had that exchange last week, didn't we, with Mom? And who said she was still here? But yeah, so I think Harrison's definitely wanted to watch that on TenDocks, as you say, it's been very quietly eating away at that story in the background alongside Fallon and her now wobble about the EV charging station and what position it leaves them in. Of course, she's been silent this week where last week she was very vocal with Fallon about how she thought how the Fallon was progressing with her move towards the EV charging station. So I am obviously fascinated by the story of Fallon and Harrison and where they're going, having been a proponent of wanting them to make a success of their relationship and carry on, and wanting Fallon absolutely to make a successor of the EV charging station. Basic problem for me is that she's gone down the line of having a very specific type of cafe, a vegan, is it vegan? How did they describe it? Yeah, it was meat and dairy free. Meat and dairy free, that's right. So I think that's a very, very specific and I think that's too narrow because we've heard a lot about her signature bakes, her brilliant bonfire cakes and all the things that she's developed was the owner of the tea rooms and I'm still in shock about the fact that she was the owner and developed the tea room from nothing into something that somebody just suddenly took over and that still shocks me and I'm surprised that somebody hasn't turned around and attached to Tom and said something to them when they were doing all that gushing but there we go. Now the other thing that with Peggy's house, so Kate lived there, so where does Kate live now? Kate lives in blossom hill cottage with Brian. Oh yes that's right, I'd forgotten that completely. Yeah, I think you're right then the house must have been sold, the laurels must cost an arm and the legs, so selling it to fund Peggy's stay there. So of course that's a storyline that's going to come to an end, very quickly I assume. So those are the first few calls, there's a couple more to come. If you'd like to join in by calling us yourself or dropping us a line by message or email, Stephen's here to tell you how and all the details are also in the show notes. The first option is to record a message or a plot prediction by going to www.speakpipe.com/dum-t-dum where you can leave a message of up to two minutes. Alternatively you can send us a voice note or a written message via WhatsApp on 07810 012 881 and if you're calling from outside the UK start with +44 and drop that first zero. Please try to keep your call to a maximum of two minutes although this limit isn't enforced like it is by Speakpipe and finally we have an email address you can contact us on if you would rather write to us with your views. Please aim for a maximum of 250 words and the email address is dumbt-dum@mail.com and do bear in mind you need to be at least 18 to contribute. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart choice. Make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try it at progressive.com. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates not available in all states or situations prices vary based on how you buy. Ready to pop the question? The jewelers at bluenile.com have got sparkle down to a science with beautiful lab-grown diamonds worthy of your most brilliant moments. Their lab-grown diamonds are independently graded and guaranteed identical to natural diamonds and they're ready to ship to your door. Go to bluenile.com and use promo code LISTEN to get $50 off your purchase of $500 or more. That's code LISTEN at bluenile.com for $50 off bluenile.com code LISTEN. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laughing me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B but with LinkedIn you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com/results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. Linked in. The place to be. To be. So who's our next Porella, Stephen? Next up we have Lori. Hello Jacqueline, Stephen and all Dunty Dummies. It's Marie calling from Winchester. I hope you're all keeping well and I just wanted to call in about the whole Helen and thirsty debacle, the selling of the house. I very much feel it's all going to go very very pear-shaped and I think Helen and Kirstie are going to fall out big time. I think, oh Helen, she's already getting to smile me. She's getting on my nerves and I think she's just going to get more and more stuck into what she wants doing and what she wants and the price. I just think it's all going to blow up in her face and she'll probably wish that she hadn't ever wanted to sell to her in the first place. So that's my prediction. It's been a funny old week hasn't it? Justin and the whole Christmas carol-y type thing. I'm wondering whether obviously some of the conversations are real but the whole rex thing on the Zoom or whatever it was, that was very weird. Is there something going on in his head? Is he going into some sort of spiraling depression or psychosis or something? Something's very wrong there but good for Lillian, standing her ground. Yeah, really enjoying the whole storylines at the moment and also just wanted to pay tribute to June Spence, just heard very sad news and may she rest in peace and with that note, I'll say goodbye and have a great week everyone and take care down. Bye. Thanks for your call