From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said that there are a lot of
Archers moonlighting in this production. Enough, I'd say, to record a
perfectly serviceable episode of the Everyday Story of Country Folk
itself. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that they recorded
this thriller in The Archers studio - if the TA writers were doing
their stuff right then everybody they needed would have already been
there.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011pp7t

Dick Francis - Whip Hand

Nick
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From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

Nick Odell <nickodell49@yahoo.ca> wrote:

I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said that there are a lot of
Archers moonlighting in this production. Enough, I'd say, to record a perfectly serviceable episode of the Everyday Story of Country Folk
itself. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that they recorded
this thriller in The Archers studio - if the TA writers were doing
their stuff right then everybody they needed would have already been
there.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011pp7t

Dick Francis - Whip Hand

Nick

McTrCOs the R4X listener, I listen if IrCOve nothing else to do. :)

Mrs McT

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From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On Tue, 12 Aug 2025 01:20:07 +0100, Nick Odell <nickodell49@yahoo.ca>
wrote:

I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said that there are a lot of
Archers moonlighting in this production. Enough, I'd say, to record a >perfectly serviceable episode of the Everyday Story of Country Folk
itself. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that they recorded
this thriller in The Archers studio - if the TA writers were doing
their stuff right then everybody they needed would have already been
there.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011pp7t

Dick Francis - Whip Hand

No Archers moonlighting in this week's series of detective stories on
BBC Radio 4x[1] but it's an opportunity to add item two to my short
and occasional series Things Fictional Detectives Rely On Which Don't
Occur In Real Life.

Item number one was Morse coming to the (albeit wrong) conclusion
about the identity of a murderer in The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn
based on there being two, not one, packs of butter in the victim's
fridge. I use a lot of butter for spreading, cooking and baking and if
I ever reached the point where I only had two packs of butter in my
fridge then I would descend very quickly into panic mode. "Nul points"
for Colin Dexter there, I'm afraid.

This Monday in the first episode of The Lady Detectives[2] Loveday
Brooke worked out (***spoiler for those who haven't heard it yet***)
that the person assisting her with her enquiries was not a newspaper
reporter but really a member of the criminal gang by virtue of the
fact that he didn't know what a conjunction was. Hello, Catherine
Louisa Pirkis: I take it you haven't looked at The Huddersfield
Examiner recently?

Which brings me to my question: do they still have sub-editors on
local newspapers? My late cousin used to be a local newspaper sub and
took great pride in tidying up the copy from reporters to make it fit
to print but does anybody do that these days or do reporters file copy
straight to the website now?

My reason for asking is that a reporter I used to love to hate[3] on
The Huddersfield Examiner has now moved to another regional title in
the Reach plc stable and is now producing reporting that is
intelligent, accurate and, dare I say it? Good enough for it not to be compulsive hate reading any more.

So who was to blame? A rotten and/or non-existent sub-editor on the
Examiner? An excellent sub on the other paper? Or a reporter who has
simply cleaned up their act?

Nick
[1]As far as I can tell
[2]https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cq1d6
[3]Think hate viewers of "Emily in Paris" and you'll get the picture
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From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 12.8.25 01:20, Nick Odell wrote:

For those who have the stomach to watch Unforgiveable (spoiler it is
about a man who has abused his nephew) Annabelle Dowler has a relatively
brief appearance as a doctor.

It is a Jimmy McGovern one-off play set in Liverpool (now there is a surprise). I am not sure it is one of his better pieces - it tries to
look at the impact on the family but I think tried to do too much in a
single episode with multiple strands.

