Archers thread #147: Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder how old Ambridge is. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Many thanks to @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 have the general public watching you work and asking questions, 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.)

Title comes from this poem, with which I drive my family to distraction at this time of year.

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz
I wonder where the birdies is.
The bird is on the wing.
But that’s absurd, the wing is on the bird.
Or so I’ve heard.

Ogden Nash

Apologies to @TeenDivided for ignoring her good ideas for the thread title. Here they are to kickstart our ruminations:
'window on the world of cheesemaking'
'how long until the intercom is fatal'
'will Brian settle in new pastures'
'Springing towards Easter with Widowers, Windows, and wails'

Over to you!

That's a good point @NetballHoop - of course it wouldn't occur to Helen to do something for someone else.

@CurlewKate it's Kathy who's on a belated gap year, I think Tom etc are living in her house

Was it Kirsty who bell-rang briefly?

Thanks for the new link @LillianGish.

See the episode posted for me a day or two ago for when Henry was effectively taken to Ursula and Rob. Now I'll listen to yours.

...
Wow, someone needs to play Helen that clip now!

Although I never thought it rang very true.

"How will you ever face Bert Fry?!" doesn't seem a very scary threat.

Rob actively did not snatch Henry; he told Henry that he didn't want him and was not his daddy. Henry tried to run after his car and go with him, and was caught up with by Helen, who got what had happened out of him and set off after Rob to rescue Jack. There was a tree fallen across the road at Sawyer's Farm and Rob's car was stopped by it, then blocked in by Helen (and Pat and Kirsty, and Tom and Josh, all of whom happened to be going that way at the time...)

In spite of Helen not wanting to, Rob was reported later that day by Tom, Pat and Kirsty for attempting to kidnap Jack, and Helen was later told by Harrison that a positive passport ID had been made of Rob leaving the UK on a flight to Minneapolis, but he would be monitored as a "person if interest" if he ever came back to the UK. We were not told why, since he was wanted for questioning about the abduction of a minor child, at a time when there was a court order in place to prevent him from going anywhere near the farm where the offence was committed, the US authorities were not informed whilst he was in the air and he was not immediately returned to the UK: I wouldn't have thought the USA would have wanted him in the circumstances.

"person OF interest"

Thanks @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

Neil also rings, doesn't he? So that basically leaves Susan or Brine to babysit.

But the more salient consideration is that, if Alice were interested in bellringing, she's had years to get involved. Why would she suddenly decide to take it up because Chris, Ian and Adam tell her it will be good for her?

Thanks for the clarification @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime (though as I've said before, it should really be AnsweringQuestions!) Thanks also to @JanglyBeads for pointing me in the direction of that omnibus - though I'm slightly terrified I might fall down the rabbit hole of listening again to everything again (The Archers equivalent of watching previous episodes of Happy Valley before tuning in for the new series just to remind yourself of what's gone before could literally last a lifetime!) And never mind the relevant scenes with the poisonous Ursula taking Henry - I loved hearing, Jenny, Shula, Joe and Johnny - what has happened to that boy and why has no-one noticed he's gone?

If you Google "bellringer accidents" there is much potential for Alice to be hoisted, upside-down, into the bell-tower. 😉

Put that wishful thinking to one side, @Gonners!

That's a heart warming image!

Another brilliantly written argument (Tom and Gnasher): who is writing this week?

I'm 😭

Pattie get your gun!

Are we in line for a showdown?

Can someone help me, please? I don't know which episode to go back to listen to. I was off the radio for Lent so I missed quite a bit and I'm trying to fill in the gaps:

What actually happened with the bench? Was it both Brad and George, or is Brad covering for George?

Both. It was last Friday.

I actually don't think we heard anything of the bench on The Night (it was George's birthday, 7th April), maybe just one of them stepping on it on their way in. I think after they left one of them mentioned something being broken but it wasn't made clear. Just listened back & it's Brad: "we can't tell anyone we broke the..."

Ok, thanks. I was wondering by the end of tonight what Brad was hiding, since he said he lied to Harrison and then George changed the story. But I'll put it down to George being a generic bad'un and Brad being easily led, both of which I already thought, rather than any shocking new revelations.

From what was said at the time by Brad, George broke the bench. Or at least Brad saying "You broke the –" and George interrupting with "Oh, that was just an accident" certainly seems that way. The episode was on Friday 7th April and it's near the end of it, some time around ten minutes; it's in the penultimate scene.

Ah, OK. Surely Oliver knows whose is the genuine apology, even if he can't be sure exactly who did what?

What happened more or less was that George instructed Brad to deny everything, and gave him the story to tell. Brad did as he was told, unconvincingly, only for duplicitous bastard George (who was being interviewed separately) to tell Harrison some no doubt edited version of the truth. We didn't hear that. Whereupon Harrison went back to Brad and said well, your mate has confessed ...

There was some nonsense about whether Oliver was going to press charges, though it's very unclear that it was actually up to Oliver. It was basically all cobbled together.

If it were up to the victim of every minor crime (such as a bench being broken) to decide whether a case was brought to court about it, the courts would cease to function at all, because everyone thinks the thing that has hurt of upset them is a] very important and b] winnable under the law even if there were no witnesses and no other evidence.

hurt OR upset