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!

Ambridge doesn’t have a train station - but all my periods of village life have involved a proportion of the population driving to the nearest one to get to work or school. And I imagine all the silent residents of Ambridge’s various housing estates must work / shop / socialise elsewhere.

But really I’m just surprised the SWs aren’t exploiting every possible option for scene setting. Train stations and journeys generally make good listening. (Apart from that awful pastiche they did with - was it Lilian? )

No.Julianne sent a taxi for that meeting in Felpersham with Bill.

So she did. Good. But why, I wonder, since he has a car and she had already decided that he wouldn't be drinking?

So that the logistics of Alice’s rescue would work?

God @TottersBlankly you've just given me a horrioble flashback of that awful Brief Encounter episode with Lilian - working hard now to shove it back in the dark reaches of my memory (or preferably forgotten altogether) where it belongs

Julianne listed the nice car he'd got as one of the things he would not be able to afford without her money. The flat, and I think his fancy clothes, also got mentioned by her. And since he has been living in London, I sort of assumed he must be using it there – which is crazy, but this is TA....

Goodness, just parking or garaging a car in central London would cost a fortune. He's looking at some major lifestyle changes.

How much was she paying him?

Boop for Soosan

My apologies. I shouldn’t assume anything

My cousin grew up in a village near Ambridge. There was a bus twice a day to take workers into Felpersham and back. And a bus to take shoppers into Borchester and back. And that was it.

The railway station was a victim of Beeching

Thanks, @MereDintofPandiculation. No need to apologise- I did say I was young in the 1970s but didn't specify how young.

I think the youngsters walk or cycle everywhere or their parents take them by car.

so many services were cancelled that even fewer people attempted to catch the bus. The cynical amongst us might see that as deliberate. Focus your cancellations on the least profitable services, people will stop using them because they’re unreliable, then you can withdraw the services because of lack of demand

@MereDintofPandiculation wait, Ambridge is a real place???

Just listened to Sunday's ep. Go Soosan!!

It's generally believed to have been modelled on Inkberrow, so a village near there would also be near Ambridge.

All the BOOPs for Susan. Phew.

Yes good old Susan.

I thought (and was hoping) that Susan was going to say she'd babysit if necessary while Alice went to her meetings. But apart from that minor omission BOOP BOOP BOOP for her. And well done Brian for actually listening to what she said.

I'd have expected Peggy to have had a mention or two as well. I would imagine that she would have some firm views about the funeral of her daughter. Absolutely. In RL Peggy would be distraught - especially as she was not among those forewarned. It seems a very strange decision by the SWs to kill off Jenny before Peggy. I keep forgetting Peggy is in fact still alive. Is she just being kept in a holding pattern until June Spencer herself dies? It feels like a very unsatisfactory way for such a major character to fade out. She was implicated in so many storylines - the rewilding, the controversial (and tedious) church window and she should have a big part to play in her daughter's sudden death - but instead there is literally radio silence. At least Jill Archer has been pretty much side-lined since her anti-abortion rant.

Obviously it was excellent to have Susan be the grown up and intervene in Brian’s … drama. But I can’t help feeling the SW pushed Brian’s supercilious dismissal a tiny bit too far. He cannot ever have forgotten that Susan is Martha’s grandparent, and thus bound to the Aldridges for life. So all that “Who are you …?” was slight overkill. He could have been rude without that.

Can’t be easy juggling all the exiting actors though.

I'm assuming there must be some method in the madness of the exit order - Peggy and Jennifer had both been silent for a while, Peggy's retirement had been announced so we all know she won't be speaking again it was clearly a conscious decision for Jennifer to go first maybe just for the surprise factor alone. The funeral shenanigans is annoying me - there's no way Alan should be silent through this. I know it's a drama, but I like it to be realistic. Even an "Alan's been on the phone" would have done.

Peggy went to Bridge Farm after Jenny's death, didn't she? There were a few passing references to how she was doing, and IIRC there was mention of Lilian visiting her while remaining frosty to Tony and Pat.

Or a meringue? (hello fellow umrat(s)).

Catching up with the thread but wanted to say how delighted I was when Alice came home to R in a state of undress on the sofa and spliff stuff all over the place. Not that I want that for her and Martha but I know various feckless younger brothers and it’s the most realistic thing I’ve heard so far. Complete lack of awareness/regard for others and failure to foresee consequence, more than any woman or girl I’ve ever known.

I can’t help thinking that they didn’t have much warning regarding June Spencer’s retirement, and that Peggy was going to be a more prominent part of the various storylines happening. They may even have had to rewrite some scripts because of it. Certainly the wheels were in motion in plotting out SLs, even if the scripts weren’t there.