🧦 Archers thread #133: Woolley socks it to them! Discuss The Archers and its Woolley thinking and plotting 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 would love to take part in the Mysteries, or other unusual views.

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.)

Thanks to @ButtonSister and @BorsetshireBanality for title suggestions. I went with their idea in the interests of keeping the title fairly short.

@LillianGish and @FoxgloveSummers made cracking but longer suggestions, which (mashed up) will do a great job of kicking off our new thread.

Evictions (Tom and Tash), depictions (Bridge Farm Christmas card), conniptions (entire cast and crew of the Mysteries), convictions (Philip) and addictions (Alice) - what are our predictions for 2022 in Ambridge? All sure to make this the Best Ambridge Christmas Evah!

This thread should take us through to early January unless something very exciting happens (ha ha, fat chance). My predictions: this is a bit left field, but I wonder if Peggy will offer to buy the shop and flat so Tom and Gnasher (great coinage, whose was it?) can stay put. I don't believe Hazel is sincere about wanting to live in/regularly visit Ambridge. She's always been utterly two-faced and rotten to the core, why would she change now?

The Mysteries will, of course be a triumph and briefly borrowing the🔮 (sorry, Bore!) I expect we are going to hear them at some point over the New Year period.

Over to you!

Amy being amazing.

Poor Alice.

@Darker

Amy being amazing.

Do adults really thrive on being talked to as babies in that special tender-like-Ruth voice, and called "my lovely" every second sentence?

Maybe some do.

I would probably drink the vodka if someone called me 'My lovely' and I don't like vodka

@ILoveShula

Maybe some do.

I would probably drink the vodka if someone called me 'My lovely' and I don't like vodka

I was just thinking that as I listened.

Unreasonable behaviour will make Marthyr think it is all Alish's fault

Well it is.

Actually I think Chris is right - they should get divorced. He is not the right person to see her through this

Agreed. It's not doing anyone any good to drag it out.

I have to admit I don't like Alice. I thought she'd end up drunk in a ditch.

Why on earth are Pat 'n' Tone not drinking their own coffee?

We know that living with Gnasher and Tom will be a disaster- they don't need to ladle it on with a trowel.

Maybe we do think alike Asking. All you need to say is 'I love Shula too'

The coffee has gone missing along with Pat's face cream

@ILoveShula

Maybe we do think alike Asking. All you need to say is 'I love Shula too'

The coffee has gone missing along with Pat's face cream

Until the advent of Sean O'Connor, who was disastrously bad at editing The Archers (he may have been good at other things, I don't know because I am not really all that into the torture and murder of women so I have avoided his other stuff), I liked Shula and quite often defended her. But her behaviour over the hunt observer being beaten up by Rob, and then her treatment of Alistair, fair put me off her, and this idiotic "I shall be a vicar now" start of hers irritates me badly, because she really is not going to be any good at it: she is too busy being Holy herself to be of the slightest use to anyone else, and caring about others is most of a vicar's business.

Giving Alice was having a mental health crisis I think Amy did brilliantly too. Midwife training kicking in, being there and respecting Alice (however hard) the most important thing). I think she said the message from Alice had scared the hell out of her so I imagine she was sounding either confused or like she might harm herself.

If everyone could refrain from saying they wish she WOULD harm herself that would be great.

@FoxgloveSummers

Giving Alice was having a mental health crisis I think Amy did brilliantly too. Midwife training kicking in, being there and respecting Alice (however hard) the most important thing). I think she said the message from Alice had scared the hell out of her so I imagine she was sounding either confused or like she might harm herself.

I absolutely agree. I wonder if she will train to be a counsellor now?

@KimikosNightmare

Why on earth are Pat 'n' Tone not drinking their own coffee?

We know that living with Gnasher and Tom will be a disaster- they don't need to ladle it on with a trowel.

Absolutely. When they were saying they couldn't go into their own kitchen till 8, I was saying "Why the hell not?" They're already doing Tom'n'Tash a massive favour by letting them stay, they don't have to feel obligated to keep out of their way all the time, and they certainly don't have to stop drinking the coffee they like.

The problem is that Natasha is pregnant so everyone has to treat her with kid gloves.

…or feels they ought to treat her with kid gloves

Pat shouldn’t have insisted on Tony watching N’s choice of Sleepless in Seattle as that set a dangerous precedent regarding the balance of power.

I guess if you’re used to tiptoeing around your daughter maybe you default to doing the same for your DIL?

Ridiculous about the coffee though, no adult really goes into another persons house and replaces their coffee. If they did they’d expect an earful!

Also am I imagining or wasn’t tea/coffee one of the things Natasha had gone off thus giving away the pregnancy

Aha! So it would have been some type of decaf coffee beans?

Poor Pat & Tony!

Or pseudo-coffee beans?

And they couldn’t be in the same room because Natasha wouldn’t be able to stand the smell of their proper coffee?

I get it now. Wasn’t paying proper attention last night and it all seemed a bit extreme.

Yes, I suppose that makes sense. When I was pregnant the first time I went right off coffee. Hours after the birth i was back to normal, phew. I love coffee.

I thought Amy was a lot less irritating there than she normally is. She did well. So did Alice. Must be incredibly hard.

It was interesting, wasn’t it, how Amy’s slow, careful diction suddenly made sense when we heard her operating ‘as’ a professional? She was a very calming presence.

Does it make a significant difference to someone with an alcohol problem to see the drink thrown away? Fine if so - but I couldn’t help feeling sad for any penniless person in Ambridge who might have welcomed a full bottle of vodka to see in the first weekend of 2022.

I think destroying the alcohol and throwing the bottles away is an empowering symbolic act.

Haha @LiterallyKnowsBest dry January be buggered

I thought that was a good episode. It would have been unrealistic to pretend that Alice was completely cured, but depressing to have another few programmes with her knocking it back and abusing everyone in sight. Showing how close she came and that, actually, the detox advice can work, was a powerful message.

It gives a powerful message that having good support can make a huge difference - whether it’s a friend or a sponsor.