🐷 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!

It won't have been Jazzer, it will have been the police, because they interviewed her about chucking a brick through the shop window. Although there will be just the same speculation in the village, which will stir things up nicely.

It needs investigating (which can mean establishing facts as far as is possible and thence deciding how best to help the family going forward) because children’s services will know, such arrangements can change quickly, for many many reasons. And because a child has a right to contact with both parents if it can be deemed or made safe.

I think Alice does not have trauma just unresolved issues re identity and purpose.

Yes Brian is not grasping anything at the moment. The contrast with Neil is obvious.

Wow, Jazzer was in full flow Glaswegian there. I quite like how they do that sometimes even though it is completely out of keeping with the character’s back story. I understand it though because I’m from that neck of the woods myself. (And do get more Scottish when I’m angry). But I’ve seen similar dialect subtitled on the BBC. The apron and foot elevation were nonsense though- where would Jazzer have even got a plastic apron from?

Ah sorry I pressed post too soon, the pint of the above is that I am wondering if the SWs have decided to go full Shuggie Bain on Jazzer, with the reference to hiding form an alcoholic mother? If anyone has not read that book then I recommend it, if you are ready for a VERY dark story of alcoholic motherhood as a companion to the Alice story.

Yes, apron was silly, but funny. I loved the Glasweigian.

Nice reference from Jazzer to ‘my girl’s sister’, by the way. Really hope Trazza works out...

Yes I thought that too

Trazza ?

How quickly do social services respond to referrals / tipoffs from concerned members of the public @Tulips2019 ?
Seems awfully quick. I was a bit confused if it was still the same day or the next day.

@Taswama

Trazza ?

How quickly do social services respond to referrals / tipoffs from concerned members of the public @Tulips2019 ?
Seems awfully quick. I was a bit confused if it was still the same day or the next day.

In my experience as a teacher it can be the same day depending on the seriousness.

Trazza = Tracy and Jazzer

When Brian and Jennifer were talking before Alice came out of the police station, they indicated they'd been told they could pick her up at ten to nine. I took it that was 20.50 but was it actually 08.50?

The rest of the episode was the day after the incident. I know nothing about these matters, but I'd hope the police would contact social services in a case like this, as soon as they realised that Alice is (a) a heavy drinker and out of control; and (b) mother of a very young baby. SS was probably therefore responding to a report sent through the previous afternoon or evening, or very early that morning.

@HaveringWavering

Wow, Jazzer was in full flow Glaswegian there. I quite like how they do that sometimes even though it is completely out of keeping with the character’s back story. I understand it though because I’m from that neck of the woods myself. (And do get more Scottish when I’m angry). But I’ve seen similar dialect subtitled on the BBC. The apron and foot elevation were nonsense though- where would Jazzer have even got a plastic apron from?

I have a SIL from Glasgow (I’m from the more genteel east of Scotland). She has lived in the south of England for years but when riled can go “full Glasgow”, it’s a sight to be seen and soft southerners are generally quite frightened. She finds it useful at times.

I assumed it was 08:50, the next morning.

It quite amused me when Brian was talking about the whole situation as just one of those bumps in a marriage that you have to get over. He still doesn't realise that he was exceptionally lucky in having a wife as forbearing as JD - also that his little bit of adultery isn't quite the same as alcoholism which puts a very young baby in danger.

When a safeguarding referral comes in it is triaged rated according to risk - red, amber or green. Red would be a same day response. Martha’s very young age would be a contributing factor here as well as the missed appointment with the health visitor, in addition to the probable referral from the police. How would children’s services know that Martha was being primarily cared for by Chris and whether he was protective unless they investigated further?

I have a SIL from Glasgow (I’m from the more genteel east of Scotland). She has lived in the south of England for years but when riled can go “full Glasgow”, it’s a sight to be seen and soft southerners are generally quite frightened. She finds it useful at times.

I'm a southern softie and "full Glasgow" terrifies me.

I thought it was a good touch how Jazzer"s accent became so much stronger when angry, my mum's faint accent always became much stronger when she was riled. I also liked "my girl's sister", nice touch and I laughed at the "Carry on Matron" reference.

I'm glad they've noticed at last that Kirsty seems to be living on air and might need an income. But it might make more sense if they'd built up the fact that she was looking for a job previously.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
When Brian and Jennifer were talking before Alice came out of the police station, they indicated they'd been told they could pick her up at ten to nine. I took it that was 20.50 but was it actually 08.50?

What Brian and Jennifer said at the beginning of the episode was

"How long has it been now?"
"I don't know; about half an hour?"
"Well, that's long enough, surely?"
"It's a police station, Brian. There'll be all sorts going on."
"Yes, but they said be there for ten to nine. Ten to nine. So they were expecting her."

It suggested to me the following morning when she was no longer drunk.

She was expected at the police station at ten to nine. She had gone in to somewhere in the station and not yet come out; Brian apparently thought her interview was going to take less than half an hour. And indeed, she did come out couple of minutes later, so it was a fairly swift interview that she had.

I'd suggest that she accepted a caution and was told (as she said) that she would have to pay for the damage she had done.

In which case the caution is the equivalent of a guilty verdict and goes on her police record, and nothing subsequently said or done by Jim and and Susan would make any difference to that result.

I don't think the Archers editorial team know what a caution actually is: for instance they had Fallon being given a caution by Burns after he'd arrested her for drunk-and-disorderly or the equivalent, and then it had no effect on her life, whereas in fact she would have lost her licence to sell alcohol after a caution for being drunk and violent in a public place.

I actually thought Alice had driven her car into the shop window after Wednesday's cliff-hanger!

Who actually owns the shop building/premises?

I've a hazy idea that it's nasty Hazel Woolley, but I'm probably wrong 🤔

I do ❤ Neil.

I wish he was our Prime Minister! He would do such a good job.

Anyone agree?

@WheresThatCatGoneNow

I do ❤ Neil.

I wish he was our Prime Minister! He would do such a good job.

Anyone agree?

Absolutely!

Why was Helen being so bloody difficult about giving Kirsty a temporary job in the dairy?

It sounded horribly like she thought that the job was so menial, that it was beneath Kirsty's social status in Ambridge.

Which really highlights Helen's snobbery, and reveals her true opinion of Susan and Clarrie, as working-class yokels who should think themselves lucky to be allowed to work for her.

Thoughts, anyone?

It sounded horribly like she thought that the job was so menial, that it was beneath Kirsty's social status in Ambridge.

Weirdly, I'm so accustomed to the social stratification in Ambridge, I completely accepted that exchange without feeling it was worthy of comment. But yes, for Bridge Farm Archers there are two types of people - masters, and servants.

WheresThatCatGoneNow
Why was Helen being so bloody difficult about giving Kirsty a temporary job in the dairy?

The explanation she gave was that she was fed up with being beholden to Kirsty, though she didn't put it that bluntly.

Neil would not make a good prime minister.