🧱 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.

BoreOfWhabylon

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

Was she? I don't remember Emma asking Jennifer for anything on that occasion: perhaps she was ashamed to, after her vicious attack on Adam and Brian (after which Adam told her exactly why Ed had been asked to leave Home Farm) and her having been unpleasant to and about Jennifer for several years now. And Jennifer was not in the cast between 16th June and 21st August, 2019, while Ed's job was lost on 26th July, and the mortgage was lost on 2nd August.

Emma tried to get money from Peggy, yes, who wasn't particularly impressed about the prospect of her money being returned; Kate was rude and told Emma to get out. Ruth was unsympathetic, and Oliver was kindly but said he couldn't help. And Jim told her that her request was inappropriate, possibly because she framed it as "we work together on the PC". Helen managed not to realise what Emma was trying to ask for. Will offered Ed a loan, and so did Neil, but Emma told them what they offered wasn't enough, and was very nasty to Neil about his mere £15,000 and Chris offering only £1900. She also picked a fight with Fallon, not once but twice, because Fallon wasn't prepared to pretend she was employing Ed.

@CeciledeVolanges

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

It’s probably a re-used limousine, though

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime I have clearly misremembered then

Apologies to JD

I do remember Jennifer being opposed to the new houses at Beechwood being built at all: was it then? She and Emma had a blazing row at the parish council meeting about them, and Emma was quite remarkably unpleasant even for Emma, but Jennifer had said some tactless things about the sort of people who would probably move into the village if they were built. It was after that Emma decided to stand for the council, I think.

That might have been it

the sort of people who would probably move into the village
Looking at the indigenous / established denizens, one would have expected any new blood to represent a considerable improvement.
But along came Joy...

Oh, and are we really supposed to believe a) that neither Kate nor Brian had said anything to the twittering imbecile about Emma spewing bile in the Willow hingmy kitchen; or b) that knowing that JD still went spilling her guts and grovelling to the quondam crackhead and full-time lunkhead Ed?

Pull the other one: a pleasant tinkling sound will ensue (also profuse apologies and the offer of tissues).

I'm still waiting for Brian to apologise to Fallon for how he spoke to her before the christening.

More chance of Harrison finding the (still?) missing bunting though.

Somebody loves you, AlexCabot!

I find it hard to believe J&B have not, up to now, been spending every waking hour googling 'How to help my alcoholic daughter.'

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

BoreOfWhabylon

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

Was she? I don't remember Emma asking Jennifer for anything on that occasion: perhaps she was ashamed to, after her vicious attack on Adam and Brian (after which Adam told her exactly why Ed had been asked to leave Home Farm) and her having been unpleasant to and about Jennifer for several years now. And Jennifer was not in the cast between 16th June and 21st August, 2019, while Ed's job was lost on 26th July, and the mortgage was lost on 2nd August.

Emma tried to get money from Peggy, yes, who wasn't particularly impressed about the prospect of her money being returned; Kate was rude and told Emma to get out. Ruth was unsympathetic, and Oliver was kindly but said he couldn't help. And Jim told her that her request was inappropriate, possibly because she framed it as "we work together on the PC". Helen managed not to realise what Emma was trying to ask for. Will offered Ed a loan, and so did Neil, but Emma told them what they offered wasn't enough, and was very nasty to Neil about his mere £15,000 and Chris offering only £1900. She also picked a fight with Fallon, not once but twice, because Fallon wasn't prepared to pretend she was employing Ed.

A very helpful run down. Lawd I had forgotten how dreadful she was.

(I am a regular poster on here but recently name changed as a general regular precaution when I’m worried I’ve said too much about myself on other threads)

@AlexCabot

I'm still waiting for Brian to apologise to Fallon for how he spoke to her before the christening.

More chance of Harrison finding the (still?) missing bunting though.

Your wish is their command! Can you sort out some of the other gaps in continuity for us? The bunting was found a while back, but there is always the floating bedroom, or the lack of wedding bookings for the rebuilt-after-the-fire-in-2012 Mediaeval Barn at Brookfield.

Finally someone mentions rehab.

Sadly, always think of Amy Winehouse when I hear the word rehab

I don't think I'll be replacing the crystal ball any time soon, even a stopped clock and all that!

Shame! You could do so much good....

It's as if the Aldridges had never heard of Alcoholics Anonymous or Al-Anon.

Or this a Dummy's Guide to Alcoholism by the SWs?

Also Brian's shock that she may need rehab. I'm not sure I understand why Alice agreed to move in with them. I also wonder where she's getting her money from as she's no longer working.

I do however, like the different approaches. Fallon's sympathy and understanding vs Jazzer saying its all her fault. That's realistic in my opinion.

I’m sure Alice is still on maternity leave @cameocat. She probably moved in with them thinking she didn’t want to live in the marital home without Chris & Martha.

@LizziesTwinof course, sorry I totally forgot that they had given her the job on the farm and hadn't noticed her drinking (despite Ed noticing).

I still think she would have been more likely to stay in the cottage though rather than move in with her utterly clueless and lecturing parents.

Very much enjoyed having Brian in virtually every scene last night! May be it is quite realistic he wouldn’t have known the difference between detox and rehab about three weeks ago, but he certainly would know it by now.

By the way, I am actually quite surprised that Jazza is being so judgmental. I know he mentioned memories of a negligent mother but as someone who drinks heavily and makes Homebrew I am actually quite surprised he isn’t more aware of the dangers of alcohol...

I still think she would have been more likely to stay in the cottage
Me too. It's pretty unbelievable. So is Brian's - and presumably JD's and the broader family's - utter cluelessness about treatment and rehab. I would have expected, say, Justin, to have waded in with spluttered recommendations of some splendid little place that sorted out old Buffy Toshington when he started raving about lavender rats...

Brian thinking rehab to be something he could impose by paying for rather than a path Alice needs to choose for herself was about right, though I'm getting a bit sick of the 'humbled Aldridges beholden to honest yokels and their simple wisdom' scenarios.

I find that fairly realistic. Jazzer knows, or thinks he knows, that he can handle drink. Alice can't and has behaved very badly under the influence many times. Jazzer's thinking is very black and white. He sees an extremely privileged young woman whose family would pay for her to get professional help. She seems to have had everything and is throwing it away, including her new baby, to whom Jazzer feels a strong bond because he helped with her birth. Jazzer, Ed and their circle have had much tougher lives than Alice and only a fraction of her opportunities, but haven't become alcoholics.

(A less black and white thinker might be uneasily conscious of the possible health damage from heavy drinking falling short of outright addiction, but Jazzer wouldn't.)

And yes, if his mother was frequently drunk and neglectful, especially if she was also sometimes abusive, it would be quite surprising if Jazzer felt sympathy for Alice. He isn't close to his family as far as we know.

Pity about the rain in Ambridge, while the rest of the country enjoys glorious sunshine, but their microclimate is often out of step with ours, for some reason.

Fallon was reluctant to go out with Chris as it would look as if she and Harrison were taking sides yet she decides to accompany Alice to the pub

Jazzer was selling potent alcohol to underage drinkers a few months ago so ordinarily he wouldn't care about Alice's drinking. I suppose he is being so judgemental because she has a baby.

You're missing out the double standard, Gasp0de. Tsk. A drunk woman is seen as transgressive in a way a drunken man never is, and doubly so if A Mother; and Jazzer is a misogynist and a hypocrite at bottom deeply conventional and conservative.

Oh yes, that too!

@Ghostontoast1

Sadly, always think of Amy Winehouse when I hear the word rehab

Me too.