Archers thread #154: Cider with Fat Rosie, Meadow Rise to Candleford or The Darling Horrobins of September? Get your rural saga fix – 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 be euphoric about getting a job in an abattoir, 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 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4888492-the-archers-spoilers-thread-8-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 the thread title suggestions. @HumanWetWipe came up with Cider with Fat Rosie and @BeardieWeirdie thought up Meadow Rise to Candleford. I wish I could have put in the Line of Duty mashups from the end of the last thread. Another time.

Heading for a ferry shortly, so nothing more from me for now. Over to you!

I was going to look for a pompoms GIF but this came up after Po, so I've gone with that. Thanks, @DadDadDad! Congrats to @Brefugee.

I dodged the LRtoC thingie. What was it like? Should I risk it?

Rob pulling the heart strings 🙄

well at least we are starting to get the denouement of the sl. I’m guessing he is going to try and get people to feel sorry for him and put pressure on Helen to let him see the kids.

please can we not have a Halloween drama spin-off read along!!

How gullible is Emma!!

OMG Rob!
surely Alan can pass him on to some kind of deputy??

and it doesn’t have to be the ambridge church

As a fully paid-up (work for the church, theology doctoral student) Christian, I would absolutely stop practising if my only choice of parish had a vicar who led prayers the way Alan does. 😬

I think I'm going to get a rage way worse than the inaccuracies of the riding lesson if the SW mess up this SL because they have no idea about sacramental theology. My heart sank when the continuity announcer told us that tomorrow would feature Alan agonising some more. It's really not a hard case, and not particularly unusual.

Yes but Alan is the most angst ridden do gooder vicar stereotype the sw could think of

BOOP for Oliver managing Ardil, and trying to explain work-life balance, and that one should not intrude on others' time about work related issues on a Sunday. Also for Sunday Lunch at Grange Farm. And Eddie and Oliver sharing a sherry.

Alan, you really should know better. That cider is lethal - there were warnings about the local cider (not called cider, but I can't recall what) at the Dorset Coast youth hostel I stayed in with friends in the late 1960s .

Re: Larkrise to Candleford - I first read the book in my 20s, I was entranced

Maybe Rob is serious? I don't see any reason why he shouldn't be, in the face of imminent death?

Either that, or desperate?

SequentialAnalyst
Alan, you really should know better. That cider is lethal

Alan does know better; we've had an "Alan drinks too much cider" story before. George posted a gif of him out of his gourd which was forwarded to the Bishop, who punished Alan by making him do something or other extra over Christmas that year. The way Bishops do.

If Rob seriously wants to be baptised, he has no possible need to move to Ambridge and get Alan to do it. God is God the same on the South Coast as he is in the Midlands.

Presumably he wants to be buried in the parish - so Helen and the boys won’t be rid of him even once dead?

gosh, yes, that is a definite possible motivation

Tell us @Fink what's the sitch here? in what circs could Alan refuse to baptise him, if he is in the same parish? could he mae him do some kind of preparation course?

Well, he said he wanted to be baptised by someone who knew what sins he had committed. Which sounds plausible...

However, it also sounds manipulative, especially considering @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime's point.

It also sounds too much to ask of anyone - the nearest thing I can think of is a conflict of interest. So I hope Alan asks the Bishop, and the Bishop forbids it.

Or maybe Usha could talk some sense into him?

The whole thing with Henry showed he was being manipulative to try to get to Jack. So I can’t imagine he’s turned a new lead since then. And he’s playing Alan because he knows he won’t be able to say no

So I can’t imagine he’s turned a new leaf since then.

You may be right. At present, only the SWs know. But who knows how anyone will cope when faced with a terminal diagnosis of inoperable brain tumour?

It's not that long ago that we were berating Tony for thinking Rob had somehow escaped retribution by becoming ill.

I think the sw have some melodramatic end for Rob - possibly with Jack in peril. And the newspapers having headlines about Helen finishing the job

If I assume the SWs are attempting to be realistic about glioblastoma then I would have to say Rob is genuine with his request because, sadly, I don’t think it would be possible for someone at his stage of the disease to be manipulative and machiavellian in his plans. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if the SWs have overlooked the finer details of such a horrible cancer so who knows.

I think you are overestimating the sw ability to research and make illnesses realistic!

rob will be sharp as a tack and the character he has always been until the moment he dies - probably with some final nasty words for Helen.

I don’t think this story is going to play out realistically

@AnneWhittle

By all rights, if Alan had any pastoral sensibilities, he would give Rob a stern word about his repentance being for God's eyes and not needing to look for human respect. The very fact that he's bothered about who baptises him is a sign that he doesn't want it for the right reasons. He needs to be told that if he wants forgiveness, he has to show it by not coming near Helen and the boys again. In short, stay away and get baptised somewhere else, there's no need for you to be in the vicinity.

If, for whatever plot-driven reasons/Alan's wetness, he fails to confront Rob on this, he should definitely insist on some kind of preparation, even if he shortens it for Rob's illness. And there's no reason he has to take the classes himself: he could call on a favour from the next vicar over or outsource it to a reliable parishioner (given the amount of parishes he has apart from Ambridge they're not all going to be connected with the Archer family). Rob doesn't have any right to insist that Alan personally baptises him, but even if Alan is manipulated into agreeing that, he shouldn't have to have anything to do with him before or after, he could just baptise him on the day and leave the teaching and the paperwork to others.

That's not to mention the fact that I would be quite surprised to find someone of Rob's family background who hadn't been baptised CofE as a child. So the first thing Alan could do is find out the relevant details, possibly from Helen, and ask for a check of the baptismal records around his home area/parishes connected with his family.

Speaking of Helen, Alan would be under no obligation of any kind to keep this from her. So if he's going to agonise over that, he needn't, he could go straight over there and tell the Archers what happened today and ask what the precise legal restrictions are, and Helen could let Dominic know. But clearly that's not going to happen, he's going to try to keep it a secret and it will come out in a more dramatic way later. 🤨

<off topic> are you another German TA fan? </off topic>)
@Brefugee I'm mystified, but do tell.

It occurs to me that Rob said he was living in a flat in Penny Hassett.

Jack goes to school in Penny Hassett.

Noooooooooo

Do you think his flat overlooks the playground 😬

I’m confident that nothing bad is going to happen to dear little Jack.

Disappointingly.