😱 Archers thread #130: The Fall of the House of Aldridge. Discuss 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 look forward to Shula's first sermon, 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.)

I went for the obvious thread title this time. Poor Ruairi! We've had a good go on the last thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/a4289334--Archers-thread-129-Casey-Macy-Lily-Alice-Decent-types-or-full-of-malice-Discuss-The-Archers-here?msgid=109858475#109858475 at trying to work out where he's going and what he might be studying, as the SWs have not seen fit to tell us.

Whither now for Alice? Will Jennifer talk to Peggy soon? Good hint from Lilian the other day that at Peggy's age it's not wise to leave feuds bubbling on.

It's been a long time since we last heard from a certain Archer whose name I am not going to mention in case it acts as a summoning charm. Long may she remain unheard in the dairy or out in the fields, or better still somewhere near a sinkhole. That was a storyline that looked promising years ago and wasn't exploited as it could have been. Pah.

Over to you!

It’s all monumentally tragic, isn’t it? From the days of the Home Farm wine fridge, to this.

Does Jenny know that Brian has sacked Adam / Adam has resigned? Or is that still to come?

And whatever happened to all the protestations of mutual grandmotherly support between Susan and Jenny?

Feel awfully sorry for her tonight.

Thank you, by the way!

Thanks for the new thread.

It was pretty amazing of Jenny to say he was “the best of the lot”. I do hope he lets JD and Brine drive him down to London and settle him in.

However, they have ever so slightly glossed over the fact that R was packed off to boarding school when he was still quite young- maybe junior school aged? I wonder how he really feels about that, as it was a fairly obvious indication that JD was not up for full time parenting of him, in contrast to her own kids who went to independent day schools. (Or did Adam and Debbie possibly board?)

Yes I loved the “best of the lot” line! I love J and R’s relationship in general.

...made up for the UTTERLY RIDICULOUS Lynda’s fear of scarecrow law plot line. This is the woman who last year picketed the Bull, now she thinks there may be a law governing scarecrows? For realsies? CTFO scriptwriters.

Does Jenny know that Brian has sacked Adam / Adam has resigned? Or is that still to come?

Still to come. I doubt it will. I can't see Adam leaving and he hasn't got any chance of getting another job. Brian will offer him his job back to avoid another upset for JD. Adam saves face and even gains some ground.

Argh. Place marking. I feel like Mrs Doubtfire running between the two threads

@FoxgloveSummers

...made up for the UTTERLY RIDICULOUS Lynda’s fear of scarecrow law plot line. This is the woman who last year picketed the Bull, now she thinks there may be a law governing scarecrows? For realsies? CTFO scriptwriters.

I zoned all of that out. Utter nonsense.

Place marking on both threads

I agree Lynda's scarecrow nonsense was, well, nonsense. There's no way she would even consider cancelling the whole thing in case the council stop the scarecrows. Because they wouldn't!
I did find all that a bit daft, but was it just to get Usha on the phone to introduce the mystery celebrity?

Boop for JD and Ruari, I'm going to miss him, think he's my favourite mini Aldridge

Any guesses for the celeb lawyer/scarecrow statute expert?

I vote for either Amal Clooney or Nancy Dell’Olio!

Funny to hear Alan mention Usha. If I didn’t actually know he was married to her, I would have thought he was just referring to a local well-connected parishioner who is also on the flower-arranging rota.

Poor JD sounded so desperate. Alice has really screwed things up.

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g for the new thread! Took me a while to work out what was going on when the last one wouldn’t let me post!

An earlier thread #130 was already set up:

Emergency Archers Thread #130. Be prepared for a Fête Worse Than Death, again www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/4320540-Emergency-Archers-Thread-130-Be-prepared-for-a-F-te-Worse-Than-Death-again

Morning all. The duplicate thread OPs have been in touch - we're keeping this one and will copy over the posts from the other.
Give us a mo....

Hello all, Numpty here. @theThreeofWeevils saved our bacon last night by starting a new thread (with an excellent title, btw) while I was obliviously doing other things , but has very magnanimously messaged MN to ask for her thread to be removed, given that, compounding my numptiness, I then hit Create on the new one I had ready without checking whether anyone else had stepped in.

I've copied the posts on the other thread, and here they are, minus the duplicate bits. Deepest apologies for all the confusion.

