🧱 Archers thread #128: Alice lobs a brick, Emma hurls brickbats, Neil is a brick. Cement your relationship with The Archers here.

[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 collect superhero figures, or other unusual things.

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.)

Apologies for not using any of the suggestions offered for this thread's title. I'll paste them in here instead to get us started.

I like the leeway pun here from @ThePawtriarchy: Bacon, Bores and Booze. Elizabeth needs convincing, Helen needs some leeway and Alice is in crisis.

@nettie434 gets to the nub of what's been happening recently: Beechwood, Batman and Booze: Rex's pigs and Helen and Lee have new homes but will Lee's collection of action figures plant the apple of discord in their sylvan idyll? Alice's alcohol problems continue to cause friction between the Aldridges and Carters. Has anyone warned Borsetshire Children's Services what awaits them?

Great one liner from @PseudoBadger - ‘Nobody puts Captain America in the corner’.

And a timely bit of advice from @JanFebAnyMonth: If this evening’s episode has raised any issues for you, please call the BBC Helpline post on this MN thread for details of organisations which might help you.

So, off we go again! We may get back to five episodes a week before the next thread. Here's hoping that it's Friday we get back, not Sunday.

“aeronautical industry based around Malvern” I’d never thought of it as aeronautical. Radar. The aeronautical bit was a necessary add-on. Or has it changed emphasis during its more recent manifestations?
Nothing is 'pure' any more. Nobody is just an Accountant, they are also a business consultants; nobody is just a Bank Manager, they are also financial products salespeople; Grocery businesses will also sell you mobile phones; etc.
I'm not saying that Malvern is only Radar or only aeronautics; I'm saying that Alice could have found a job there.

R4
I'm not saying that Malvern is only Radar or only aeronautics; I'm saying that Alice could have found a job there.

If she had been good enough. It seems likely (going by her record) that she wouldn't have been.

And if she had been, they wouldn't have appreciated her properly nor given her the adulation she required, so she wouldn't have stayed there. Turned down by the RAF and after her training two jobs which both let her go and made no effort whatever to keep her doesn't make me feel she has ever been particularly stellar.

@Prestissimo I wish I'd written your comment. It's exactly everything I was thinking. Was shouting at the radio when Meeur (who I do like) was trying to get all that plastic recycled. I did wonder if that was an intentional way of belittling her, emphasising her age.

@Taswama

Defence in general really - cyber security increasingly in Malvern.

Yeah, I always think of the aeronautical industry as being about designing and building the aeroplanes themselves, with radar and weapons as add-ons. Probably irrelevant - Alice could have found herself a job there. Eminently commutable from Ambridge, so stimulating cutting-edge career during the week and country life at the weekend. (What's the night life like in Malvern ?)

Doesn't the mantra go "refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle"? Eddie wouldn't buy what he didn't need, so he presumably refuses everything else and thus also has reduced his plastic use, and he is clearly reusing and almost certainly repurposing in the process; Mia has leaped straight to recycle ignoring the four that come before it. Recycle is the last resort, not the first.

Rethink at the beginning and rot at the end are also sometimes added, but I don't think the last applies to plastic, and it's a bit much to ask Eddie to think too much let alone do it repeatedly... And some people add repair, but again, I am not sure that applies to plastics and as a Grundy I am sure Eddie gets the most use out of anything which it would cost him money to replace, so repair is simply part of his usual lifestyle.

as a Grundy I am sure Eddie gets the most use out of anything which it would cost him money to replace, so repair is simply part of his usual lifestyle.
To be fair, doesn't that apply to a lot of farmers? They tend to have old, it-might-come-in-useful stuff hanging around. They have the acreage to allow hoarding storage, unlike most of us.

Nightlife in Malvern? Well the theatre has good stuff on, but that's about it.

@R4

as a Grundy I am sure Eddie gets the most use out of anything which it would cost him money to replace, so repair is simply part of his usual lifestyle. To be fair, doesn't that apply to a lot of farmers? They tend to have old, it-might-come-in-useful stuff hanging around. They have the acreage to allow hoarding storage, unlike most of us.

