🧱 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.

Nope just nope I feel that Mrs Casey is just another “comedy” character to cringe over and be irritated by every time she opened her mouth. I kept thinking that any moment now they’ll introduce her to Joy and then I really will turn off. I am really enjoying the Lily storyline though - that she’s finally waking up to what we’ve all been yelling at the radio about ever since CMR appeared.

I suspect that, like Eleanor Bron, Anthony Head and Alison Steadman, Susan Jameson will only be briefly passing through.

JudgeJ, yes. I think that's what Kamikosnightmare meant about distinguishing between the title and the estate. What I was trying to say was that traditionally the eldest son got the lion's share. Girls must have got something - or we would have no heiresses! But women like Bess of Hardwick were the exception.

I wonder if the scriptwriters will rue the day they introduced the trust as it will mean a lot of cross checking.

Asking What a fantastic job - I do like it when you see specially created portraits in dramas. I like that sort of thoroughness when the set and props match the period properly.

Mrs Casey: yet another comedy working-class person.

She was entirely implausible, seemingly only there to fill in back story on Vince. And as for CMR opening up to a complete stranger about his having neglected Lily of late, all flummery to add drama to his eventual unhorsing from his comfortable life.

I suspect Mrs Casey is there as a compare-and-contrast to Nigel's mother, and she comes out of that comparison rather well.

Who needs a MIL like that!? Well Elizabeth coped with Julia.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

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.

What a lovely job. My artistic abilities never progressed beyond stick people, so not one I could ever have tackled, but it must be so satisfying to be good at drawing/painting.

I wonder if the scriptwriters will rue the day they introduced the trust as it will mean a lot of cross checking.

You're an optimist, nettie! The trust will do whatever it needs to do for the storyline at any given point. No consistency with the past required. Same as the fluctuating number of bedrooms in Blossom Hill Cottage, the vicarage which has been old or new as the story required, the second pub in the village (The Cat and Fiddle, long ago converted into flats) which used to trundle round the village, no fixed location.

I’m going against the grain to say I really enjoyed Mrs Casey’s visit. It’s all part of the transition of Vince from panto villain to reliable partner. Where will she live when Vince moves in to LL? Does Julia’s apartment still exist? Or will Elizabeth move to Vince’s big house instead? Since she sees LL as a job, not her heritage.

I don’t know if I am perhaps influenced by the recent Matt Hancock affair, but I have to say I was a bit appalled at how Rex did not bat an eyelid at the fact that Lily had cheated on her live-in partner and had to be prompted to even acknowledge that it was, theoretically at least, inappropriate. I dislike CMR as much as the next person but Lily has made a commitment to him.

It’s not as if we have ever heard Rex say out loud that Russ is a terrible match for Lily and deserves everything he gets. I would have expected something more serious form him along the lines of “Oh Lily that was not good, but it looks like it’s a sign that you need to break up with Russ? Then you can be free to have more fun” Not a load of childish “oooh you LIKE Sol”.

I had in my mind that Mrs Casey was perhaps suffering from some sort of dementia, her comments were so OTT.

@HaveringWavering

I had in my mind that Mrs Casey was perhaps suffering from some sort of dementia, her comments were so OTT.

I did at first but I now I don't, as someone else said, it's a contrast with Julia and a device to show what a good son he is.

@Chemenger

I’m going against the grain to say I really enjoyed Mrs Casey’s visit. It’s all part of the transition of Vince from panto villain to reliable partner. Where will she live when Vince moves in to LL? Does Julia’s apartment still exist? Or will Elizabeth move to Vince’s big house instead? Since she sees LL as a job, not her heritage.

You're going against the flow not against the grain, Chem.

I'm with the 'Yet another comedy working class character' mindset.

I loved Julia.

I am really enjoying the Lily storyline though - that she’s finally waking up to what we’ve all been yelling at the radio about ever since CMR appeared.
I'm not. They both have a burning issue they want to discuss. They live and work at the same premises yet it will take them until tonight (Thursday cliffhanger) to find time to talk to each other, despite having time to angst to other random people.
Agree with havering about the unbelievability of Rex's reaction to the ONS.

all part of the transition of Vince from panto villain to reliable partner
Or the usual TA transition of a hard-headed businessman into a soppy dope.
Why was Mrs C even there, during L&V's holiday? Did Vince invite her and I missed it?

I think I’m going against both the flow and the grain. I don’t usually like gratuitous comedy interludes that much (grain) and everyone else disliked Mrs C (flow).

I hated the characterisation and acting of Mrs Casey. I didn't come close to believing the story of her finding her way to the Bridal Suite, or the rest. I never like it when they introduce a new, extreme personality who is gradually normalised.

But then, I also complain when they bring in a totally bland character who turns into a monster.

Mrs Casey played by Susan Jameson, who I remember from the 1970s in When The Boat Comes In. Wikipedia tells me she's married to James Bolam. If I'd read that before I'd forgotten it.

Born in Worcestershire, so maybe she was reverting to her childhood accent.

80 this year. What a resource TA is for older actors! (Rightly, given the UK's ageing population.)

OK, Chemenger, as you can tell I have my nitpicker's hat on today.

Other than bigging up her already enormous sense of importance why is Spoilt Brat taking a week off from Kitchen Sales R Us to "run" LL?

LL has a manager- there was the person who resigned because Lizard was so awful to work with but she was replaced.

I don't recall Spoilt Brat doing any administrative work at LL beyond the ludicrous arranging the seating plan at a hunt ball- which would have been for Shula to do anyway. This week she turned up late and has spent her time wittering on at Rex and the pigs.

@Chemenger

I think I’m going against both the flow and the grain. I don’t usually like gratuitous comedy interludes that much (grain) and everyone else disliked Mrs C (flow).

I liked Mrs C. It was wholly implausible but I liked her tour around the LL characters.

Why this constant introduction of new characters, comedy or otherwise, when the SWs have cereal cupboards full of established characters about whom we are all wondering "whatever happened to ......"?

@R4

I am really enjoying the Lily storyline though - that she’s finally waking up to what we’ve all been yelling at the radio about ever since CMR appeared. I'm not. They both have a burning issue they want to discuss. They live and work at the same premises yet it will take them until tonight (Thursday cliffhanger) to find time to talk to each other, despite having time to angst to other random people. Agree with havering about the unbelievability of Rex's reaction to the ONS.

all part of the transition of Vince from panto villain to reliable partner
Or the usual TA transition of a hard-headed businessman into a soppy dope.
Why was Mrs C even there, during L&V's holiday? Did Vince invite her and I missed it?

R4 Why was Mrs C even there, during L&V's holiday? Did Vince invite her and I missed it?

He didn't want her there, and rang her up to ask her to leave. So I don't suppose he'd invited her.

Would she have breezed over to Norfolk and walked into the spa hotel there where 'Liz' and Vince were meant to be staying, in order to beat on their bedroom door and demand entrance before they had got up?

The manager was Geraldine but she left. She was replaced by Glenn who had? a slightly different role.

Not sure where Glenn is now.

Why the introduction of new characters?

I thought Mrs. C had planned a nosy round LL while Vince and Lizzy were away.

How would Mrs C have found them in the bridal suite? Who sent her there? Did she arrive by taxi? If she was completely uninvited why did Vince not say “mother what the hell are you doing here?!” when she rocked up at his bedroom door. Even Lizzie didn’t seem as shocked as she should be. That was why I thought there must be dementia at play, previously discussed between Vince and Lizzie.