Archers thread #146: They did fall apart. Can they put themselves together again? 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. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to donate your time as a guide at Lower Loxley to save the Pargetters paying someone else a living wage, 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.)

Thanks to @Impostersyndrome for the thread title suggestion Buses and trains are sorely lacking, canals might be nearby, but all roads lead to Ambridge, picking up on transport discussions in the last thread. In the end I didn't use it, having in mind the character limit. @TottersBlankly contributed an early draft title Wreathes, wrath, writhing (Jennifer, Lilian, Ruairi). Both good starting points for the new thread, which I hope will last till Jennifer's funeral, surely not too far off now. So, over to you - whither the Aldridges? Also, does anyone care if Lee goes to the US? Is anyone even slightly interested in the Brookfield B&B venture?

How does that work, you just say 'what does Susan Carter from The Archers look like?' or what?
The eyes are strange.
Susan does not have brown hair, nor a big grin.

Sorry. Does not have grey hair.
I think she has brown hair with blonde highlights.

@TeenDivided I just typed in "Susan Carter the Archers in the Bridge Farm dairy" and out it popped after about 30 seconds! I was hoping to try
"Jennifer Aldrige with a colourful neckscarf holding a tagine the Archers" but it reckons I've reached my daily limit.

I'm not sure whether it uses any boolean logic.

Oh God - I’ve never heard The Archers sound so scripted. As if Pargetters would ever have that conversation using those anodyne phrases.

Awful.

And as for Adam ....

I’ve never heard The Archers sound so scripted.

Perhaps the scriptwriters have resorted to ChatGPT?

Really haven’t enjoyed it this week

I know Freddie has been being a first prize tit lately, not to mention ageist ans entitled, but I do hate the way the Pargetter ladies speak to him. So he wasn't going about it the right way, there's no need to sneer.

God, I hope this Paddy thing is short lived. I can mostly ignore Adam’s hammy acting when he’s not the centre of the storyline, but this makes me very worried

Oh no! This is going to run for months…Adam sighing heavily will be a once-a-week end scene from now til June at least. What a bore.

Susan is marvellous, however. I love how she can distinguish between gossip and ‘things that matter’…

Wish we didn’t have to have a dramatisation of the for-and-against arguments of what to do with a slavery-themed painting if you own a stately home.

It’s the sort of assignment Upper 4th history students would be asked to do. I recently came across an old schoolbook of mine from when I was that age. We had to script a conversation between an old-style farmer and a new, modern farmer set at the time when enclosures were introduced. Tonight’s laboured scene full of hackneyed arguments reminded me of my attempt…

@FallonsNewCoat - It’s the sort of assignment Upper 4th history students would be asked to do.

Arf that dates you! And me too, obviously, because I immediately understood it and didn't have to do the counting-on-my-fingers thing that I need to do now when someone tells me their child is in Year X.

He was being a prize entitled buffoon, assuming that his five minute interest is better and more righteous than the reviews and research Elizabeth and the trust advisors had undertaken. She was a sight more patient than I would have been - he was behaving like a spoiled child.

This suggests that Elizabeth and the trust advisors have been Just Fine with having that picture on the wall, and the slavery connotations mattered to them not a jot.

Since there was nothing attached to it explaining what it was and that slaving was not an acceptable occupation (I assume both Freddie and Noluthando would have been able to read it if there had been) that brings me to a rather unpalatable conclusion about how Elizabeth feels with regard to slaving.

Just in passing, it's not her house and it is Freddie's, unless Nigel was mad enough to leave his entire estate to be the de facto property of people he didn't know (there was a new chairman of the trustees at one point, which makes it fairly clear the new one was not someone appointed by Nigel) at the expense of the person he named as his heir. If the trustees have the power not to allow Freddie to come into his inheritance, but are instead able to retain control and continue to be paid for their once-in-eight-years visits to Lower Loxley Hall and draw their salaries as trustees, why would they ever allow him to inherit as we have to assume Nigel intended him to?

Elizabeth said they had done an audit and this one was obviously missed but they had a protocol in place to manage any newly identified objects with a question mark on them. That they had taken advice on this and how to manage such artefacts.

