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!

For sure if she is on the full relocation package with a tech firm (in a recession...) she will be already on a high salary and so presumably isn't renting. Most people in that situation rent out, at least until they know the move is permanent. OTOH, its asking the couple to live apart to accommodate the children which is quite an interesting story as its not an uncommon problem with blended families. Who gets to share the bedrooms - the teenage girls or the younger boys? Or perhaps one can lodge with Joy

I can see also why Helen is concerned about the boys considering everything they have already been through before finally having some sort of normal family home.

I see no evidence that Helen is angling for Bridge Farmhouse any more than Tom (less in fact). At some point one of them will end up there, no reason why it should be Tom rather than Helen.

Wasn't Chelsea foul to Freddie?

I've had longish waits for each funeral in recent years which involved a crematorium but the burials were generally not a long wait. I agree its odd, even allowing for time for travel and post mortem (if needed).

Presumably its to fit in with some other aspect or storylines but it does seem a very long wait.

No, I heard that completely differently- she was giving him some home truths to shake him out of his funk.

I think having Siobhán's funeral take so long was extremely sloppy script writing/fact checking, it just wouldn't have happened. I hope if any of Usha's relatives (auntie Satya must be getting on in years) die they don't make the same mistake.

However, I don't find it unbelievable that Jenny's would be a month away. I work in a church in England and we're quite often booking funerals a month or more away - sometimes it's an administrative hold up (e.g. coroner), more often it's getting a slot at the graveyard which causes the delay, most often of all it's just the funeral directors who are booked up, at least 75% of the slowness is due to them being already fully booked. Occasionally it's the family who want time to plan soemthing elaborate or to fly people in from abroad. We'd have at least 4 days a week when the church and a minister would be available at some point in the day, so that's not an issue.

No, I heard that completely differently- she was giving him some home truths to shake him out of his funk.

Yes, I heard her being supportive and trying to get him to believe in himself more. It felt like a bit of early fore-shadowing to me…May be she will end up as the power behind the throne at LL, after all…Hard to believe in the two of them becoming romantically involved at the moment but I’m not ruling it out further down the line…

I thought the later conversation was good, she was helpful. But she was unnecessarily snappish at him when he was under her feet in the Orangery (and presumably within the hearing of customers, which doesn't look good). It emerged that he was being a pain, but there's ways to deal with that without being quite so rude as she was.

I think the point is that most people would naturally kowtow to the Lord of the Manor but old Chelsea tells it like it is, don’t she? She’s a bit rough around the edges, sometimes speaks before she thinks but her instincts are rights and her heart’s in the right place etc etc.

It’s interesting actually, I am quite willing to be tolerant of Chelsea’s rudeness but I was adamant on the last thread that just-bereaved Adam was not sufficiently polite to Stella!

Here you all are.

#teamcramped.

We’ve just been bereaved so let’s eat soup together and play a board game?!? What on earth is Alice thinking? Is she trying to position herself as the matriarch holding the family together now Jenny is no longer there? If so, it’s not really working…

it was odd, and Alice makes me want to scream. She is probably seeing the family, which is her support system, crumbling though and may be worried how it might affect her. Which is legit but blimey, she needs to lay off Rauri. Who made some good points to Brian. But that convo with Julianne! is she going to give him the push in favour of someone less complicated? (let's hope so)

as for Chelsea, love her. She is immature so her reaction, guests around or not, feels authentic. Love love love how she is, however, mature enough to tell Freddie to take advantage of his position.

I simply cannot care about Helen and Lee. urgh

I also saw them as different. For me part of it is that if you are born with a silver spoon and are whinging about how tough it is, its probably best to whinge to someone similarly blessed rather than someone who has grown up hand to mouth and for much of her early life in insecure housing.

Unlikely but not impossible that she might end up working there in the future. Chelsea may not be Brad type clever but like Tracey she is hard working and with just a couple of the breaks and opportunities gifted to the Freddies and the Pips she could do well in a business setting.

Alice is falling over herself to try and repair the damage she did in her drunken outburst to Ruairi. That's why she's behaving so weirdly. After he appeared to accept her apology for Jennifer's sake, didn't he have a quiet word saying he would never forgive her though he might put on a good face in public? @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime can you remember the precise details? Presumably he's now a bit worried that she might have one over on him now since she's met Julianne, but I don't think Alice quite realises what she's seen yet. She just thinks Ruairi's embarrassed about having an older girlfriend. I thought it was a pity Ruairi couldn't listen in on Chelsea's pep talk to Freddie (another young person who has lost a parent) about being the heir apparent and having so many opportunities - reminding us all of the big divide in Ambridge between those who have everything handed to them on a plate (in terms of land ownership and ready-made employment) and those who have to scratch around for a home and a living, the equivalent of starting 100 metres behind the starting line in a 100 metre race.

That's how I heard it. Plain speaking but not foul.
He has a very privileged position compared to her.

I touted Chelsea as a possible future lady of the manor threads and threads ago - it would be too good a story to miss! Both she and Freddie have a lot of growing up to do first IMO.

I understand Lil's feelings, they've all lost a beloved relative but she's had two other terrible things happen to her specifically: having Jenny die "on her watch" and having to actually find her collapsed/watch her dying and dead. It's probably the trauma of the latter that's making her verbally go over and over the former.

Honestly if I were on holiday with someone who knew they were at risk of sudden medical emergency or death I would prefer to know about it in advance. Plus she may have had things she wanted to ask Jenny or discuss with her about their lives or their parents for example, or maybe apologise for something, that can now never happen.

