Archers thread #150: For whom the sausage rolls: George over a Berrow, Fallon & Harrison seek new lease on life, is it all a Fête Accompli? Discuss The Snivelling Simpletons, sorry, 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 think people frequently miss their own weddings because of a morning quickie while in a plaster cast, 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 for title suggestions. I basically took @OverArmour's excellent suggestion and managed to shoehorn in snivelling simpleton, gloriously coined by @Eastie77Returns to refer to Lee in the first instance.

@WitcheryDivine suggested Recharging, Red Kites and The Man They Call Ron, is Ambridge becoming an earthly paradise or a hell on earth? which seems as good a place as any to kick off our discussions! Ron = Rob, a fortuitous typo on a previous thread. It does feel a bit as if we're marking time before he turns up again. Odd to do what could be a high profile storyline over the summer holidays when a lot of people will be away, but depending on your point of view, maybe that's a blessing!

Whither George? Is he shaping up to be Andrew Tate mark 2?

Everybody looking forward to Ferret Fun at the Fête? Me neither.

Over to you!

Especially Tom.

There are very few characters I really don’t like but Tom is one of them. Always so convinced he’s right, always puts himself first, has a perpetual refusal to listen to others and he never sodding learns. Thinks he’s Mr Big Business when he’s just a regional sausage merchant.

When he went after Tony the other day, promising his mother that “I won’t make things worse”, I snorted so hard I think I damaged a sinus.

I'm not on the spoilers thread but I was, and am still, heavily promoting the theory that George will attack Hannah.

Like a pp, I don't see even this outburst as enough to fundamentally change anyone. I've worked with teenagers long enough to see this as par for the course. Something more needs to happen to cement George's fate.

Yes, that line 'I won't make things worse' really got to me too. I thought it might mean that he would catch up with Tony and either apologise or at least ask to hear his side of the story. But instead he insisted on hammering his own point home and refusing to listen to any other viewpoint. Like it wasn't enough to just let it drop, he had to catch up with his dad to force the issue on someone who didn't want to talk. He thoroughly deserved the put down he eventually got.

@RegimentalSturgeon "Hardly shocking language, and fair comment on George’s part anyway"

Jesus Christ- the misogyny.

Oh, me too.

My favourite post-episode link being a deadpan Viji Alles:

"Joe Grundy's contribution, there, to this week's Moral Maze..."

😊

@RegimentalSturgeon watershed or not, I'm pretty sure my mother would be shocked if I called her a slut! And like @CurlewKate, I'm not going to entertain the rest of that misogynism.

You can say a lot worse than "slut" on Radio 4 any old time, as long as it's seen as necessary for the plot/genuine comment from someone. If a drunken Boris Johnson called Rishi Sunak a "complete twat" they'd happily be able to report that in full. 😁

I don't remember the Ed/Will/Emma thing well as I was the wrong age (a similar age to them in fact) but they were all amazingly young at the time. I think Emma was married and pregnant with George when she was about 19. Didn't she leave Will when George was a baby so presumably she was 20 or a bit more.

So yeah not idea behaviour from anyone (Ed was always the one who came off worst I'd have thought!) but they were young and it would have all been long forgotten if not for George.

She never got over being the Strawberry Princess.

My first experience of Emma was when she was wandering the village in desperation trying to find a loan so they could buy this house which she'd set her heart on. I think she went to see Peggy to ask for a loan?? I actually felt really sorry for her at the time (I should go and find the thread about that story line!) but my sympathy has dwindled the more I have found out about her. She's someone I would actively avoid in real life. I'm surprised that outburst from George hasn't come sooner really.

That's both a mother and a stepmother who have smacked George. We'll wait and see whether this one changes his attitude any more than the first; I doubt it. I can't remember why Nic smacked him as a toddler, I just remember that it caused a temporary breakup with Will. Anyone else remember what he did?

@CurlyTandtheTangles OMG I thought something was in the air with Stella and pip! 😆

I remember when the whole EdEmWill SL first kicked off Eddie was absolutely incandescent and called Emma a slut (or might have been bitch).

George knocked over the two-year-old Mia, a year younger than him, and she hit her head against something and did not immediately start to cry; her mother smacking George to get him out of the way so she could get to the younger child was obviously deplorable but I thought at the time that it was understandable she did so in the heat of such a moment.

Interesting. In that case I’m intrigued to see how they’ve mapped out Keira and Poppy’s characters and future storylines as they have (to a lesser degree) lived amongst this chaos as well and share a toxic half brother. We’ve already heard via Ed that Keira and Emma argue a fair bit.

Yes, the sort of thing that if a mum posted on MN about that most posters would say it was a one-off and not to worry too much.

I do wonder how many people have to slap George before he realises just how slappable he is, though.

I loathe Tom (and don't like Natasha) but I'm pleased there are at least some small kids in the village whose parents are still together, would be a bit unrealistic otherwise.

To be fair, it's only been a year!!!!

IIRC didn't Emma have sex with Ed the same day, or the day before, she married Will, and got pregnant with George. And later on there were DNA tests to prove which brother the father was.

I do wonder how many people have to slap George before he realises just how slappable he is, though.

https://tenor.com/view/weapons-gif-8304589

I agree; top episode that shows what TA writers can do when they know backstories and really try rather than giving us 'comedy' japes. Or rewrite history, like earlier this week so that Pat'n'Tone forgot about their collusion with Rob stopping Helen working & driving.

WRT to other back stories that were well-handled, I have very fond memories of an episode during the storyline when the BF crew discovered John had fathered a son. Helen was sent up to Leeds to tell ask Sharon to allow Pat to see Rich (as he was then called). Sharon went into a whole long anecdote about how she had discovered that she was pregnant shortly after John died and gone to BF, planning to tell them. Tony had met her with, "We don't want any trouble" so Sharon simply went away again and kept her news to herself. For sixteen or so years. I especially treasure the memory of Helen realising that Sharon wasn't going to do what she (Helen) demanded.

I think he's extremely fortunate Neil wasn't present to hear him call Emma a slut and mock poor Nic. A slap would have been the least of his worries.

Do I recall correctly that Neil only mentioned the warnings under duress from Emma and Susan; he didn't tell either of them on the same days that the warnings were given, quite rightly - although they seemed to think he should have done. He was doing a very good job of keeping Berrow issues as Berrow issues until, inevitably, it all fell apart.

😂

Thanks as ever to everyone on this thread for making me laugh, it's not an easy time at the moment and this is a real tonic x

I think that's right, he treated George like an adult staff member and didn't go telling his mum and granny.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

😆

Sorry ot hear that, @WitcheryDivine.