🏘️ Archers thread #129: Casey, Macy, Lily, Alice – Decent types or full of malice? Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads, which has now passed 125,000 posts! (See below for further details.)

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 lust after Russ, 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.)

For the thread title I was very tempted to go with @R4's title suggestion of Come follow the exploits of Brine, Lily, Elizabeth, Usha, Ruari, George and Helen. Know collectively as bleurgh. because on the last thread @DadDadDad, our invaluable statistician, identified a post from @ILoveShula as the 125,000th. Many of us felt it was fitting that the post simply said Bleurgh!.

However, feeling that was a bit niche for the casual listener, I adapted @MayIDestroyYou's title suggestion in the end. Thanks, MIDY!

Back to Ambridge this week, after our enjoyable sojourn at Lower Loxley last week! Will we go with Alice to rehab? (Hope not.) Will the petulant Adam make good his threat to leave Home Farm? (Hope so.) What will Jennifer say? (Lots, I hope, and preferably to Brian.) Will the fete be a triumph? (Of course it will.) Will we ever return to Brookfield, or have they all fallen unnoticed into the slurry pit? (Let's hope Pip did, anyway.) WHERE IS PAT? (Can't answer this one.)

Over to you!

As I wrote above, I walked away from The Archers in 2015 and didn't look back. Maybe a handful of google searches since then over 6 years.
Six years? Noooooo. It was only yesterday, wasn't it?

By the way, I know the plot line is a bit suspect in places, but you’ve got to have a heart of stone not to enjoy that film.
My name is R4 and I have a heart of stone (apparently ). I hated An Officer and a Gentleman, too, for similar reasons.

Is the actress that plays Alice leaving? I can’t see why anyone would think her staying with —silent— Amy in Nottingham is a good idea??? It’s defies all reason, what will she do all day? How will she pay rent? How will she tackle her alcoholism without support from family. What’s occurrin’???

How far into her old age does Jenny need to be seen? She’s already over seventy. Over 70? Most of the over 70s I know are busy running specialist museums and heritage railways, arranging musical performances and workshops, doing the necessary civic work that everyone feels needs new and younger blood but no-one's willing to take on, working on conservation projects, maintaining local parks, raising money for local facilities, cave exploration. If you've survived into your seventies in good health, your remaining life expectancy takes you far beyond the birth life expectancy of 82.

@MereDintofPandiculation

How far into her old age does Jenny need to be seen? She’s already over seventy. Over 70? Most of the over 70s I know are busy running specialist museums and heritage railways, arranging musical performances and workshops, doing the necessary civic work that everyone feels needs new and younger blood but no-one's willing to take on, working on conservation projects, maintaining local parks, raising money for local facilities, cave exploration. If you've survived into your seventies in good health, your remaining life expectancy takes you far beyond the birth life expectancy of 82.

Hear, hear!

I've been listening to Spitfire: the people's plane on Sounds (discovered it on the World Service and well worth a listen}.

Slightly unnervingly one of the actresses reading out memoirs of young women is, I'm pretty sure Kate's alter ego. Though I can't find any credits to confirm this.

I think you mean Gavin @Roysnewshirt**

Ah yes. Gavin. Of course. Neither are great names and they’re pretty interchangeable but unforgivable to totally rename Moss Junior. Especially given I rather liked him.

I see what you mean @ILoveShula re Mr Knightley but if push came to shove I would prefer Colonel Brandon. If I remember rightly Mr K didn’t have quite the bank balance required to be a true Austenian hero…

Am starting to sound very avaricious on this thread. Must watch that…

Edmontine
It's really hard to imagine Brian cutting off her salary / allowance (whichever she's getting at the moment).

I doubt if he has been giving her an allowance since her marriage: why would he have been? The rent-free accommodation which she used as guarantee for a bank-loan was surely enough! And she is not getting a salary: she was employed at Home Farm as a temporary worker while Adam "couldn't do the paperwork because of his broken foot" (why? If his job had depended on it he would have managed to use a laptop even if his foot was broken, so what they needed was someone to drive the combine not someone to drive the computer), and I don't think she was there for as much as six months, so giving her maternity pay was a grace-and-favour matter and I don't see that it should be continued now it is clear she has no intention of ever going back to work there.

I'd be more concerned about Poor Amy if Amy had not always been a judgemental, sanctimonious, ill-tempered person; Alice could have been foisted onto someone who deserved it less.

It's funny but when I said "see Jenny into old age" - or whatever, (can't be bothered to scroll) I suppose I very definitely didn't feel Jenny was anywhere near that stage yet.

I meant the part of 'old age' (a moveable number) where - perhaps alone after a long term partner has shuffled - independent living becomes increasingly contingent upon active support from people who love you or are paid to provide 'care'. Not Jenny and Brian, hale and hearty and running their lives!

Thing is, the air in Ambridge means elderly people, particularly those close to the Archer-aura - Peggy, Jill, Joe RIP - never actually seem to arrive at the sharp end of that sort of old age.

I do think it's possible, though, that one day all her own children will be scattered and only Ruairi, bearing his lifelong gratitude like a gift, will be there, close enough to see her every day - with all the responsibility that might entail.

@Roysnewshirt, but Emma was rich anyway.

I rather like Gav too after seeing his photo.

The Gav actor is Gareth IRL. He's Todd in Corrie.

Alice could have been foisted onto someone who deserved it less
Amy is the interfering busybody who got Helen carted off to hospital in time for Henry to be safely extracted and Helen to survive. I don't see the imposition of Alish as punishment enough for that.

@ILoveShula

The Gav actor is Gareth IRL. He's Todd in Corrie.

I never imagined him looking like that.

Neither did I. I imagined him as not very tall and fair haired and stocky.

My opinion of him changed when I found out that he speaks Welsh and is a 'dipyn o bishyn' Shallow, me?

Diyn o bishyn means a 'bit of a dish' or something like that.

Yes, he’s lovely! Not quite Richard Gere but heading in the right direction…

@ILoveShula

Neither did I. I imagined him as not very tall and fair haired and stocky.

My opinion of him changed when I found out that he speaks Welsh and is a 'dipyn o bishyn' Shallow, me?

Exactly how I saw him.

I'd still swap him for Robin Fairbrother.

And I'd swap Robin for Herc.

[ the lemon is in play]]

@ILoveShula

I'd still swap him for Robin Fairbrother.

We could share?

I don't think so TheSilveryPussycat. He's mine, all mine.

I think ILoveShula suits me better.

I enjoyed Pretty Woman when I saw it but I'm not sure I would now. Some things once you see, you can't unsee.

I do wonder if Amy really knows what she is letting herself in for, dealing with women for a half an hour appointment (at most) is not going to be the same as having someone living with you.

(tangential) Pretty Woman was when I first noticed Richard Gere's remarkable resemblance to an English Bull Terrier

Move aside Shula, Peggy, Brian, Ben, ....
That is who I love. My one and only love. All my life since I saw The Incredible Journey. Even more than Tricky Woo.
I want a Bodger of my own.