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Archers thread #143: In the Bleak Midwinter, Ambridge Folk Make Moan. Best Christmas ever? Probably not! Discuss The Archers here.

987 replies

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 09/12/2022 20:13

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

Archers All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd love to be in Jolene's choir , or other unusual views. Grin

Archers 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!

Archers 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.)

Well, we made it through Stir Up Sunday without bloodshed, but poor Ben is now in the grip of psychotic depression. Not going to be a happy Christmas at Brookfield, sadly. When will Jill swallow her pride and go and give him the abject apology he deserves? Would it be a good idea anyway for Ben to see his gran at the moment?

Will Jazzer say yes? I hope so. We could do with a Horrobin wedding to look forward to.

Will Emma and Ed end up in court if they go ahead with this idiotic scheme to nick the logs from Peggy's Folly?

Will the two choirs put on a joint concert at Christmas? I assume so, and also that the BBC will continue to fool nobody by using recordings of what is clearly a really good well-rehearsed established choir, not a scratch choir of half a dozen novices.

Over to you!

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Original poster
Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/12/2022 11:58

Surely there must be more to come on the guitar/message in a bottle storyline. At Lynda's Christmas chronicles event, maybe? It's all very odd so far.

Fallon was absolutely right to grasp the nettle here. George has no redeeming qualities so far at all. He knows perfectly well that Fallon is married, happily as far as he (and we) know. He's old enough to know better than to make a pass at a woman who hasn't given him the slightest encouragement - his mother's employer, FFS! As for Ed revealing the mix up, words fail me. In some weird way that seems to have spurred George on. Perhaps he feels it reveals that the adults of the village believe Fallon capable of infidelity to Harrison, so why shouldn't he try his luck? Envy Maybe we are in for a storyline that finally addresses the routine and unacknowledged sexism of the Grundy family. George has hardly grown up with good role models, although none of his male relatives have gone off philandering.

OP posts:
AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 29/12/2022 13:24

I think the words "George has hardly grown up" cover it all: he's seventeen and thinks that a happily married woman of thirty-seven would look at him twice. He is living in an adolescent fantasy-land. Unfortunately he's also a nasty piece of work so his adolescent fantasy is unsavoury.

Eddie would have philandered if the objects of his lust had been even remotely interested; they weren't. Lilian. Jolene.

BoreOfWhabylon · 29/12/2022 13:50

George is a repellent little incel. Someone should check his hard drive.

LillianGish · 29/12/2022 14:17

As for Ed revealing the mix up, words fail me. In some weird way that seems to have spurred George on. More than that it seems as if that was exactly the point of the coat mix up in the first place. It all felt so gear-grindingly obvious (at least it did to me). I find George's emergence as a sex-pest one of the hardest things to get to grips with - not that such a thing could never be possible, just that, as with Ben's speedy descent into psychosis and swift recovery, it all feels too hurried. There seems to be a reluctance to let anything play out over time.

WhoppingBigBackside · 29/12/2022 19:53

The Ruairi and Julianne SL is playing out over time.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 29/12/2022 20:52

Alf was not at Grange Farm at any point between 1986 when he stole Eddie's car stereo and Will's money-box and did a bunk, and 2016 when he came to Eddie's birthday party and stole money from Clarrie's purse and £400 from the church vestry and did a bunk. He wasn't welcome, and he wasn't invited. When Joe wanted to see him for Joe's birthday one year, someone drove Joe to Gloucester.

When he came to Joe's funeral Eddie wasn't at all pleased to see him.

Gonners · 29/12/2022 21:09

That man-to-man (or rather two-dads-to-stroppy-incel-teenager) business was cringe-worthy. George seems to have inherited his biological father's psycho tendency to just deny stuff. Emma is mostly useless, but would have handled it better. As things stand, I wouldn't like to be Fallon.

SnowlayRoundabout · 29/12/2022 21:40

ILoveShula · 29/12/2022 10:18

@SnowlayRoundabout , I think that Tom & Natasha can manage to pay the rent without Ben's help.

Sorry, I meant Shula's house.

SnowlayRoundabout · 29/12/2022 21:45

Quite dim of Will never to have realised that the chances of Uncle Alf having bought the bike out of honest earnings were, realistically, nil.

SnowlayRoundabout · 29/12/2022 21:51

I suspect that, for the SWs, the Ben storyline gives an added advantage of providing a pretext for the transition away from Jill doing all the housework and cooking. They've belatedly realised what we have all known for years, namely that it is ridiculous for a household of able-bodied adults to have a very elderly woman waiting on them all, but as they've characterised her as someone for whom this is all perfectly natural they have to find another reason for her to stop or cut back.