Emergency Archers Thread #130. Be prepared for a Fête Worse Than Death, again (16 Posts)
[standard intro]
Hope this treads on no toes. If a duplicate, I'm sure MNHQ will obligingly delete it.

EarringsandLipstick Wed 11-Aug-21 20:25:38
Following on from last thread:

I don’t think there is any harm in admitting to an intelligent 18 year old that his mother’s & Brian’s actions caused her a great deal of heartache so it was hard welcoming him into the family.

But that's not what was bothering Ruairí. It was the fact that these conversations about Siobhan were taking place last year, when he felt JD was being supportive to him about the CD. What Malice said has tainted it for him.

I feel so sorry for JD as there's no way to easily explain her very human response that Ruairí should never have had to hear about.

EarringsandLipstick Wed 11-Aug-21 20:25:55
Thanks @theThreeofWeevils for setting up the new thread!

theThreeofWeevils Wed 11-Aug-21 20:46:27
Thanks, Earrings. I could have made a better job of it, though. [Editor's note: Nonsense.]
However, a scene I would love to hear but which I fear is unlikely to happen.
Brian, having got quietly pissed, in his study (oh, they don't have that kind of thing any more, because Kate). Never mind: kitchen table, then, or living room. Jenny asleep upstairs. Enter Alice, probably on the prowl for booze. B pours Alice a (small) whisky. Starts talking about the 'children', because he is missing Ruairi. Pours himself another large one and, pretending to be a great deal more drunk than he actually is, tells Alice how bitterly disappointed he was that she was not a boy. Alice is outraged and devastated and cries. Brian delivers a one-liner and departs for bed, removing decanter as he goes.

KimikosNightmare Wed 11-Aug-21 20:46:35
Poor JD and poor Ruari. Bloody Alice. She doesn’t ever deserve to be forgiven for this.

BoreOfWhabylon Wed 11-Aug-21 20:48:49
Well done Weevils.

Cometh the hour, etc

KimikosNightmare Wed 11-Aug-21 20:50:04
I don’t think there is any harm in admitting to an intelligent 18 year old that his mother’s & Brian’s actions caused her a great deal of heartache so it was hard welcoming him into the family

But that's not what happened. He already knew all of that but, quite rightly, thought he was accepted in his own right. Alice was telling malicious lies.

Darker Wed 11-Aug-21 21:36:23
Thanks for the new thread!

WhoppingBigBackside Wed 11-Aug-21 21:44:59
Thanks for the thread @theThreeofWeevils.
Alice has a lot to answer for.
I still love Shula.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g Wed 11-Aug-21 21:50:49
Sorry for being AWOL! Just set up a new thread without seeing this one. Oops.

DoctorTwo Wed 11-Aug-21 22:31:56
Thanks for the shiny new thread @theThreeofWeevils.

The scenes between JD and Ruauri were well done, he's going to be missed for his good acting. Hollie Chapman deserves a BOOP for her skills too. Hope to hear from them both soon and often.

campion Wed 11-Aug-21 23:00:01
KimikosNightmare

Poor JD and poor Ruari. Bloody Alice. She doesn’t ever deserve to be forgiven for this.

Agreed.
Last night got me emotionally but tonight I felt a bit depressed too. Also where was Brian? I needed to hear him reinforce to Ruairi why he belongs in the family.

R4 Wed 11-Aug-21 23:46:10
This is amusing. I was thinking about a new thread title. Pondering about Brine not knowing how many DC they have. And the varying number of bedrooms at Blossom Hill Cottage. And Lynda having none, one or two VIP to open the fete.
So I was gently musing on the strange effect that Ambridge has on numbers ... and, lo, we come up with two thread No130shock

D^3 will be furious; it will wreck his spreadsheet. [Editor's note: Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Apols to @DadDadDad too.]

theThreeofWeevils Thu 12-Aug-21 00:52:27
R4, I have reported and asked for merging of threads.

stilldumdedumming Thu 12-Aug-21 06:10:28
The thing with Alice's latest outburst is that although she probably has been quite fond of R, she has always been at least joint favourite with Debbie and also really spoilt. What she said was vile, but she kind of always has been. Like most people, I've had alcoholic friends, colleagues and partners, and it's almost impossible to stay the course with them. So bloody sad. I absolutely hate alcohol.

