Archers thread #145: The glue that held the Aldridges together is gone. Will they fall apart? 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, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it.

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.)

Lillian and I both made the glue observation, so I thought that would be as good a way as any to kick off this new thread. We raced through the last one, for obvious reasons. This one may last until the funeral. Will Tamsin Greig find time to attend? I do hope so.

The poem Jennifer quoted in her journal is here: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43775/rabbi-ben-ezra It's doubtful whether the last of Jennifer's life was the best, but she had plenty to contend with all the way through.

Over to you!

The more I hear about Julianne the more puzzled I become about what sort of job she managed to hold down. I wonder whether this was always the plan or whether they realise that Joe Public find the whole plotline implausible and a bit yuck.

If Ruari needed essays written I am sure they could have paid somebody to write them.

Anyway, my latest plot prediction is the Ruari and Alice become happy siblings and he will return to Ambridge for the summer. He will charm Lily, they will happily marry and take over the running of Lower Loxley in due course.

Ruari and Alice become happy siblings
Yes, please.
He will charm Lily, they will happily marry and take over the running of Lower Loxley in due course
He's far too young and immature for her.
I'm holding on for a Mrs Chelsea Pargetter.

Same Whopping.

Last night's programme certainly made it seem that his feelings had got tangled, and it's not surprising. He's been so dependent on Julianne for money, entertainment, sex, accommodation, social life etc. having that ripped away must hurt. I think he thought she actually liked him, at least.

Personal perspective I know but I actually think men can be FAR worse at separating sex and emotion than women, especially when young.

I would like to see the end of the Julianne storyline and Ruairidh finding happiness in Ambridge somehow, although I do wonder if there's more to come? Or maybe the exciting storyline the actors mentioned in an interview was Jennifer's death?

The thing I just don't get is, what could he have spent "all the money" he got from Brian on? No rent, no social life, Julieanne feeds him well and often...? Surely he had rent for halls or accomodation that either Brian paid direct or a monthly allowance?

It doesn't make sense? I mean, to me the whole Julieanne storyline doesn't make sense really but I don't frequent high-powered business people events so maybe everyone has an escort in tow to make them look like a high powered business person because that is a thing (I am sure it is not).

@Madcats I'd go with the SW's realising the implausibility of the Ruairi/Julianne plotline and have decided to pull stumps now. Like lots of others I always thought the whole thing was ludicrously unrealistic. I particularly liked @Octothorpe 's dismissal of the silliness of the situation a couple of days ago.

For a time I thought maybe all was explained by Julianne turning out to be some kind of deranged, controlling monster - a kind of female Rob Titchener who would pursue Ruairi all the way back to Ambridge where there would be some kind of blood-soaked showdown involving carving knives (come to think of it very like Rob Titchener) - whereas the figure we are left with is a rather sad, odd woman with an empty, inadequate life for all its material benefits.

So yes time, rightly I think, for the SWs to draw a line under the whole thing.

What's he going to do for a living in Ambridge?

He couldn't hold down a job as a prostitute with one client.

Naughty, @Tratjymp

Re Julianne, I'd always assumed that she ran her own business because I can't imagine any employer would sanction her putting Ruairi on expenses.

Alice's pearls have well and truly been clutched but she was great.

I loved Alice's reaction- her growing understanding of how her brother had been living.

And his total lack of ?shame - so entirely normal as a way to live

I must be the exception here, but it was the scripting did my head in and made the whole reveal beyond tiresome.

Alice merely repeated everything Ruairi said, but incredulously. There are other ways of reacting, but the the tedious SLs went for repetition. And as for Alice saying she'd be here for him, having left the room BORIING!!! when the penny dropped, and it's a terrible, overused dramatic device.

And it's flat, not apartment.

Rant over.

I quite enjoyed it, but probably only because I loathe Alice. So, Ruairi has been a paid toyboy? That's his business, and he has only harmed himself. Compare and contrast necking vodka throughout your pregnancy and her behaviour after the birth. Oh, but that wasn't her fault, because nothing is ever her fault. I reckon she's lucky that Chris never questioned Martha's paternity.

Part of the reason I dislike Alice is, of course, the rubbish acting.

Sugar Babies

Pass the brain bleach? I don't consider myself faint of heart or clutcher of pearls but I'm going to be a while getting over that little reveal.

Sorry not ?

Sigh

On the whole I agree with you; also I think for Alice to start some sort of "your body is a temple" schtick when she has been abusing hers for years is a bit thick.

Like gonners, I have not-a-lot of time for Alice, who needs to accept that if Ruairi went on the game, it was at least in part because she took his self-respect and destroyed it by telling him that everything he had believed all his life had been a lie and that the woman he though of as his mother had resented and disliked him all along.

@Suzycat didn’t we know that from when Ben was telling Ruairi he was no better than a prostitute last autumn? It’s not news. Or am I misunderstanding you?

I disagree, I think the Alice actor is one of the best ones in the cast. Her talent is demonstrated by the fact that she is playing an annoying character and is thereby causing us annoyance.

Shame that in spite of all her therapy Alice hasn’t picked up that if someone is in crisis it’s good not to be judgemental.

Forgot to say, I wonder if Freddie might throw his annoying mother out when he comes of age. She speaks to him like a toddler.

She also takes the volunteers totally for granted. God knows why they do it when the First Family treat them with such contempt. Elizabeth was acting as if a squabble had broken out between the kitchen maids in an episode of Upstairs Downstairs. She’s such a snob…

Charlotte Higgins, briefly, on Jennifer.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/feb/07/charlotte-higgins-on-the-archers-radio-to-make-you-weep-recklessly?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I think for Alice to start some sort of "your body is a temple" schtick when she has been abusing hers for years is a bit thick.

I think she's been told this enough in therapy for it to sink in though. And i think she's still having to concentrate on herself a lot and her first real go at supporting someone she is bound to make mistakes. I actually found myself liking her.

Had we heard before that Ruairi had gone to an escort agency? I just thought he’d bumped into Julieanne somewhere and she chatted him up, but now I realise that's ridiculous 😂

IIRC Ruairi revealed to Ben that a fellow female student had told him about / introduced him to the escort agency.

It was definitely all very consciously arranged (with a contract!) rather than being any sort of organic relationship.

Yes yes to Mrs Chelsea Pargetter.

I'd also like Lily to fight for a share of Lower Loxley.

I find this Sugar Babies stuff horrifying, but then I am old and have led a very sheltered life. When activists say 'Sex work is work' this is what they mean, amongst other things, as I understand it. Of course, it's far more likely to be young women selling their sexual services, which is one reason I find it hard to care very much about this storyline - I find it implausible that Ruairi would be doing it.

I am more than ever certain that a transfer to the world-renowned University of Felpersham is on the cards.

As for the volunteers, I've always thought this is utterly ridiculous. I can understand people volunteering for the National Trust or preserved railway lines or all sorts of ventures run by charities/not-for-profit organisations, but LL is a business! Why would you donate your free time to save Elizabeth employing guides to show people round her home?

When does Freddie come of age? He's well over 21. Maybe he if he gets married he'll be deemed ready to take over, in which case the sooner Chelsea steps up the better. There's probably a lodge or a flat over the stables they can tuck Elizabeth into.

The attitude to the volunteers, that they save employing actual staff, was shocking.