There was absolutely nothing in Elizabeth's words which could leave the listener thinking she thought slavery was remotely ok - on the contrary she was the one saying it wasn't right to hide from history but they should face up to it and acknowledge it. It was Freddie who wanted to hide away an inconvenient artefact which might embarrass him.

But as an entitled white boy he knows best what people should and shouldn't see. He hasn't done any research or homework of his own to justify overuling the trust's advisors, he just assumes he knows best.

His ownership of considerable wealth is gifted entirely because he was born with a penis instead of ovaries and the fact of that wealth intact is largely due to the hard graft and business acumen of his mother - a fact that Nigel was always gracious enough to acknowledge. Freddie seems to have inherited Nigel's poor brain but sadly not his great kindness, consideration and lack of arrogance.

It does feel like we may be coming close to Freddie declaring in a heated moment to Elizabeth “it’s my house, not yours!” Perhaps in the style of Little Mo “you ain’t my muvver!” (Any other 90s Eastenders followers).

The final line of today’s episode was particularly spymaster. Adam sounded genuinely sinister.

I thought LL was held in trust (by trustees) for Elizabeth for life and then it passes to Freddy, or possibly sooner if the trustees wish / Nigel had left instructions for them to do so but I can't remember?

It wasn't Little Mo, it was Zoe.

Little Mo was Zoe's aunt, sister of Kat (Zoe's Mum/ sister). She was the one who smashed her abusive husband in the face with an iron.

It was kind of depressing that Freddie had to ask his mother to explain how communication with the trustees worked. He's an adult and the heir. He should know this stuff.

Apologies and thanks @NeverApologiseNeverExplain

i love that you're apologising to @NeverApologiseNeverExplain after they've just explained something

Arf that dates you! And me too, obviously, because I immediately understood it and didn't have to do the counting-on-my-fingers thing that I need to do now when someone tells me their child is in Year X.

Thanks @Gonners ! That makes me feel better! I have decided to unashamedly give up pretending I know how the current year system works.

Upper IV = Year 9.

Although Elizabeth tries her absolute hardest to keep Freddie at arms length from the business at all times. Cutting your teeth in the Orangery is a good start, but the insistence that say the volunteer coordinator role is temporary.

I don't agree with they way Freddie went about things, but I did appreciate his feeling that knocking out a small sign wasn't enough of a gesture. I find it hard to believe that Freddie didn't know about the audit or process because he didn't care. He's demonstrably thrown himself in to any morsel of work experience Lizzie has offered him. There's cutting your teeth and learning from ground up but there's also burying your head in the sand.

If Elizabeth went under a bus tomorrow would the trustees take full control? and for how long? She sneers at him for understanding the LL processes but refuses to let him get involved in them. When he asked to leave orangery as he felt he needed more experience, didn't she offer him the gift shop next?

It's like encouraging small kids to dress independently. It's infuriating and takes forever at first, but if you can ride that bit, it makes future mornings so much easier.

I can forgive Freddie wanting to remove the picture who sale as it's such a clunky device to usher in discussion of the most appropriate way to deal with such artefacts,

Since there was nothing attached to it explaining what it was and that slaving was not an acceptable occupation

Do people who visit stately homes need to be told that trading human beings is a Bad Thing and they mustn't do it?

Good points about the Freddie/Elizabeth relationship @suzyscat

Ha ha to all the apologising and explaining!

I don't think she keeps him at arms length - working in each section of the business is basic beginner stuff which he needs (wasn't it six months in each or similar?).

Freddy has never shown much enthusiasm for the hard graft of learning to run a business - the prospect of handing it over to him must be a concern. He could have opted to go to college and at least do some basic business studies or related subject as he isn't university material.

Like a lot of entitled heirs he wants the position and the power but he has never put in the hard years to gain the skills. He assumes he knows best what to do with the painting refusing to listen to the people who have done the work. Its typical Freddie.
It would be interesting to see an "its my house not yours" argument at which point I hope Elizabeth would point out the only reason he has a house is because she kept the roof over the Pargetter heads.