🐷 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!

Brian and Jenny think that having bought their way out of the smashed up village shop they can now buy Alice out of her alcoholism. Interesting that Tony made the link with his father's drinking - I was hoping Peggy would turn up at that point. Jenny and Lilian saying "No, no no - Alice is nothing like dad" and Peggy pointing out that actually she is and that she was the one who told Chris to leave. I think Lilian's drinking is being held up to perhaps make the point that some people can drink (rather a lot!) and not be alcoholic, but that being surrounded by drinkers (including Brian) is not going to be helpful for Alice. I also liked Jenny's observation that happy, cheerful Alice - the one she thinks of as Alice being herself - is in fact drunk Alice (as opposed to very drunk Alice).
I didn't mind the yoghurt slapstick as I thought that was actually a way of breaking the ice between Kirsty and Clarrie who you could feel was slightly uncomfortable with the fact that Helen's best pal was going to joining her in the dairy. Lee couldn't sound any worse - action figures in the living room and Bruce Lee (framed or not) in the bedroom.

Why do some of the Archers refer to their aunts and uncles by their first name while others don't. Is it an age thing? Helen mentioned calling Jennifer. I recall Alice always refers to uncle Tony. David is uncle David to the twins, Adam only ever says Lillian..

I've always assumed, Eastie77, that forms of address in Ambridge depend entirely on the SW's perceived need to enlighten the new listener on family relationships between characters.

What annoys me more is when Pat (!) for example, speaking to Pip says "Is David around?" rather than "Is your dad around?". Because then it sounds as if the SW doesn't know David is Pip's father ...

Surely Helen has seen Lee's bedroom and knows about the Bruce Lee picture, models etc? She was a bit naive if she thought he was going to bin it in favour of naice wallpaper or similar.

My prediction: either several comedy discussions before she indulgently "lets" him have a man cave to keep all of that in. Or the boys think it's all fantastically cool and she gets persuaded to leave everything alone.

What annoys me more is when Pat (!) for example, speaking to Pip says "Is David around?" rather than "Is your dad around?". Because then it sounds as if the SW doesn't know David is Pip's father ... This.

It might be an age thing. At least one of my aunts asked me to drop 'Aunty' before her name as I got older.

"What annoys me more is when Pat (!) for example, speaking to Pip says "Is David around?" rather than "Is your dad around?". Because then it sounds as if the SW doesn't know David is Pip's father"

Good point! My granny would never have called my dad "David" rather than "your dad", would have seemed really weird.

I also think all the ridiculous "Auntie X" "uncle Y" stuff is clumsy scripting, I'm sure there's the occasional "Cousin Z" as well. The kids do seem to be allowed to mainly grow out of it but much later than RL children - can't imagine any teenager I know saying "Auntie Julie is here"

I also think all the ridiculous "Auntie X" "uncle Y" stuff is clumsy scripting

I’m not so sure. I am 48 and still always call my uncles and aunts as Uncle/Auntie. Dropping their title would feel very wrong and disrespectful though I note my younger brother has no such qualms.

I could never go out, let alone live with, a guy with a superhero collection and framed Bruce Lee poster. I would far prefer Tony with his model railways...

Zzelda
It's particularly crass to say an alcoholic capable of heaving bricks around when crossed can come to live with you without checking whether your partner is OK with that.

Luckily, all Tony suggested was that Alice might like to spend the day at Bridge Farm.

@Roysnewshirt

I also think all the ridiculous "Auntie X" "uncle Y" stuff is clumsy scripting

I’m not so sure. I am 48 and still always call my uncles and aunts as Uncle/Auntie. Dropping their title would feel very wrong and disrespectful though I note my younger brother has no such qualms.

I could never go out, let alone live with, a guy with a superhero collection and framed Bruce Lee poster. I would far prefer Tony with his model railways...

Roysnewshirt I’m not so sure. I am 48 and still always call my uncles and aunts as Uncle/Auntie. Dropping their title would feel very wrong and disrespectful though I note my younger brother has no such qualms.

I have heard Shula (62) speak of "Auntie Lilian" -- and Lilian isn't even her aunt!

I am over 50 and call all my uncles Uncle Name and all my aunts Auntie Name.
My parents' friends are Uncle Name or Auntie Name.

Some of my cousins just use the first names of aunts and uncles, which I find disrespectful, although obviously most of my relatives are very nice people.

When I speak to DN, I use terms like your mother/father/grandfather/grandmother. Strangely, I prefer them not to call me Auntie ILoveShula.