True. But I think Mia is onto a loser with trying to coerce farmers into changing their ways; they are not likely to be that much in need of her instruction not to waste things! Which of course recycling all that useful stuff would be, only she hasn't grasped that.

She ran up against a brick wall called "facts" when she started to accuse Eddie of being bad for the environment, too; he doesn't keep cattle, and even if he did, grass-fed cattle on a small scale aren't particularly bad for the environment anyway -- nothing like as bad as soya grown where there used to be carbon-sink rainforests and brought to the UK over goodness knows how many miles of polluting ship-travel.

re BTECs. I missed the episode so don't know if they said what George is studying.

1. As a PP correctly pointed out, an Extended Diploma is 'worth' 3 A levels in terms of UCAS points. Yes, you won't be able to go to Bristol to read English with one, but for someone following a vocation route they can be very worthwhile.
2. DD1 did a BTEC and the requirements to get Distinctions were hard (and generally beyond her).
3. DD2 is off to agricultural college in September (health permitting). This isn't the course she is doing, but you could see why a BTEC might be a good option for someone in the countryside: www.sparsholt.ac.uk/courses/agriculture-with-options-level-3/

How exciting, Teen! Does this mean we might have our own Agricultural Adviser in due course? Fingers crossed she is OK to go in the autumn.

Gasp Not an agricultural advisor, but she may be able to advise on the keeping and care of small animals such as cats, dogs, ferrets(??) & reptiles.

At my grandson's school it is apparently 'a thing' to use the expression 'a BTEC [such and such]' as one might say ' a Poundshop [such and such]' as in an inferior version. I have had a word with them about it.

Good for you, Captain! I can't stand the snobbery around vocational education/training in the UK.

To be honest I think MMM (3xMerit) on an extended BTEC might be much more use than CCC at A level. They are 'worth' the same, but the BTEC person will have practical knowledge that can be taken straight to a relevant job, the A level person won't.

Anyway, I'm enjoying TA at the moment, it's providing me with gentle listening away from the stress of life.

They are 'worth' the same, but the BTEC person will have practical knowledge that can be taken straight to a relevant job, the A level person won't. Same applies to eg a maths first with a sandwich year from a "former polytechnic" and a conventional maths first from an MN-accepted university. The "former polytechnic" degree gives you some insight into application and allows you to apply for jobs which require experience. (Less use if you want to be a theoretical mathematician though.)

Good grief- boop for Ed. Is JD really so tactless?

The Grundys really are just a resource for the aristos, aren't they?

Where TF was Jennifer when Ed n Emma had to abandon their house purchase? Ed wasn't quite so fascinating that week, was he?

Jennifer going round the village begging for understanding reminded me of Emma's desperate pleading for money for her house.

A friend’s son did a business BTEC & then did physics at Leicester, another friends daughter did a BTEC & then nursing at Southampton. Perfectly good way of studying after GCSEs especially if you don’t suit exams.

(Though these days all BTECs do have at least exams I believe.)

Jennifer seems to have forgotten that she knew an addict a bit closer to home. Did it not occur to her that her own mother might be able to offer a first-hand account of how to cope with living with an addict. Weird they decided not to go down that path. There is no way she has had such an epiphany and lightbulb understanding of addiction that she believes Alice’s love for a nice Merlot is the same as a Grundy being addicted to crack cocaine...

Maybe she feels that since Jack Archer died almost fifty years ago, and since Peggy was not herself an addict, the more recent experience of somebody who was an addict about how he stopped being one might be more relevant?

JD asked Eddie about his route to recovery. Jack Archer didn't recover from his alcoholism, did he?

I love everyone saying "Eddie wouldn't buy what he didn't need" when Eddie has literally just bought a limousine.

@Darker

Jennifer going round the village begging for understanding reminded me of Emma's desperate pleading for money for her house.

And what a bitch JD was to her on that occasion