Adolescence (Netflix money) was given 4 episodes to examine a difficult
topic from a number of angles and I feel that Unforgiveable's subject
(however difficult) might have benefited from that type of treatment and
more time. I suppose that the BBC does not have the money these days
have been eviscerated by the last Government.
--
Kosmo Richard W
www.travelswmw.whitnet.uk
https://tinyurl.com/KRWpics
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From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 20/08/2025 13:49, Nick Odell wrote:

On Tue, 12 Aug 2025 01:20:07 +0100, Nick Odell <nickodell49@yahoo.ca>
wrote:

I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said that there are a lot of
Archers moonlighting in this production. Enough, I'd say, to record a
perfectly serviceable episode of the Everyday Story of Country Folk
itself. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that they recorded
this thriller in The Archers studio - if the TA writers were doing
their stuff right then everybody they needed would have already been
there.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011pp7t

Dick Francis - Whip Hand

No Archers moonlighting in this week's series of detective stories on
BBC Radio 4x[1] but it's an opportunity to add item two to my short
and occasional series Things Fictional Detectives Rely On Which Don't
Occur In Real Life.

Item number one was Morse coming to the (albeit wrong) conclusion
about the identity of a murderer in The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn
based on there being two, not one, packs of butter in the victim's
fridge. I use a lot of butter for spreading, cooking and baking and if
I ever reached the point where I only had two packs of butter in my
fridge then I would descend very quickly into panic mode. "Nul points"
for Colin Dexter there, I'm afraid.

Having just put the weekly shopping away, I must agree with you. I had
to shove the three existing packs of butter to one ,in order to make
room for a fourth. This in a household where only one inhabitant eats
or uses butter.>

This Monday in the first episode of The Lady Detectives[2] Loveday
Brooke worked out (***spoiler for those who haven't heard it yet***)
that the person assisting her with her enquiries was not a newspaper
reporter but really a member of the criminal gang by virtue of the
fact that he didn't know what a conjunction was. Hello, Catherine
Louisa Pirkis: I take it you haven't looked at The Huddersfield
Examiner recently?

Which brings me to my question: do they still have sub-editors on
local newspapers? My late cousin used to be a local newspaper sub and
took great pride in tidying up the copy from reporters to make it fit
to print but does anybody do that these days or do reporters file copy straight to the website now?

My reason for asking is that a reporter I used to love to hate[3] on
The Huddersfield Examiner has now moved to another regional title in
the Reach plc stable and is now producing reporting that is
intelligent, accurate and, dare I say it? Good enough for it not to be compulsive hate reading any more.

So who was to blame? A rotten and/or non-existent sub-editor on the
Examiner? An excellent sub on the other paper? Or a reporter who has
simply cleaned up their act?

I doubt if any local paper has any subs today. Maybe your 'favourite' reporter now runs his copy through a clever LLM[1] which cleans it up?

[1] Are there any clever LLMs?
--
Sam Plusnet
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From Newsgroup: uk.media.radio.archers

On 2025/8/20 19:55:22, Sam Plusnet wrote:

On 20/08/2025 13:49, Nick Odell wrote:

[]

No Archers moonlighting in this week's series of detective stories on
BBC Radio 4x[1] but it's an opportunity to add item two to my short
and occasional series Things Fictional Detectives Rely On Which Don't
Occur In Real Life.

Item number one was Morse coming to the (albeit wrong) conclusion
about the identity of a murderer in The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn
based on there being two, not one, packs of butter in the victim's
fridge. I use a lot of butter for spreading, cooking and baking and if
I ever reached the point where I only had two packs of butter in my
fridge then I would descend very quickly into panic mode. "Nul points"
for Colin Dexter there, I'm afraid.

Having just put the weekly shopping away, I must agree with you. I had
to shove the three existing packs of butter to one ,in order to make
room for a fourth. This in a household where only one inhabitant eats
or uses butter.>

This is a household of one (and I _do_ use butter). I generally have one
or two packs in the 'fridge, and one in use (which is _not_ in the 'fridge).

[]

So who was to blame? A rotten and/or non-existent sub-editor on the
Examiner? An excellent sub on the other paper? Or a reporter who has
simply cleaned up their act?

Is the improvement just about believable?>

I doubt if any local paper has any subs today. Maybe your 'favourite' reporter now runs his copy through a clever LLM[1] which cleans it up?

That was my thought.>

[1] Are there any clever LLMs?

If you mean that at a philosophical level (as in can they _be_
intelligent), I'll have to leave that to others. On an everyday level,
then I'd say yes.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

I don't have an agree that our language torture is a quality add
- soldiersailor on Gransnet, 2018-3-8
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