Marie. Great to hear from you again. Yeah, Helen and Kirstie on this house sale. Helen has been so irritating. She's back to a normal, highly irritating self. I felt that she was awful with Harrison who said he had to go off and get back to work. He was calling to work urgently or whatever and she said, "Oh no, can you not stay? Can you not stay? Can you not stay?" Just awful. No, he said he has to go to work. Just leave it at that. I think Helen and Kirstie are going to fall out over the house sale. When Helen said to Kirstie, I listened to it twice and I listened to it with an open mind because when she said to her, "I think we need to get a survey, is that okay with you?" Well, in fact, if Helen is having to borrow money to buy the house, I would have thought that her mortgage lender would demand the survey anyway. So that's a bit of an illogical thing. It's a new build so she'll do with not have guarantees. How can go with those houses built? Is it 10 years? Less than 10 years, more than five. I don't know how long the guarantee would be? Because here, it's 10 years. When a house is built or you have any major structural work done, somebody who has a 10-year guarantee insurance, as it were. So I just assumed that the house would be about coming up to the age when the guarantee might be coming to an end anyway. Maybe I was a bit previous on that. But it's up to the buyer to do the survey, surely. So not telling Kirstie, but then we'll listen to it again. I thought, "Oh, maybe she's saying I'm going to, I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to have a house surveyed." So maybe I was over jumping over my irritation at Helen in the first scenario, so it could go either way. But this whole business of... It's Helen's tone. When Kirstie Rang said, "I think I will have the curtains, keep the curtains." She sounded condescending to me. I don't know. Just something about Helen. She just rubs me up the wrong way on several cases. So yes, I agree with Marie that I think there's going to be a bit of a breakdown. I've just had a quick look and I think that the new home guarantee in the UK is typically 10 years. So I think there should be a warranty on the Beechwood property at the moment. I think this is all about creating delay rather than anything more than that. Kirstie is desperate to get the money so that she can buy Willow Farm before Roy sells it to somebody else. So she wants to sell the Beechwood property. Helen is going to slow things down. That's going to increase the tension between the two of them and it's all going to get a bit messy and we don't know what's going to happen as a result of that. But as you say, it could damage that relationship. Kirstie has, however, just come through a fairly grim experience of possibly having to move out because she's lost her job. So she's now in a positive mood. She should be pretty relaxed now. But I guess that means that there is more space in her head for the sale of Beechwood and the possible sale stroke purchase of Willow Farm to bubble up and become more critical. That's her live storyline at the moment and probably will stay that way until Linda ropes her in to do the Christmas show. Or is it Paul who's going to be doing the Christmas show? Yes, that's another question, isn't it? Now it can't be just me but just can you remind me about Willow Farm? Because it was Willow Farm house that Mike and Betty had. They have Willow Farm didn't they? And then they split it in two so Roy could have one half with Haley and the children and Mike and then Vicki. Vicki, that's right. They had the other half and then they've moved off. So what happened to the other half was that sold off. The other half was sold off to a family called the Kemp's moved away to Brussels for what was supposed to be a short period. And that was just when home farm house was sold. So Brian and Jennifer moved into Willow Cottage which was a smaller half of Willow Farm after the split. Then Jenny died and Brian moved out to Blossom Hill Cottage. That's what happened to it. There's nobody living and we don't know who lives in Willow Cottage at the moment. I think the owners were coming back weren't they? Isn't that one of the reasons Brian had to move out? Yeah. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Yeah, it's all coming back to me now. But all these movements and houses, I know we said this a few weeks ago, but I like to try and keep a check on it so that I'm actually not going to confusing myself as I'm thinking about the geography of Ambridge and who lives where and whatever when we're following these story. I remember now because Jennifer and Kirstie had a bit of a spat didn't they when they first moved in? That was because Jennifer was pruning something or other possibly honeysuckle or I'm not sure what and snipped through the internet. That's right. Yes. And she did turn on Kirstie isn't she or don't speak to your betters or something like that to people Jenny? It was Jenny in in her worst way. Absolutely. Obviously a thought-provoking call. Marie, I think we've got one more last call to come. Yes and it's a very familiar one. Greetings, Jacqueline. It's even in all Dunty Dimmers around the world. It's with the Spinnenangus Agus here. Well, it's been a tough week for many of us on the side of the pond. So I'm especially grateful for my friends in Dunty Dumm and for