💰 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 ...

It's good that they have taken time to lead up to the alcoholic SL.
I thought Alice was well acted.

Me too MUM, I think Hollie Chapman has really improved recently.

Chris used to be hunky, and dim, but he's beginning to sound a lot more sinister to my ears. I don't believe their marriage will survive this unless the SWs plan an accident for Alice (drunk driving/riding) which leaves her fighting for her life in hospital.

Loosely linked, I had completely forgotten that Alice spiked Pip's drink a couple of years ago:
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/alcohol-pregnancy-and-fasd-how-pip-archer-could-help-thousands-of-families_uk_5a4b81b0e4b0d86c803c7952?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJlhNJXiH4iPf3DtXsEetjuq1hS8973g1NwbxTnLCq2QA30ntAC51kVU6z7HV3lvtZCUEMphVAVKwp4oVtH3mnZPWDI9GV20WDcLv9MBloN9YRec9TI1prRIHJmpKkez7zvwfQ_0_fx5yFWXa3nysfR-udOWAIyyR1D5noBqyJX0

Good link Madcats

Gosh, someone should contact Martin Butcher and ask him to update his blog with his thoughts on how TA are doing with the storyline. A quick Google shows he and his wife were still actively campaigning to raise awareness in August this year.

She’s quite far on for an abortion. But she seemed to be almost hoping the baby had died.

Alice has never wanted a baby and was initially very uncomfortable about being pregnant, so half-hoping for a solution which didn't need her to make an active decision seems highly likely - and understandable.

But god forbid any Ambridge woman should be able to avoid accidental pregnancy or to terminate an unwanted one without drama.

I think part of her wants the baby, but she wants to drink even more.

It is far gone for an abortion but is well within the legal timescales.

Not sure of the technical terms, but didn't Pip have the first part of a termination but didn't take the pills she was meant to take at home?

I know people who have had a termination of a planned baby because of the possibility of abnormality. It is a big decision.

Don't medical staff usually make a big deal out of a possible abnormality? There was a much wanted pregnancy on some s4c serial about 12 yrs ago where the baby had edwards syndrome.

What is strange is that Alish found out she was upduffed when she ended up in hospital after getting completely sloshed. Surely it would be on her notes.

But god forbid any Ambridge woman should be able to avoid accidental pregnancy or to terminate an unwanted one without drama.

Elizabeth did.

I think it would be very very hard to face up to both alcoholism and the prospect of raising a child with additional needs, when you were not even keen on having a child full stop. Alice would not cope well with being mother to a child with SEN, and Jenny is getting too old to take an active role. So she’ll need Kate and Emma for support. Oh dear.

@BoreOfWhabylon

But god forbid any Ambridge woman should be able to avoid accidental pregnancy or to terminate an unwanted one without drama.

Elizabeth did.

And Anette.

What is strange is that Alish found out she was upduffed when she ended up in hospital after getting completely sloshed. Surely it would be on her notes.

That is a very good point that hadn’t occurred to me before. I wonder if she was offered any sort of advice about the pregnancy while in hospital then?

I’m not sure if hospital, GP and midwife notes are joined up. My understanding is that if you are admitted to hospital they inform your GP by letter, but I don’t know if the GP then would ask you to come in to discuss- I suspect not, they’d just wait and see if you came for any extra help. And for midwife booking in I think I just self referred and might have had to put my GP’s name on a form but I don’t remember ever talking to my GP about my pregnancy.

Does anyone with knowledge of the NHS know if it is plausible for this to have slipped through the cracks?

if I were in Alice's position, I would have a termination. She can't look after herself, never mind a child who is likely to have FAS.

My own views on termination aren't clear cut, but as we are talking about fictional foetuses, then I am quite pro-abortion. I only wish that Pip had died in childbirth.

I had entirely forgotten Annette. But she was the trigger for Helen to go and get bastered and thus the cause of Henry. So that ended up being a +baby storyline.

Wasn't regularly listening when Elizabeth had a termination, but I thought there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of the uterus from Shula about it, so hardly without a negative slant.
Poor Pip just couldn't bring herself to do it (I think we were meant to applaud her for that; it was very quiet applause, on the whole).
Contrast the attitude to surrogacy. Not a single negative view expressed that I can remember.

I want Alice to have another heart to heart with Gavin. I think she would get over her apparent addiction pretty quickly if she had a decent man in her life (not that Gavin necessarily fits that description given he is a slavedriver, but you know what I mean).

This takes me back to my favoured mantra that Alice’s drinking is a symptom and not a cause of the unhappy marriage. I don’t actually think she is an alcoholic- she just uses alcohol to help her get through her very dull and lonely days...

TAs is totally devoid of romance at the moment. Treasure hunts, Xmas plays and and lease agreements don’t really do it for me. It’s time to liven up lockdown....even if it is just another flirtatious drink between Lizzie and Vince.

*must go and do some work now! Soo easily distracted...

Given that it isn't lockdown there, they could be mingling and partying with the rest of Borsetshire.

I think we need to find a wee lassie for Jazzer, and a knight in shining armour for Krusty

I think we need to find a wee lassie for Jazzer, and a knight in shining armour for Krusty

Oh Kirsty will be ok in the end as she is destined to end up with Roy, of course. I wouldn’t worry about her- he’s so nice and will treat her right. He also has his own little house, which Kirsty already knows her way around. Doesn’t it even have wisteria (didn’t JD cut through the telephone wires when she was trimming it and trying to be helpful?). It’s far nicer than the Beechwood new-builds or some rambling old, leaky cottage in rural Wales (shudders).

Jazzer is a harder nut to crack. It’s a shame actually but I do see it quite regularly- nice men who simply slip through the net and never quite find the right partner. It would be a huge waste but not unrealistic.

This takes me back to my favoured mantra that Alice’s drinking is a symptom and not a cause of the unhappy marriage. I don’t actually think she is an alcoholic- she just uses alcohol to help her get through her very dull and lonely days..

Meg, Alice annoys me though, because she has SO much handed to get on a plate ...not as much as Uber- privileged-but-oblivious-to-it Kate, but she’s bad enough. She could have easily split up from Chris if she was that miserable.

I think Ruari (sp?) might turn out to be the only reasonable one of that whiney clan ( Adam and Debbie annoy me too).🤣

• That was “Meh” not Meg. This auto-correct is 😡.

Contrast the attitude to surrogacy. Not a single negative view expressed that I can remember.

Erm ... Tony?

(FWIW I vaguely recall some powerful drama around Elizabeth's termination.)

@Roysnewshirt. Kirsty n’ Roy, that’ll work. I’m getting sick of nasty Philip, perhaps one of his exploited workers will give him a concrete overcoat....

Btw, I haven’t fully understand who Blake et al. are, have we been told? I’m guessing they’re homeless teens /runaways whom Philip “rescued”?

Romance?

Definitely needed. But there's plenty of scope for eager new SWs:

Debbie
Elizabeth
Jazzer
Phoebe
Jim
Rex
Lily
Freddie
Alistair
Johnny
Ruairi
Pip (swept off her feet and onto a one way flight to Tasmania).
And where's Lee. Helen hasn't mentioned him lately, has she?

I'm not sure that Elizabeth's termination was without drama. I suppose the abortion itself was, but the situation leading to it wasn't.

But I suppose also we don't tend to hear about so many things which aren't as dramatic. (I realise several storyline may refute my point here.)

I wouldn’t worry about her- he’s so nice and will treat her right.

You are talking about the same Roy who had an affair with Elizabeth while married to the fabulous Hayley and father to a young child? Those were not the actions of a “nice” man.