❓ Archers thread #126: It’s a mystery why we’re all still listening.

[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’d love to be on the Parish Council, 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/4197199--The-Archers-spoilers-thread-6-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 @Taswama for thread title ideas, but I felt most in sympathy with @R4's suggestion. Is it me, or is the programme in the doldrums at the moment?

Haven't heard the 31/3 episode yet. Perhaps it's a gem.

I have photos of OH (who did a fair amount of the nappy-changing and night-time sorting out when he was at home) wearing a baby round his neck. Very sweet.

My son similarly did his fair share of all the baby-chores, again when he was in the house rather than on duty elsewhere. He had a sort of rucksack for toddlers.

If Kirsty sells the house then she can pay off whatever is left on the mortgage. Or is there now no mortgage after all?

(DP was in the kitchen this morning when Jazzer told Jade her pasta trick was disgusting. He asked about it and agreed it was.)

@Roysnewshirt

I remember Kirsty saying that they had got that Welsh house and how happy she was about it

Lucky Kirsty! What a property tycoon she has now become...

Didn't she say the Welsh house had been taken under the Proceeds of Crime Act?

@cheezy

I find men swanning around in pappooses (sp?) quite hot

Depends on your definition of "in" Is the person "in" the papoose the one wearing it or the one whose legs are sticking out of the holes?

MereDintofPandiculation
Didn't she say the Welsh house had been taken under the Proceeds of Crime Act?

I don't think she's mentioned it; last I heard their offer had been accepted (on 15th December) but that doesn't mean contracts were necessarily exchanged before Moss was arrested on Christmas Eve. A place he didn't yet own wouldn't come under the Proceeds of Crime Act, would it?

Maybe it was the flat where they were keeping the horses, then. I heard her saying something like "... been taken under the Proceeds of Crime Act but he want me to have [the beechwood house]" - this was in the episode when she was saying she didn't want to have anything to do with it and was persuading Helen to live in it.

No-one commenting on today's episode? Heartwarming "bless jim" tale of star-struck lover? And Alice inventing a new fictional world in which the decision to stop breast feeding was all her own. Am I right in thinking that this formula of have two stories/conversations taking it in turn through the episode is a relatively new device? It didn't used to be like that, surely?

And when do we get our two missing episodes back?

"bless him". My brain has espoused the 80-20 rule of late. No need to get all the letters right, just the majority.

Tonight was so forgettable!

I don't believe in Trazzer; he may genuinely like her, but she's just glad of a shag and tolerating him because there's no one else happening right now. I'm fond of Jazzer as a character but good Lord - he sounds like a child half the time. I'd have been bored to screaming pitch if I were Tracy having to spend hours and hours, outside, in a public place, conversing with him.

Was it Chris who decided Alice should give up breastfeeding? I assumed she'd consciously or subconsciously cottoned on to the fact that it would make Rioja glugging a helluva lot more accessible and less guilt inducing. (But I may not have been listening properly.)

And the thing with Susan wanting Emma to be a godmother?

Chris certainly stopped her feeding after a bottle of Rioja, and I thought he said, roughly "you're not going to breastfeed her again, ever, because you can't be trusted". But likewise, I might not have been listening properly, either.

I am reasonably sure that the idea of stopping breastfeeding was Alice's own, because stopping breastfeeding makes it ok in her mind to start drinking alcohol again once it won't be harming Martha to do so.

@MereDintofPandiculation

Chris certainly stopped her feeding after a bottle of Rioja, and I thought he said, roughly "you're not going to breastfeed her again, ever, because you can't be trusted". But likewise, I might not have been listening properly, either.

He didn't. She went to fetch the baby and feed her at the end of the next episode episode and he made no move to stop her nor protest about her doing it.

He didn't want her feeding the baby when she'd drunk enough alcohol to pass out, and her milk would be full of it. The following day when she hadn't been drunking he wasn't stopping her from feeding.

The thing with Susan wanting Alice to be godmother I can believe

Lots of Mums want their daughters to be bridesmaids to each other and I know quite a few people who have their siblings as godparents to be their children

Bizarre choice of godparents. Harrison is a friend of Chris's, I suppose, but are Alice and Fallon anything other than live-in-the-same-village sort of 'friends '? And Pip, as 'someone who loves babies and children'? That would be Pip who accidentally became pregnant because neither she nor her fuck-buddy were taking proper precautions, who wanted a termination but casually wimped out (ok, one of the Borsetshire Health Unprofessionals helped that along a bit) and seems second only to Helen in palming her brat off on anyone who stands still for 30 seconds? That Pip? OK.
No doubt the parents chose on the basis that all three sponsors are notable pillars of the congregation, though, and role-models well placed to provide Martha with spiritual support and guidance so that's all right.