the residents in Ambridge for keeping me distracted. First off, I have a minor question. How do British people pronounce the word spelled T-O-R-T-O-I-S-E? Americans say tortoise but I think I heard something like tortoise and then tortoise but I wasn't listening that carefully. Hosts please clarify. Now back to a Christmas Carol Ambridge style as I began discussing last week. There was something Dickensian or even mystical about hearing the sad news of June Spencer's death on the day Justin agreed to a new lease thus allowing Peggy's legacy project to continue and hopefully flourish. As best as I could determine Martin Gibson was Jacob Marley as I previously noted. Miranda was the ghost of Christmas past. Megan was the ghost of Christmas presents and A.I. Rex was the ghost of Christmas future. All this was all compressed into two or three 13-minute episodes as opposed to the night's journey that Scrooge had. It did feel a bit rushed and Justin's transformation was suspect. Whatever role he has to play in found's retail space rental I hope that Justin does the right thing there as well. Also Dickensian is the jail that George is in. We've been worried that he would encounter some bad characters and that he would be easily negatively influenced by them. I do hope that his three parents don't stop trying to get him moved to a place that's safer and has more support programs. Talk to you soon. Thank you for that call with a spoon and let's deal with the important issue first. How do we pronounce that word? A simple answer is it's tortoise so I'm not sure where you heard tortoise or anything like that because I don't remember hearing it pronounced oddly but it's definitely tortoise and that's all there is to it. I have to say Stephen that I agree with you on this one. Tortoise because often we say things differently. Both of us have a different way of pronouncing hooray. Hooray. And we have different accents coming from different parts of the UK but tortoise is definitely how we say it. Anyway to get back to your call with a spoon I wanted to address points you make about George's situation because we haven't had much discussion of what's been happening to George. When Brad went to see him he was having a miserable time and he didn't really want his parents to know but Brad ultimately felt that he had to betray that confidence and was probably right to do so. When Will and Emma visited things seem to be very different he was much more assured and back to his horrible hideous self. And I'm certainly not one who particularly wants George to be a reformed character so I was very happy to see the really unpleasant George reasserting himself but I think that George probably is at the moment somewhere at the bottom of a prison gang and is being bullied far more than he's exerting any effort. I think he's frightened of the people around him. The one that he keeps looking across that during the visit baseball is probably somebody who is keeping an eye on him and making him do things that George doesn't particularly want to do. I don't think we're talking necessarily abuse but probably some fairly unpleasant stuff handing over his money. I don't suspect that that's why George needs the money not because he wants to spend it on himself but because he's got to hand it over to people higher up the pecking order than he is. I think this is going to be an ongoing downward spiral and the fact that he is objecting to being moved is going to put Ed, Will and Emma in a difficult position because I think some of them probably Emma and Will will believe him and I think it's Ed once again who is going to see through what George was saying even though he wasn't there and not believe that he was okay but it's going to be difficult because he wasn't there for him to persuade Will and Emma that things aren't as rosius if ill and I think it might take another visit from Brad to unlock that and I think that Brad will be able to work out what's going on tell Ed and then we'll have another big row and maybe the MP will be able to help but I'm not sure but I think that's it's a grim storyline and I think it's going to stay grim for the foreseeable future. Yeah I agree with you there but one of the things I'm not sure that even moving him to another place with more educational programs or whatever whether that's a possibility with a spoon I've read a couple of articles this week about the state of the prison service in both the UK and in France as it happened and they're both are in a very very highly strapped for cash difficult overcrowded conditions in all jails young people young offenders unit and otherwise so I'm not actually sure whether moving him and as the MP said even if you get him moved you might move to much further away so would that help but I agree with you entirely about the whole he's paying to be protected as it were whereas Jacqueline when she called in she mentioned that he sounded wasted and so I've seen a bit of speculation on our Facebook page about whether he was buying drugs or whatever with his money that's why I wanted more money I didn't get that that he was being waiting get that message from the way spoke I felt there's been a normal obnoxious horrible over bravado filled self it was good for me to see I felt that seeing George as it has gone back to normal and not by in that simpering whimpering sorry state of