💰 Archers thread #121: Brookfield digs for treasure, Alice & Philip try to bury the truth. Dish the dirt here if you dig The Archers. PS Send nudes.

[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 long to hear Pip again, 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 @LillianGish and @PersephonePromotesEquanimity for the title suggestions.

Current events: as @Bailey0703 has astutely spotted, it's Anti-Slavery Day tomorrow - could this herald the beginning of the end of the horses storyline? I do hope so. Horrible stuff, but what a blow for Kirsty. They're laying on the dramatic irony with trowel at the moment.

What do we think will happen to Alice and Chris? I can't see this pregnancy going to term and ending well. I don't think the marriage will survive either, giving Brian a chance to revisit his classic line about having to treat this as Alice's starter marriage.

Will Elizabeth end up on a date with Vince Casey? That would put the cat among the pigeons at Lower Loxley.

Over to you ...

I think knowing you are going to die and leave a 4 year old can be forgiven for being self indulgent.. I know I would .. has it harmed Raurie to know how much his mum loved him.. has it hurt JD ? I think the answer is no...

I heart JD.

I've only been listening for a few years, but that was the best episode I've heard.

I hope that I would have the self-control not to be so unspeakably mawkish, even if I were dying.

Also, if I had as nothing to say as she did, I might manage to have the self control not to say it.

My son is 4. Am I going to be able to cope with listening to this?

Oh bloody hell. That destroyed me.

Though my just-turned 4 year-old would laugh at the idea that counting to three was anything remotely noteworthy- “that’s for toddlers Mummy- I can count to one BILLION Million” But it wouldn’t be The Archers without them getting some basic bit of research wrong .

Fantastic stuff. I have quite a sensitive mawkish-o-meter and it didn’t register at all for me @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime.

Jenny Darling for President! [bull]

I made me cry

Everyone *
*
It's Ruairí.

Some of the spellings here are 😱

(I'm a bit invested as I have a Ruairí)

Incorrect names are intentionally used here, see also Meaned, JennyDarling, Chrisduffer, Frilly. The drawn out Ruuarrrrrrris are a piss take of Jenny characteristically trying so hard to appear cultured with her pronunciation of exotic spellings.
I’m currently in possession of an eight-month-old and a five-year-old and may have had something in my eye listening to that.

I was a lot older than Rhuari when my mum died and I would give my right arm to hear her voice again. I don’t think it’s mawkish or indulgent at all. Given that I am now a lot older than she ever reached (or her mum who also died relatively young) I have thought what I would do if I knew I was going to die. And leaving messages for my children is high on that list. Thanks for letting me know that is self indulgent and mawkish.

Also, if I had as nothing to say as she did, I might manage to have the self control not to say it

So hard @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime! I think it was lovely. I would love to get a beyond-the-grave CD from my Mum, even if she had nothing to say. She died 9 years ago (I was 39, so not 18) but I would love to hear her voice chattering along about nothing again. Ruari has never even heard his Mum’s voice before which makes it even more special!

At first I was worried that it would be too hard for Jenny to sit through it but she’s such a treasure that she made it seem the most natural thing in the world. That’s real class!

She also didn’t say nothing. Is it saying nothing when you tell a child you love them? If you think that is worthless than I’m not sure what you would value. Some very cold hearted people on here.

I lost my dad when I was young (not as young as Ruarie) and it made my heart ache.

Knowing that you are loved is a keystone of self-esteem, and Ruarie learned in that moment that his mum loved him AND that Jenny genuinely loves him.

I'm in the fortunate position of being nearly 60 and still having both my parents and two adult children. I can't imagine what it would be like to have a very young child and know you won't live to see her/him grow up. I thought Siobhan's message was pitched just right. The actor's voice has hardly changed. By the time I listened I knew what was coming, having glanced at this thread and also seeing the BBC's tweet (link I posted above) but even so, I gasped. It was like going back 14 years.

I didn't find it self-indulgent, manipulative, selfish or mawkish in the least. Jennifer has many irritating qualities but my word, the SWs' decision to have her agree to bring Ruairi up raises her to near saint-like status. What a thing to do, and to steer the family through that crisis, and have them all still in contact and on speaking terms. I wonder if anybody has done anything even remotely comparable in real life, and made it work.

I also wonder if Alice's drinking problems are about to be revealed as linked back to that time. She reacted to the news of Brian's affair and Ruairi's birth very badly indeed at the time. The Aldridges are a fascinating family. So complex in the family inter-relationships and every single one of them flawed in some way or other.

Just listened to last night. Bloody good thing I don't wear make up!

The Aldridges are a fascinating family. So complex in the family inter-relationships and every single one of them flawed in some way or other

The Aldridges stand head and shoulders above all other families in terms of complexity, depth - and also likeability. They really do feel like a family, rather than a group of individuals like the Brookfield Archers or even the Bridge Farm branch.

It also helps that the actors playing the Aldridges are stronger and far less wooden than those playing other roles. Contrast, for instance, how Charles C as Brian brings the airwaves to life, with how Timothy B kills a scene dead as David.

I didn’t find that message self-indulgent or mawkish at all - what would you expect from such a message? Instead I liked the fact that it was entirely unprepared - Siobhan was musing as she watched her little boy playing in the garden so it felt very natural, hardly a stilted deathbed set piece. Which of us, if we knew we were going to die, wouldn’t try to leave a message for a child we feared might not remember us? Brilliantly done I thought, certainly no more mawkish than you would expect from a message from beyond the grave. I thought the SWs judged it just right. Also it neatly sews things up for the plot going forward - the saintly JD who has got things just right with Ruairi and laid all the ghosts of Siobhan to bed, the knowledge that despite the insistence on Catholic education after her death by various relatives she was really quite laid back about that stuff (as if we couldn’t have guessed) and that Ruairi can now go forth (having returned to the Ambridge fold) and be Brian’s son perfectly and happily integrated and ready to throw a spanner in the whole inheritance storyline when we get to it.

They really do feel like a family, rather than a group of individuals like the Brookfield Archers spot on. I find Ben and Josh pretty indistinguishable and Pip - well the less said the better about her particular characterisation. The Aldridges are all fully formed and well defined - even Debbie (who we hardly hear from) - you always know who is speaking and you always remember who has done what (even if it sometimes requires a reminder on the finer points from AskingQuestions )

I didn’t find that message self-indulgent or mawkish at all - what would you expect from such a message?
What would I expect from Siobhan? She was a nasty, selfish person. From most people, I would think the message was about the child but from Siobhan, it was mostly about Siobhan.
Am I right in thinking that she didn't really settle Ruari's future before she died? Brian and her family had to sort it out after, between themselves.

Yes, I would always choose an Aldridge scene over any other family. I often wonder how it must be for Angela Piper to inhabit the character of Jenny because she doesn’t do any other acting, does she?

The writing and delivery of Siobhan’s message were just superb. The favourite T shirt going in the box, the secret 18th birthday cake - oh it’s going to set me off again...

from Siobhan, it was mostly about Siobhan.
Wasn’t the whole point of the message to give R a sense of who his mother was and how much she loved him? I’m not sure you can do that without making the message about yourself, but it was for his benefit.

Siobhan contacted Brian when she was dying and told him she wanted him to bring up Ruairi. He then had to persuade Jennifer to do it.