🌱 Archers thread #131: A time to plant, a time to reap. 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 also have a few millions lying around you're not sure how to invest, or other unusual things.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the week night 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.)

Thanks to @Roysnewshirt and @Edmontine for title suggestions, and apologies to anyone I’ve missed or forgotten. In the end, inspired by Edmontine's idea and a brief discussion at the end of the last thread, I remembered that it's autumn now and the Ambridge farmers are presumably sowing barley, winter wheat, potatoes etc, so I found myself recollecting Ecclesiastes 3 (King James version) - my Church of Scotland upbringing has a lot to answer for. This led me back to one of my favourite numbers by The Byrds (written by Pete Seeger):

Roysnewshirt suggested Prayer cards, rehab, a glass of scotch, a bowl of chilli or even a dish of lasagne…we offer a range of solutions here to help you solve any Ambridge problem - large or small etc etc, which is as good a point as any to start this thread. Do we think Neil and Susan are solid again? Will Alice relapse? Will Shula confess all to the Bishop?

Reflecting on last night's offering, Edmontine said I’m musing on Baby steps … - but we need the culmination of Alice’s story this week. We have a new nurse in training, a possibly resigning midwife settling in Ambridge, Xander, Martha, Alice somewhere trying to find her feet sans grog, Shula trying to find her saintly feet sans Neil …B(ill)eth & Ben. Lots and lots of newness. Stir in Three’s blood and jam …

The blood and jam made me laugh. A lot. Just as well, as the storyline that line inspired is pants.

Over to you!

Amy is encroaching rather. Loved her little question as to whether Alice would be going along to the pub. She is either very thick indeed or setting up a plausible deniability scenario. Maybe Benadryl has cleared up her severe allergy to married men.
She is both dull and awful. And rather ill-mannered as well, if the tone of her 'Bye' to Jennifer is anything to go by.

Didn't Amy have a thing with a married man before she left Ambridge? Or am I misremembering?

Didn't take Amy long did it.

I don't think it was Knob. I think it was Kyle trying to frighten Hellqueen

@BoreOfWhabylon

Didn't Amy have a thing with a married man before she left Ambridge? Or am I misremembering?

She did. Then she blamed Usha for having found out that he was married about a day before she did, and was vile about that evil behaviour for weeks, trying to break up her father's marriage since she couldn't break up Carl's.

And Alan did absolutely nothing to support his wife while his daughter flounced about and behaved abominably. I kinda took against him at that point; before then I just thought he was a bit wet, but he really was horrible throughout the whole business.

Was Amy this POINTLESS before? I vaguely remember her as having a bit more to her, in a similar vein to Hayley and Kirsty.

If Rob is looking out for Helen would he really be walking up and down outside her door? What’s the point? I see him more as a “creepy watching from the car” type. Or even presenting himself as a reformed character and applying for custody/visiting rights again through a SHL.

But Joy would have recognised Kyle or any neighbour, so I think we have to assume it's a non Beechwood, non-Ambridgeite. Possibly a horse, or horse-related. I mean I'd love Helen to get her comeuppance, but Not Going To Happen.

Thanks Asking, pleased I wasn't misremembering.

Whopping if Kyle is trying to frighten Hellin, he might get more than he bargained for if he triggers her into stab mode.

Could it be one of the “horses”?

@MereDintofPandiculation

So that was the point of Joy. Someone new to the village, but integrated enough to be able to raise the alarm, without being able to say “no it wasn’t Rob”.

It’s either Rob with all that entails, or it’s not Rob, but will cause all sorts of angst and will demonstrate how not over it Helen is. I think the latter. DH is happily constructing a scenario where Rob attempts to kidnap Myson, Helen tries to stop him, followed by Henwee, and as Rob tries to make a getaway he runs them both over

That's my guess too. Bloody Rob.

I was thinking Rob.

Oh wow Ihaven’tlistened yet....

Yes Amy was sensible and nice previously.

Either:

• Rob
• Dodgy associate of Philip's, looking for him
• one of the slaves, hoping Kirsty will help

Although, as whoever was also seen at Brisge Farm, most likely Rob.

We’re obviously supposed to think it’s Rob …

And, of course, it could be him …

There’s always the Spoilers thread for anyone who enjoys generally disappointing and misleading but nevertheless intriguing clues …

Thread police alert! Spoilers this way please: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/4197199--The-Archers-spoilers-thread-6-Cant-wait-for-7-02pm-Join-us-here

I love them, some people here hate them, so we hive them off to a separate thread.

I too was thinking 'Aha, Joy wouldn't know what Rob looks like!' but I think it's unlikely to be him. I'd like to know what happened to the young lads Philip and Gavin were exploiting. Maybe they're going to tidy up that loose end at last.

Couldn't care less about Chris and Amy. Yawn.

@JanglyBeads

Oh wow Ihaven’tlistened yet....

Yes Amy was sensible and nice previously.

JanglyBeads Amy was sensible and nice previously.

I heard Amy as a sanctimonious little person until she started to be a really nasty bit of work over Carl.

Then she mercifully left the programme, coming back only briefly to gratuitously prevent Helen's death.

Isn’t that Russ’s breathy voice all over the Afternoon Play - one of the ‘Brief Lives’ things?

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009cdx

I'm assuming there aren't lots of family photos with Rob in at Helen's house!

Yes I thought the same @EdmontinaDonsAutumnalHues - playing a fancy London barrister defending a rapist. All sounded rather familiar on several fronts.

Amy actress really is terrible. Delivery even worse than Pip.

Just came on here to say exactly the same thing @BoreOfWhabylon! She would probably struggle to get a part in a 6th form play with intonation like that. So am-dram!

And Lee and Tony were acting like they’re in an episode of Starsky and Hutch.

Toe-curlingly awful. I think it’s almost certainly one of the horses.

I found the Tony/Lee exchange very annoying, the ping-pong dialogue. I know it's not RL, but people don't talk like that.

Clear irony alert with Chris's getting so spectacularly kalied.

@BeardieWeirdie

Yes I thought the same *@EdmontinaDonsAutumnalHues* - playing a fancy London barrister defending a rapist. All sounded rather familiar on several fronts.

Russ was the prosecution barrister, not the defence.

Why is Amy back in Ambridge ? I know it's a Plot Device but what was the flimsy reason?