a person he was when Brad was there and I think Brad is going to be key to the truth about what George is up to and getting himself into and yeah redemption is not in line for George hopefully there were story lines quite recently about people using drones to fly contraband into prisons phones and drugs and things like that now there's no way that could have been factored into the program because it was being talked about on the news about a week before it turned up on programming as a six-week delay there I think that may have inspired people to wonder about him being drugged also about him wanting to recruit Brad to do nefarious things with the drone but I don't think that's the case I agree with you I think that he was the way he was because he is desperately scared he's been bullied and he's just trying not to show himself not to to raise his profile or anything like that and just to do what he can to survive yeah absolutely so thank you for that call with the students so those are the calls for this week thank you so much for calling in we love hearing reviews on the week in amber and so don't hesitate to call in this week as we've mentioned a few times now patreon backers of dumb to dumb get an ad-free early release version of the podcast around 6 p.m. on saturday this is not however a guarantee just our aim as there may be weeks when other demands on his time mean that steven can't do the editing till later patrons also get a weekly email about dumb to dumb and the archers which this week feature discussion about inheritance in amber it we're in the process of updating our patreon arrangements this is going to involve patreon backers being asked to move to a new patreon feed which will come with a lower subscription rate watch out for some messages about what's involved in the next couple of weeks now let's move on to facebook and give a warm with empty dumb welcome to the following people who've joined our facebook group in the last week mandy jordan penny wise richard later and tamara t-bone parsley's baker welcome to all of you don't be shy about joining in and never hesitate to start a new conversation and of course it's never too soon to start posting call or entering and email or entering all in the same week now let's hear what's been going on in the facebook group this week from ben meow steven jacklin and everyone in dumpty dum land it's been here nursing a cold in shanghai but bringing you the weekly roundup of all the fun and follocks of our facebook page the arrival of kirsty's mother megan sparked some interest with trees are remarking that she reminded her a bit too much of a certain higher synth bouquet there were also some very insightful conversations about property surveys fixtures fittings and who on earth would lay claim to the curtains if Helen ever does buy the beachwood house from kirsty wednesday's rather bizarre episode did not disappoint in causing up a stir sue england explained that it was a new low and speculated as to whether just it might be about to be diagnosed with a serious mental illness this prompted others to draw parallels with the it was all the dream storyline for those of us young enough to remember bobbie ewing in dallas which was definitely not a scene allison wanted to imagine prompting a recovery cup of tea and of course many spotted similarities to child's dick in spooky classic a christmas carol as always us dumpty dummas went off down a rabbit hole musing the technical capabilities of ai and voice cloning which is easier than you might think i just did it there on the whole the majority of us found it a welcome distraction from the fictional and real-life events of the past few weeks and finally george was he on something or was it just bravado speculation has been rife was he putting on a show in front of his parents has he been radicalized is he faking it so is not to upset emma well only time will tell and that's something he's got quite a lot of at the moment so until next time it's tettian from shanghai she's shea ben and in fact as we've been on air i've had a quick message from ben saying as i thought note to the smr i deliberately avoided june spencer orbits as i assumed there would already be lots in the shows we've had a few mentions of her so thank you for not going down that line ben but thank you so much to everyone on the dumpty dumph Facebook group if you'd like to join them please do but don't forget to answer those silly membership questions so that we know that you're a real person and not an ai something and if anybody out there would like to write as a review please do there is a link to instructions on how to do this in the show notes if you can't leave a review or if you already have talk to your friends and family about us and about the archers now don't be shy the love of all things ambridges not something to hide from those around you let's move on to twitter now where you will find us at dumpty dumph make sure you include of the archers hashtag using a capital tna so the visually impaired who use screen readers can enjoy any archers based streets as well as at dumpty dumph steaming can occasionally be found at whenlock house and we can both also be found discussing the archers on blue sky where i am at whenlock.bsky.social and i am at jberto.bsky.social way of actually started to dip a toe back in this last week or so let's find