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

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.)

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!

Oh I hope it is Leonard buying the land.

@SnowlayRoundabout ... Vince will take further offence, and Elizabeth will have to make her choice between him and her brother and nephew. Given that Beth has been shunted offstage I suspect that Vince will follow her.

At last, a bit of cheery optimism!

I enjoyed the compare and contrast, so beloved of the SLs, in the latest episode. Brian's weaselly 'I'm sorry you felt that way" when Stella told him how his interference in her work felt compared with Susan's thorough and warm apology to to her sister.

Am so looking forward to the Brookfield dinner.

Am so looking forward to the Brookfield dinner

Do you think David will agree to go? I really hope they don't forgive him.

I dont know if there is something wrong with my hearing but Im finding Jazzer hard to understand sometimes.

I'm so sorry @Brefugee - hope things improve soon.

Just a quick BOOP for Susan last night. I thought that dinner party was well done, and presumably it presages the car crash Vince/Dopey showdown tonight - compare and contrast. Also liked Brian being a bit more his normal self and Stella doing a good job.

Is Susan touting to make a speech at the wedding?"...and I'm proud to call her my sister." 🤮

Realistically, why would David and Ruth even agree to attend this dinner with Vince? Unless Elizabeth is planning to invite them without telling them he's the host, I can see them accepting, and if they turn up to be "surprised" by the delight of his company, sane people would just walk away.

oops .... for I can see them accepting, please read can't!

Heavens!!!

Wandered away from the radio for a couple of minutes and have come back to Ruairi and Julianne on the Today prog - talking about sugar mummies and exploitation! It’s wonderful!

Must have started about 8.45am? I’ll have to go back to hear the start.

That's interesting @TottersBlankly - must mean that story is about to develop or come to a head somehow?

Guess so.

The interview was wonderful until the end, when they both giggled in an embarrassed fashion about the fine line between escorting and prostitution. Odd given that we already know Ruairi has conceded that point. And it’s hardly a laughing matter.

They do both have lovely ‘real life’ voices …

"Sex work is work"

No it's not, Arthur Hughes.

No, we do not.

<falls back on fainting couch, groping for smelling salts>

No front bottoms either. Goodness me. These are not the mental images I used to get from listening to The Archers!

Agreed. I think it's idiotic to flip this storyline over. I'd be amazed if you couldn't count the number of middle-aged women willing to pay for something like this on the fingers of one hand.

Similarly, what has got into them choosing to show the NHS as an absolute model of how to support people with mental health problems and their families? We all know it's one of the most dysfunctional parts of the NHS. Having decided to tackle a MH storyline, the wisest course of action would have been to say as little as possible about the NHS position, or sidestep it altogether by having the family pay for private care. The brave thing to do would have been to show the system as it really is, i.e. on its knees, but I can imagine the BBC hierarchy not feeling too comfortable about that under the present government with the licence fee still a very live issue.

thank you, @Prestissimo , we're getting there.

I really don't like Soosan's voice, but i thought her apology great in stark contrast to Brine's "sorry that you were upset by that upsetting thing i said, snowflake" non-apology. I do like Stella being assertive with him.

As for Rauri & Julianne. Make. It. Stop.

I can't believe that Elizabeth is giving Vince another chance.

Quite apart from the dreadful way he behaved towards her family what about the way he treated Chelsea, someone who Elizabeth with her history should have considerable empathy with! How would she have felt having her abortion shouted about in the bull? 😡

I can't believe Ruth and David are actually planning to go to this meal. I wouldn't.

I agree. It's very hard to see how Vince can come back from this. When his unreasonableness and ridiculousness was confined to over-protectiveness around his daughters I could just about see how Elizabeth could overlook it, but now it has spilled over to be directed at Chelsea and Ben and the consequences for Ben (even though these do seem to have been miraculously overcome by what can only be described as imaginary NHS mental health services) the time for making excuses for him has to stop. Personally I think it's all been a bit OTT, but it's happened and so now we all have to live with the consequences (well either that or stop listening).

I shall be really irritated if David agrees to go for a meal with Vince. In reality he would refuse and Vince would March round to Brookfield to argue with him as to why he should do as he is told and accept a fake apology. David would shout a lot and see him off the premises with barking dogs and lots of wailing bystanders. If they sit in a restaurant politely debating what happened it will be nonsense.

Been reading another fred and am wondering about the field behind The Bull. Do we know "an older lady, who loved horses very much" ?

Oh Shula! You hussy! (Or Lilian)

Shula? Surely not!
Mandy Beesborough? Lavinia? Lillian Bellamy?

I'd be amazed if you couldn't count the number of middle-aged women willing to pay for something like this on the fingers of one hand

Well, quite. Besides anything else, there's a whole Internet full of men hoping for sex. Some of them are quite good at it, too, if that's all you want.

Ah, now … I had previously been thinking of what @LillianGish said about Shula seeming to have left Ambridge and taken St Stephen’s with her’ - because I thought it might be good in a thread title.

Maybe they could be mashed together …

Shula - our favourite older lady who loved horses - has left and …

I dunno - someone else can finish it.