🧦 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!

The advice she mentioned was from rehab, not from detox.

I loved that episode, I was in tears hearing Alice smashing the bottle regaining her self-control and some power over her addiction.
And yes some people do like being called 'my lovely' kind, gentle words as the addict is in a child-like helpless state.
New respect for Amy and Alice

I had a painful medical procedure recently and the nurse was using much the same tone. Honestly I didn't need it on this occasion but I can see why people would, and I'd rather that than brusqueness which can be upsetting if you're feeling vulnerable. Amy was "talking Alice down" from her frozen state.

I thought Amy sounded very much the health professional in that episode which is absolutely what Alice needs at the moment - not her bewildered husband or flapping family. I thought it was a very good episode - equally Pat and Tony unable to confront Natasha (I have a good friend currently trying to get some unwanted guests to move on after Christmas - not even a pregnant daughter-in-law - and it’s amazing how awkward she’s finding it! Always easier said that done).

I'm so bored with Alice.

What exactly does she bring to Home Farm? I thought she only got the job out of pity when she list her job. I'm sure they're managing fine without her.

@KimikosNightmare

I'm so bored with Alice.

What exactly does she bring to Home Farm? I thought she only got the job out of pity when she list her job. I'm sure they're managing fine without her.

With luck, she brings nothing, because the manager doesn't want to take responsibility for someone who is potentially going to get drunk and make expensive mistakes.

Of course- she will be Stella's problem.

Stella was good with Mia.

The friendship between Alice and Amy is really one I could do without. Amy is full of platitudes and very boring company. I would not find her voice a balm to my soul I’m afraid. She also got the tone wrong when she started to talk about how happy and content she is. Very crass. I’m glad Alice wants to go back to work- it should have been addressed a while ago as when she is not having supervised access to her daughter, she is currently just loafing about on the edges of other people’s lives, not living her own.

The friendship between Alice and Amy is really one I could do without.

I, on the other hand, am slightly thrilled that the SWs even remembered their long-standing friendship. (Ignoring a temporary rupture which we discussed more than adequately several threads ago.) This is what I listen to TA for - life unfolding over years and decades.

The friendship between Alice and Amy is really one I could do without

Same here. They are both so boring and platitudinous. Alish was a horrible person before this current story line.

@LiterallyKnowsBest

The friendship between Alice and Amy is really one I could do without.

I, on the other hand, am slightly thrilled that the SWs even remembered their long-standing friendship. (Ignoring a temporary rupture which we discussed more than adequately several threads ago.) This is what I listen to TA for - life unfolding over years and decades.

The trouble is, that temporary rupture lasted from September 2007 until July 2021, during much of which Amy was not in Ambridge nor speaking. They were in about two episodes together in 2011, because the editor remembered they had known each other, and in June 2012 Amy landed herself on Alice because she was having the tantrum at Usha over Carl and made a considerable nuisance of herself, annoying both Alice and Chris (though Alice didn't say so, just did her very best to effect a recnciliation so she could get her own house back). That's yer lot. That is about thirteen and a half years of no-speaks between them, and since Amy only arrived in Ambridge in 2003 that's lot longer than they had an on-off friendship in their teens.

True story - My oldest friend is someone with whom I shared a boarding school dorm during the 70s. When I left the school, and the country, I lost contact with everyone I knew. About 20 years ago we stumbled upon each other on that new-fangled Internet thing and were both thrilled. More recently I found myself having to visit the city she lives in quite regularly. My old friend opened her house to me, gave me a set of keys, let me come and go with almost no notice. I never had to book a hotel. I’m not someone who generally keeps hold of anything, friends included - so it’s been an entirely unexpected delight.

@LiterallyKnowsBest

True story - My oldest friend is someone with whom I shared a boarding school dorm during the 70s. When I left the school, and the country, I lost contact with everyone I knew. About 20 years ago we stumbled upon each other on that new-fangled Internet thing and were both thrilled. More recently I found myself having to visit the city she lives in quite regularly. My old friend opened her house to me, gave me a set of keys, let me come and go with almost no notice. I never had to book a hotel. I’m not someone who generally keeps hold of anything, friends included - so it’s been an entirely unexpected delight.

This would be someone you actually liked, right? Not someone about whom you used a derogatory racist description, and who called you a warmonger and then refused to speak to you?

I mean, you were not thrown into contact just because you were the only two adolescent girls in a small village miles from the nearest coffee-bar?

Well … We weren’t in a soap, so things were a little less heightened.

And you also had a little choice about her being your best friend; not none at all because she was the only person your age whom you were able to spend time with?

Well I have to say I found the last two episodes very dreary.

That said, I felt very sorry Alice with Chris. I know plenty of couples who coparent and attend events as a family and it's not about copping off or rekindling. Alice had set her boundaries, Chris ignored them and then had a strop when she reasserted her boundary. I take a dim view on men pushing romantic boundaries and getting huffy or sulking.