out who has won the twitter medals this week with theo tweet tweet tiger hello japan steven and dumpty dumph is everywhere it's purple pumpkin here with tweets of the week it's hard to talk about tweets without acknowledging that this week saw another large exodus from twitter given all the elon musk is up to with his friend the orange maga man about 10% of the followers of at dumpty dum left with many showing up either on blue sky or threads or sometimes both for now we'll continue to post and review from all these places but i have to say that twitter feels more than ever like a burning platform now this week there's much discussion about justin's redemption storyline and exactly who was the ghost of christmas past present and future in this premature ambridge christmas carol as dave blake at west six wildlife said martin is marley's ghost martin is actually dead on the carpet back at the meeting and it's his ghost in the car warning justin of the consequences of greed and lexa davere at lexa davere had maranda as the ghost of christmas past martin present and she reckon mrs kirsty senior was the future rainbow warrior at rainbow underscore warrior was one of those who think virtual rex was actually the ghost of things to come meanwhile tala hopper at tala hopper cast brad as bob cratchit and predicted that justin will be buying the horribin's dinner at grey gables by christmas week but little kim at little kim thought bob cratchit must be brad surely meanwhile kathryn ramsey at k ramsey 1997 thought she was in the minority of one in enjoying the christmas carol interlude but she just needed to head over to threads where a number of people felt the same way but i'll give the last word on this to eliza bennett at eliza bennett three who thought the whole christmas carol rubbish was less believable than the version with the muppets in it and a lot less enjoyable the three threader spheres were also all places of remembrance for the life of dune spencer this week she died aged 105 having given up playing peggy when she was a stripper of 103 as noted a week or two ago with just a few days away from peggy's hundredth birthday so it'll be interesting to see how that's handled garden gnome at gnome ponders loved the coincidence of the passing of dune spencer and the rewilding project being granted a new lease it was written in the stars but now over to this week's medals for blue sky skates threads and exposts all of which we consider for treats of the week in bronze physician it's jenny williams at jenny w dog has just in died and he's having some kind of near-death experience re-evaluating his life he's going to wake up in falpishum general with bennon azra at the foot of his bed telling him he had a heart attack when joy and mick took the last of the beef the silver medalist is kathryn at kathryn e j r dot beastry dot social tom's got a wife best line in the archers since the actual scream and the gold medal goes to steve brooks at steve brooks dot beast guy dot social sounds like george has finally found a university that suits him the university of crime and on that dispiriting note that's it for this week i hope to you all on hashtag the archers on twitter threads all blue sky next week thanks for that theo and congratulations to all who are mentioned in this week's roundup i think we need to give a big zoop to theo because she's struggling to follow twitter threads blue sky but she's doing a great job now don't forget we're on instagram at dumpty-dum and please send any of the archers or podcast relevant photos so the dumpty-dum email and we'll publish them with credits to you that's dumpty-dum at mail dot com the latest posts have followed steven's kimchi journey from the raw ingredients to the fridge exploding yet or not nope it's all been fine so far and i've been eating it actively great lovely good to hear it we'll be recording next week at the normal time of crack of dawn on sassay morning so please get your calls in by midnight on friday uk time as usual and as we come to the end of this episode we need to say thanks to all our wonderful contributors and to the team of dumpty-dummers behind the scenes we need to say great big thank you to all of you who are listening to us too we love making this podcast and sharing our love of the archers around the world and we must say thank you to kinderum and sunny almond for their voices and to pay our respects to the creators of this podcast thank you so much for listening and joining us today now we've got to go we've had this incident and there have been developments so it's goodbye from me ah great accent and it's a wrap-up from me hello shatlin [Music] 1-800-Flowers.com knows that a gift is never just a gift a gift is an expression of everything you feel and helps to build more meaningful relationships 1-800-Flowers takes the pressure off by helping you navigate life's important moments by making it simple to find the perfect gift from flowers and cookies to cake and chocolate 1-800-Flowers helps guide you in finding the right gift to say how you feel to learn more visit 1-800-Flowers.com/acast that's 1-800-Flowers.com/acast this episode is brought to you by progressive insurance fiscally responsible financial geniuses monetary magicians these are things people say about drivers who switch their car 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