Archers thread #155: Cold Comfort Farms! The rural sagas continue. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

FILL THE OLD THREAD UP FIRST! https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4902507-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?page=10

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 like to hear more scenes in the 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 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.)

Lots of lively discussion about Brad's university aspirations and the Open Day on the last thread. Do you want him to end up at Felpersham or do you want him to spread his wings and go further afield? Where will Mia go?

Will this thread see the end of Rob, or do we have many weeks more before his long overdue demise?

What's going on at Grey Gables? Are they running into financial trouble? Will we hear from Roy, who I had forgotten was working there until he was mentioned the other day? Who are the mysterious 'Owners'? Will the locum GP turn out to be Adil's sister, as we have been surmising since she first spoke? Why's she been conjured up?

Talking of the GP, I'm hoping against hope we're not in for bad news about Jim's mole.

Praying that we're going to get a long and much-needed break from hearing P*p. Not praying that we hear Rob being christened. Who would be his sponsor, as someone commented on the last thread? Harrison? Surely that would be a conflict of interest. Can't see who else would do it locally.

I wonder how Ben is getting on now he's back on his nursing degree? Will we ever hear anything about Lily's course, or how Freddie's getting on at the abattoir?

So many questions! Over to you for some answers and boundless speculation.

I'd love silent fireworks to be the only fireworks available. TBH I would also like them only available to professionals and for organised displays too.

In Germany they are only allowed to be sold at very specific times and you have to be over 18 to buy them. (the time is: 3 days before NYE)

I thought Ian was just being bitchy towards Pip'n'Stella with the performative comment. But i do get why gay men, moreso maybe than lesbians?, don't hold hands in public. I live in a very relaxed area and the youth are very inclusive, but my daughter (adult) was at a gay wedding this year and as they were having photos done a load of people just walking past shouted really vile homophobic comments. She asked the pair if they wanted her to call the police and they said "we're used to it, don't bother" and that made us all really really depressed.

In Cologne (very close) which seems to be the Gay Capital of Germany you see loads of same-sex couples holding hands etc. me and my DH always hold hands, always have done. Odd, really.

Fabulous @OverArmour !

In Germany they are only allowed to be sold at very specific times and you have to be over 18 to buy them. (the time is: 3 days before NYE)

But you still get people doing stuff like fire rockets across the street at each other. They clearly weren't brought up with terrifying public service films about how you're going to die, or st least go blind and lose a hand, if you don't follow the firework code. And you can walk along railways there.

But anyway. I saw ads for a silent fireworks display at one of the places near here.

I always thought Berlin was the gay capital of Germany? As well as the capital obviously. I’ve never been but a close gay couple go there often.

Re fireworks and horses, the small private yard where I kept my mare had a mahoosive bonfire party one year (really an excuse to burn a lot of rubbish - a very colourful fire it was). There was a band and loads of people and lots of fireworks. The food was served in the spare stable next to my mare and she couldn’t have been less bothered by all the hoo ha. And this was the spookiest Irish mare ever who couldn’t walk over a patch of sunlight without throwing a hissy fit and jumping it.

Presumably in the real world, regardless of his situation, Adil would never reappear?
He must have had an email from his employers by now terminating his employment with immediate effect due to negligence or similar.
It's a shame because I liked the Adil character. I thought he and Kirsty could have had a romantic future... although really I want her to be swept off her feet and go off into the sunset with Jacobs brother.
As for Helen, she's really not ok is she? Like Helen is ever ok, but at the mo she's really not ok. I think they're building up to a big Helen and Rob finale.

I hope the Rob finale isn’t overly dramatised. They have a habit of taking something which could be good and making it ott (Nigel’s fall, nics dying scene, the first Rob sl)

Adil doesn’t really have ties to the village and his employment will certainly have been terminated. Unless we get a ridiculous ‘I came back because ambridge is the only place I’ve ever felt welcome’. The face his sister is there suggests some nonsense is on the way

She's not OK, no, but she's also behaving badly. She is under great stress and has told herself and everyone else she's dealing with it absolutely fine because she understands what's happening, but she very clearly isn't. First the ED resurfaces and now she decides that after five years Lee, the closest thing to a father her boys have ever known, is the source of all her problems and has to go. Somebody needs to have a serious talk with her. Not Pat, though! Not sure my blood pressure could take that.

