🧱 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 intern is female?

I identify them as such, yes.

I wrote some essays in my engineering degree and I just set and marked an engineering exam that was mostly essays.

There have, of course, been several interns, they might not all have been female, I can't remember.

@NeedNewKnees

So harsh on poor Mia! She’s a lovely lass. Yes, she’s annoying in her enthusiasm and hectoring about plastics but it’s how lots of teenagers are. God knows I was banging the drum for Greenpeace at her age and organising letter writing campaigns etc.

I am glad Will could be good about it; he’s usually tone-deaf and makes things worse when it comes to emotions.

Same here. My Mum went batshit when I got a letter from The House of Commons in the post, I'd written to our MP about whales.

It was 1971

an excellent scene between J, B and A
Apart from its essential implausibility, would that be? Given that JD and Brian have disrupted arrangements for Ruairi at what is a fairly important time for his education to 'support' Alice, why had both of them gone out leaving her to her own devices? It appears they had gone out separately, as Brian seemed to come in some time after Jenny (doubt the prospect of an evening with Lilian was much to his taste, after all). So what is the actual point of having Alice stay with them at all?
Putting Alice back in the role of 'youngest daughter of the house' has created an unhealthy dynamic of which she took full advantage. There's nothing they can do to stop her returning to her own house; that would be far better all round as it would deprive her of an audience to manipulate and act out at. It was good to hear Alice comprehensively rejecting both Chris and the blasted baby (and JD's frustrated rage that Alice is malfunctioning, maternal role-wise, and thus undermining much of JD's raison d'être ). It was also interesting that Alice said 'It's all right, nobody saw' - in her mind, it's not what she does that matters but who knows about it.

I enjoyed Will listening to Mia and not asking too many questions.

Well I'm on Mia's side- there's a whole football team of characters far more irritating than Mia.

DS has just finished writing a dissertation in the final year of his Maths degree.

Are we listening to the same programme?

I thought Will listening to Mia, and Emma listening to Mia, were actually both really well done. And Ruairi is very sweet and realistic I think - he seems like a solid young man.

Alice being vicious to Brian - fantastic.

The episode with not-Tracy and Jazzer - Jesus, ten minutes of my life wasted.

Monday and Wednesday were by Keri Davies, according to his Twitter, which means that Tuesday and Thursday were by Daniel Thurman.

I studied an engineering course at Southampton years before Alice (cough, not aeronautical although I do have fond memories of a particularly hunky aeronautical engineer) and I remember having to do wanky library study thing and writing an essay in the first weeks of the first year (all the other faculties - well arts and social sciences mainly went easy on the first years to start with but not the Engineering faculty, no going to midweek freshers events or downtown clubbing before labs started oh no) and the ferret-faced librarian bod who marked it said he couldn’t be bothered with my handwriting and gave it a low mark, so a few years later I wasn’t sorry at all when he got caught up in some dodgy scandal.

We had to write up labs and do formal reports in year 2 as a precursor to the third year dissertation. Some exams involved essay type answers where you had to witter on for ages about materials or strain gauges/stress concentrations.

I've just listened to the last two episodes whilst reading this thread which gave it an unusual 'interactive' quality, with opinions popping up as something happened on air. I can recommend it as a way to get though the less gripping scenes...
I enjoyed Alish having a go at Brine and JD, she shouldn't have been left for what was clearly quite a long time, if they're serious about having her with them to help. Brine in particular definitely doesn't understand how big a problem Alish has, and I wouldn't be surprised if we find out that JD left her with Brine, and he then went out on his own (to see a non existent friend - does their social life extend beyond Lillian? As someone said upthread, David and Brine occasionally 'bond', but surely no one believes they're actually mates).

I quite like Mia, her intonation is weird and needs toning down but her environmental campaigning is nice to hear, and I think she's cleverer than she lets on, when railroading Eddie she's letting him think she's silly and immature, but he is still engaging with her and might think twice next time he buys single use plastics rather than reusing them, for example.
I did geophys at uni at around the same time as Alice and also did essays and dissertations, it really depends on the uni and the lecturers/tutors/miscellaneous teaching postgrads how they want to assess each module.

I also quite like Weevils posts except when directed at Lillian who I ADORE

How dare you suggest Brian doesn’t have friends? He golfs, doesn’t he? In which case he’ll undoubtedly have drinking companions at the golf club.

Ulelia
might think twice next time he buys single use plastics rather than reusing them

He quite clearly doesn't do that; if he did, the place would not be full of plastic that he is reusing, which was what she was complaining about.

I doubt very much that he buys things he doesn't use and then reuse until they are past using: he wouldn't afford to.

I doubt very much that he buys things he doesn't use and then reuse until they are past using: he wouldn't afford to

That annoyed me too. In the hierarchy of environmentalism reuse is above recycle, but Mia wanted Eddie to recycle all his plastic rather than leaving it ‘lying around’ - i.e. waiting to be reused.

I thought Ruairi was really lovely with her. And I enjoyed his wry dismissal of Adam’s concerns (which made me cringe so much I was almost inside out). Am hoping we get to keep him in Ambridge long-term although irl he would be off to uni and only visiting once or twice a year.

Also enjoyed Will with Mia - I thought he did really well with her. Lovely reflection and acknowledgement of her feelings without trying to dismiss them because she’s young or trying to fix it. Just an agreement that sometimes life hurts and it’s really shit but unavoidable.

I cannot believe Brian was so blindingly un-self-aware as to bring up Alice's wedding vows. Talk about an own goal!

In Brian’s world you can play the field on the grounds of unmanageable tumescence but simultaneously require spousal loyalty. Marriage vows of convenience and control.

I think his reason for saying that was that he thinks having had three affairs in thirty-five years is slightly different from leaving one's spouse and baby on what appears to him to be a whim. (Not saying I agree, just that I can see how he might think that.)

I wish you’d all stop calling her “mere”. It makes me think you’re talking about me. It wouldn’t be as bad I’d you liked her.

“aeronautical industry based around Malvern” I’d never thought of it as aeronautical. Radar. The aeronautical bit was a necessary add-on. Or has it changed emphasis during its more recent manifestations?

Is Meeurrr ok, Mere?

Or Meer?

Meeurrr, meer are fine .

Defence in general really - cyber security increasingly in Malvern.

unmanageable tumescence

I had to Google that. God I love these threads - they're an education