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!

It's just occurred to me how unrealistic it is that in the whole of Ambridge there's never a mention of trying to get a wheelchair through the Bulls doorway, or making the farm open days accessible.

Mmm … They’re usually just temporary disablings. IIRC Jim arrived in the village because he’d broken his leg or something and needed his son and daughter in law’s help. Then he stayed. Adam, Brian, Jazzer, others I’ve forgotten, get injured - but they don’t remain audibly disabled.

Phil had a hip replacement I think! But that’s a long time ago …

Brian had epilepsy after being kicked in the head by a Grundy cow, but he made a full recovery.

Dan Hebden-Lloyd had juvenile arthritis but made a full recovery.

Christopher Carter had a cleft palate at birth, had surgery and it's never been mentioned again.

Helen had clicky clips at birth and made a full recovery.

Ben has just had a serious mental health episode and has so far made a full recovery.

Emma Grundy had a serious injury to her leg after Ed crashed Will's car which he had taken without permission, got compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, used it to pay for a lavish wedding to Will, and made a full recovery from her injuries.

Joe Grundy had farmer's lung whenever it was convenient.

Alice has alcoholism. George Barford had it too. Some grasp among the SWs in both cases that this will be a lifelong battle.

Pat had serious depression after John died, but has mostly been OK since.

Tony had a heart attack a while back but seems OK now.

Jack Woolley had dementia and they played that out over a period of years and seemed to do a fairly accurate portrayal.

Helen had an eating disorder and although it's not been mentioned for a long time some astute listeners think there are early signs that it's rearing its ugly head again, which would be realistic.

But yes indeed, no mobility issues, which is very unrealistic.

After the Grey Gables fire, it sounded as though Lynda was horribly scarred and using a wheelchair.
Maybe she still is, but nobody mentions it.

Jazzer took ketamine (well, he’d been taking it for a while but overdid it) and spent a week unconscious in intensive care. He was supposed to have suffered a degree of brain damage as a result and that’s why he was dropped from Fallon's band Dross, iirc.

Seems to be fine now.

Elizabeth's famous heart issue is brandished dramatically whenever required, but has she ever had any serious ongoing health issues from it as an adult?

Ruth's breast cancer was done very well as I remember.

This yacht that Johnny is supposed to be going on. Is it a racing yacht, not a cruise ? No way is someone with no sailing experience going to be invited on an Ocean yacht race without the relevant training, experience and insurance. And what about his clothes ? A pair of flip flops and a branded T shirt aren't going to be enough for weeks at sea ! ( Ever practical Mom of someone who has done this)

I think they said training ship. I was picturing something like this.

What does BOOP mean? I've only ever used it in the context of booping the dog's nose 🤣

Henry, by the way, will definitely be the conduit for a Ron/Gideon meeting...

BOOP stands for the poster Bit Out Of Practice who used to chide us for being unduly negative and picky on these threads. So when we find something to praise we follow her example, i.e. BOOP.

Ha! Love it!

Wheelchair access was mentioned with regard to Sykesy's visit to Brookfield.

Seem to remember Ben's plan to repeat it with other residents from The Laurels?

Would be a missed opportunity if that's not further explored.

Sykesy, by now, could well be an established regular at The Bull.

(How far is The Laurels from the village centre, do we know?
I can well imagine him commandeering youngsters into accompanying him back and forth).

Curmudgeonly banter over dominos with similarly spirited peers. Flirting with the women. Riling Leonard about still fancying Jill. Taking to task anyone he deems patronising. Creating uproar when ramps are inadequate.

Maybe he was one of Bert Horrobin's reprobate pals at his secret lock-in?

Well remembered! And yes, I'd like to hear all of that. I enjoyed listening to Skyesy.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g aha thank makes more sense. But I am pretty sure he would have to pay a hefty whack £££ up front for the "experience".

Thinking about age related mobility difficulties:

According to the characters' dates of birth on the BBC's website:

Peggy is 99 years old
Christine is 91
Jill is 92

Is Christine still in the Laurels? The website seems to imply she is at The Lodge now, but I remember she had to go into the Laurels a while back (wasn't Peggy paying for it?)