I also thought last night was a suggestion that Freddie and Chelsea may end up together in the future. She could open a high-end hair salon/beauty rooms thing at LL to rival GG (if that reopens) - that would be fun.

Chelsea was maybe a bit abrupt with Freddie to start with but it later became apparent that he'd been a PITA all shift and that was the final straw. Good for her for turning it into a positive, encouraging pep talk in the end. Hope he takes notice and shakes things up a bit.

Actually was the GG refurbishment due to take a year? They should be starting to think about staging etc for its reopening soon...

Honestly if I were on holiday with someone who knew they were at risk of sudden medical emergency or death I would prefer to know about it in advance.

agree that i find Jenny a bit unfair there. I wondered if Jenny might have told Lillian just before they left the spa, or maybe after they got home?

Must say I’m vaguely intrigued by the SWs apparent keenness to present Freddie as asexual. Not that we’ve heard him announce such an identity - but he’s the effing lord of the manor; there ought to be an inexhaustible stream of beautiful young people wafting through LL, from his bedroom to the orangery. But - no one. I’m not sure he’s even mentioned the existence of girls (fairly certain it’s girls?) since he was at sixth form college.

I know there’s the issue of a few months of ‘away-ness’ to get over. It’s hard to believe the gilded youth of Borsetshire would care much. I’m not ready to anticipate a potential future relationship with Chelsea until they’ve shown us he’s capable of any relationship at all.

C8H10N4O2
I can see also why Helen is concerned about the boys considering everything they have already been through before finally having some sort of normal family home.

Henry did get put through a bad time, yes; but Jack was under a year old when Rob fled Ambridge, and had been with his mother for the whole of his life at that point, so he really hadn't gone through anything traumatic apart from having Helen as a mother. Oh, and Henry as a brother.

LillianGish
After he appeared to accept her apology for Jennifer's sake, didn't he have a quiet word saying he would never forgive her though he might put on a good face in public? @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime can you remember the precise details?

I can't, but I know where to find them! There are summaries at ambridgereporter.org.uk
(click on the relevant year of "Unoffial synopses of The Archers")

29th December, 2021
Brian has driven a squiffy Kate home, and Alice tells Ruairi the second Christmas was a brilliant idea of Mum's, and she is so glad he came home and has forgiven her. He tells her bluntly that he hasn't forgiven her, and his act today was for the benefit of their parents, who would be better off if she left Ambridge and went a long way away. That was what the travel voucher was for. What she said was unforgivable, and hurt him intolerably. She tries to protest that it was the drink talking and that's why she went to rehab, to make sure it won't happen again, but he doesn't believe that: as far as he is concerned, because of the drink she told him what she really felt. He hasn't opened her present in London and won't be doing so, and she can give the reindeer to Martha because he doesn't want it. He doesn't give a damn what she does, because he has done with her.

30th December, 2021
Alice appears, surprised that Ruairi is still there, and Jennifer feels obliged to tell them both how proud she is that they have got on so well and in a civilised way. Ruairi thanks her and then goes off to pack,

and

While Jennifer is looking for her car keys to take Ruairi to the station, Alice buttonholes him to tell him that he can't mean what he said; he tells her that yes, he did. She asks how he has changed so much, and he makes it pretty clear that what has happened to change him was her attack on him in August: he no longer cares about her. She claims that she cares about him, but he is unimpressed; even more so when she threatens to tell Brian and Jennifer what happened after the meal, which disgusts him: does she intend to cause their parents more pain?

Friend's father died in November. Cremation was about 5 weeks later.

DF's nephew born a couple of weeks after the cremation. DF's sister and nephew live with the nephew and the new nephew has his grandad's (retro) first name as a middle name.

If I did end up with Freddie Pargetter - as if, sniff - I'd open a luxury spa, wouldn't I.

Henry didn't just go through a "bad time" he was as much a victim of control and grooming as Helen.

Jack was born by rape into a coercive and abusive relationship where his father tried to destroy his mother and have her convicted of attempted murder when she was actually defending herself. He started life in prison due to this. He will have to live with this throughout his life, plus know that at any point that man could reappear.

The idea that this won't affect both Helen and the boys or that it can be kept secret from them in the hopes they won't remember anything is utterly unrealistic. I'm really struggling with the minimising of a truly shocking example of abusive control on both the woman and the children.

We seem to be cantering through the threads these days!

I have no idea how they might engineer it, but Chelsea would really benefit from having a mentor (Jim springs to mind because of his friendship with Jazzer). She is/was so kind to Lynda that it seems odd that she has politeness of a guard dog when she seems destined for hospitality or beauty.

I agree that it is odd that Freddy, Josh, Rex, Toby, Roy, Will, Alan have not been given a love interest; is it something to do with the water in the Am?

Freddy is 23, Josh 26 and seemingly celibate their entire lives (or maybe I missed a quick fumble), Rex and Toby haven't had girlfriends for nearly 5 years(?), Will was widowed around the same time.... Lexi went back to Romania at least 3 years ago....

I can't blame Ruauri for legging it back to London (a bit of a walk for a train, not to mention the strikes). Alice is especially weird/needy.

Freddy is 23, Josh 26 and seemingly celibate their entire lives (or maybe I missed a quick fumble), Rex and Toby haven't had girlfriends for nearly 5 years(?), Will was widowed around the same time.... Lexi went back to Romania at least 3 years ago....
This is because they are rarely let out of the village, and there aren't many eligible young women in Ambridge.
If one of them ventures further than Felpersham, they will meet a potential partner.