Archers thread #140: Changing rooms at Brookfield with Leonard Llewellyn-Bowen, or saving souls with St Smugula in the heathen wastelands of the North? 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 think a stained glass window marking the birth of newborn twins is just what Ambridge needs, 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/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-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.)

Title composed in haste, making use of @Octothorpe's lovely coinage of Leonard Llewellyn-Bowen and @TheLassWiADelicateAir's terrific description of St. Smugula's mission to the heathen wasteland of far flung Sunderland, both from the last thread

I've abandoned the use of an emoji in the title, having been alerted by another thread recently to the fact that it makes it difficult for people with visual problems to use assistive software.

I won't say much more about The Archers, as I'm still feeling extremely jaundiced about the programme at the moment. Fingers crossed it takes a turn for the better over the next few days. It was good to hear Helen, Lee and Joy again tonight. Less delighted to hear the loathsome George. What a numpty not to recognise pheasant chicks! His Dad would be far from impressed.

Over to you!

Exactly - some special breakfast etc it’s all ridiculous.

I cannot relate to it at all.

Thanks @GoldenCupidon and Gasp

I'm vehemently Pro Choice but this SL is turning my stomach. There was no need for it to get to this stage.

Dreadful storyline. There is no way any responsible parent would have allowed a 17yo girl to get to 16+ weeks without getting medical care and to 18 weeks without making a decision about a termination. Chelsea conceived on 1st July and was sufficiently clued up to get the morning after pill asap. She must have known from mid-July, say the end of July to allow for irregular periods, that there was a possibility she was pregnant. Not too unrealistic that she stuck her head in the sand at that point, but when she told Tracy (2nd September! I'm so cross I just went back to check) the obvious thing was to get her to the GP asap and referred to a counselling service to talk through what was involved, either way. As so many have said so often, she could have talked to someone at the FE college as another option.

Teenage pregnancies are far less common than they were. Terminations done as late as this in the pregnancy are surely overwhelmingly because of a health problem in either mother or foetus, or in a very small number of cases because the mother didn't realise she was pregnant until very late on. Termination at nearly 20 weeks because the mother couldn't make up her mind must be vanishingly rare.

I also predict she won't go through with it, or if she does, she will be traumatised. Either way, this will go on for months yet and it really shouldn't have done.

I'll give it another week or so to see how it turns out but I'm feeling a letter to Feedback coming on ...

Yep, it’s an irresponsible, unrealistic and distasteful storyline. Late abortions are very rare and the reasons nearly always heartbreaking. To portray one due to a dithery teenager is 🤦‍♀️ I got told off earlier on this thread for referring to women’s reproductive rights but I don’t know what the SW’s are thinking with this one. I’m not sure I’ll continue to listen.

The SWs need to have a long hard word with themselves.

I am sorry to be out of touch but are mushrooms a luxury item now? It’s a serious question- a packet of mushrooms (obvs not King Oysters) in the Coop is 95p but would the Horribins consider them an extravagance? I would have thought Chelsea would actually have preferred the offer of a bacon sandwich, which def has a more decadent ring about it…

Btw, I agree that the victory breakfast was tone-deaf. What a celebration…

I’m also finding the Paul the veterinary nurse storyline very weird and jarring.

Dunno,but at this time of year,in a rural area, they might as easily forage them.

I'm going to predict she has the baby and Beth goes to New Zealand alone and never comes back (well not for a while anyway). It feels like an enormously tortuous way for the SWs to achieve and Archer/Horrobin baby (after the Archer/Fairbrother baby). To EE for words.

Apologies for typos - should always preview

There's no need to be so dramatic. I disagreed that this story line is part of some sinister plot to shoe horn a Roe-v-Wade situation into UK law. There is no serious call in the UK to roll back abortion rights (rights in fact were extended)

The issue with this story is its utter incredibility and poor writing. The pity shag at the rave was nonsense for starters and it got worse and worse as it went on.

Teenage pregnancy rates have been declining steadily for years.

Around 90% of abortions in the UK are carried out under 10 weeks. Tracey has no objection to abortion, Jazzer has sensibly kept his opinion to himself (I was wrong there)

The running off story line was completely ridiculous and out of character. It's ludicrous that the dithering has been going on for this long.

I fear the decision will be reversed.

The only part of this story I've enjoyed was the update on Blake and the meeting with and apology from Lynda.

(Ok , I quite enjoyed the upsetting Beth bit as she's so awful)

The part I enjoyed was the scales falling from Lily’s eyes and the gone-ness of Russ. Was epic to have the Horrobin household so electrify the Pargetter household.

I don’t enjoy Ben crying endlessly and he and Beth walking around in a state of trembly-voiced terminal shock - but it might have been worth it for a truly SATTC dynastic earthquake.

I’m pretty fed up with all the rubbishy filler stories they’ve forced on us - while they made Chelsea do something no one does.

It’s surely too late for my nightmare scenario - Ben and the hospital medicine cabinet.

Really hard to see where they’re going with it now.

☝️☝️ What pretty much everyone says. A rubbishy storyline all round, very badly handled. And plenty of scope for more to come, unfortunately.

Too many family for it to be adopted.

rural poverty
Will be more that the 95p in a co-op plus you have to drive to a shop to get them.

MysticBore™️ predicts:

The termination will go ahead very quickly. Chelsea will have no regrets and will just get on with her life. However, word will soon get out and the fall-out will be massive amongst Archers and Caseys with enthusiastic outraged pot-stirring by Soosan.

Echoing and nodding in agreement with the rest of you about the badly done late abortion storyline. Where will they go next with this I wonder.

The part I enjoyed was the scales falling from Lily’s eyes and the gone-ness of Russ. Was epic to have the Horrobin household so electrify the Pargetter household. This with knobs on.

Wasn't it Chelsea's birthday?

I don’t believe for a moment or have suggested, that the storyline intends to shoehorn, or otherwise, any mention of Roe vs Wade. My ‘dramatic’ and ‘scaremongering’ point referring to Roe vs Wade relate to it being a particularly uncomfortable time for a storyline that makes out women dither over late term abortions.

Even if they reverse Chelsea’s decision, the storyline is still hugely questionable.

Just to say, Chelsea wouldn't be able to give the baby up for adoption if Ben didn't want her to. He could even put forward one of his relatives to take the baby if he didn't want it which would be approved over adoption. So if they try to do that story line I'll be really cross.

The list is endless- starting with Tracey and Jazza or Ruth and David, then siblings and cousins, aunts and uncles.

No way would a baby born to these 2 go to an anonymous adoption.
I see a Ruth and David legal battle to get the baby (a scenario I have known in real life serval times- fathers parents get the child)

I haven't enjoyed a single aspect of this storyline. It was always on the cards that Russ and Lily would split up and all they needed to do was have Russ find out that Lily slept with Sol, or, less dramatically but more realistically, just have Lily face up to the fact that few young women of her age have a partner of Russ's age and the kind of life she accepted while she was with him.

I would have been perfectly happy with a Horrobin story that focussed on Brad and Chelsea in their different ways finding a way through education and training to have a better life than Tracy's had.