Peggy lives at The Lodge with Kate. I assume she has some help with day to day living from Kate (although not that much because Kate is a bit scattered and unreliable).

Jill is back at Brookfield after the falling out, where she presumably doesn't have to do too much cleaning or heavy lifting. In my head she is a short wiry slightly bent over frail looking thing who uses a trolley to help steady her on her feet around the house, and is (begrudgingly) happy to be offered an arm for steadiness when out and about.

It would be good if the SWs made more of the general aches and pains and stiffness of arthritis and age related reducing mobility that the three of these characters must have. All three are quite the slips trips and falls risk now, and no talk of there having been a wet room conversion or grab rails, hand rails, hearing aids, ramps, steps, walking sticks, wheelchairs or walking frames, getting them a downstairs bedroom or a stair lift, or any other adaptations that in a real world all three of them would need. They haven't even had cataracts done IIRC, with the extra falls, loss of confidence, gradual loss of eyesight that precludes diagnosis, the NHS wait, one eye done at a time, (it's a horribly disorientating and vulnerable feeling 6 weeks) and subsequent recovery that is involved. Nor is much made of the extra care that all three would need in the real world - usually the daughters or DIL would be doing it as invisible unpaid extra labour, things like taking them to extra doctors appointments, helping them do their grocery shopping, helping them organise their medication, picking up repeat prescriptions, generally worrying and pushing them to get power of attorney in place, pushing the doctors for Occupational Therapy visits and installation of safety devices, and so on and so on.

All of that without mentioning the likelihood of dementia, parkinsons and so on.

Jill had cataracts done. She had become timid about driving, and I think one of the family actually noticed!

@ThereIbledit
Such a good post.

Hwhy thank you @BerylBillings And thanks @TheSilveryPussycat I didnt' remember that one.

If Lynda had been left wheelchair-dependant, we would definitely have heard about it by now, not least because she would have campaigned to ensure that every public venue in and around Ambridge was fully accessible.

If Peggy is still paying for Christine's place at The Laurels, she must be near-bankrupt by now.

Regarding SWs potentially optimistic view of chronic illness or disability, I must say I was surprised at Ron’s ability to scheme and manipulate whilst living with glioblastoma. Perhaps my experience is not universal but I had understood it to be a tumour with quite significant immediate effects on functioning, particularly those functions which would otherwise allow you to be an evil scheming bastard.

Peggy paid initially, feeling guilty about the damned cat causing Christine's fall, as I remember.

When Christine was well enough to come home, she found she didn't want to. So her son got enough to pay for a place at The Lodge.

ThereIbledit
The website seems to imply she is at The Lodge now, but I remember she had to go into the Laurels a while back (wasn't Peggy paying for it?)

For goodness' sake don't take the BBC website as being accurate! In that, according to Pip's page she and Toby are living in Rickyard together ("Her on/off boyfriend Toby Fairbrother is the father of her daughter Rosie. While no longer a couple, they live together at Rickyard Cottage and co-parent Rosie.") while according to Toby's page he has moved out ("Toby moved to Stratford to join his father's wine importing business.")

He only moved out in 2022, so it's not by any means the worst example: the entire site is riddled with stuff that has been out of date for as much as a decade. In it, Ben is still living with Beth, Helen is untroubled by Rob because she has seen him off, Tom and Natasha's children have not yet been born, Henry still "struggles to understand why he can no longer see his Daddy when his baby brother Jack is allowed to spend time with him", Johnny has been stuck as an apprentice at Bridge Farm since 2014, "Ian has stuck by Adam despite Adam's affairs becoming public knowledge at Helen's trial", Kate is thrilled to see more of Phoebe, Eddie Grundy was deeply grateful to Oliver Sterling for letting them return to Grange Farm – but that hasn’t stopped him keeping pigs and running it as a B&B

it goes on.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g that is the boat I sailed on across the Atlantic in 2009. It was fun but there are no coffee grinder winches. They are on the high performance racing boats. It only took Challenger 4 11 days to get from Gran Canaria to St Lucia and you only cross the Atlantic after the Hurricane season has ended in October. If Jonny is going to Uruguay I suspect they would sail via the Canaries and Cape Verde islands and have long stopovers at each if it’s going to take 4 months.