Lies and subterfuge in Ambridge - from a policeman? That's just not cricket! Discuss The Archers here.

[PseudoBadger]

Thank you R4 for the title.

I just don't believe Usha would react like that - hoping she was just winding Harrison up a little, and will now say, yeah, I'm no player, I don't want to help with the teas FGS but I think I could help the team by

Treasurer?

She's acting like a petulant child.

Usha doesn't really want to play cricket herself, she only joined to make sure that the new girls didn't get sidelined during training and ignored in the after net drinks and .

As she turned out to be rubbish, she makes the other women look good and helps their confidence.
Age-wise there are probably men still playing who are older than her.

I'm starting to find the "women playing cricket" thing rather tedious.

Ho Ho Ho - silly milly letting go of the bat

It's not like Harrison even just said they were better than usha. Implying the other women are crap but maybe they can be worked on by the men giving them extra training

Why is Molly Button getting so many mentions of late?

what's all this about the bruising? did Chris have some health issue as a child? (searches memory bank in vain)

I was a bit worried about all the gin plus "work tomorrow" - given the sudden emphasis on injury. Wouldn't like Alice's starter marriage to end in widowhood.

Slight, maybe half-BOOP for the nicely balanced Rickyard bedtime.

i missed the bruising reference. Chris was born with a cleft palate / hare lip. Susan had a big problem with it and found it hard to bond with him until after he'd been operated on, iirc. Not sure that's relevant to anything today though. Don't recall any other health problems till he got badly kicked by a horse much more recently.

He did, but it was a cleft palate, so probably not related.

NewChris sounds very like Roy. I will be struggling to tell them apart. It's not even his natural accent, I think. His agent's page says his natural accent is RP and this is standard London: vimeo.com/61529412. He appears to have gone to a public school in Bath. He doesn't make me think of Neil, whereas Emerald O'Hanrahan is doing a fantastic job of sounding more and more like Susan as the years go by, but still extremely recognisable.

OldChris actor moved to Gloucestershire as a child and went to the local comp, so had a fairly convincing Borsetshire accent, although to be fair some seemed to think it was posher than Susan and Neil (and Emma).

I thought Pip sounded as though she was feeling guilty tonight. Clearly not guilty enough to come clean though.
How long does it take to make gin ? I don't imagine Toby would be putting in the required level of effort to actually make proper gin.

oh, and, was Usha meaning to imply racism? or ageism?

You watch. Usha will be the match winner against Darrington... :o

Ageism

Why did Pip tell Towbeeee she hadn't actually asked Jill for a loan when she clearly did?

she's finally seeing through hi and doesn't want him getting his hands on her cow money and spending it on gin. Or Brighton.

Why is Molly Button getting so many mentions of late? confused
Because her acting is better than others?
I do wonder if they're planning to de-silence her. Currently she's one of my favourite characters.

Why did Pip tell Towbeeee she hadn't actually asked Jill for a loan when she clearly did?

I thought she said she hadn't asked her for a decision.

I think Pip's insomnia may be because she's realising how her own actions have lead her to being saddled with Toby, who she doesn't really live, and his gin business and not having any money for grazing cattle, and she might be realising that it was her slackness at not repairing the fence that let the cattle out and caused them all to go down with IBR.

And she might be realising that all this was avoidable if she had thought things through rather than being brattish.

Ebear I think you've hit the nail on the head. Pip was quite distant with Tobee, like she really didn't care what he did.

Why is Molly Button getting so many mentions of late? confused
Because her acting is better than others?
I do wonder if they're planning to de-silence her. Currently she's one of my favourite characters

It's ridiculous. How many struggling out other work actors are there? They could cast Molly and make no dent in the budget.

One of the joys of The Archers is its silent characters - Freda Fry, Sabrina Thwaite, Mrs P, Higgs, Shane (my own particular favourite), Baggy and Snatch, Mr Pullen, Mrs Pugsley. The joy of them is that they are silent and yet perfectly defined. I don't include characters who used to be vocal, but have been silenced - Kathy for instance or until recently Lily and Chris (especially Chris who now no longer sounds like Chris and might have been better remaining silent). Neville Booth, Derek Fletcher, Mandy Beesborough - they're all coming back to me now. They don't need to speak and neither does Molly. Their silence is their strength.

I think of the silent characters as a sacred Archer's convention and/or a long running joke. Like Mornington Crescent.

We had almost a full role-call (roll-call? I realise I'm not sure of the spelling,) of silent in the aqua fit episode this week.

Do you remember the year when entire pantomime cast consisted of the silent characters?