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

999 replies

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 31/03/2021 19:59

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

Archers 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. Grin

Archers 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!

Archers 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. Hmm

OP posts:
theThreeofWeevils · 15/04/2021 19:52

I also thought the bit about making a pass at Harrison was very credible

...except for it being, well, how can I put this, Harrison. There's not enough booze in the world for that.

Ooh, I hope AC12 get onto him and he becomes disgraced ex-Plod.

theThreeofWeevils · 15/04/2021 19:54

@JanFebAnyMonth

Her daddy? Shared interest in model trains is hardly ‘twinsies’.
It's more the whole 'being a tedious, obsessive git' thing, really Easter Grin
Poppins2016 · 15/04/2021 19:57

@theThreeofWeevils

I also thought the bit about making a pass at Harrison was very credible

...except for it being, well, how can I put this, Harrison. There's not enough booze in the world for that.

Ooh, I hope AC12 get onto him and he becomes disgraced ex-Plod.

I think there's something rather charming/attractive about Harrison('s personality)! 😇
MayIDestroyYou · 15/04/2021 20:03

It was rather powerful to hear the SWs finally acknowledging the tragedy they've made of Alice's life.

Another BOOP for the enunciation of her desperate regret.

MissBarbary · 15/04/2021 20:05

Harrison really should arrest her, shouldn't he? What if she does it again, which she will, and injures someone?

He arrested Freddie.

JanFebAnyMonth · 15/04/2021 20:10

He arrested Wayne and look where that got him....

I quite like Harrison too.

R4 · 15/04/2021 20:46

Didn't Harrison put us all through some "no more Mr Nice Guy" blather recently? (Was it after the plausible-Philip / Horses story?) He was going to be more detached and less village-y. What happened to that?

ILoveShula · 15/04/2021 20:46

Harrison used to be a strippergram. I think he'd be quite fanciable especially after a lot of booze.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 15/04/2021 20:47

@JanFebAnyMonth

I wonder whether that’s a common thing, for an alcoholic to latch onto a sympathetic non-partner and make a pass at them? Poor Alice. Poor Chris, poor Martha.

OK so the SW obviously knew I was going to ask this thread when we found out Lee was NHS, when there were busy 6 weeks ago! Not only NHS but been working with Covid patients and generally being an “NHS hero” which requires being Fed By Others. Surely we’ve had NO mention of this until now?

JanFebAnyMonth OK so the SW obviously knew I was going to ask this thread when we found out Lee was NHS, when there were busy 6 weeks ago! Not only NHS but been working with Covid patients and generally being an “NHS hero” which requires being Fed By Others. Surely we’ve had NO mention of this until now?

He has mentioned working with Covid patients at least twice before.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 15/04/2021 20:48

Alice assumed that Ed was interested in her sexually too, didn't she.

StillWeRise · 15/04/2021 20:48

I'm not sure, I thought he was being very deliberate about checking whether the keys were in the ignition. That's a safety matter obviously but I wondered if it also meant she wasn't technically breaking the law. It's surely not illegal to be drunk inside a car?

lottiegarbanzo · 15/04/2021 20:49

Alice consistently believes everyone fancies her, when she's drunk, doesn't she. That whole thing about Ed Grundy last year too. I don't know if it's a burring of time and self-perception returning her to her youth, when she probably was quite hot (in a slightly horsey, swishy-haired way, I imagine). Or just a self-loathing, what else is she good for, way.

Susan was dreadful today. Even for Susan. She has more humanity and sensitivity to maternal instinct than that. Here on the relationships board she'd be in top-level toxic narcissist, go no-contact right now territory, for wrestling a tiny, prem baby away from its mother for an unwanted night at Granny's at four/five weeks old. Even the beastliest of pushy MILs seem to wait until about three to six months and wheedling rather than wrestling, for that nonsense.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 15/04/2021 20:50

In charge of a vehicle is the definition, and people have been done for it when they were sitting in a car outside a pub and hadn't driven it anywhere.

lottiegarbanzo · 15/04/2021 20:56

Actually, what I'd love is to hear the Susan actress's take on it. I love the fact that, IRL, she is an academic psychologist, who works at a research institute close to the recording studio. I don't know what sort of psychology but, indulging my imagination, I'd love to hear her, in Susan's voice but with her real life knowledge, commentating on the psychological insights and inferences of The Archers!

Eastie77 · 15/04/2021 20:58

@R4

Didn't Harrison put us all through some "no more Mr Nice Guy" blather recently? (Was it after the plausible-Philip / Horses story?) He was going to be more detached and less village-y. What happened to that?
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Perhaps it's one rule for some and another rule for Alice others. I'm fairly sure he would have played it all by the book if he found one of the Grundy boys drunk at the wheel of a car.
BeardieWeirdie · 15/04/2021 21:03

Susan was dreadful for doing that, and I could see what was coming when Alice jumped at her offer, quite unlike any other new mother. Listening to Lee playing trains and superheroes, even with his six pack, I could hear my vagina sealing itself shut.

Ichiknee · 15/04/2021 21:10

I know the actress who plays Susan is an academic but hu.our me on this one. Imagine arriving for your appointment with your new psychologist, settling down to tell your darkest Susan when Susan's voice interrupts your thoughts. I'd be jumping up, running out whilst yelling 'you can't possibly keep it all confidential'.

I thought Harrison was pretty awesome. Alice is a mess. Susan is an overly needy grandmother and I didn't expect Chris to agree to leaving Alice alone.

theThreeofWeevils · 15/04/2021 21:11

I think there's something rather charming/attractive about Harrison('s personality)
If you like creepy, stalky fuckers, Poppins, then for sure...

Poppins2016 · 15/04/2021 21:15

@theThreeofWeevils

I think there's something rather charming/attractive about Harrison('s personality) If you like creepy, stalky fuckers, Poppins, then for sure...
Haha, oh dear, I've clearly forgotten something! (Disclaimer: I haven't caught up on this weeks episodes yet... am I in for a disappointment?!)
lottiegarbanzo · 15/04/2021 21:19

Or is the alcoholic / sexual disinhibition thing just that, that drunkenness connects you to your baser instincts and you imagine that is all everybody else is thinking about too?

Susan as psychotherapist / clinician would be terrifying! I hope that, like the Rob actor, her real life voice is reassuring different from the character's. If not though, she could have such fun with presenting papers at conferences.

lottiegarbanzo · 15/04/2021 21:23

Did Chris agree to it? Or did Susan just whisk Martha away and make her own plans for his evening? Presumably leaving him a message he'll pick up in due course.

MissBarbary · 15/04/2021 21:27

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

In charge of a vehicle is the definition, and people have been done for it when they were sitting in a car outside a pub and hadn't driven it anywhere.
That's right. She had stopped driving but she must have been driving and she was still in charge of the car.
StillWeRise · 15/04/2021 21:31

well presumably she could have driven the car sober, then parked and got drunk

Eastie77 · 15/04/2021 21:37

Not sure what Susan did that was so awful. She offered to look after her grand-daughter. Yes, she was insistent but she didn't kidnap or whisk Martha away. Alice willingly let her go. Given her fragile state, leaving the baby with Susan was probably a wise move.

There is something about Lee's voice that really bothers me.

R4 · 15/04/2021 21:50

Yes, she was insistent but she didn't kidnap or whisk Martha away. Alice willingly let her go.
Poor Susan, after she had been squeezed out of party preparations by a pincer movement by Fallon and JD and after her DD had been spurned (in Susan's eyes) as Godmother, was trying to stake some claim on the baby. Wrongly, but understandably.

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