Yes ... My younger nephews have always called me by my name - I felt Aunt or Auntie would be distancing and strange. But one grown up relative insists on calling me Aunt, presumably because they think using my name would be disrespectful. Even though I've told them ...

I don't really mind the Auntie ILoveShula to much, it's the Auntie Ile I don' like.

We don't speak to each other in English, and I really mind them using the informal form of you,
One should use the formal form for your elders and for people you don't know.

I have a friend who is older than her uncle and she calls him by his first name. Other than that I can't think of anyone who calls their parents siblings anything other than Aunt or Uncle x. I'm quite close in age to a niece and it does feel a bit odd when she calls me Auntie Eastie but not at all when her very young children do the same.

I understand various scriptwriters might use Aunt and Uncle to signpost family relationships. I have to say if I'd only started listening to the Archers recently I'd have no idea Helen and Alice are related. Helen has made only passing references to her and seems much more concerned about a Bruce Lee poster.

@theThreeofWeevils

I quite enjoyed Tony's notion that spending a day at Bridge Farm - Bridge Farm, ffs - would distract Alish from thoughts of Drink. A three-hipflask mission, minimum, for a Salvation Army Colonel, that.

I laughed reading this while listening to the repeat. I can imagine Pat offering Alice some leek and potato soup while Tony suggests that packing a few veg boxes will take her mind off drinking alcohol.

I mentioned this before so sorry for the repeat but I am fairly sure the scriptwriters are deliberately not mentioning AA. AA is not a typical charity which would welcome getting a higher media profile via a soap plot. It is clear from Alice's conversation about not wanting to give up drinking, references to her buddy Lisa and going to the support group that we are meant to assume she is trying to follow a typical AA 12 step programme. I really doubt AA would take kindly to direct references to their work unless Alice was going to be 100% sober very quickly. AA works for a lot of people but it is a very inward, some would say secretive organisation.

Of course, Chris should have got support (or at least had the nous to look up a few websites months ago). I know that during the Rob/Helen drama, the scriptwriters spoke to people involved with Women's Aid:

www.womensaid.org.uk/the-drama-of-domestic-abuse-womens-aid-the-archers/

If I were a media person for The Carers Trust or Carers UK, I would be badgering The Archers production team to have Chris get in touch with his local Carers Centre where there would be a worker whose job was to support carers of people with substance misuse problems:

carers.org/caring-for-someone-with-a-specific-condition/alcohol-substance-misuse-and-addiction

I seem to remember that one of the organisations consulted about the Rob/Helen abuse storyline expressed a lack of pleasure about the stabbing, and thereafter went silent about the whole business, rather as the Nuffield Trust was at first quite pleased to mention that they had been part of an Archers storyline, but stopped doing so when they found out what had happened in that storyline. Tom absolutely is not a good advertisement as someone with a Nuffield scholarship, and his behaviour about it was absurd and nothing like any actual Nuffield scholarship holder.

That's interesting Asking. I certainly felt that a custodial sentence for Helen was not helpful for people in coercive relationships, even if it made for a dramatic storyline. It's also true that Tom - and Natasha too - are not exactly good advertisements for The Nuffield Trust.

It's a fine line for charities to tread. They get more publicity but ultimately limited control over the storyline.

Still, if Pip applied for a Churchill Fellowship that would certainly cheer up ILoveShula, albeit it wouldn't be a permanent exit.

I see they mentioned Alice's horse again. Maybe we will get an equine therapist:
www.priorygroup.com/priory-treatment-programmes/therapy-types/equine-therapy

I know Jenny and her siblings aren't especially bright but I can't believe that they would still not have thrown money at the problem. Justin must have loads of contacts in the City who had to stop drinking.

Lee "has no hidden depths"

You're right there, Helen.

Still, if Pip applied for a Churchill Fellowship that would certainly cheer up ILoveShula, albeit it wouldn't be a permanent exit.

I'd like the Personailty Transplant Fairy to do the doings on Pip.

Maybe Lee was winding Helen up about the drum kit.

I’m sure there’s a barn or two at Bridge Farm. Bringing a drum kit into a house with four people (and Lee’s visiting daughters) is seriously shitty.

@BeardieWeirdie

I’m sure there’s a barn or two at Bridge Farm. Bringing a drum kit into a house with four people (and Lee’s visiting daughters) is seriously shitty.

And it might annoy her next door (Joy).

Helen's going to stab this one too, isn't she? Please And for once I might sympathise.

@theThreeofWeevils

Helen's going to stab this one too, isn't she? Please And for once I might sympathise.

This! If the banging doesn't do it, surely she's going to be bored shitless by him? He's so insipid.