@HaveringWavering

Thanks for the new thread.

It was pretty amazing of Jenny to say he was “the best of the lot”. I do hope he lets JD and Brine drive him down to London and settle him in.

However, they have ever so slightly glossed over the fact that R was packed off to boarding school when he was still quite young- maybe junior school aged? I wonder how he really feels about that, as it was a fairly obvious indication that JD was not up for full time parenting of him, in contrast to her own kids who went to independent day schools. (Or did Adam and Debbie possibly board?)

Yes, Adam, Debbie and Kate all went to boarding school. Adam was at Sherborne and Debbie at Cheltenham Ladies' College. In those days the SWs did not shrink from foisting Archers characters onto real institutions. Alice was the only one who didn't board - she was at an independent girls' day school never heard of before or since, called St Margaret's, but she insisted on transferring to Borchester FE College for sixth form.

Kate was expelled from her boarding school, I think and had to go to Borchester Green and Borchester FE College.

@HaveringWavering

Thanks for the new thread.

It was pretty amazing of Jenny to say he was “the best of the lot”. I do hope he lets JD and Brine drive him down to London and settle him in.

However, they have ever so slightly glossed over the fact that R was packed off to boarding school when he was still quite young- maybe junior school aged? I wonder how he really feels about that, as it was a fairly obvious indication that JD was not up for full time parenting of him, in contrast to her own kids who went to independent day schools. (Or did Adam and Debbie possibly board?)

Boarding school these days doesn’t generally involve being ‘packed off’. The SWs did try to show just how often he was at home; and at prep school level it’s highly unlikely that he would ever have spent more than two weeks without seeing any family, either at school or home. IME (very recently) even at senior school he’d have been at home at least every three weeks, usually more often.

I can’t remember exactly how old he was when he started at the prep - it certainly wasn’t at 4 years old! Maybe around 8 or 9?

As for how he feels about it - I guess we’ll have to wait and see which way the producers / SWs lean - but it was a perfectly reasonable decision on Jenny’s part. She was considerably older than when she’d had her last child: Alice was 14 when Ruairi arrived, and all his care would have fallen on her, as Brian was (iirc) still working full time on the farm, running the shoot and wheeling and dealing.

I thought it was an interesting aspect of his story and I’ll be sorry if the creative team use it for a backlash later on.

I don’t believe it - I’ve just posted a long post on the other thread and now it’s been deleted. I’ll get my coat...

Phew - found it!
I’m still recovering from the mention of Usha - I thought Alan had buried her under the patio (or in St Stephen’s graveyard which come think of it would be a much better place to hide a body). I’m sad to see Ruairi is being put on the back-burner - presumably being held in reserve until we’ve all forgotten about him and then he can pop up again like an unexploded bomb. Personally I find this more than a little unbelievable - Ruairi has far stronger ties to Ambridge than the relationship with his dad and Jenny for him just to unstick and leave from one day to the next. I’m thinking his departure will now mean a stay of execution for Adam. I couldn’t be less interested in the fete and I speak as someone who usually loves Lynda.

Alan is married to Usha?

Sheesh when did that happen?

Sackcloth and ashes, @LillianGish! So glad you found it.

And now I see that @MichaelMumsnet has used his magic powers to remove yet another duplicate (his copy of the other thread) which I was too embarrassed to mention. Many thanks, Michael!

Thanks for creating the thread Gasp, and also Weev for the now deleted emergency thread.

Alice was 14 when Ruairi arrived,

I think I meant she was 14 when he was born. So about 18 when he came to live at Home Farm.

Goodness me! @thethree demonstrating the organisational powers of Lynda Snell setting up a new thread - except the task was completed quietly and without a demand for glory and thanks which is something the Snell would never ever achieve…

Huge thanks to you and @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g for keeping the show on the road!

Given the BBC has targets for diverse production teams and on screen diversity, it’s pretty bewildering they have failed to at least revive the Only Asian in the Village. I can’t even remember what Usha sounds like (except long suffering in the noble Archers tradition). It would be timely to have a “not white” family move in to Ambridge as part of the home working exodus, perhaps Brummies or gasp Londoners. It’s amazingly undiverse even for a small village. Is there even anyone living there from another European country?!