😱 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!

Sadly, I think Pip'n' Rex could it into the names pattern by virtue of both being one syllable. A future in which both of those feature heavily in storylines is truly terrible to contemplate.

Chris and Amy. I'm calling it now. It will be an emotional affair that Chris will wonder into obliviously I think it is even more likely now that Neil and Shula have just avoided this very scenario. I seem to recall a discussion many moons back about this very phenomenon - where a plot is foreshadowed by a previous storyline, speculated upon, but which never came to fruition. I particularly like the idea that Chris is probably even more inclined to wander obliviously into things than his father.

Chris is probably even more inclined to wander obliviously into things than his father
Splendid. I vote for the St Stephen's well.

I am not convinced that Amy would be interested in him -- and she would have to be the one making the running, if he is to wander obliviously into an affair with her.

It would be amusing if Chris is a red herring and Amy is intended to end up with someone else in Ambridge. Wiki says she was born in 1989 - making her roughly 32.

Will is single …

Fairbrethren usually not officially attached, but I suspect the SWs have grander dynastic ambitions for them. (Rosie + maybe a Pargetter.)

Can’t think of any other obviously suitable single men around. Perhaps she’ll happen upon the desiccated skeleton of Doc Locke, collapsed in a forgotten corner of his forgotten house, in Ambridge.

I think Stella’s love life has far more potential than that of boring Amy.

Still hoping Stella turns out to be a hot and highly sexualised lesbian/bisexual and has women all over Ambridge questioning their boring husbands.

I really hope Chrissifur and Amy don't 'go up Lakey Hill.'

women all over Ambridge questioning their boring husbands
That's from the top secret briefing for aspiring young SWs. How did you get your hot, sticky little tarsi upon a copy, hmmmmmzzzz?

For all you know I write the briefings...

Are you the young intern then?

Pat ❤

Does Jennifer seriously believe that things are as they are because of Peggy, and that by not saying something (she'd told Chris she wouldn't and which Jennifer would not have believed at that time) Peggy made everything a whole lot worse?

How, in the name of whatever? In what way are things worse because Jennifer did not have a falling-out with Alice back in January about drink, or a falling-out with Peggy back in January when she would have said Peggy was talking nonsense and Darling Alice wasn't drinking and anyway never had been a problem drinker?

Jennifer had as many clues as Peggy about Alice's drinking, and ignored them.

Kenton, Jolene, Pat, Peggy, Oliver - a bit of variety in the cast at last! Also, Oliver is clearly going to back to Eddie and tell him to stuff his nonsensical scheme. At least, I hope so.

I think Jennifer is prettied justified in her position regarding Peggy.

I think it's safe to assume Jenny wouldn't have listened and it wouldn't have helped, but I can indulge JD in her fantasy that she might have provided earlier intervention and kept Alice's little unit together. If my child was such a liability I'd be fuming if I felts my own mother was laying the groundwork for familial breakup without giving me a tiny heads up (even though it would have fallen on deaf ears.)

Peggy did sound quite genuine in her apology and that goes quite a long way in my book.

When she said she had something to give her, I laughed as I thought I could see Jennifer’s ears pricking up at the thought of a cheque. What a disappointment a prayer card must have been though she hid it well…

Is that a well-known fisherman’s prayer? I didn’t recognise it but that doesn’t mean much. It sounded a bit like a fridge magnet to me, I’m afraid.

It's used in Judy Collins' Song for Marion, and it's been used as the title of a book of "inspirational teaching for parents" -- but I don't think an actual fisherman would say it. I think it's a churchy thing rather than a real one.

(Yes, I do know that church is real; I just think that they don't claim that a prayer about animals is a zoo-keeper's prayer or one about mountains is rock-climber's prayer, because that would feel silly, so they might leave fishermen alone too...)

Fridge magnet, yes; or as Peggy had it, on a bit of cardboard, probably with a flower edging thing at the top left corner. And you know what? I really, really do not believe in a bit of cardboard that has survived being in someone's handbag for fifty years.

Funnily enough, my mum has something similar in her handbag which she has had for - well perhaps not 50 years, but certainly getting on for that long. I think hers is actually tucked in her purse along with a tiny horseshoe from her wedding cake (which she has carried with her for 58 years). I really identified with it as being something someone of Peggy's generation might do. Agree re. the fridge magnet sentimentality, though my mum certainly has no such fridge magnets or indeed any other homilies posted around the house - hers is very much a prayer and really a talisman more than anything.

I have something probably fifty years old in my wallet, but it is in no fit state to be passed to anyone else; both illegible except with the eye of faith because it has been rubbed over the years, and with very tattified corners.

I was going to say, no reason why it couldn’t last that long if it were tucked away in a pocket of the handbag, or in a wallet. I have a scrap of table napkin that’s survived almost 40 years in my wallet.

I do doubt the ability of the handbag to survive 50years.

This is tough listening.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

This is tough listening.

Tonight's? I listened on iplayer and fast forwarded it in 20 second busts. It was tedious, not tough. Can't stand Alice.

Angela Piper is a good actress. I wonder why she has never done anything other than TA?

Jennifer needs to give her head a wobble about Peggy and Alice. What is never mentioned is that it was also one adult talking to another, that Peggy might have considered it a confidence.

As for Jennifer's grudging "can't forget about it", when Peggy made the most sincere of apologies, and I don't think she was asked to. forget....grow up, woman.

Thinking of prayers, my dad carried around his handwritten Prayer before a Crucifix (RC) in his wallet. We found it after he died.

I found the expectation that Alice’s mum and husband would be comfortable speaking in front of each other to Alice in that way very awkward. Is that what really happens in rehab? Alice is in a high-end clinic so I would have thought they could have stretched to holding separate sessions with Jenny and Chris. I particularly thought it was a big ask to get the Neanderthal to open up in front of his mother-in-law, but may be that’s how they do it IRL?

Alice doesn’t sound anywhere near ready to go back to Ambridge. I doubt anyone ever feels really ready to leave rehab but she still sounds very fragile to me.

JD and Alice were beautifully acted btw and the Neanderthal benefited from being in the same scenes as them (in the same way that acting with Amy showed how limited his range really is).