Thread #106: Jim’s in a jam, Peggy’s made a pickle and Lexi is blooming - sounds like the entries are lining up for this year’s flower and produce show, but who will be on the organising committee?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads and @DadDadDad for being our resident statistician and keeping the ball rolling when Pseudo stepped back a bit.

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For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to LillianGish for the title of this thread.

Holding episode tonight, I thought - not much progress on any current storyline. I was a touch surprised Natasha wasn't offended by the postnup idea but I suspect she's biding her time.

How sad. Poor old Jim. It was very well done.

That was so well acted by all of them.

Gosh, that was powerful.

I don't think Harold has to be all that much older than Jim. If Jim's 85 now he was born in 1934 and was 8 in 1942, so if Harold had been 18 or over he'd have been in the Forces or doing some other kind of war work, unless he was medically unfit, so I think we should assume he was younger than 18, probably a lot younger given he's still alive. Even if Jim is actually a bit younger than 85, we're still talking about the 1940s. Nobody would have thought twice about leaving an 8yo in the charge of a young teenager. And, sadly, even young teenagers are capable of this kind of abuse. Horrible to think of.

Very good point, Choccypig, about why he sent the children away.

Tremendous acting from John Rowe especially. Good writing too.

And so is it possible that Harold will have "forgotten" about the abuse? I know that sounds like a horrible suggestion, but it would not have had the same searing psychological impact on him that it had on Jim, and so over the years, could Harold have airbrushed the memory into a bit of youthful messing about, and genuinely thought it would be good to come to the party?

Marvellous acting. I had thought Jim's long loss of temper as it were, so uncharacteristic. He can be acerbic but not a nurser of grievances. Yet the long run-up to this shows how he must have replayed the horror of it time and again over days after the party, not to mention his life. It was a perfect way of showing how sexual abuse can disfigure a life.

I agree that Harold could well have re-written what he did/"forgot"/edited it to suit himself. He could easily have rationalised it into being consensual, after all it's an old standby of the sexual abusers of children. I'm not convinced he was psychologically damaged by what he did, other than to do such thing means a person must be in some way damaged. The secrecy and repetition shows calculation. I doubt if the storyline will ever uncover his motivations.

I also wonder if Jim sent his kids to Boarding School because he was afraid he would be a pervert like Harold, and harm them in some way.

Amazing that they’ve tied Jim’s distant parenting style and general grumpiness to this highly plausible backstory. I’m rarely impressed by TA but this is exceptional.

I agree, excellent acting
will be interesting to see what follows
well done. SWs and actors

Fantastic performance poor Jim. I hope he lets jazzer go and bash him. I love Jim, Jazzer and Alistair.

Awful.
Great acting but awful.

I had to give up listening to TA at bedtime in the Titchener era, I was just getting back into the habit.

Oh my days.

My heart broke for Jim.

I didn't cry.
I didn't cry
I didn't cry.

Fuck that, I'm still crying. Brilliantly done by John Rowe and the Sws, it's an important storyline imo.

Are we going to end up with a historical abuse trial.

I can't imagine Jim will want anyone other than Alistair and Jazzer to know. He might let Alistair tell Shula and Fiona (would be good to have her back) but he absolutely won't want it to be village gossip or known back in academia.

I hope jazzer doesn't take the law into his own hands and and up in trouble.

I'd like my teens to listen to that- how the abusers get your trust, make you laugh, feel good about yourself, everyone likes them and all along they're vile and you're lost, lonely and scared.
Well done TA.

I was driving whilst listening last night, and was so riveted I just went into autopilot and completely missed my turning. There aren't many programmes that would have that effect.

Thinking about it, it's so sad that Jim felt he couldn't even tell his sister, is she younger or older than him?

I hope Jazzer doesn't do anything stupid, and get into trouble. It'd be similar to the trouble that Em and Ed are steaming into. Always the stupid working classes, controlled by anger, greed and so on.

How did Harold find out about the party?

I hope Jim doesn't do anything silly - letting his secret 'shame' out could go either way iyswim.

I don't think anger and greed is only to be found in any particular class. chat

Interesting discussion between Ben and Josh who is behaving and sounding much younger than his younger brother. I suppose sibling rivalry is to blame.

I Loved Bert's reaction to the removal of the 'silver band' in the Fete.

That was so incredibly well done (and I am a professional in the field of historical child sex abuse), it was very true to life.

Given how well TA does psychological trauma and how poorly they deal with legal process it’s odd that the majority of storylines seem to veer towards the latter.

They really should consider writing more ‘Joe with the ferrets at Meadow Rise’, ‘Helen being slowly boiled by Rob’, ‘Elizabeth’s ongoing grief’, or ‘the reason for Jim being Jim’ and many fewer ‘cross-European surrogacies’, ‘uncharitable charitable trusts’ and ‘pop-up post-nups’.

How did Harold find out about the party?

From a former mutual neighbour, who he came with.

Interesting discussion between Ben and Josh who is behaving and sounding much younger than his younger brother. I suppose sibling rivalry is to blame.

I reckon ben is more like David and josh is more like Kenton.

Quater - nice. Have a pop-up post-nup BOOP from me.

That was an incredibly affecting episode (I was out - of all the nights to miss!) and brilliantly acted by John Rowe.

My only quibble would be the element of unlikeliness given the ages. As pps have said, Jim's more plausibly 85 than 80. So Harold's surely well on the way to 90, if not past it. Not impossible, but straining credulity a bit I think that he would decide to go along after not seeing Jim for many decades.

It's rare that a slightly-unsympathetic character (Jim - although actually I've always rather liked him) is rendered so fully-rounded and believable by an unexpected SL, but I think they've done it really well here.