I agree on odd choices of godparent, especially Pip (Harrison was Chris' best man so that makes some sense). However, I also agree with Alice that Emma is an aunt so doesn't need godmother title, otherwise Alice would have to ask her brothers and sisters too really so it wouldn't have made sense. If Alice were thoughtful though she'd have given Susan a task...

Id have asked Susan to crochet a blanket or something

I know it's a soap necessity but I still couldn't help thinking how small Alice's world has become, with all Martha's godparents coming from Ambridge. She ought to have close friends from her academic and / or professional background, or riding friends or even just friends she'd have made over decades as Alice Aldridge. But no.

But Then I Thought - poor Harrison, wanting a child of his own and having Chris and Alice's brilliant adventure rubbed in his face - oh wait, perhaps the Carters are racing towards such a multiplicity of disasters that, in the end, poor little Martha will be left with no other guardians but her godparents - Mr & Mrs Plod-Teapot ...

What's going on in Alice's head? I couldn't quite work it out from her conversation with Lisa. Is her guilt about Martha's potentially damaged health leading her to ignore the baby all together now, focus on work, not breast feeding? Or is it just giving herself space to drink guilt free, as I think @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime suggested?

poor little Martha will be left with no other guardians but her godparents - Mr & Mrs Plod-Teapot
Which would be very bloody rough on Fallon who, whatever her shortcomings, has at least managed not to conceive a child she does not want.
Love 'Plod-Teapot', MayI

I was only half-listening to the christening gown discussion but did Susan say that Xander’s gown (that Martha will wear) was green silk??? Trying to imagine anything in green silk that would look good on a baby

Also confused about Alice’s motivation. Last week she was all ‘Martha is my world’, now has she decided that it’s too hard so she’s going to stop breastfeeding (agree definitely so it’s less catastrophic if she drinks) and go back to work?

I’m so frustrated that the BBC is giving them no support at all other than sympathetic and occasionally-questioning but ultimately ineffectual, distant Lisa. Where is the Health Visitor at least? Even if we’ve agreed to ignore Social Services and other support for alcoholics.

I can’t really think of any SLs demonstrating the close relationship between Alice and Chris and pip. Talk about random...

The choice of Harrison makes sense as he is the only one who knows about Alice’s drinking so is inner circle and could help. Fallon and Alice are close too as illustrated by the fact that Fallon was meant to be joining Alice by the riverside for a drink on the night she ended up in hospital.

I enjoyed the Trazzer date. Probably because I enjoy vicariously going on dates. Poor Jazzer wants to shout his love from the rooftops but Tracey wants to keep it under wraps. I thought it was going to end with a public message re picking Spanish/English bluebells from the flat-capped car enthusiast.

@cameocat

I agree on odd choices of godparent, especially Pip (Harrison was Chris' best man so that makes some sense). However, I also agree with Alice that Emma is an aunt so doesn't need godmother title, otherwise Alice would have to ask her brothers and sisters too really so it wouldn't have made sense. If Alice were thoughtful though she'd have given Susan a task...

Apparently, my sister was a bit put out because I didn't ask her to be Godmother but I thought being an Aunt was a status in itself. I haven't had any contact with the actual Godparents for many, many years, though.

Harrison and Fallon do make sense IMO. Pip, not so much

Agree 100% with MayIDestroyYou about how sad it is that Alice seems to have no out of village friends. Of course she left Pryce Baumann (or whatever the company is called) under a cloud but she did work somewhere else before joining them and she would have met plenty of other students when she was studying in Southampton. I love the name Mr & Mrs Plod Teapot. It is a silly (and insensitive) choice of godparent. I am sure Harrison spoke to Chris about this.

ThreeofWeevils is right about Pip too. She's a good second to Helen in their devolved parenting.

What I can't remember is whether Rosie ever got christened and if Alice and Chris were godparents. If they were, I could understand the pressures to ask Pip to reciprocate. However Alice didn't mention this.

I expect Xander's green christening gown was Kate's idea of avoiding traditional white or blue/pink stereotypes. It sounds horrible. Poor Martha. She is having an awful start in life. Agree with Prestissimo that surely the NHS would not abandon the first time mother of a premature baby with a known alcohol problem so completely? However, the editor/scriptwriters have got form with going for drama over reality with Helen and Rob.

I expect Xander's green christening gown was Kate's idea of avoiding traditional white or blue/pink stereotypes. It sounds horrible
Everything relating to Xander, his commissioning and his parents sounds horrible to me. But - does he take after Edam (poor little sod if so)? In which case I can imagine certain shades of green looking tolerable on a red-headed infant.