🧱 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.

I like Vince and Freddie. That was nice.

@Darker

Is Vince going to get dedded?

Why do you think that? Did I miss something?

I think we’ve found our new art gallery manager!

I obviously misinterpreted his, erm, groin pain as chest pain. [Or DID I?]

Ah yes, kettle.

I knew it was something I've got at home.

@Darker

I obviously misinterpreted his, erm, groin pain as chest pain. [Or DID I?]

I assumed it was just the groin.

I've now got "Pictures of Lily" playing in my head.

I feel a bit sorry for Russ- he is awful but so is Lily (and some of his pretentiousness hits quite close to home for me)

@FoxgloveSummers

Oh yes I don’t love Lilly at all! But that doesn’t mean I want her in a dead end job stuck at home to facilitate her former abuser’s non-career.

Perfectly put!

Another BOOP-worthy episode. I'm totally loving this single venue focus - it's so sparkly and absorbing. (But then, I could happily listen for another fifty years without ever hearing from Brookfield again.)

We've waited so long to witness Scumbag's comeuppance - I want it to be spectacularly crushing. But of course, things could go in the opposite direction. Perhaps Lily will decide (once she sees her portrait) that she does truly love The Artist - and that what's needed to bring back the laughter is a change of residence for the two of them.

If we're going to be at LL all week there must surely be something major scheduled for Thursday. I hope it's not Darker's prognostication for Vince.

I really hope the portrait is so bad Lily laughs.

@RandomCatGenerator

I really hope the portrait is so bad Lily laughs.

I'm hoping it is brilliant and beautiful and makes Spoilt Brat feel really guilty about sleeping with someone else.

I don't understand why the double-booking stopped Liz and Vince from going away. There must be other hotels available, even in Covid times. Is it a rubbish excuse from Vince (for what nefarious purpose?) or rubbish writing from the SW.

Solomon: I really want him to be from a long-lost, posh part of the Grundy family.

@R4

I don't understand why the double-booking stopped Liz and Vince from going away. There must be other hotels available, even in Covid times. Is it a rubbish excuse from Vince (for what nefarious purpose?) or rubbish writing from the SW.

Solomon: I really want him to be from a long-lost, posh part of the Grundy family.

I was looking for posh country hotels in Scotland in August about 3 weeks ago and there wasn't much available. I did get something but not my original preferred dates.

I really want him to be from a long-lost, posh part of the Grundy family
And I really want him to have given her herpes.

Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday ...

I did wonder - no good deed going unpunished, etc - if Lily's single bid for freedom might result in The Artist bringing up a small Solomon.

But his "Do I look the part?" on Monday, regarding a status update on FB is hanging in the air. Perhaps Lily is right to worry.

But at least the scriptwriters used the term "staycation" correctly to mean a holiday where you stay at home - in contrast to the irritating habit (in the last year especially) of the media to use it to mean "holidaying in Britain"! We've had lovely holidays as a family without leaving the country - but they were real holidays, don't demean them as staycations just because it's not two weeks on the Med!

Sorry, rant over.

Quite agree there, DadDadDad.

I also agree. I hate this tendency to refer to any UK holiday as if it isn't really a holiday at all.

I agree too. I'm not keen on the term, but I'd think of it as staying at home but doing holiday things like visiting local tourist attractions. Maybe I should have one.

I

I really hope the portrait is so bad Lily laughs - I feel sure it will be, to illustrate that the scales have fallen from her eyes. She can now see him as the a* we all know him to be. I think Vince and Elizabeth's staycation is so that Vince can be on set site when Lily breaks the news. I agree with your staycation comments DDD (good to have you back by the way) - many people here in France only ever go on holiday in France and they certainly don't think of their holidays as staycations.

Totally agree about staycations, it’s really been irritating me that it is so misused. What a haven of good sense this part of MN is. I think the portrait will be awful, along the lines of a Lucian Freud nude but without the talent, Lily will be mortified, Freddy will laugh and CMR will flounce. Vince will tell him a few home truths and that will be the end of love’s middle aged dream for Russ.

Is it odd that his decree nisi has only just come through? Seems a very long time?

Oh - and totally agree on staycations.

No experience with divorces, but it was the decree absolute, I think, and do they get held up until the finances are sorted out?

I agree about staycations too!

@LillianGish

I really hope the portrait is so bad Lily laughs - I feel sure it will be, to illustrate that the scales have fallen from her eyes. She can now see him as the a* we all know him to be. I think Vince and Elizabeth's staycation is so that Vince can be on set site when Lily breaks the news. I agree with your staycation comments DDD (good to have you back by the way) - many people here in France only ever go on holiday in France and they certainly don't think of their holidays as staycations.

It is possible to be a brilliant artist and a complete a* at the same time. There are many examples- Picasso for one.

I hope it's brilliant to the discombobulation of the Spoilt Brat.