🧱 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.

The way Nigel used to say 'Oh Lizzie' . I miss him.

I can't find ANY clips of Nigel online! It's an outrage.

All that cheery impulsive posh loveliness

Freddie

@FoxgloveSummers, here's .

TW

Ha yeah Freddie is ok
Nice manages to make being hugely rich and posh endearing though. I would never have known what a ha-ha was without him.

I've just listened to

Definitely worth a listen. TW.

Belliphat, but surely you have one?

Not heard tonight's yet.

Was rather hoping lay night's Vince blip was showing us a couple who could disagree and then come together and man who could laugh at himself, juxtaposed with Callmeruss.

I like Lilly, I don't blame her for any of her behaviour trying to cover up the Russ abuse. Anything before that she was teenager, lost her dad young she may have been awful but so long as she's not as an adult that seems fairly realistic to me. Teenagers are awful, frequently. Many aren't mean or manipulative but it's a hard time and people do change.

I have a male family member who inherited the country pile over his elder sisters. (Rumour has it he tried to even things up when the estate was sold but the ladies wouldn't hear of touching a penny extra.)

I think Russ is going to be more devastated at losing his free studio, gallery to display and offload his work into and stately home more than he'll miss Lily. I want to enjoy his downfall but I also don't want it to drag on.

I would never have known what a ha-ha was without him. For those of us who frequented Woolwich, there were other ways to learn... www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Ha-Ha+Rd,+London/@51.4864881,0.0584528,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x47d8a8fadca1633d:0xf16df7f943d23fa2!8m2!3d51.481319!4d0.0578105

Well Daddaddad who knew!

Sadly IloveShula I don’t and am still sulky that I have no walled garden either.

Well that was interesting. I initially thought it was going to be another "comedy" episode but I liked Mrs Casey going round (wholly implausibly) and making her own judgements and assumptions.

And unless Mrs Casey's taste in art is limited to Tretchikoff green ladies (which CMR's definitely won't be) we now know the painting is beautiful.

I do in my imaginary life where I am married to the Duke of Right

Our imaginary seat looks like Chatsworth Pemberley.

Too much Jane Austen and Nancy Mitford in my misspent youth.

I'm still hoping it's not (beautiful).
I feel like she was charming everyone.

In mine too Shula - sadly I don’t have grounds to take a turn in either. Sigh

Oh you can take a turn in my grounds garden Belliphat

It has a safari park with big cats well biggish and other wildlife.

Sounds like we should invite Lindy too, she would be game.

I didn't like Mrs Casey's visit.

I feel a fraud now. Don't really have a ha-ha or a safari park. Not really married to Mr Knightley/Duke of Right Westminster./Freddie Pargetter.

@ILoveTracey

I'm still hoping it's not (beautiful). I feel like she was charming everyone.

Mrs Casey was not charming !

And I'm sure she's the type who takes pride in calling a spade a bloody shovel.

Had the SW the faintest grasp of 'Show, don't Tell', Mrs Casey need never have been written.
Still, I expect there's a vacancy for a dove-burnisher's mate in the ever-expanding LL estate. Eat yer heart out, Castle Howard...

Mrs Casey was not charming !
I think if I was Lizzie I would dump Vince forthwith. Who needs a MIL like that!? And she would scare off half the staff and/or punters.

I don't think I am wrong about the Duke of Westminster, Kimikosnightmare. Of course his sisters have trust funds and presumably are not poor but he inherited much more than they did:

[[https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/duke-westminster-billions-fortune-older-sisters-inequality-housing-crisis-a7186676.html]]

Of course, it's all frustratingly unclear as to what Freddy and Lily will inherit. At one point when Freddie was in prison, there was talk of another relative getting Lower Loxley. Then Freddie restored his reputation with the Chair of the Trust by putting on the Christmas Show with Jim's ghost stories.

I like all the speculation about Russ's painting. Imagining what he has done one of the joys of radio and of course it's a lot cheaper in terms of production costs.

@nettie434

Freddie inheriting Lower Loxley rather than Lily is simply old fashioned male primogeniture in practice. It's why people like the Duke of Westminster have vast estates rather than a title, a few medals and a tarnished silver teapot.

What's interesting is that according to The Archers website, Lily is actually the elder:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/19Hb0vR1nVvzTrBBgjn7lPv/lily-pargetter

While the Royal Family changed the rules to enable Charlotte to be next in line to the throne after George (unlike Princes Anne), that only applied to the Royal Family and other families can carry on with eldest son inheriting.

I've enjoyed the switch to Lower Loxley too. Russ is awful but he is entertaining listening.

It does seem to possible though for a title etc to pass to a daughter, Mountbatten's daughter inherited his title when he was murdered by the scumbags.

I interpreted Mrs Casey's comment on the picture as that the hair was good but there was nothing else decent to comment on......

swoon!

nettie434
I like all the speculation about Russ's painting. Imagining what he has done one of the joys of radio and of course it's a lot cheaper in terms of production costs.

I had an aunt who was often employed to produce the historic portraits and so on for films and television series. She would take photographs of characters in the present day, then paint pictures of them in the style and clothing of earlier "ancestors" so that the "family portraits" looked like the modern characters in the series or film. It was quite a useful addition to her income.