😱 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!

@Darker

Lasagne is an odd choice of meal for someone with a broken arm. Time consuming to make, and a bit tricky to plate up with only one hand. Maybe meatballs was just a bit too obvious.

Shula didn't cook it; Neil did, and only because he was already making a lasagne for his own family and made another, smaller one at the same time. He then offered to heat it for her and put it onto a plate for her. It was at that point that she lost patience with him and told him she wasn't helpless, and asked him to go away and leave her in peace.

It does seem strange, since he was making two, that he gave the one in the family-sized dish which Susan calls her lasagne dish to the single person and presumably used what Susan would have felt was the "wrong" dish for the three of them at home. I'd have thought she would have noticed and remarked on that at the time.

Now curious about how Neil has managed to make a nasty lasagne
I have been treated to 2 near inedible lasagnes.
One was incredibly dry with crispy pasta sheets, the other lacked a white sauce but had instead a huge amount of grated cheddar which totally overpowered the other ingredients and was very cloying and very sickly.

Yes I know Neil cooked it. It just seemed an odd choice.

Still, I suppose he couldn’t have asked Susan for an extra portion of chilli to take to Shula.

And an aubergine dish would have been altogether too much.

Shula didn't cook it; Neil did, and only because he was already making a lasagne for his own family and made another, smaller one at the same time. He then offered to heat it for her and put it onto a plate for her. It was at that point that she lost patience with him and told him she wasn't helpless, and asked him to go away and leave her in peace.
I think it would be more difficult to eat one handed than meatballs or bolognaise, especially if the lasagne sheets were a bit tough. It might need a knife and fork.

Oh the other thing that annoyed me, although I'm hoping it was intentional, was the bit when Amy said "you know best, you're the parent." Really hoping that that is a huge awakening for Chris. When he packed his folks off to GG it felt more like he was babysitting for them. In fairness father's working full time and not doing the night feeds is bog standard but one does wonder if it does much parenting at all. Especially how much he wanted a baby.
I raised that on here a couple of weeks ago and got told that since he is doing an Important and Dangerous job that it was only right that his mother should be taking on the burden.

I can't remember if I was one of the people who responded to you, Worried, but my point there isn't that it's only right that his mother should be taking on the burden of looking after Martha, but that a person doing a potentially dangerous job is putting himself and others at risk if he does it while seriously sleep deprived. He should be doing all the night feeds etc if he's not working the next day, and Neil should be taking his turn with Susan on other nights, but he's also working full-time. Susan has scaled her hours back by agreement with Bridge Farm but the time freed is all with Martha, so it's not as if she can rest then. They need a better childcare solution in place as a matter of urgency, but that's never been done realistically in Ambridge.

Susan has (in her own roundabout way) told Shula to get out of her marriage a few times now. If Shula is lacking the listening skills and emotional intelligence to understand that, she really isn’t going to be a very good clergy woman.

I agreed with you @WorriedWishingWell and have said similar on here before. Chris isn’t experiencing most of the responsibility of parenthood. He and Alice clearly had no plans for when Alice went back to work, which she could reasonably have done by now anyway. How old is the baby?

BTW I assumed that Neil hadn’t made a “spare” lasagne for Shula, he’d made one especially for her hence using the “main” dish. Susan would DEFINITELY have noticed if he’d served up lasagne in another dish and I’m fairly sure (given his act last night) that he only performance cooks once in a blue moon anyway. He’d gone out and bought the ingredients and conjured up his best dish for Marvellous Mrs Hebden-Lloyd.

He did state that he'd been making lasagne for the family and made another for her at the same time, for what that is worth. "It's no bother. I was making one for Susan and Chris and me, so I thought..."

Personally I expect it was true: Neil is not the one with the crush on Shula (apart from having fancied her when he was seventeen), it's the other way round, and his offence is being dimwitted, not being devious.

He almost certainly does think of her as one of his oldest friends in the village; they have done church stuff together since forever, both did bell-ringing, both did cricket-team things, they have been comfortable in each other's company. In fact he is probably wondering what's amiss with Shula because she's been being less-than-usually friendly.

I don’t buy that at all!

@MereDintofPandiculation

Why don’t susan and neil just talk to each other? The way Susan is just pussyfooting around it will mean they do break up and he will go to Shula. I don’t Neil is consciously looking for an affair, just aware that things aren’t going well in his marriage. If one of them sat the other down for an honest talk, Neil would have to face up to the situation he’s in and decide what he wanted.

