🧱 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.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime still?! I’d be getting a bit hacked off if I was him. Especially as she’s let out her house and probably isn’t paying much if any rent?!

She is apparently paying him rent.

We were out in geämes and reäces,
Loud a-laughèn, wild in me’th,
Wi’ windblown heäir, an’ zunbrowned feäces,
Leäpèn on the high-sky’d e’th, ?

I probably had someone more like James Rebanks in mind (though verse rather than prose), if only because I have a vague idea that this morning's Today programme came from his farm. (Not absolutely sure, was only one fifth awake.)

I'm sure BTECs are splendid and arduously achieved and etc - and, of course, in real life we do what we can do - but in TA the writers had a choice. And they squandered it on PPE for an Aldridge/Archer.

I hadn't thought of that possibility, JanFebAnyMonth - but to me it didn't sound as if Joy herself was wounded by the WhatsApp group, more that she wanted to keep Lee and Helen away from it. So I jumped to the conclusion that it's Helen who's caused tongues to wag.

So I jumped to the conclusion that it's Helen who's caused tongues to wag

Yes, I think you’re right. Initially I thought Joy was trying to shield them from comments about the noisy drum kit but I recalibrated and I am sure it was nasty comments about Helen - especially after she said she is not one for gossip. Lee was very crass with his jokes about Ebeneezer’s mail-order bride being buried under the patio.

Yes having LA’d I think you’re probably right. Unless it’s that the furore following Phillip’s arrest has continued and they’re convinced that Kirsty’s a criminal or similar?

It’s all setting the scene for Rob’s return anyway.....

What kind of unrealistic neighbour loves the sound of an adult and two children on a drum kit all day? And what kind of inconsiderate householder allows it? Imagine the AIBU? "Not only was my new neighbour charged with attempted murder...."

[quote DeusEx]@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime still?! I’d be getting a bit hacked off if I was him. Especially as she’s let out her house and probably isn’t paying much if any rent?![/quote]
He lurves her. He's going on his Internet dates (who I don't remember hearing anything more about since the one mention) only to make her see what she's missing (a shiny shirt and smart shoes I bet).

If Beechwood is gossiping about Helen then Joy already knows everything about the Rob story. Maybe she’ll come up trumps and stand up for her.

I'm sure BTECs are splendid and arduously achieved and etc - and, of course, in real life we do what we can do ... oh, goodness, academic snobbery alive and well.

Mere I'm pretty sure 99% of all BTEC holders have enjoyed more personal and professional success than I will ever get close to - but it would have been nice for them to do something surprising with a Grundy.

[quote DeusEx]@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime still?! I’d be getting a bit hacked off if I was him. Especially as she’s let out her house and probably isn’t paying much if any rent?![/quote]
I often wonder how events in The Archers would be discussed in MN posts (I was devastated that I missed the actual deleted thread the other week). I think Kirsty would get a bit of a pasting if Roy posted on AIBU explaining that Kirsty showed no signs of leaving and had rented out her own house. Maybe they will still get together eventually. I think Roy is one of the better Ambridge men with the proviso, as we discussed recently, that he truly regrets the racist behaviour of his youth.

[quote MereDintofPandiculation]@Zzelda No CGT if you pass it to your spouse[/quote]
How about stamp duty?

A William Barnesde nos jours?

I was thinking Bert...

(I have sat through a few Barnes Memorial Society services in my time, and we had The Geate a-Vallen To at Dad's funeral.)

@FlosCampi

What kind of unrealistic neighbour loves the sound of an adult and two children on a drum kit all day? And what kind of inconsiderate householder allows it? Imagine the AIBU? "Not only was my new neighbour charged with attempted murder...."

Loving the idea that an attempted murder charge is lower down the scale of neighbourly offences than letting your kids use an adult-sized drumkit all day on a Bank Holiday! I'd have been incandescent about the latter. I'm not a great one for confrontation but I'd have been round there asking for mercy a bit of a break by the time it had been going on for a couple of hours. Incredibly inconsiderate!

I liked hearing Ed and Jazzer together. I wonder if George is going to be given a voice in the next year or two?

It would be very unfair and unusual if George wasn't given a voice, surely? Doesn't TA always do this as soon as the much fought over baby, now teen age character is independent enough to start generating trouble away from home? Unsuitable boyfriends/girlfriends, sexuality, gender, mandated and impromptu travel abroad, drink, (maybe not right now) drugs, driving, pregnancy, the getting and spending of money, routes into adult life, besting their elders ...

I wonder how bound to a London drama school ('Can perform local yokel') the George actor will be.

...only to make her see what she's missing (a shiny shirt and smart shoes I bet)...

Er...Actually @Ulelia, nothing at all shiny about this shirt...

Doesn't Tracy work at GG? Jazzer is a bit over-hopeful if he thinks he'll get to spend bank holidays with his girlfriend who works in hospitality.

I wondered if Will might end up helping Ed with the shearing - George (with his BTEC) being destined for greater things. Will has disappeared off the radar since he stopped game keeping. I can't believe he can afford to not work at all.

He's doing deliveries for Bridge Fresh, I think, but we've not been told how many hours a week he works.

@MayIDestroyYou

I do rather want George to emerge as a prizewinning poet ...

I believe the moniker "George the Poet" has already been taken.

I'd quite like George to get bang up to date with his BTec and go on to edge out the supposedly modern (but now late middle aged) Adam at Home Farm. Adam can become a stay at home dad - freeing up Iain to fly higher with his career - and take up yoga and infuriate other local parents.

Why would George edge out Adam?

@Roysnewshirt

...only to make her see what she's missing (a shiny shirt and smart shoes I bet)...

Er...Actually @Ulelia, nothing at all shiny about this shirt...

Oh awkward! I apologise profusely @Roysnewshirt, apparently I was unnecessarily snipey last night!