🐷 Archers thread #127: Discuss the boars and sows of Ambridge here - or should that be bores and soused? You decide.

[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 live opposite Joy, 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.)

These threads normally last around a month. When I started the last one, we were bracing ourselves for the Mystery Play, but that storyline, which had never exactly set the airwaves on fire, fizzled out and has (I hope) gone away, never to return.

@LillianGish proposed a new thread title which I'll use instead as a scene-setter for this thread. What a carry on - Nurse (Ben), Sergeant (Harrison), Camping (Kate), Jack (either one of them), Regardless (all of us for continuing to tune tune in)

What a carry on, indeed! Other storylines sputtering away:

• Alice, Chris, Martha - Have they split up, and if so where is Alice living? Will there be a christening and who will be godparents? When will the Aldridges and Carters find out about Alice's drinking? Too much to hope that Alice will get blind drunk at the christening party in full view of the entire village, I suppose. I'm still clinging to my hope that she lamps Alan after a suggestion that they pray together.

• Will Rex find a new home for his pigs? If Elizabeth weakens, will the pigs escape and disrupt the Lower Loxley life drawing event on Monday? Might they stampede, knock Ross out and devour him?

• Will Jazzer go to work for Neil? (This isn't exactly a cliffhanger. Of course he will.)

• Will Justin bury Lilian under the patio? Not a jury in the land would convict him, I feel, if they were played a recording of that appalling cackle and her gloating about the daffodil photograph.

• Will the life drawing event on Monday be a brilliantly amusing interlude, exemplifying how to write character-driven drama, with both comic and more serious moments? Answer: No, obviously. I may have to listen from behind a cushion.

There are more. I find myself struggling to care.

Oh, and one final mention - I've proposed a webchat with the Archers editor. @MayIDestroyYou's idea. You'll find it here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/4231475-Webchat-idea-The-Editor-of-The-Archers-Or-another-Archers-production-team-representative

Over to you!

I wonder whether Alice did "nearly drop Martha" or whether this is Chris being hypersensitive knowing that Alice is drunk.

The Aldridges have a big shock coming. She will end up in hospital now, if they're lucky. If they are unlucky, she'll end up dead. It's not that hard for somebody in the depths of despair. She will be drinking herself ragged and not eating. I wondered if she was contemplating suicide tonight, hence the emphasis on no surprise visits. Sometimes that's all that stops or delays people.
I thought Neil and Susan were very touching.

MissBarbary
I would expect the Carters could reasonably assume the Aldridges would make their own effort to check on their ghastly daughter.

Neil and Susan might, but I think Chris knows very well that Alice would do everything she could to prevent them from finding out that she has been being drunk so much.

Why hasn’t Peggy said anything to Brian and Jennifer?!

I imagine Alice is feeling incredibly low and that there is no food in the house or housework being done. That would be enough for her to be keen to have her privacy. But yes an intentional or unintentional overdose seems likely.

Yes I wondered if she was checking that she’d be left alone for a long time. Or it could be just that she’s still clinging to the hope she can avoid everyone finding out.
Yes why haven’t Peggy or indeed Alan - this having happened on his actual and metaphorical patch - been in touch with the Aldridges and / or Alice (if getting no answer from Alice then trying the Carters and the Aldridges? Adam? Kate?

Gosh, yes, Alan- good point!

Alan knows what has been going on. Alan was certainly there when the Aldridges and Carters (and if the Carters had gone with Chris and Martha, then only the Aldridges) cancelled the christening they'd asked him to do. And yet he managed to say nothing.

@Darker

I imagine Alice is feeling incredibly low and that there is no food in the house or housework being done. That would be enough for her to be keen to have her privacy. But yes an intentional or unintentional overdose seems likely.

