🌟 ⭐ Archers thread #138: Two new stars on the Ambridge firmament, but will Peggy’s retirement leave a black hole? 🕳️ Join us here for a window on The Archers.

[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 think commissioning a stained glass window for two of your great-grandchildren and nothing for all the others is a sensible thing to do, 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 @LillianGish and @MuddlerInLaw for title ideas, which I have played around with a bit. I'm sad to have heard the last of Peggy. An era starts to draw to a close.

What a relief to be out of the Steph Casey phase, which I hope was an unfortunate blip, not to be repeated. [Triumph of hope over experience there ... ]

@BoreofWhabylon has asked the 🔮 about Adil and it predicts that he is actually the Mysterious New Owner of Grey Gables but won't be revealed as such until he has won Kirsty's heart (or some similar Mills & Boon level tosh - apols to the 🔮 but it does seem to have a mushy side). I still cling to the idea that the mysterious silent and invisible Gills who now own Home Farm may have some role at GG, but why not name them?

No mention of the heatwave in Ambridge, but budget constraints probably severely limit their scope for topical inserts these days. IRL I believe this has been a tricky time for farmers. Perhaps the SWs will catch up with this over the winter and start putting in some farming chat about diversification away from oats to olives, or similar. We already have at least one vineyard in the Ambridge area, at LL. (I understand there was another, in the heart of the village, decades ago, but the SWs have now forgotten all about it, sadly.)

Over to you!

@MuddlerInLaw , Me too. Aw, snap! (sorry Gasp, couldn't resist)

@MuddlerInLaw I suspect Tracey may object. Particularly given that Russ persuaded Chelsea to pay for any damage, which may be the right thing to do but will also be extremely expensive...

Sorry that should be been to @frustratedacademic as well

Yes, agreed, @Prestissimo, question is whether the writers get what a creep Russ is, or will they continue to paint him as the saviour of the village criminals: why did they have to have her do something so dim??

I’m less bothered about the money, though that will be a burden. My concern is the apparent assumption by the SWs that a working class family will take receiving a caution in its stride, as nothing much to worry about.

Was that the implication @MuddlerInLaw ? Or is it just that she did something wrong and this is the consequence? I share @frustratedacademic 's frustration at the SWs making her do something so stupid in the first place.

I don't really understand the ins and outs of a conditional caution - what are her conditions likely to be? Attend an anger management course? Don't hang around in car parks??

Either way I can see Tracey being considerably displeased at how Russ has appointed himself Chelsea's appropriate adult. And although I think he has acted as a professional would, he doesn't actually have a professional relationship with Chelsea. I could see him accompanying a college student to the police station. But here he really should have got in touch with Tracey first.

She'll get a caution. I think that it will be a chat with a police officer and a letter. It may show up on a DBS check.

Russ acting as her responsible adult smacked of grooming potential, and I don't mean in the tonsorial sort. Chelsea is a part time waitress and a student. She won't be able to pay for fixing the car. Minis are not cheap to fix. Tracey's work life will suffer.

We know she got a caution @ILoveShula - we heard Russ updating Harrison. I thought he said a conditional caution though, hence was pondering what the conditions could be.

They can't really do her for it unless they have evidence.
There was a witness but that was her mother, and she probably wouldn't give a statement.
All they have AFAIK is Chelsea's statement.
If she is given a conditional caution, she'd probably need to do a community punishment order or pay for the damage
but if they have no evidence, it could be challenged.
I don't know why she didn't have a quick chat with Usha before going to the
police station or at least do a quick search on her phone.

(and wasn’t his ex wife also very young? Jess? Was that implied as a similar situation?). Jess was the wife of Rob, another who preys on the vulnerable

A 70 year old farmer would be pretty tough. And Joy, even if 70, does not remotely sound physically frail.

To get a caution you have to admit guilt. It can be tempting to admit guilt in return for an innocent sounding caution, and get to go home, but it does go on your police record, even though it is now removed from a DBS check

Chesea's statement is evidence, the best evidence they could possibly get. She's given it willingly with a responsible adult present, she's also admitted it to Harrison informally as well as to his colleague, and she's agreed to pay for the damage. How could she challenge anything, short of lying and saying she made the whole thing up?

A conditional caution will be the end of it, she couldn't get a community service order without going to court which won't happen.

I got a caution for underage drinking. In 1975. I’m wondering now if that is what stopped me getting into the Diplomatic Service. I’d always thought it was my Irish roots.

If it was, oh how I regret my Pils and Lime in the Dog and Partridge discussing a holiday romance.

I wonder if the SW are trying to rehabilitate Russ through good works towards the poor. I do hope so as he's very well acted.

They won’t pull the wool over my eyes …

Lily's going to cheat on him just as he's being reframed as Nice Guy.

Interesting to hear about cautions no longer showing up on a DBS. Years ago I worked in a university. I had to screen applications for a Master's course involving a placement working with vulnerable adults. All applicants had to tick on the application whether they had anything on their record that would show up on a DBS, and if they ticked yes, they had to give details. The Programme Leader took the view that as most placements would have said no to a student without a clean DBS, regardless of the details, we would reject them outright without an interview. Understandable, but very harsh in some cases.

I remember one woman who had accepted a caution for shoplifting as a teenager, more than a decade earlier - she had an excellent and unblemished academic and work record otherwise. I doubt the implications for a future professional career would have been uppermost in her mind at that age, and it was unclear from the wording whether she'd accepted the caution to make it all go away, as I believe sometimes happens, rather than go through the trauma of a trial in the hope of being found not guilty. I hope she made it to her chosen profession by another route.

I think they still show up on an enhanced DBS. Isn't that what HarryTheOwl and Fair Cop were protesting about?

I might well be wrong there though

No, those weren't cautions. Harry et al are trying to get police forces to stop recording non-crime hate incidents, defined by the College of Policing’s guidance as “any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice”. One of the problems with those is that the person being complained about is not told or given any chance to put their side of the story.

Ah, thanks Gasp0de. It's all coming back to me now

My googling yesterday suggested there’s been a recent change whereby youth cautions don’t show up on DBS.

Given that of men born in 1953, one third had acquired a criminal conviction by age 30, and the proportion was steadily increasing for cohorts born in 1958, 1963, 1968 …. they’d probably run out of people with a clear DBS

George might as well have a moustache to twirl. The pantomime villain routine is really tedious.

And Pat, you were idiotic.

It’s the asides to the audience “first lesson, don’t be caught”

Just listened to a whole batch of episodes to catch-up with what you lot are talking about, and aside from the improbable story lines, TA does seem to have improved the last week. Some good acting.