❓ 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.

No, indeed. She is right about not being able to trust Alice alone with Martha really, isn’t she?

Oh I really did start listening about then because it was around the end of the loan shark story.

Fallon used to be more understanding. I get that she is hurt but I think the old fallon would have reacted a little differently.

Unless Chris takes some pretty big action they could end up with safeguarding concerns being raised.

In some ways it reminds me of the situation with someone I knew who had severe PND. She couldn’t be left alone with the baby, they moved in a cousin as a kind of “mother’s help” - but much more than that.

I think Fallon May have a more kindly perspective once she’s got over the twin shocks of hearing that her friend made a pass at her husband and that she’s been continually lied to by her partner and close friends.

I suppose it's lying, but as Alice and Chris told absolutely everybody (except eventually Harrison, and then Peggy) that she was (implausibly) staying with a friend in Bath for a fortnight, Fallon hasn't been singled out for this treatment.

Can anyone who knows about these matters say if Martha should be on the At Risk register? (If it's even called that now)

Same as JanFeb

@Mumblechum0

Delurking to admire " whirling load of foetid old dingoes' kidneys", and planning where to first use it.

I'm rather excited for 7pm, I do hope we're not going to have a comedy/change counting episode

Mumblechum0 Delurking to admire " whirling load of foetid old dingoes' kidneys", and planning where to first use it.

(grin) It isn't original: the "whirling" is my own, but the foetid dingoes' kidneys were in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on the radio, and I fell in love with the phrase all that long time ago when it was first broadcast.

Eek. In 1978. (So why can't I remember where I left the book I was reading last night, if I can remember things from more than forty years ago?)

And beforethatshe was noted as being drunk on the occasion she dragged Ed in to be her token yokel for her workmates to meet and be impressed that she knows, on 29th September, 2016

I'd forgotten that. It was excruciating.

I've no recollection at all of a loan shark.

Thank you.

Thank you

MissBarbary
I've no recollection at all of a loan shark.

He was in Ambridge Extra.

Thank you Asking Question

Oh and the other "thank you" was to Gaspode re Nic's funeral but "quote" seems to not be working.

I was rather disappointed that Harrison has done nothing at all in the four days since the incident.

He was so quick to arrest Freddie, and arguably ALICE posed more of an immediate risk to herself and others

@Mumblechum0

I was rather disappointed that Harrison has done nothing at all in the four days since the incident.

He was so quick to arrest Freddie, and arguably ALICE posed more of an immediate risk to herself and others

Alice poses more of a risk to others than Freddie did.

I'm not trying to minimise what Freddie did but he was selling party drugs to people who chose to take drugs. Martha had no choice; nor will anyone who is unfortunate enough to meet Alice drunk behind the wheel.

Harrison is skating on thin ice here.

Alice's automatic response every time she falls off the waggon is to beg people to help her keep it quiet. Surely it needs to occur to her at some point that it's not a strategy which has done her any good in the past?

Her response is also to have a drink, which works well to soothe uncomfortable feelings in the short term. She hasn’t learned more helpful coping strategies yet. With the right support she could but it’s no easy task and she’ll need to accept that she needs help.

Harrison absolutely needs to tell Chris about Alice drinking in the lay-by but he doesn’t need to tell him about the inappropriate behaviour just yet. That was a symptom, not a cause.

Fallon’s knee-jerk horror at Harrison’s discretion was two-dimensional and slightly tedious. I agree she would have been more nuanced in her response.

13 minutes means nuance is rationed... it would have been odd if she hadn’t been angry, given that she didn’t know the backstory and was also being driven crazy by Jennifer over the Christening and preparing to be Godmother.

Harrison absolutely needs to tell Chris about Alice drinking in the lay-by
There was a lot of agonising about his duty as a friend but nothing about his duty as a policemen. Presumably if he hasn't done anything by now then he's not going to.

I hope that this is the beginning of the downfall of PC Plot.

There’s no “should” about being on the Child Protection Register, each case is decided individually by Children’s Services —who are, sadly, often useless IME—. But yes, another of Harrison’s dereliction’s of duty is to not report the case to a safeguarding officer of some kind, which would lead to an investigation.

Harrison absolutely needs to tell Chris about Alice drinking in the lay-by

Was she drinking in the lay-by? I thought she was already drunk before she pulled in to the lay-by.

I don't have any sympathy for Alice- drinking the way she did whilst pregnant was despicable. Even if you accept she can't help her drinking she has a choice to stop driving- drunk drivers are the lowest of the low.

I think it’s been left intentionally unclear whether she drank before she reached the lay-by. It’s possible she didn’t though.

I don't have any sympathy for Alice- drinking the way she did whilst pregnant was despicable. Even if you accept she can't help her drinking she has a choice to stop driving- drunk drivers are the lowest of the low

Which is why Alice can't get the help she desperately needs for herself and wants it to be a secret. Shame is a terribly destructive emotion.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime I try to blot out my memories of Ambridge Extra as much as possible, but I get "so fresh" flashbacks all the same...

I think they should bury AmEx in the middle of "Sounds". It might help convince me that the current storylines aren't as bad.

I imagined that Alice had pulled over into the lay-by to have a drink. Otherwise it makes Harrison's lack of action even worse.