💥 Archers thread #119: Has the Bull reopened? Will Ambridge pull through? We’ve all dozed off and haven't a clue. Moan about the monologues here!

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you think we should have monologues all the time from now on, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3853783--The-Archers-spoilers-thread-5-Cant-wait-for-7-02pm-Join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

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 PPE on the last thread for the title suggestion, which I tweaked a bit.

As for the current state of affairs: here's how it could have been done. www.youtube.com/channel/UCvRSVdfQWAjNhNu1AtABYjw Nigel Pargetter returns, albeit in spectral form. I loved these.

I don't love the current set up. Very, very hit and miss for me - but I am too much of an addict to give it up. Looking for a silver lining, maybe the rather clunky trot through the Aldridge family tree last night was helpful to newer listeners. It is rather convoluted. In 12.5 minutes they managed to explain that Adam and Debbie are Jennifer's children by different fathers, that Debbie's father Roger Travers-Macy adopted Adam, that after he and Jenny divorced she married Brian and that he (secretly) loves Adam and not nearly so secretly adores Debbie. I don't think they explicitly stated that Kate and Alice are Brian's children with Jenny, but they did manage to squeeze in a mention of Siobhan and Ruairi, and explain that Xander is Adam's son by a surrogate and has no genetic connection to either Brian or Xander's other father Ian. Phew!

Nelson Gabriel was drafted into the RAF in 1951 for his national service and decided to imitate the officers in order to better himself. He did this very successfully. (It's not unknown: Vidal Sassoon had a very thick poor-West-London accent which he trained himself out of, for instance.)

Thanks Asking . I knew you'd know

Nothing would make me long for a Pip monologue.

Maybe a 24-hr episode of Soul Music on a hated song, although a half-hour of Soul Music on a much-loved song is enough to make me dislike it.

@maras2
Sitting in a 'smoking' compartment of a Brief Encounter type of train and smoking a cigarette, Jennifer looks in and says 'Goodness Elizabeth. I didn't know that you smoked'.I begged her not to tell my mum,despite the fact that I was an adult, and that I was only smoking as I was nervous about going to be interviewed by Radio Borcetshire about my new recipe for a lobster dish.
Now, I haven't smoked for over 15 years and never cooked nor even eaten lobster.I found these two things most confusing confused.
However, the rest made perfect sense especially as when I saw my reflection in the window I really was Lizzie P. shock
Do I need therapy or shall I just enjoy the moment? smile*
Lobsters Live lobsters in a dream signify approaching difficulties of annoying nature rather than limiting nature.
To eat, cook, or serve lobster predicts the recovery of something you thought lost, repayment of a forgotten loan, or receipt of an overdue sum of money.

Smoking in a dream is a lucky omen pertaining to prosperity.

Was looking at my dream book earlier, so I thought I'd have a look.

I know this may seem like heresy, but I couldn't stand Walter, and merely tolterated Nelson.

I feel a Lynda-style sniff coming on in the face of all this Gabrielphobia.

I briefly dated Chris Gittins' (who played Walter) nephew. We were at university, so I never met his uncle.

mikeuniformmike
That's the first smoking dream I've ever had.
I may now go and buy a lottery ticket < another thing not done for over 15 years >

Are those two posts related, @TheSparklyPussycat?

I think I was once in the same room as the actor who played Sean Myerson, the publican at The Cat and Fiddle (deceased), many years ago. (We have a neighbour who is an actor.)

As I have mentioned over and over again once or twice, the previous actor who played Chris lived in our area and may have set foot in our house before we lived here, when he was a tiny boy, before his family moved to Gloucestershire.

Decades ago I went out with someone whose cousin was in a soap opera. They looked quite alike only the soap actor was much slimmer.
This might explain why I dislike the soap character's name.

Sugar, sugar , oh honey, honey...

So, was Alice given the sack? Her alcoholism was made glaringly obvious in this episode, with her drinking vodka in the morning, after throwing up with a hangover. Then looking for somewhere to hide the bottle when Brian turned up, and already being too drunk to input her password correctly.

I wonder how long it will be before anyone notices.

I think she resigned but would have been sacked.
She's got a drink problem, and the panic she was in over the wine the other day points to it.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g, that happened to me last night too. I didn’t listen when it was aired, intending to catch up later. By bedtime I suddenly remembered and had a good few minutes of wondering if I’d listened - then remembered Chris and the injured horse and then enough to reassure me I’d indeed heard the whole episode.

Ouch that was hard to listen to. How come Chris hasn't noticed? And Brian missing it by a mile as well.

I bet its Kate who cops on.

Alice's liver must be in a bad way. How can her family be so blind to it? Jennifer won't be, her father was an alcoholic.

Jennifer and Brian are probably daily drinkers who don't get throwing-up drunk. For them, alcohol smooths over the lumps and bumps of life. Alices's drinking is now partly hidden because she knows it is getting out of hand - the 'normal' wine o'clock glass now preceded by one or two drinks before Chris gets home, the bottle on the table has a partner in the fridge or in a cupboard. But she'll be managing to go riding and do things she likes. Brian probably likes having a drinking partner. Debbie has noticed but excused it. Jennifer will probably notice the house being a tip when she finally goes round, but she is too busy with Xander and her own stuff at the moment.

The scene when Alice was looking out for the wine delivery man was very well done. It felt as if the production team had rigged up some sort of spy-cam in my front room!

But it’s quite a leap to go from looking out for the delivery van, to drinking vodka in the morning! It seems to have happened in a week. God knows what I’ll be drinking for breakfast next Wednesday!

It's ramped up quickly because she's not working and she doesn't know what to do next. She may not have had a drink in the morning before - this was excused because she had a 'bad' hangover. But it will happen again. And again.

There have been quite a few pointers to Alice’s drinking problem. The earliest I can remember was at Nic’s funeral when she was awful to Will at The Bull. Her behaviour was incredibly inappropriate, but I can’t remember exactly what she said to Will. I know Clary overheard it.

Yes, it's one of those storylines where they drop hints, and then it goes on the backburner, and we all start questioning whether we misinterpreted what was happening. It seems we didn't in this instance. I'd forgotten about The Bull incident, but that does ring a distant bell now.

She has often depicted drinking to excess at parties and through her university years (though I fear that may have been an Ambridge Xtra thing). I remember her drunkenly telling Chris he was 'fit' when they first got together.

Wasn't it because she was pissed that she got involved with the loan goldfish at university?

‘loan goldfish at uni’? Is that a thing or a typo or both?

I welcome this SL developing but, as a person with non-alcoholic liver disease, I dread a SL with Alice having a damaged liver unless the writers do it very carefully and very accurately. You’d be surprised (or maybe not) at the general ignorance around conditions like liver cirrhosis.