Housework - who cares? Without a man and an infant infesting The Nest it won't need much anyway. No food? Well, she won't want to go to the village shop, and she probably expects Plank to be lurking with a breathalyser, so online seems the obvious solution there. A few ready meals and plenty of wine in one go. Sorted. An overdose would be really boring and why should she? She's shot for the time being of the baby she never wanted and of a husband who was becoming increasingly annoying. A seven-day bender and then, in the absence of immediate stressors, a return to sustainable levels of piss-artistry is how I'd call it. So long as people keep their beaks out.

She sounded remarkably calm and together on the phone, she’s a functional alcoholic so will be able to keep pulling the wool over darling daddy’s eyes for a while longer I think.

Poor JD is going to go loco when she finds out Martha is in Susan’s care.

I love Neil btw

@Mumblechum0

She sounded remarkably calm and together on the phone, she’s a functional alcoholic so will be able to keep pulling the wool over darling daddy’s eyes for a while longer I think.

It would be less worrying if she had wanted her mum or someone else to visit and be with her. I suspect she’s choosing drink over company.

A) JD wittering and angsting at one?
B) a bottle or two of Sauvignon blanc

The Bs would have it.

I don't like to think of the despair Alice must be living through right now - if she's still conscious ...

Boop for the SWs having Neil point out that he and Susan both work full-time and they need to be realistic about offering to look after Martha. Maybe, just maybe, someone in Ambridge will finally have to pay for childcare, the way most parents with full-time jobs have to do.

I think I wasn't too far off in my prediction of Brian's reaction.

I wonder if the SWs have forgotten about Peggy knowing what's going on.

I enjoyed Brian tucking into the pulled pork and coleslaw!

I think Chris would have asked someone to go and keep an eye on her after he had driven away for the last time. He could have texted Jakob suggesting Kate goes over, for instance.

He’s not my favourite but he is, at least, a responsible guy and would have wanted to hand over the burden he has been carrying to someone else - even if only for his own peace of mind. He certainly wouldn’t just leave her to drink alone.

Alice could have told him that someone was coming over. She’s an accomplished ad convincing liar. (Sadly).

I was also a bit surprised at the lack of surprise from Susan and Neil re Alice being an alcoholic- no hand-wringing, how could we not have realised, oh the shame what will the neighbours say? I suppose that the timeline had moved on a bit from the initial a christening reveal and all that was said off-air, but it all felt a bit flat, somehow.

And also, to be honest, I would have thought even Susan capable of some empathy for a mother having her baby taken away from her.

I agree Havering. I'm finding their handling of this storyline really odd.

Chris can't just up and take off with Martha, whatever his view of Alice's alcoholism. I'm finding him massively irritating - he's been so wet throughout trying to cover it up & now he's leaving his alcoholic wife to her own devices & taking their baby 🤷🏻‍♀️

The CA last night said something along the lines of Chris revealing the whole truth tomorrow, so maybe JD gives him a call.....

I've found this BBC blog written by Keri in 2014 about Jack v1.0
From the dates given, it is clear that JD was a fully grown adult (27 yo) when Jack finally died, after a period in a clinic. If the widow of the alcoholic has alarm bells ringing then why not also his daughter, who may have inherited the genes and passed them on to her DD?
because plot, obviously but unsatisfactorily

Just Listened on catch up
I still think JD would have gone to check on Alice between the christening fiasco and last night's episode when she was talking to Brian -at the very least she would have phoned just to make sure Alice was okay-let's not forget this is her daughter "her baby " who has just had a premature baby. I also think Peggy would have met Jenny and disclosed her knowledge - she wouldn't have just still kept it up herself .

Also ref Susan and Neil – now that both the children have left home, and Neil has this very well-paid job at Berriow , does Susan really need to work full time? I'm not saying she should cut her hours to look after Martha but the way they talked about their work it was as if they both needed to work full time to make ends meet ?

There are holes in this storyline that you could drive a Centurion tank through and not touch the sides, that's for sure. Also gaps in it chronologically.

In fact it's a reasonable idea ruined by poor execution, which I have come to expect of The Archers of late.

Shame.