🏘️ 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!

@Edmontine

Indeed!

Do we know if Dan is keen on horses? Or will he eventually sell off or re-purpose the Stables?

Daniel was a good rider and very keen on horses. About the more recently-invented Dan we don't know this; I wonder whether he played polo at Sandhurst, that being one of the options there. If he did, I don't think it was ever mentioned, so I don't think the editorial team at the time knew it was something you can do during officer training.

(Which is rather poor if they wanted an accurate portrayal of the place, because I learned that through watching a BBC television documentary about the place which followed people in a Sandhurst "term" a couple of years before Dan's. Any member of the editorial team could have taken the trouble to have a look at it to find out what would have happened to Dan, if they hadn't just wanted to throw in something a bit unusual for an Archer.)

Why, in that case ...
That's the trouble with TA. We seem to spend a lot of our time saying "why did they do that, it's out of character" or "that's non-sensical, nobody would do that" (eg Lynda and the theatrical performance that she was keeping secret) or "I am employed in that specialism and I know that it doesn't work like that".
They seem to have forgotten that it's all about suspension of disbelief.

@R4

the TA creative team has done Jack Archer proud. It's a really impressive achievement. Not only are his descendants a pretty useless bunch but they also choose sub-par Significant Others, too. The further TA goes on, the more ridiculous it gets. Is nobody capable of choosing a career, getting the qualifications, slowly and steadily progressing said career whilst getting a spouse, 2.4 children, a dog and an uneventful life. Does everybody have to be car-crash? After 70 years, it's getting a bit wearing.

I know. It's like they are in a soap opera or something.

I'm liking Leyla - but how strange that Roy suddenly turned the date into an assertiveness coaching session

@ChristmasShearwater

I cringe every time someone says Xander. Just call him Alexander or Alex.

Agree totally.

Heard a real-life “Xander” the other day. Assumed it was the new fashion.

Oh for the days when children were given names not random assemblages of letters. And the irony of an ever increasing amount of offence being taken at the misspelling of a name at a time when it seems to be the aim of many parents to spell their child’s name in a way which is unique to them.

Helen doing childcare! Has the earth shifted off it's axis?

I like Leyla (nice voice, well acted). I hope she joins the cast/relocates. Roy is a bit rudderless and I dislike him far less than many.

The "jealous Ian" scene and the "but, that's embezzlement" reaction in a nano-second was SO unbelievable. Still Ian can blame Adam and Adam can blame Ian.

I like Leyla (nice voice, well acted). I hope she joins the cast/relocates. Roy is a bit rudderless and I dislike him far less than many

Luckily Roy is destined for Kirsty and though I’m certainly not crazy about her, I at least think she is capable of speaking to a waiter without coaching. Roy definitely deserves better than the dishrag. Hasn’t he suffered enough what with Kate, Lexi and Elizabeth?

Heard a real-life “Xander” the other day. Assumed it was the new fashion.

It's been around for decades. Look at Alexander Armstrong, for example.

It's quite posh, isn't it. I'm Scottish and grew up with Alec being the standard nickname for someone called Alexander.

Sandy was also a common abbreviation for Alexander, though usually my parents' and grandparents' generations.

I love Alec as a nn for Alexander, although I think it is from my thoughts on the wonderful actor Mr Guinness, who wasn't an Alexander and Alec Gilroy. I quite like Sandy too.

Xander is a bit naff and I knew of some little Xanders before Xander Macy came along

Those are not his names. His name is Xander. Why should he be called out of it?

I thought he was called Alexander after his mother, Lexi.

Pip (bleurgh!) is not normally called Philippa.

Xander is a trendy shortening of Alexander, like Kit is for Christopher. I prefer Alex and Chris.

@ILoveShula

Pip (bleurgh!) is not normally called Philippa.

Xander is a trendy shortening of Alexander, like Kit is for Christopher. I prefer Alex and Chris.

My brother's best friend at school was called Xander, short for Alexander (brother was born in 1969- rural, north east Scotland) so neither new nor trendy.

It's not uncommon round those ways.

@WheresThatCatGoneNow

I'm liking Leyla - but how strange that Roy suddenly turned the date into an assertiveness coaching session

Not half as strange as a grown-up person who works as a teacher being unable to tell a waiter the order is wrong.

@ILoveShula , ever heard of Shakespeare's contemporary Kit Marlowe? Or Wordsworth's brother Kit?

Not half as strange as a grown-up person who works as a teacher being unable to tell a waiter the order is wrong

I agree, that seems totally bizarre. DSis used to be very shy, but became almost unrecognisably assertive after a couple of years as a teacher.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

(Which is rather poor if they wanted an accurate portrayal of the place, because I learned that through watching a BBC television documentary about the place which followed people in a Sandhurst "term" a couple of years before Dan's. Any member of the editorial team could have taken the trouble to have a look at it to find out what would have happened to Dan, if they hadn't just wanted to throw in something a bit unusual for an Archer.)

Polo at Sandhurst is really expensive though. A close friend who went found it was mostly people who had played before for that reason. Or aspiring Guards officers.

But horse riding is open to all from beginners to experts - they have excellent stables. Apparently you could spend an awful lot of time there learning for free if you were willing to pitch in with the less fun bits like mucking out difficult ponies!

Is Xander Alexander? Or is he just Xander? I missed the naming ceremony during a period of not listening.

Lol at much incredulity here at Helen doing childcare for someone else - and to the sharp eared PP who spotted that she didn’t actually say yes when Ian asked her, twice!

"Adam rings Jennifer to announce the name – Alexander Macy Craig."
(Lowfield, Friday 27th September, 2019)

Thanks @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

I have rarely witnessed anything as deeply unsexy as Roy’s How to Complain Politely and Effectively tutorial.

One of the main characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a Xander.

The name Sacha is a French (and Russian) short form of the name Alexander.