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

Yes. In Philip's view, he philanthropically saved them from death and exploitation on the streets by giving them a roof over their heads and giving them work.

In anyone else's view, he exploited boys on the streets by keeping them as slaves, undercutting the costs of any competitors (easy to do, if you're not paying NWM, taxes, training, etc.) Philip is aware this is also how the law would see it.

And where's Lee. Helen hasn't mentioned him lately, has she?

Helen hasn't much, but Kirsty suggested if Helen bought the house when she & Philip move to Wales, then there would be space to move in Lee, and Helen said something about it being far too soon for that. (And there won't be room when K & H are both living there.)

@PoulePouletteEternellement

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.)

You’re thinking of donor insemination I think re agony, I don’t recall him having a view on Adam and Ian and Lexi. Jennifer was only semi negative about surrogacy in the sense that she worried Lexi would want to keep Xander. I think there was a bit of gossipy whispering in the village, but not so much outright disapproval.

“Agony”?!! I meant Tony!

@CheetasOnFajitas

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.

He was also racist in his youth and did some very nasty things to Usha.

So if Roy is also too nasty for Kirsty, perhaps Alistair will do? He had his gambling problem but is basically nice. Or a younger man, one of Lee’s friends? I dunno, just get Philip over-coated or locked up before they move to Wales.

Oh dear! You're right, CheetasOnFajitas, I wasn't concentrating.

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

Oh goodness, we all make mistakes! Let’s put it behind us. Poor Roy! To newcomers (only been listening bout 5 or so years), he seems dependable and kind - exactly what she will need after the slave master has moved on.

Though thinking about it, she’ll probably have to go through a phase of sharing Beechwood with Helen and the boys for bit. That could get tedious...

CaptainMyCaptain
He [Roy] was also racist in his youth and did some very nasty things to Usha.

He claimed to racism in an attempt to ingratiate himself with some people at college with him and with his father Mike, whom he had heard being racist; he did nothing to Usha apart from tell the nasty individuals at his college (Spanner and Craven were their names) that she lived in Ambridge.

When Spanner and Craven threw ammonia in Usha's face Roy was horrified, and went to the police to tell them who he thought it had been, for which he was beaten up and his father's market garden trashed.

A couple of years later Usha was getting on well enough with him to support him against Kate when she was trying to assume total control of Baby and take her abroad without her father's consent. So she can't have felt he was a racist and her enemy at that point, or she wouldn't have taken on that work and done it for him free.

On a different subject, does Alice actually have a GP? She has never needed one as an adult until now, and may well not have registered with a local one when she came back from Southampton. Before that she will have been registered with the local Ambridge GP, and when there stopped being an Ambridge GP practice her records probably got moved to one of the two practices (in Borchester and Hollerton) which took on the Ambridge patients, but she may well have no idea which she ended up with.

Her midwife's appointment on Zoom doesn't seem to have happened via a GP.

Erm ... Tony?
I don't recall him commenting about the Adam&Ian-will-be-such-great-dads SL. He did have the temerity to have doubts about The Henry Project, though, I think. And to try to lift or carry something for her. The monster!

...as Cheetahs said above. Sorry.

I'd love a welsh cottage but not as much as I'd love a big house on the Wirral or anywhere else with a sea view. Actually, i quite like where i live now.

Jazzer is lovely but he's not housetrained.

I can think of two people close to me who were let down badly by the sainted enaitchess. One by a GP, and the other by lack of communication (scan results apparently not passed to the GP).

Oh goodness, we all make mistakes! Let’s put it behind us. Poor Roy!

Ahem, he shagged his boss, who was also his wife's boss and the affair continued.

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

Shula was awful. I was knee deep in nappies at that time and her harrassing and emotional blackmail of a young woman in Elizabeth's situation was just unforgiveable.

I won't hear a bad word said about Shula. She wanted a baby and couldn't have one, and her sister was having a baby terminated.

he did nothing to Usha apart from tell the nasty individuals at his college (Spanner and Craven were their names) that she lived in Ambridge

That isn't nothing. Its knowingly providing a target to racists, he was as culpable as the people throwing the acid.

@C8H10N4O2

he did nothing to Usha apart from tell the nasty individuals at his college (Spanner and Craven were their names) that she lived in Ambridge

That isn't nothing. Its knowingly providing a target to racists, he was as culpable as the people throwing the acid.

I agree, it still counts as being involved. I didn't remember the details of the incidents (I'm sure there was other low level stuff) but I do remember being horrified and never liked him much after that.

I see Roy as a flawed, a bit weak, but basically decent bloke who has led a somewhat narrow and thwarted life, and has given in to temptation.

He made some bad mistakes in his youth. He did apologise to Usha. Its not great but he knows what he did was wrong and is not the same person now.

He did the right thing by Phoebe despite very poor treatment of him by Kate. He put his daughter first. I wish we heard more about Abigail.

He messed up royally with Elizabeth/Hayley.

She wanted a baby and couldn't have one, and her sister was having a baby terminated.

Her sister was in a difficult position and she made it worse because she could only think of what she wanted and had no thought for Elizabeth. Applying emotional blackmail and lobbying the family against someone with an unwanted pregnancy is a shitty thing to do.

Do alcohol withdrawal symptoms really come on so swiftly?

Anyone else finding this quite disturbing? Am not sure I want this from TA.

I know this is how some people found the Rob / Helen storyline, I didn't.

What do others think??

This is more like horror. Can't imagine what it's like for those who've been affected by alcoholism.

I tried to switch it off but DH, who normally hates TA, wouldn't let me.

Very disturbing.

They'll definitely get complaints.