💰 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 ...

Here’s hoping that one of Ruth’s new cows will trample them all, saving only Ben and Josh

Gets my vote. If the cows could trample whilst Shula was visiting that could be a bonus.

Does anyone think Gavin is surprisingly '3D' as a character and might actually turn in his dad and blow the whole gaff? (Or at the very least turn informer/plea bargain when the shit hits?) - or is he going to make use of all the secrets he's found out about various Ambridgers (sp?)

On a bit of a tangent, doesn't anyone else find that Gavin's had a bit of a personality transplant since he was first on the scene when he was downright evil to Kirsty? Phil was Mr Nice and now they've done a bait and switch.

Oh ha ha cross post with you Girlwhowearsglasses!

Vince just seems to me to be Tiger Mark II. However, if he sees off CMR he will have performed a major public service.

Good point @MoonJelly - maybe Lizzie does fancy a bit of rough for a change. She may even be a fan of Pulp?

I hope that Lizzie&Vince isn't going to be a re-run of Lilian&Justin. Lilian was the life-tenant in the house owned by her ex (Matt) but it was sold from under her to her new beau; she has no security of tenure because she is not married to Justin. Imagine if the Widow Pargetter lost LL (?the maintenance bills just got too much?); it ends up being the property of Vince and ... Freddie is disinherited!

Getting a bit ahead of myself there.

Fallon seems to be trying to sabotage her marriage single-handedly. Harrison actually seemed to accept her decision not to have a child at face value as he loves her and she is enough for him but then she kept probing and questioning and now it sounds like he is going to go through a period of doubt and reflection. Maybe he will even reach a different decision. She generally seems quite sensible but on occasion demonstrates limited brainpower and that she actually takes after her (very annoying) mother.

I agree Pip has changed her voice a bit (may be she had some Zoom voice-coaching during lockdown with a view to running off to Coronation St eventually!) Unfortunately, she seems to have swopped the nasal tone for a a more child-like way of speaking. She put a weird baby voice on when talking to Ruth about how awful her life is.

There are a few ways the Liz and Vince story could go.

Fallout with David (reprise)
Fallout with Frilly
It's a red herring

Listening to Fallon, I really couldn't understand where all that angst and hysteria was coming from. It all seemed to be another personality transplant.

I get it. She doesn't want children but believes he does, and that he will leave her, if not now, at some time in the future.

I suspect he does want children, and will have to process this information in his own time.

I think that this is an interesting storyline.

I’m not really sure where Fallon was coming from with her constant needling of Harrison and refusal to accept his reassurance. In any case whatever reassurance he gives her now there’s no guarantee he won’t change his mind further down the line (and as a man there really is no limit as to when that might reasonably be). What’s he supposed to say beyond what he’s already said?

While I have no problem with Fallon not wanting a baby, I think they’d be pretty good adoptive parents of older children. Or foster carers. She doesn’t feel maternal about babies and is worried about over population so they (the writers) might go down that route.

I can’t decide if she’s annoying with her prodding him or doing the right thing by really making him think about it.

Also, I laughed out loud at Pip’s ‘killer application’ for countryside stewardship. It’s really not very hard to get!

She doesn't want children but believes he does, and that he will leave her, if not now, at some time in the future

If she’s not careful it could be sooner rather than later. I know our local copper is not the most popular character on this thread, but I rather like him. I would far rather be married to him than Ed, for instance...

*ducks for cover

Yes I think he’s decent enough, despite his *dogged pursuit of her in the early days. But then, I really like Rex

*slightly stalky

But then, I really like Rex

That’s literally left me lost for words @TherapistInATabard! I am astonished...

Rex before Toby
Ed before Will
David or Kenton? [screams and runs away]

TherapistInATabard
While I have no problem with Fallon not wanting a baby, I think they’d be pretty good adoptive parents of older children. Or foster carers. She doesn’t feel maternal about babies and is worried about over population so they (the writers) might go down that route.

If they did, Fallon and Harrison would be following the examples set by Christine and Paul Johnson, who adopted a child who stayed until he went to university and never appeared on air again, and Pru and Tom Forrest, who fostered two children until they were adults and left for jobs and never got another mention.

Oliver and Caroline fostered as well.

Yes, but only for at most a few weeks at a time; they were never committed to looking after one or two children for a prolonged period.

DH and I used to joke that some people go on holiday to destroy their marriage; Fallon is having a pretty good stab at sabotaging hers on a daytrip!

I love that Pip has forgotten how to do "Pip's voice". I am worried for Rex's memory, though: "Who has helped drive this whole rewilding project?" That certainly wasn't my recollection of Pip's "hands off and helping Mum" approach to the competition.

Still it is good to hear that Phoebe finally has a piece of paid(?) work to do after leaving University a year and a half ago. Perhaps that's what inspired Ben to study politics too. Watch out, Parish Council!

Omg. Lily. 😤

I read enjoyed the Freddie/ Lilly interplay, and the Elizabeth showdown. Felt like The real Archers is back

Over lockdown it seems that Pip has learnt how to act without bizarre intonation and pauses, but Harrison still sounds like a dullard. No improvement for him

Fallon should have left Harrison alone for a bit, she didn’t let him have any time to think. Also I have no idea who was running up lakey hill with Harrison. I can’t tell the voices apart.

Since it was wittering about Anisha, I expect it was Rex.

Fallon did leave Harrison alone, he went and found her and told her he'd really really thought the way she told him to.