🧱 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.

It's true that Mia will want to be exactly what she thinks Ruairi wants her to be ...

Does it restrict what you can apply for at degree level to your BTEC subject area,Iamanaubergine? (Bearing in mind my literary ambitions for him.)^

In the same way A-levels do. He's probably not going to get on an Eng Lit course with a BTEC in at. But you don't need to do a degree to be a poet.

I've mentioned before that I think the current Editor would not introduce a story about gender issues lightly, because of an appalling tragedy in his personal life. I suppose he might be pressured from above. I hope not.

@Darker

Poor Mia. Where is this going?

Much the way it would have gone if she had a crush on Paul McCartney in the 1960s: nowhere except in her head. Or, if he notices, him being kind and making it clearer that he is not particularly interested in a kid.

the current Editor would not introduce a story about gender issues lightly, because of an appalling tragedy in his personal life
I don't see the connection.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

I've mentioned before that I think the current Editor would not introduce a story about gender issues lightly, because of an appalling tragedy in his personal life. I suppose he might be pressured from above. I hope not.

Oh really?

I actually like the way they're handling Ruaiaiaiari's sexuality, by making it not a big deal. Him being bisexual isn't a barrier to him dating Mia of course - he's just not interested in the 3 years younger who's idolising him, and who can blame him?

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

I've mentioned before that I think the current Editor would not introduce a story about gender issues lightly, because of an appalling tragedy in his personal life. I suppose he might be pressured from above. I hope not.

I'm not sure I understand why that tragedy would stop Howe from introducing gender issues? His wife's killer putting on her skirt and plimsolls and sexually assaulting her after her death isn't exactly a gender issue, I don't think, just craziness, and his wife doesn't seem to have suggest he'd had gender issues before that, just depression and problems with drink. It seems to me to indicate what he pleaded at his trial: diminished responsibility while the balance of his mind was disturbed. (He also seems to have been drunk at the time of his arrest in the early hours the following day: he said he had drunk almost a whole bottle of vodka and some wine, as well as taken amphetamine tablets.)

Howe might have hesitated to have Nic die, with Will left to bring up their children alone as he was himself, but he was landed with that by a previous editorial decision (which I thought at the time was extremely cruel). Although he then didn't have Will bringing up their children alone, which I can understand as being too close to the bone for him.

I'd also like to see George buck the Grundy trend and forge a successful career for himself outside of farm life. I recall Emma commenting (possibly during one of the lockdown monologues) that that she regretted not taking her education seriously. Will has done well for himself, all things considered, and has always been a hard worker. Hopefully between the two of them (and with input from Neil) they can help George succeed.

Ed lacks drive and ambition and is a terrible role model for his nephew.

Oh dear. Adam's talk with Ruahri (sp? 🤷🏼‍♀️) was utterly excruciating. Having a discussion with people who could be your parents about their and your sex life. Have the sw ever been/ talked to a teenager?

Although he then didn't have Will bringing up their children alone, which I can understand as being too close to the bone for him
The way in which that was done - very much 'Here's a bad situation; how can we make it even worse?' - didn't suggest much in the way of personal identification with the SL to me.

I didn't know the full details surrounding the murder; apologies, Gasp0de.

I'm not sure Jeremy Howe's a great Archers editor, but having read extracts from the book he wrote about his wife's murder and how he coped afterwards, I assume he's a thoughtful man and has probably done some background reading on the killer's paraphilia. In spite of the horrrendous abuse meted out to J K Rowling for giving her serial killer a crossdressing fetish in Troubled Blood, it's my understanding that this is actually extremely common in sex offenders and men who attack women. It's one of the reasons it's so difficult to talk about gender issues - there's a great reluctance to be open about the sexual gratification aspect of it for many mtf transitioners - in most cases, not violent, but undoubtedly not just crossdressing because of dysphoria.

It's such a complex subject that I can't see how a programme like TA could possibly tackle it without drastically oversimplifying. It would probably cause a great furore without pleasing anybody.

I thought the whole Adam and Ruairi was so contrived. I have always thought they handled the issue of sexuality well in TA but that was just so forced. Would Emma not have made more of the fact that Mia is 15 and Ruairi is 18.

Meeurrr is so annoying. Oi ave aaurf a moind that oi ait er even more than oi ait Pip Archurr.

Emma did reference the age difference, Langsdestiny. I was surprised she didn't make more of him being part-Aldridge and thus an 'emotionally vacant loser' (or whatever it was she said to Brian and Kate).
Don't mind how it pans out exactly as long as it adds to the coming Carter -Aldridge blood feud. Though Brian (or JD) finding Ruairi deflowering the peasant maiden and then telling Adam he's talking pants when he mentions Ruairi liking blokes would be quite amusing.

Why does nothing nice ever happen to Mia? Her life has been a complete vale of tears as far as I can see.

It's because she's not even a Grundy.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
In spite of the horrrendous abuse meted out to J K Rowling for giving her serial killer a crossdressing fetish in Troubled Blood,

Which she did not in fact do: on a single occasion a killer disguised himself by wearing a women's mac and a headscarf in order to try to deceive a potentiual victim. That isn't a crossdressing fetish!

it's my understanding that this is actually extremely common in sex offenders and men who attack women.

Yes; also taking "souvenirs" such as items of their clothing (to name possibly the least squick-making example).

It's such a complex subject that I can't see how a programme like TA could possibly tackle it without drastically oversimplifying. It would probably cause a great furore without pleasing anybody.

That is certainly likely. They do tend to make a hash of Ishoos and alienate even the people they went to for advice about their storylines.

Sorry, I wasn't accurate there.

The actual quote is "He had his failures you know. Penny Hiskett, she got away from him and gave the police a description in ’71, but that didn’t help them much. She said he was dark and stocky, because he was wearing a wig at the time and all padded out in a woman’s coat."

So not mac, and not headscarf.... apologies.

When Strike interviewed him he mentioned the advantage of wearing lipstick and a wig in making women think him 'a harmless old queer' -- not a cross-dresser, on that basis, but someone who tries to look gay when out looking for victims in order to allay any fear women might otherwise have of him.

I suspect this is part of a Diversity Drive by the SW's and the Beeb.
It's Pride Month, innit.

I think the problem with the WhatsApp group is not derogatory talk about Helen and Lee but about the erstwhile residents i.e. Phil, Gav ... and her bff Kirsty.

I reckon everyone on the WhatsApp group has nicknames for Helen and the rest of her family. Eg “you’ll never guess what I saw old Cheesey Tits doing at the village shop the other day”. How far is the beechwood development from the farmhouse?

'FFS! It's 8am on Bank Holiday Monday and Stabber's kids are playing the drums! I'd complain but I'm worried she might reach for the kitchen knife.'

etc.

Exactly!

I don't know why but I always picture Lee exactly like Ken (as in Barbie and Ken). Plastic, smiling, doesn't do much, no genitals. So I find it quite funny to discover he has his own army of tiny plastic men - maybe they're his friends.

WhatsApp groups are just a way of a group of people sharing messages, pictures, videos etc in a closed group. As PP said, you only see messages when you join the group, not any past ones.

Right. Is That A New Tracy?