I don't like Alice but that was beyond permission. TBF I'm not a fan of Chris either. So sanctimonious. Don't think he's ever very good at considering other people's needs. (His mum's need to not be round the clock childcare, Martha's needs to bond with her maternal family to name a couple.)

Surely all this Lillian and dog walking bollocks chat is a roundabout way of Alice going to work at the stables. I think it would be very good for her but I don't see why they have to drag it out so.

That said, I felt very sorry Alice with Chris. I know plenty of couples who coparent and attend events as a family and it's not about copping off or rekindling. Alice had set her boundaries, Chris ignored them and then had a strop when she reasserted her boundary. I take a dim view on men pushing romantic boundaries and getting huffy or sulking.

I don't think she ever said the marriage was over otherwise why would she be so shocked at the suggestion of divorce. Chris didn't have a strop, he was upset and, having considered it, doesn't want to be left hanging around in the hope she changes her mind. He is entitled to his boundaries too.

I thought they agreed the marriage was over last year? They were on a family day and Chris made an unsolicited and unwanted advance. Alice quite rightly explained that she has to focus on her sobriety, not her husband’s needs, and his tantrum was ridiculous. I was uncomfortable with him suggestion that she should have been ‘expecting’ him to try and kiss her. It reminded me of the age old ‘she was leading me on’ excuse certain men trot out.

Will did the same with Emma when he made a pass at her after Nic’s death (but that had to be forgiven because he was in the throes of a mental health crisis).

Apparently unless an Ambridge woman clearly displays a “do not kiss me” sign she is sending out mixed signals to any man she spends time with. All very misogynistic.

CaptainMyCaptain
I don't think she ever said the marriage was over otherwise why would she be so shocked at the suggestion of divorce. Chris didn't have a strop, he was upset and, having considered it, doesn't want to be left hanging around in the hope she changes her mind. He is entitled to his boundaries too.

I'm fairly sure she did say the marriage was over, more than once. She just didn't bother to mention it to her husband.

She did tell him she was not going to move back in with him and her daughter, possibly because he might have noticed that she hadn't; who knows what if anything she was thinking about at that point apart from herself? (I don't think alcohol or not-alcohol made any difference to that: she's essentially an Archer, and like Debbie, Kate, Helen or Pip tends to put herself well before anyone else.) Actually, he moved out, and took the baby to a place of safety after Alice got pissed and nearly dropped her just before the christening.

And the rest I agree with; she is a self-absorbed nightmare, and why he still wants her I cannot imagine. He certainly doesn't need to spend the rest of his life waiting in the hope that she'll ever notice or care about anyone apart from me-me-me. If it were an AIBU people would rush to tell him he was better off without her.

Sorry, missed bit.

I'm fairly sure she did say the marriage was over, more than once. She just didn't bother to mention it to her husband. That was why Brain got into a panic about what the settlement might be in her divorce.

@LiterallyKnowsBest

True story - My oldest friend is someone with whom I shared a boarding school dorm during the 70s. When I left the school, and the country, I lost contact with everyone I knew. About 20 years ago we stumbled upon each other on that new-fangled Internet thing and were both thrilled. More recently I found myself having to visit the city she lives in quite regularly. My old friend opened her house to me, gave me a set of keys, let me come and go with almost no notice. I never had to book a hotel. I’m not someone who generally keeps hold of anything, friends included - so it’s been an entirely unexpected delight.

This is so nice and I’m glad your friendship has survived 😊

I assumed there was some eye contact and twilight and stuff that made Chris think they were having a rekindling - people do after all. And we can assume they’re both practically infants when it comes to dating etc as they have been together since they were kids.

I don’t like either Amy or Alice but can still be glad to see their friendship.

For Alice it's always all about Alice - and understandably so at the moment. She wanted a lovely family day out so didn't think about the signals she might be sending to Chris. Everything has to be on her terms. He finds the mixed messages difficult to read and would rather have a clean break so he knows where he is. She should allow him to do that if that's what he wants - it's not as if she doesn't have other (and possibly more supportive) people to lean on.

I seem to remember her saying to Chris she thought they should divorce.

I don’t get this binary view of Archers characters. Apart from the odd ‘baddie’ like Rob or Hazel, I see them as individuals trying to live their lives and figure it out as they go. Alice would be a nightmare to live with or to be married to, but we are able to see how it is for her, and how her low self esteem and sense of shame and worthlessness lead to harmful, seld-destructive behaviour.

The only character I struggle with is Lynda. I don’t know why the village puts up with her.

I rewatched I Capture the Castle this week and there’s something of the Cassandra and Stephens about Alice and Chris walking around in the woods at twilight and her not reciprocating.

I also feel she was the one who originally said she wanted a divorce. Surely Asking will know?