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!

I don’t want him to hang about, I want Helen to hand him over to Miles or whatever the brother is called and essentially say let me know when it’s over.

I don’t think they will get back together as a couple that would be too much.

So sorry to hear that you know from harsh experience how these things are handled @StJulian2023 Hopefully you will feel ok to keep reading this thread even if you give up listening for a bit…💐 You surely can’t miss out on what happens to George next…

Of course Robron will live. A few deep breaths of that reviving Ambridge air and he will fully recover, it’s a given. I am only surprised that they don’t run day trips from hard pressed hospitals around the country, Ambridge could so easily become the Lourdes of the Midlands, but without the nuns. Shame they polluted the Am so badly a few years back, mini bottles of AmLite would go down a storm at the shop. It would save the NHS millions.

There could be a shrine / visitor centre/ clinic /gift shop set up in a previously unknown to listeners but charming cottage, possibly curated by Kate as she has experience in these things. Those who have in the past benefitted from Ambridge Healing ( off the top of my head without too much effort I can think of Brian, Alistair, Ed, Helen, Emma, Jazzer and there are probably more) can either do hands on healing stuff, motivational talks or tasteful selfies.

Hilarious viques!
The appt sounded a bit dodgy to me too. Could it possibly have been a set up?
Either way, his brother needs to care for him now. Helen and boys are damaged enough.

Appt was real IMO.

@viques please email Radio 4, excellent idea. Proceeds could help funds when license fees cease......

*/if license fees cease

Thanks for moving me over.

I don't understand how Helen has come to break No Contact. It's very tiresome that she's spent the past 6 years learning nothing from her experience. It's all got rather silly. Is Rob a psychopathic narcissist? has he no control over his behaviour?

I think that Helen will be in Rob's bed in no time at all. Rinse and repeat.

It’s story lines like this that were a gift when the Mustardland Fantasy Archers page was still breathing .

Happy Days!

The Rob storyline has so much to give. There was much talk last time about how TA was going to show how long lasting the effects were, how Rob would influence her life for years to come. Rob making repeated applications for access, Helen finding her boys had been contacted by Rob and are secretly meeting him, Jack as an 18 year old deciding to “find his father”, Jack at 22 announcing he wants to be known as Gideon.

Instead we go for a sugar rush of instant drama.

There is still a Fantasy Archers, in the New Peet's aka Mustardland.

https://paranormal.org.uk/mustardland/viewforum.php?f=5

I’ve seen it. It’s not the same.😟

Oh well. Sorry to have misled; I don't go there myself, so I didn't know what it is like, just saw the name.

I think nowhere without Slightly Foxed or whatever his name was would be as good.

I comment on these threads very rarely but I don't think I have ever read a Futurama quote on mn!

I think Helen's larger social circle now she's not living with Rob will keep her on track. And an older Henry reminding her of how awful it was for them will ensure she keeps contact to a minimum.

I do really enjoy Brad and Chelsea though, I think they are my favourite characters!

@StJulian2023, I am so sorry.

As to whether Rob's diagnosis is genuine, I know the NHS is in a dire state at the moment, but I didn't think things had got so bad that a hired actor could take over a consulting room in a hospital and fake a consultation without any NHS staff noticing or intervening.

Didn't Magdalen Berns have that diagnosis?

New thread/old thread confusion: I'll try to remember to fill up the old thread in some way so nobody else can post there by mistake. I prefer to get on and start the new thread before we get to 1000 posts after the dreadful time when I was AWOL when that point was reached and someone else had to do it for me.

Blarn
I think Helen's larger social circle now she's not living with Rob will keep her on track. And an older Henry reminding her of how awful it was for them will ensure she keeps contact to a minimum.

Helen has never allowed the feelings or advice of anyone whatsoever to influence her behaviour; everyone warned her against Rob in the first place but she went ahead and threw herself at his head, even to the extent of moving uninvited into his house in order to punish Pat and Tony for casting doubt on her judgement about him. I doubt that she will pay any more attention to her son than she ever did to her father or brother, let alone her mother.

As far as I can tell her only "social circle" outside her family consists of Kirsty, and she certainly ignored Kirsty completely last time round.

@StJulian2023 I'm so sorry about your husband.

Rob's utter misogyny there, and his anger.
The whole Helen story is awful to listen to because a) not realistic and therefore b) tedious
The first thing i thought when i heard the "3 months" was "yaayy it will soon be over"

Fallon - well, pushy yes. But since none of the BF lot have the decency to say, "we need to discuss, lot going on, let's meet in 1 month" is really annoying. And leading me to think she is going to apply for a franchise or whatever at the EV charging station.
And BF will lose the tea room income and good. They want to run BF as a business, they have to be businesslike.

Yes, I think Fallon will say fuck you to BF and set up at the new charging station. Her whiny approach is annoying but tbf the BF lot are not really treating her with any respect. Poor communication on both sides imo.

On Thursday evening, I was pleasantly surprised to hear Helen do the sensible thing and tell the consultant she wasn't going to get involved. So I suppose it was almost inevitable that Friday's episode opened with her doing the utterly stupid thing. I fear there is going to be a lot more of that over the next three or four months.

It's so obvious that Fallon should apply to run the cafe at the EV charging centre. Local business should be given priority and if she does it well it will be a draw for EV charging customers too.

This title has replaced "The Archers - we listen so you don't have to" as my all time favourite.

It'll be quite a laugh if she does and applies all those ideas of hers to the new café, taking all the trade from Bridge Farm.

Exactly - stuff Bridge Farm - they don't seem concerned.

In other news I did think it is an easy get out re killing Rob off - it will be about let me see Jack now Im dying. Harder but maybe IRL story would be Helen dying and then Pat& Tony fighting Rob over access to Jack - Lee not in picture as only partner to .Helen

A couple of weeks ago Dead Ringers suggested that TA was written by bots. I think they may be onto something there😅

It's as though someone's put an imaginary bomb under Ambridge and none of the characters seem to know quite what's going on. Even Rob's character is ridiculous. He's now a panto ugly sister.

I'm finding it hard to listen to and increasingly irritating. I don't really care any more. Perhaps the scriptwriters/bots have been too overly influenced by Barbie 'n Ken.

I’d imagine the tearoom lease is easy money for BF. More fool them if they don’t want to take Fallon’s (ill thought out) offer. Hopefully she’ll jump ship to the charging stations and they’ll be left with empty land.