🎄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?

Thanks @Prestissimo. I think what I took away was that they were going straight on to organising the inpatient treatment privately and might not even see the GP again (who was not one Alice already had an existing relationship with); I also thought that the recommended treatment might change if she was going to have a termination so it might have to be dealt with first, before they made any other plans.

With the father there going on about how important the baby was to him, the GP could hardly ask whether Alice wanted to keep it and expect her to give an honest answer.

Why are women in TA never allowed to see a health professional without their husband being present to answer for them?

Is it usual for a GP to be expected always to see the patient only with her SO in the sugery with her, Prestissimo?

No, of course not @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime - I regularly see people on their own. But in this circumstance it’s very often the case that an alcoholic (whether male or female) patient is brought by a significant other - parent/spouse etc - rather than electing to come on their own. So it becomes a three-way consultation by default. And although on future occasions you would see the patient on their own that first meeting is often not great for sensitive discussions. You could of course ask the non-patient to leave, but again time pressures do unfortunately come into play. I’ve had consultations like that where they would literally have lasted all day if I hadn’t brought them to quite a firm close.

The trouble is that time is of the essence in this case: if she is to have a termination, and was twelve weeks pregnant on 6th October, it needs to be done soon. Even if legally it would be possible to have one after 24 weeks if the foetus were shown to be severely damaged, the later the worse for the mother, I would have thought. And FAS doesn't show up in utero, does it? So that reason wouldn't be available.

That Philip is a nasty piece of work.

Gavin is definitely softening though.

Why are people able to just wander into Lower Loxley uninvited and unannounced? If the place is open for business they ought to be asked to pay their admission fee, and if it isn't they ought to have to ring the doorbell. Either way they ought not to be able just to walk in "looking for Freddie" and find Elizabeth doing nothing.

Is Gav softening or spotting a chance to promote himself - he told Blake he was going to be taking over?

I hope Philip is not going to get away with slavery.

Great episode tonight. Blake's utter fear around Philip was chilling.

Philip is bad through & through, isn't he? The nasty swipe at Blake & the other 'horses' of taking their Switch or PlayStation... really hard to hear.

he told Blake he was going to be taking over?

That's currently the plan, isn't it? When Philip & Kirstie retire to their Welsh cottage?

Oh yes, had forgotten that bit

@Darker completely agree, Philip is truly nasty and it’s incredible how he manages to hide it so well from Kirsty. I wonder whether something unpleasant will come out about his first marriage (domestic violence, for example) or perhaps his first wife found something out? Gavin was previously under his thrall, but he’s gradually distancing himself.

It could be a gripping Christmas or New Year’s storyline when it all blows up. I wish Kirsty could finally find happiness though.

Gavin is as much a horse as Blake. Could help in his plea of mitigation...

And, in other news:

I almost felt sorry for Freddie yesterday. Never was a getting-to-know-you session less needed! It must have been awful thinking you are striking out to new pastures and then being patronised by Oliver and Peggy for an hour

I agree, good episode all round. Poor Blake. The turning point for Gavin might be if Philip makes good on his threat to 'sell' Blake on. I could see him ringing Crimestoppers, if he can't bring himself to actually turn himself and his father in to the police.

I thought Gavin was genuinely bonding with the horses and starting to see them as real people. Go on Gav, turn Philip in!

Gavin is still very scared of Philip.

I wonder if the last straw for him will be if he thinks Kirsty is in danger.

I doubt Gavin has many friends in real life and was really touched that Blake had covered for him.

I imagine Lower Loxley having a grand, main entrance and a smaller, quieter entrance that family and friends use. Having been round for supper once, Tracey considers herself the latter.

Philip is truly nasty and it’s incredible how he manages to hide it so well from Kirsty.

Constant source of bafflement to me too.

Poor Blake ... Clearly a lot of problems with his thinking skills - and that utter bastard is making him believe he's a wanted criminal in hiding? Just grim to imagine. If only he could take himself to a police station ...

The visit to LL makes no sense at all. Even pre-Covid that would have been a phone call. Unless Tracy was wanting to show off to Roman about her high society pals?

Taswama
I imagine Lower Loxley having a grand, main entrance and a smaller, quieter entrance that family and friends use. Having been round for supper once, Tracey considers herself the latter.

Very likely, but given they live in a place that is open to the public, you'd expect them to have a Yale lock on the door of their private wing and keep the door locked. Otherwise people would be wandering in all the time looking for a loo or just noseying about, and it would be a right nuisance.

I do think the SWs have taken their eye off the ball here. As I understood it LL used to have a housekeeper - I assumed for the private quarters (regardless of what pertained for the public areas). I've never heard or imagined that they had or required anything grand like a butler - but, given what a magnet for low life a stately home must be, they really ought to at least have someone to answer the private front door. It has distressed me no end to think of Pargetters opening the door to bailiffs. (And doing their own washing! )

Titchcombe?

Edgar Titcombe and his wife Ellen-I-think (she was Mrs Pugsley; they married in 2006 shortly after her husband died) live in his cottage somewhere in the grounds. He was the Head Gardener and she was the Housekeeper, but they were both regarded as being pretty ancient in the 1990s so whether either is still working who knows.

I'd assumed they had both retired long ago - but can't see a reason why Elizabeth wouldn't have employed a new housekeeper. (Or other domestic staff as necessary.)

I totally blame the BBC, who, in wanting to portray some egalitarian, non-elitist fantasy, have left Elizabeth open to all-comers.