🎄Archers thread #122: Deck the Hall with Eddie, Freddie 🎵 'Tis the Season to be jolly (but orange juice for you, Alice)

[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 love Bert Fry’s poetry (as I do), 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 @C8H10N4O2 for requesting an annoyingly cheerful thread title which might take us up to Christmas and to @Prestissimo for the title suggestion. I was strongly tempted by @LillianGish’s suggestion: Eddie’s turkeys, Freddie’s show, village green with lights aglow, Stir Up Sunday, Deck the Hall, Merry Christmas one and all - with apologies to Bert Fry and @R4’s suggestion Wassail to the Ambridge Not-A-Panto where Freddie gets nine LESSONS in directing from CAROLe Lynda. Top work, all!

Three days to go until we can return to Ambridge.

My list for Father Christmas

In the next few weeks I’d like:

• Freddie’s show to be a huge success

• Philip and Gavin to be driven out of the village with pitchforks into the waiting arms of the police, and the three ‘horses’ rescued and taken in by kind people who will help them turn their lives around

• Pip to take a perpetual vow of silence and leave for a nunnery

• a terrific Grundy Christmas (although the travails of Alice and Chris will overshadow things)

• Alice to lose the baby, as this seems the least grim option for us listeners; she leaves Chris and makes a fresh start of some kind

What do you all want for Christmas from The Archers?

But slightly odd that it comes as news to him I may have said this before, but I’ll say it again, Chris is a very simple soul. He’s the product of a very traditional family - his own father is a devoted husband, built his wife the house of her dreams etc etc He is also the adored son of a doting mum (even more precious to her after his complicated start in life). He’s always been slightly in awe of Alice who is better educated than him, with a great job (even if his own business - set up with the help of his wife - has effectively clipped her wings with regard to moving anywhere else to further her career). He’s always been head over heels with Alice, almost unable to believe his luck - I agree with AskingQuestions that the scales are starting to fall from his eyes never to return. He wants to be reassured by the midwife’s comment that they are the right sort of couple to get through this, but I’m not sure that will be enough.

Excellent post EBearHug. Very well put.

I would probably get a bit fed up with Chris too but I can understand why he is behaving like that. Alice is, and always has been, completely poisonous but I don't think he'll leave her as he feels responsible for her and the baby's health and well being. Unfortunately Alice can't change unless she decided to do it for herself.

Alice could also do something to acknowledge what Chris has been through and cut him some slack.

And where is Amy when you need her?

And where is Amy when you need her?

Was about to laugh this off - as she's probably a million miles away by now, maybe with a partner, children, in-laws and complications of her own - but then I remembered that she was for a brief while Alice's Best Friend. (Until Alice said that black people don't ride horses ...) IIRC they sort of reconciled so, as a midwife and former friend she might be someone Alice could confide in.

It would be rather cool to have her return to spend Christmas at the Vicarage, and to be around for the anniversary of Nigel's death, Henry's birth - Helen is presumably still sending grateful Christmas cards - and TA's 70th.

Ten years since The Fall! How time flies when you're having fun.

I see Coronation Street is 60 today. Mere youngsters. The Archers is the longest-running soap in the world by some margin now.

If we're lucky a fair proportion of us should still be around for TA's 100th anniversary. MNHQ should probably start the bunting appeal straight after Christmas.

Why has no one suggested Al-Anon to Chris?

Why has no one suggested Al-Anon to Chris?
No one other than Harrison would know to suggest it. Why Harrison didn't is a mystery. Alice could, but she'd have to accept how much of problem she has and how it affects others, and she may not even know Al-Anon even exists.

The midwife could have mentioned it. The clinic could have. Even Mianed could have - after all, Ed has had a dependency problem in the past.

@PoulePouletteEternellement

If we're lucky a fair proportion of us should still be around for TA's 100th anniversary. MNHQ should probably start the bunting appeal straight after Christmas.

I plan to be still around. Though I am the same age as TA

Oh yes, I forgot about the midwife.

Emma and Chris aren't talking still, because Alice won't let him tell anyone (she going to be furious when she finds out about Harrison.) I know Ed had his time with drugs, but I don't remember if there was any use of anything like Al-Anon. I can't even remember if Emma was even with Ed or Will at the time.

Alice will be very upset if she thinks people see her like Ed on drugs. I hope we do get that!

I

She's sharp, isn't she? ...

I ENJOYED an episode!

I wonder whether Lilian is going to connect Alice lying to Peggy with Alice being very interested about alcohol in pregnancy a month or two back.

As a National Treasure, I would support Peggy getting a priority vaccine!

I wonder where they recorded that episode?

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

I wonder whether Lilian is going to connect Alice lying to Peggy with Alice being very interested about alcohol in pregnancy a month or two back.

No, she hasn't the wit and it would involve thinking about someone other than herself but Peggy might.

Only, Peggy doesn't know about the conversation with Lilian. She might notice what it was that made Alice suddenly so hyper-sensitive, though.

Yes and the fact she and Lilian ended up referring to Jack #1's alcoholism is obviously a little flagwave..... pennies will start to drop in a week or so (maybe at Christmas itself when Something will Happen.....

Is anyone else worried about Peggy propping up the bar (ok, taking a corner booth) at The Bull right now? That felt rather unrealistic to me, even if the Ambridge health fairy has designated Borsetshire as a Covid-free zone.

Such an error to get the Pump Rooms and Assembly Rooms muddled though it probably happens all the time. Alice should have gutted the Lonely Planet Guide while in detox if she wanted her cover story to stick.

Peggy’s Miss Marple impersonation was great! I’m glad she seems to have backed off charitable trust chat. So dull...

I'm ten years younger than TA so it's not impossible I'll see the centenary. The BBC probably needs to survive that long for TA to continue, though, and I wouldn't put money on that.

Wonderful to hear Peggy again.

The oddest thing about Alice's "trip" was the fact nobody asked who her friend was.

Her walking up the hill to (closed) Beckford's Tower was the daftest part (it's probably an hour each way up a steep hill on a busy road and she could have simply jumped on the P&R bus). It's always a couple of degrees colder up there than in town.

Who stays with a friend a few miles up the road for TWO WEEKS?