Ah good, they have

Yay!!!!!

ILoveNeil

I have a strong feeling that I was right in believing that Neil was pretty-much blameless in this daft SL, and had no idea what it was he was doing wrong.

He wasn't blameless though was he, he was spending time away from the chaos at AV, when his wife needed his support.

His idiotic martyr shrew of a wife who was insisting on taking over care of 'little Martha' (and ensuring filthy Aldridges got nowhere near the nice, pickled clean, Horrobin-stock baby) despite Neil having voiced concerns as to how they would cope and then goes mildly potty under pressure?
What a pity Neil didn't tell her that, while he isn't in lerrve with Shula, he doesn't love Susan any more either, and separating would be best. It's not that I want him to be happy so much as I want to see Susan miserable and then utterly destroyed. Finding out that while Martha's gross motor skills are coming on a treat she will only ever have the cognitive capacities of a rather stunted radish should do it.

ooh er gosh it is fiction you know

Neil was blameless of what Susan had decided to blame him for having done, since he had not done it.

Her accusations clearly left him first bemused and then horrified that she would think such a thing of him.

He is guilty of not sitting her down and saying, "Look, Susan, our son is Martha's father and he ought to be doing at least as much towards her care as the pair of us put together, and ideally more; we are both over fifty and both working full-time, and we can't go on doing everything for a man grown."

@StillWeRise

ooh er gosh it is fiction you know

And that is why ^Weevil* can express herself in her own inimitable way

BOOOOOOOP for Neil being the good husband we all know him to be. I still think he has an ongoing small crush on Shula and probably the relative peace and calm of the stables, but Susan and Neil’s marriage is still rock solid and thank god for it.

Only just heard last night’s tour de force from Susan. V well written delivered indeed, it was almost Shakespearean.

I’m still inclined to believe that Neil was oblivious to the whole Shula thing. Agree with @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime that he just doesn’t think of her romantically at all. He is married to Susan and that’s it although clearly he was using The Stables as an escape from home whether consciously or not (and, frankly, who can blame him).

I think Susan just tied herself in knots with this one. She has completely martyred herself to Martha’s care and although I wouldn’t wish ill on her as maybe Weevils does I do agree that it’s largely of her own doing. When she complained the other day that she had nothing to talk to Neil about I did (maybe uncharitably) think well that’s because you’ve stopped doing anything other than looking after Martha you stupid woman. I remember those days with a young baby where you get to the end of the day and you’ve achieved nothing but keeping everyone alive and the conversation is, well, limited at best. Susan really needs to go back to work and start living her life again instead of having so much time to stew.

I’m really pleased that Neil took the bull by the horns though and made it very clear to Shula where his loyalties lie. I thought he tried hard not to embarrass her but actually she did have the good grace to sound slightly ashamed (or maybe she thought he was going to declare his undying love, and that was the meaning of her querulous ‘oh hello Neil’ at the start?). I hope she’ll pull herself together now and preferably take herself off on that long trip she was so grumpy with Alistair for not wanting to do.

Also agree with everyone else (except the SWs maybe ) that they really need to sort out some actual childcare for Martha. Somehow I feel like Alice coming back from her unrealistically-short rehab stint isn’t going to be enough.

Boop for Susan and Neil! Phew. Shula will make an absolutely abysmal vicar, but we've all known that from the start. I know next to nothing about the Church of England and as an atheist from my early teens have as little to do with organised religion as possible, but surely they're not so desperate for vicars as this?

The Aldridges' bottomless money pot should ensure that there is no financial issue with finding suitable childcare for Martha. There is some sort of day nursery in Borchester to which Archer children have been consigned in the past.

As I have banged on endlessly about over the years, in reality (what am I saying?) there would be other options in the village itself, e.g. childminders, and quite possibly a day nursery. There are hundreds of silent characters living in the village and presumably a great many of them have children and are either working from home or commuting to Borchester, Felpersham or Brum. Who looks after their children? They can't all be the traditional set up of one working parent and one stay-at-home. Buying a home in Ambridge would realistically need two incomes, or one plus inherited/family money, surely.

I think Rosie goes to Nursery so it's clearly a possibility.

Didn’t Pip look at a couple of nurseries for Rosie?