🧱 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.

Thanks for the shiny new thread @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g, great title.

Anyone else enjoying Hannah being awol?
Now is the perfect time for her to stage a palace coup at the piggery. Even when not distracted by an angsting farrier*, a malfunctioning and still slightly sparkly spousal unit and a baby ('I'd sooner have rats!') in the house, he has been shown to be incompetent at managerial duties with no direct porcine connection in the past. So good luck to her.

*the opposite of an harmonious blacksmith, really

'He' = Neil, of course.

The 🔮 is of the opinion that someone has done away with Hannah and fed her to the pigs.

Have quite enjoyed bits these last two week, although Ian's horror at Adam suggesting they spend what can't have been more than about 4 hours helping a friend reminded me how boring and unlikeable he is. I must re-listen. I heard it as Ian offering and Adam saying "are you out of your mind".

So I am really confused as to why the property wasn’t seized as part of proceeds of crime. Unless his other assets were seized and covered it. I've a vague memory of a "flat" being seized. The stable?

She was mentioned the other day, when Neil and Brian were discussing figures. Neil suggested he could wait, if Hannah needed to look over the nurse first; Brian said no.

So one of them must be guilty.

For nurse, read numbers.

Can anyone explain the point of autocorrect to me?

Wondrously begun, Gasp0de - thank you!

Wonder what sort of party MNHQ is preparing for our 125,000th post?

I scoffed silently when someone said on the previous thread that Rob might be about to materialize in Ambridge. But so much talk this week of Lee being there to look after and protect the boys ... It does rather strongly suggest the Insufficiently Punctured Man is already striding purposefully towards Beechwood.

So many questions around the rental. Do we assume that Phil signed the tenancy agreement? What happens when he comes out and needs somewhere to live, even if that is in several years' time? Is the property mortgaged, and has the mortgage company agreed to it being sublet?

Can anyone explain the point of autocorrect to me? It's beyond enraging when you're trying to type something with a lot of scientific plant names in it. Desktop is OK - it just puts red lines under everything. But tablet and phone lets you type it in, all 13 letters of it, and as soon as you hit "space" it changes it to some meaningless combination of short English words. It's made worse by it being so comparatively difficult to highlight on tablet and phone.

Thank you. I needed that space to rant.

I also said the Captain America line @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g so don't worry! Haven't bothered looking to see who said it first
Thanks for the thread! 8 years indeed. My DD who was just a bump then is now sitting on the sofa scowling at me...

@Zzelda

So many questions around the rental. Do we assume that Phil signed the tenancy agreement? What happens when he comes out and needs somewhere to live, even if that is in several years' time? Is the property mortgaged, and has the mortgage company agreed to it being sublet?

Yes, I was wondering that. I can't remember his sentence - was it 12 years? So he'll be out in 6. Helen doesn't strike me as someone who will move somewhere knowing she's out on her ear in 6 years. And neither Helen nor Lee strike me as able to save enough to buy a 4 bed detached in 6 years.They haven't thought it through, have they?

Has Kirsty drawn up a rental agreement? Maybe not, since Helen's a friend. Has Kirsty understood her responsibilities as a landlord? Will the friendship endure the first time the boiler breaks down? Will Kirsty be paying income tax on the money received in rent?

So many questions around the rental. Do we assume that Phil signed the tenancy agreement?

I seem to remember the house went to Kirsty after the flat paid off the proceeds of crime. Unlikely, unless the horses were staying in a flat in Knightsbridge.

I suppose we will only find out if Kirsty is paying tax on the rent in January when it’s self-assessment time. Oh. No, of course we won’t as people in Ambridge don’t seem to pay taxes. God knows what council tax band
the house is in...

I meant to mention the scene with Helen and Lee listening to the birds in the garden. Helen would be used to watching the swifts and swallows swooping and catching flies over Bridge Farms beautiful fields, full of her Montbelliards. She wouldn’t be pausing for a moment to enjoy it from Brookside Close. She would so obviously hate to live on an estate.

@EBearhug

For nurse, read numbers.

Can anyone explain the point of autocorrect to me?

