We never thought we’d feel sorry for Will. Although of course it should have been Pip! Discuss The Archers here (Titled edited by MNHQ)

[PseudoBadger]

Welcome all! I was really touched by the potential for Ed and Will to reconcile. But wonder if Will can accept Ed’s support.

As ever, no spoilers here (there’s a thread for that) - discussion permitted as soon as the pm episode is broadcast.

Clearly in the minority but Alice was always annoying imo

I guess Alice won’t have a job for much longer, then? And when she returns from wherever she goes to be cured, Debbie* will set her up in some nice restful occupation - hand-sewn bunting maybe.

First I wrote Jenny - but that would be weird when she’s so thrilled about clever Phoebe; then I wrote Brian, but, well ...

I missed a few years being overseas and have been listening for the last year or so. I caught the tail end of Helen in prison onwards. Recently have started listening to 2010 onwards to catch up....

I really loathe Pip - she was an immature spoilt brat back in 2010 as a "teen" and still seems to be the same now. I agree it is really odd she is rarely called out on her attitudes and she is treated as "normal".

Re Helen - I was sympathetic to her - no one asks to be abused. But her character beforehand in 2010 is really unlikeable. Her pressure on urg can't remember her name - had an abortion - moved away - shared a house with Helen - her pressure on her not to have an abortion for Helen's sake, was relentless, and then she decides to have a baby herself as a cure-all.

Will's a bully….in private - you know what that means….

I've always found Alice annoying too.

I thought the drunk Alice scene was done quite realistically - she wasn’t falling over and slurring in an exaggeration of drunkenness, just saying what she thought with no filter and at full volume which is exactly how drunk people (or even just people who have had a couple of drinks) can appear when you have had nothing to drink yourself. Nic’s funeral was a sober affair - everyone on tenterhooks with an eye on Will, usually we (and others) see Alice drinking in the pub or at a party where her behaviour is less obvious because everyone else has had a couple of drinks to blurt the edges. There was also a sad irony that there was no Nic there to save her from herself - to take her drink off her and lead her quietly away. It reminded me that it was Nic’s substituting an alcohol free cocktail that played a part in her getting sacked from the Bull and triggered the series of events that led to her contracting sepsis.
Re the vegetable stew, I rather suspect this might be signaling Pat is about to take on fruit peel woman as a female HWMNBN-type charity case.

I thought fruit peel woman should obviously be being found a job and maybe take over the cooking for the shelter - she could do a better job than Pat. (Surely unlike home cooking, they need to have extra calories sneaked into their food?)

Annette was Helens "project". One of Greg's daughters.

Alice and Pip are both spoiled. Pip as the first-born Archer and Ruth's mini-me, while Alice was born to rescue the Aldridge marriage after another of Brian's affairs.

Personally I don't think Pip's is written sympathetically. Everything we dislike about her is written into her script.

Fruit peel woman could end up at the tea rooms.

I reiterate my theory of comic light relief. That's normally the Grundys' job but they are in no fit state for it atm. So others are having to substitute - Alice's disastrous dinner party; Bridge Farm's cuisine clash - but it doesn't work as well. It's a mixture of the actors wash my mouth out not being comics and the characters being, um, out of character.

Alice as portrayed last night was toe-curlingly awful. It was all about her, no thought for anyone else.

I couldn’t agree more about the orange-peel episode. Helen and Pat are just so insufferably smug. How very dare anyone try to improve Pat's famous vegetable stew!

It all sounded so worthy and depressing, though.

I'm expecting imminent canonisation of Pat. If anyone else mentions she's volunteering I will SCREAM!

I thought I would make a list of TA characters I like, am neutral about and dislike (and assume I've forgotten loads but they would be neutral in that case)

LOATHE:

• Pip
• Alice
• Will generally but I feel quite sorry for him at the moment
• Shula
• Kate
• Ian
• Lily
• Freddy
• Kirsty

Don't particularly like:

• Jill
• Christine
• Pat
• Helen
• Susan (though she's a great character)
• Anisha
• Harrison
• Justin

Neutral (as in sometimes I like them and sometimes I don't)

• Emma
• Jennifer
• Adam
• David
• Ruth
• Tony
• Alan
• Elizabeth
• Tom

Like:

• Fallon
• Brian
• Toby (sorry I know that one will be controversial)
• Rex
• Alastair
• Ed
• Eddie
• Joe
• Clarrie (who doesn't like Clarrie)
• Lillian
• Usha
• Johnny
• Kenton
• Jolene

Bet I've missed out someone major.

R4 I think you make an excellent point re comedy light relief.
With the Grundies off limits the SW have nowhere to go. Jim can usually be counted on for some comic relief (with or without Jazzer), but by shoehorning in the Shula leaves Alistair drama alongside Nic’s death, the SW have ruled him out for now. Trying to set up Fallon and Harrison as a Carry On duo is cringeworthy and Lynda (another comedy stand-by) with her literary efforts is just dull. With ref to the dinner party, I can see with hindsight that this was the flip side of Alice at the funeral - she was sober while everyone else had had a few drinks. Alice seemed on edge and no fun without a drink and was roundly encouraged to start drinking.

I pretty much agree though I like Ian and Harrison

I also like Lynda and Robert and Jim

And of course I LOVE Jazzer

Oh how could I forget them!!!

I don't like Lynda but like Susan I enjoy listening to her. I do like Robert and Jim. And Jazzer!

Your list made me think of this scene in the Grinch

I dislike the characters that I don’t feel are properly fleshed out - this is one of the reasons I’m not keen on Alice. She’s been around for ages (well ever since she was born) but I don’t feel I really know her so what happens to her feel rather more contrived than with some like Helen, for instance, who irritates the hell out of me as a person, but I can see where it all comes from because she feels like a real person. Pip falls into the same category as Alice for me because although we have to listen to her a lot I feel so much of what happens with her is plot driven rather than character driven she never rings true (not helped by the fact that the actress who plays her is hopeless).

There seems to be a very clear “decline and fall” of the Aldridges with the Grundies as poor but ‘appy (I see them as the lovable Cockneys of the Archers) as a comparative. There’s a degree of Karma in that I suppose but it seems rather comfortably neat and moral for me. Lazy scriptwriting imo. I’m wondering if Helen and Tom are going to strike it big with cheese or other fermented sausage product to take over Brine and JD role as the lords of the manor. Then Brine will spend his dotage with Tony telling him how Organic was always the obvious choice ...

I agree Larry - I posed the question Aldridge or Grundy earlier not because I particularly wanted posters to answer, but because I think that is what I think the scriptwriters are trying to make us ask ourselves with the current storylines and their juxtaposition is what makes it all the more interesting.

I don't think Alice is light relief currently: I think they're building her up for a big fall as a result of her drinking, though I suspect the Ambridge health fairy will sort it out pretty quickly, at least till they're stuck for a plotline in future.