TottersBlankly · 29/12/2022 22:59

I’ll be very disappointed if Ben is condemned to a year as Brookfield Housekeeper. He really should have just grabbed Beth and jumped on the first plane to New Zealand …

iratepirate · 30/12/2022 03:03

The bike thing didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Surely if it was as recognisable as that, someone would have recognised it as Tracey’s back at the time?!

OverArmour · 30/12/2022 04:01

BoreOfWhabylon · 29/12/2022 13:50

George is a repellent little incel. Someone should check his hard drive.

Likely a rather small hard drive.

Scarydinosaurs · 30/12/2022 06:33

Exactly @iratepirate - would make more sense to say he painted it etc.

Annoying lack of plausibility.

JanglyBeads · 30/12/2022 08:34

Maybe implausible but I did think it was a funny scene!

LillianGish · 30/12/2022 10:11

I just thought the Christmas Chronicles (if we had to have it at all) was a bit of a missed opportunity. We could have had some genuine reminiscence of Christmas past (I'm sure @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime could have provided more than enough examples since the actual archivist has clearly departed never to return). I used to enjoy Bridge Farm waiting until Christmas Eve to decorate their tree with all the family, the lights switch on round the Green, the nativity service with an actual donkey, the Boxing Day shoot - it's funny because although I have never actually seen any of these things, I can picture them very clearly in my mind's eye. None of these things is intrinsically very exciting, but they helped to conjure up a picture of rural village life which is gradually being erased - ironically I suppose that makes it more realistic, but I still think it's a bit sad.

BoreOfWhabylon · 30/12/2022 14:06

Wonder if we'll get a Topical Insert about George becoming an Andrew Tate devotee?

OverArmour · 30/12/2022 15:41

LillianGish · 30/12/2022 10:11

I just thought the Christmas Chronicles (if we had to have it at all) was a bit of a missed opportunity. We could have had some genuine reminiscence of Christmas past (I'm sure @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime could have provided more than enough examples since the actual archivist has clearly departed never to return). I used to enjoy Bridge Farm waiting until Christmas Eve to decorate their tree with all the family, the lights switch on round the Green, the nativity service with an actual donkey, the Boxing Day shoot - it's funny because although I have never actually seen any of these things, I can picture them very clearly in my mind's eye. None of these things is intrinsically very exciting, but they helped to conjure up a picture of rural village life which is gradually being erased - ironically I suppose that makes it more realistic, but I still think it's a bit sad.

It’s the kind of thing there’s normal a special for, isn’t it.

Well at least we got a ‘crème de la crème’ from Lynda. It’s not Christmas without that.

TottersBlankly · 30/12/2022 17:43

I used to enjoy Bridge Farm waiting until Christmas Eve to decorate their tree with all the family, the lights switch on round the Green, the nativity service with an actual donkey, the Boxing Day shoot

Gosh, have we truly had none of those things this year??? No lights? Very poor show, indeed. Instead we had Lily describing the customary festivities at LL to Adil …

WrongSortOfPoster · 30/12/2022 17:56

I used to enjoy the decorating the Bridge Farm tree and the lights going on around the green too, and have a picture of it in my mind.

There are no children at home at Bridge Farm this year, so maybe we could have heard Pat and Tony doing it alone, poignantly.

Maybe these traditions are no longer relevant as TA is now aimed at a younger audience.

EyeSpyPlumPie · 30/12/2022 20:16

Did anyone else think Pip’s speech sounded a bit odd? I was wondering if the actress had had braces fitted as it sounded a bit like she couldn’t quite form her words properly.

Gonners · 30/12/2022 20:52

No, I didn't notice it, though I didn't even notice that she was in the programme this evening! So much for the impression she makes on me. But the actress is nearly 30, which is a bit late for braces.

EyeSpyPlumPie · 30/12/2022 22:01

Sorry she was in yesterday’s programme - I’m very late catching up haven’t listened to this evening’s yet!

EBearhug · 30/12/2022 23:39

the actress is nearly 30, which is a bit late for braces.

Not necessarily- colleague recently had braces removed after 2 years or so, and he's mid-50s

OverArmour · 31/12/2022 03:14

I thought she might have a cold, seeing as everyone seems to, but yes maybe Invisalign or something like that, bit dangerous for a voice actress.