No, but I can tell you that there is something worse. Recording online lectures this year we used auto-captioning to create subtitles. Not having the precise American accent it understands the system often has to guess what I’ve said. It’s favourite guess is “Arab violence” for something very innocuous that I say quite often (which doesn’t include either Arab or violence, or anything even vaguely similar). It also routinely changes “doesn’t” to “does” and “must not” to “must”, as in “you must talk to each other during online exams”. Editing the captions takes hours, and is soul destroying beyond belief but leaving in some of the awful, inappropriate phrases it produces would be a disaster.

I was on a call last week with auto-captioning. It was better than I expected, but did struggle with the speaker's Northern Ireland accent. And there were interesting results on the captioning of a technical talk I gave...

Anyway -
I meant to mention the scene with Helen and Lee listening to the birds in the garden. Helen would be used to watching the swifts and swallows swooping and catching flies over Bridge Farms beautiful fields, full of her Montbelliards. She wouldn’t be pausing for a moment to enjoy it from Brookside Close.

I grew up with loads of birdsong, but I still like to stop and listen to it, even if it's not as much in town.

Adam hasn't paid the electrician for the re-wiring, has he???

This is so intriguing! What's gone wrong? If they're so hard up how is Ian not aware of the fact?

And neither Helen nor Lee strike me as able to save enough to buy a 4 bed detached in 6 years.

A very few months ago Helen was all fired up to buy the Beechwood house from Kirsty and Philip (when they were to move to Wales.) She had apparently done all the calculations and was confident she could get a mortgage / keep up repayments / whatever. She would have had the cushion of whatever's left of the £900k Bridge Farm got for the Beechwood estate land.

(Don't get me started again on the ridiculousness of buying a built house on land you previously owned and could surely have built on yourself, at a fraction of the cost.)

@BoreOfWhabylon

The 🔮 is of the opinion that someone has done away with Hannah and fed her to the pigs.

One can hope.

@MereDintofPandiculation

Can anyone explain the point of autocorrect to me? It's beyond enraging when you're trying to type something with a lot of scientific plant names in it. Desktop is OK - it just puts red lines under everything. But tablet and phone lets you type it in, all 13 letters of it, and as soon as you hit "space" it changes it to some meaningless combination of short English words. It's made worse by it being so comparatively difficult to highlight on tablet and phone.

On Android, you can turn off autocorrect. Don't know about Apple, but I'd be surprised if they haven't made it possible.

And while I think: I am not sure why we have been assuming a four-bedroomed house. When Phil bought it, he was expecting to be a in a couple, but not to be having children; why would he have bought more than three bedrooms?

I wonder what the story is with Ian and Adam's finances? They keep mentioning the electrics.

They don't appear to ever go out or go on holiday. Xander never goes near a nursery or childminder?

Perhaps Ian has been ordering in from Daylesford Organic!

TBF I'm not sure what Kate, Alice and Phoebe are living on either.

@MereDintofPandiculation

Have quite enjoyed bits these last two week, although Ian's horror at Adam suggesting they spend what can't have been more than about 4 hours helping a friend reminded me how boring and unlikeable he is. I must re-listen. I heard it as Ian offering and Adam saying "are you out of your mind".

So I am really confused as to why the property wasn’t seized as part of proceeds of crime. Unless his other assets were seized and covered it. I've a vague memory of a "flat" being seized. The stable?

I thought I'd replied to this but can't see it, so I guess I've posted randomly on another thread, oops!

Anyway, you're right, it was Ian offering and Adam drawling "Are. You. Out. Of. Your. Miiiiiind".

Autocorrect does not like drawling. Why would I mean drawing?!

Wonder what sort of party MNHQ is preparing for our 125,000th post?

@MayIDestroyYou

As you'll see from the 100th thread celebrations, we did engage MNHQ on getting a new smiley, so match the one we got at 50,000 post --> , but it petered out in 2019 and came to nothing.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3510091-ONE-HUNDRED-NOT-OUT-come-here-to-mark-The-Archers-threads-a-MN-phenomenon?pg=8

When Phil bought it, he was expecting to be a in a couple, but not to be having children; why would he have bought more than three bedrooms? Because a house is an expression of your success at work.

4 bedrooms = living room, dining room, dining kitchen, bedroom, spare bedroom, Philip's office, Kirsty's office ... you see - only just big enough!