🐷 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!

nettie434
Emma also seems to have forgotten when Ed fell out of the tree at one of Alice's birthday parties.

I think it was Alice who fell out of the tree, or rather thought she could fly.
Lowfield, Thursday 24th August, 2017
Alice decides she wants to climb a tree and Tracy agrees but Ed tries to stop them. It is too dangerous and both women have been drinking heavily. Alice won't listen and Tracy is a willing follower.
...
Raucous noise comes from the tree area. Tracy is too fearful to climb down but she agrees to jump if Ed catches her. This is too tame for Alice who declares she is Superwoman who can fly; she decides to jump without looking. She thinks it is great fun but Emma is very angry because Alice jumped onto Ed and Chris without worrying how she might land on them. Emma is furious that Ed or Chris could have been badly injured because of Alice's thoughtlessness. The night is over as far as she is concerned. Tracy jeers at Emma playing the damp squib, Ed bids a hasty farewell and Chris expresses mild worry to Alice. Alice, however, ignores any concerns and calls for more drink and new adventures.

nettie434
this time her anger was justified

Her anger, possibly (what has she to be angry about exactly?), but there is never any justification for the aggressive way Emma expresses anger over anything at all that has upset her by not being as she wanted -- attacking whoever she decides is responsible even when what has happened was in fact nothing to do with them. She badly needs an anger management course. Her flying off the handle at whoever she has decided to attack this time is not going to help anyone.

TherapistInATabard
I also had a ‘hang on, has she been drinking’ moment.

What the BBC synopsis for last night says says is, "Realising Alice may be drunk right now, he tells her to get out."

That suggests that they are implying that she is, and he finally notices; if it were entirely his paranoid imagination, they ought really to have used a different word: "assuming" or "thinking" or "feeling that perhaps" wouldn't be quite so easily interpreted as "he becomes aware that she is".

I was just reflecting on Hollie Chapman’s acting really. As gasp said it was the subtle raising of her voice and slight change in intonation, I realised just before Chris mentioned it that she sounded like she’d been drinking.

So it's been a week since the "Christening that wasn't" and still nobody has thought to contact a counselling service or health professional to ask for advice. I feel certain that Shula would have come to the rescue

I hope Peggy has a better go at explaining "oh I've known for nearly 5 months but didn't think it was worth mentioning"! Surely Peggy would have dropped it into a conversation with Kate before/after she went to the onesie-wearing baby shower.

Is Hollie Chapman in anything else? She is a great radio actress.

Is it too late to complain about Shula being a right cow to Susan the other day in the shop? I'm sure she's never made a mistake in her life, but she was laying on the "well you better sort it out!!" about the papers jolly thick. I presume if there's an email system or whatever to send those messages, there must be something just as quick to send an apology. And then she's all gracious about talking to her family to intercede on behalf of the lowly Susan. Eyeroll city.

I am wondering whether this is likely to lead to a rethink by/about the Aldridges' drinking in general. Kate has got incredibly drunk and humiliated herself in the past too (swimming pool thing). Brian and Jenny seem to be 75% red wine. Lillian is 100% proof gin. I don't know how many years or decades back this goes but I presume when it started it was more a sign of their slight poshness? (Wine and gin instead of Shires and cider).

Tell me an Archers Academic has presented on booze in Ambridge?

@TherapistInATabard

It is not too late. Shula was so rude and unsupportive.

I also thought Shula was a bit unpleasant. There was no need to run salt in the wound and go about the fact the reminders were actually a 'demand' for payment when Susan was obviously so upset. She was behaving as if a simple mistake had almost driven poor Aunt Peggy to her grave.

Who is surprised Shula was unpleasant? Any chance to point out someone else’s shortcomings, in the guise of concern over her hard as nails Aunt Peggy who is more than capable of sticking up for herself.

@Eastie77

I also thought Shula was a bit unpleasant. There was no need to run salt in the wound and go about the fact the reminders were actually a 'demand' for payment when Susan was obviously so upset. She was behaving as if a simple mistake had almost driven poor Aunt Peggy to her grave.

I know! I thought Future Vicar would be giving her some flipping pastoral care - even if only to keep up the show - but oh no.

"her hard as nails Aunt Peggy" made me laugh. It's true, if it was Peggy after a debt I can picture her going round with a baseball bat to get her money if necessary rather than sending out a polite demand.

Oh dear ... Re the shop.

Oh, for goodness sake! Re the dairy. As If.

Oh, no!

Logically I might have expected that to be Alice’s car driving through the shop. But no engine noise so am not sure what it was. Sounded like bottles rather than a window? Hope they upload it soon so I can do acoustic analysis!!

Eh up. Someone's in trouble.

Brick through the window?

Brick's hit Susan?

I also thought it was a car, then brick, then wondered if Susan collapsed from stress and fell against the bottles.

Absolutely excellent scene in the shop. Such a dilemma for Jim. Great writing and sharp delivery - Boops all round!

Meanwhile, what a great opportunity for Curd-sty to live up to her name by finding a job in the dairy. I thought we were going to enjoy a little suspense re what legacy from Philip Helen would find in the shed, but no, the mystery was where Curd-sty found the shed key...whoever could have guessed it was in her dressing gown!! Sigh...

A blinder of an episode!

Alice was already drunk by the sound of her. She has either lobbed a brick/bottle throgh the window or driven into it (mistook forward for reverse gear?'). Either way, Susan has been damaged.

Will Alish be done for drunk driving or assault?

This will no doubt be the incident that makes the Aldridges finally realise the true extent of the problem and take some sort of definitive action.

Poor Susan.

I think it was a rock through the window. Susan and Jim should have called the police as soon as she left to say that a drunk woman had just left the shop and gotten into her car. She was clearly going to crash into someone in that state. I don’t care if pisshead Alice kills herself but drink driving at risk to others is unforgivable.

Yes absolutely drunk. She'd presumably already finished any alcohol she had stashed in the house and the desperation was clear

This storyline is incredibly frustrating. I have family members and friends who have struggled with addiction. This story could be really useful for showing the ways to help an addict as well as showing that lapses are not the end of the world.

Instead they’re doing a masterclass in how NOT to treat an addict (bar Jenny) while also making her entirely unsympathetic.

What is the point of this storyline?!

@BeardieWeirdie

I think it was a rock through the window. Susan and Jim should have called the police as soon as she left to say that a drunk woman had just left the shop and gotten into her car. She was clearly going to crash into someone in that state. I don’t care if pisshead Alice kills herself but drink driving at risk to others is unforgivable.

They didn't really have time to call anyone before the crash though, did they?

Pretty sure Harrison is breathalysing her right now. Night in the cells?

It didn't sound like a car, more like a brick.

I assumed it was a brick.