<making title notes, btw>

What came of her doctors appointment?

oh gosh yes, unfortunately.
You also get the mess left behind (although where i live they clean it up early next day)

I thought here you have to be over 18 to buy fireworks and they are only available to buy around 5/11 unless with a special licence?

(as for Berlin? it still trades on its reputation from the 20s/30s and status as an island of something-or-other during the DDR years. But it is VERY provincial compared to places like Cologne and Hamburg. Can you tell I'm not a fan 😀)

She mentioned a dietician's appointment recently (within the last few days). I'm no expert, but I would think some mental health support would be more appropriate.

Yes - surely the issue with an ED isn’t that you don’t know what to eat but that you are being excessively controlling.

Surely a recurring ed is a red flag for other issues

The ED storyline infuriates me. Either Ambridge is in a weird NHS world of its own, or there's been no research done. DD has functioned with an ED for many years. Graduated, got a great job (Altho not managed to have a long term relationship). In neither her university city or London where she works has she managed to be 'ill enough' to access help. Help seems seems bluntly to he be based on BMI. And this has gone on for 8 years. She fluctuates between severe control of what she eats, and bulemic behavior. And life is an EFFORT for her every day. What she eats, when she eats it. Frankly I don't know how she achieves so highly with so much noise in her head. And without family on her doorstep.
I hear none of this from Helen, who seems to have magically accessed a dietician. And that is another beef of mine. You'd only use a dietician in tandem with some psych therapy - most likely CBD.
At least that's my impression.
Obviously everyone is different. The wisest thing anyone ever told me that as that were all on an ED spectrum. But Helen in so many ways seems atypical - certainly in the way she is being treated.

I've just read back my post and realised I may have oversimplified lots of things. But I stand by my assertion that the Helen ED story arc is in so many ways unrealistic.
Which is a shame because in so many other ways dramas like this serve as vehicles for teaching and support. There's nothing of that here

It is of course possible that she's also getting psych support alongside the dietician and just hasn't mentioned it on air. It would probably complicate the SL. Plus she doesn't strike me as being the most co-operative patient, but maybe she's trying it.

My friend has had support with her eating disorder from a dietician, but she does have other MH issues as well.

I don't think it's about someone telling you what to eat because you don't know, it sounds more like some dieticians are specially trained to work with people with ED and try to work out how they can keep themselves a healthy weight and have a balanced diet, and frankly just in some ways reminding them that eating is essential and here's how much of it you have to do. It's not counselling but for people who want to keep their ED in check and have done so before, it sounds like it can be helpful.

The thing is seeing a dietician in isolation is pointless because it won't treat the underlying cause. People with EDs do know what a healthy diet and weight is (probably better than the rest of us!) - they just can't do it because of the voice or impulses (with underlying causes) that tell them otherwise. In that sense the story is misleading and goes against the usual grain where writers try to at least pay lip service to what it's like to have a real life illness.
Actually the more I digest it the crosser I am!

The ED storyline infuriates me. Either Ambridge is in a weird NHS world of its own

Exactly this! My experience of the NHS - and that of those I know - is that it is literally only possible to access the care you need when you are dying (and actually even that is hit and miss). For anything else including back surgery, hip replacements, physio, perimenopause, even persistent verrucas (!) you have to source and pay for private treatment or suffer quietly for years with zero support.

I would really like to see a SL reflecting this inequality (eg Justin getting a hip replacement in record time due to his private medical care
or Tony paying for Helen to see a private ED specialist because the referral wait is too long - or even that she is not judged bad enough to be referred) as it is an issue that is only going to get worse and become more relevant as the NHS (sacred cow that it is) becomes increasingly unfit for purpose.

New thread! https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4927142-archers-thread-156-fireworks-in-ambridge-helen-gave-lee-a-rocket-but-grey-gables-is-a-damp-squib-is-the-writing-on-the-church-walldiscuss-the-archers-here

I do think I'm going to have to withdraw from all Archers online discussions soon because of how awful people often are about Helen. On one forum they're discussing how she "killed her pony" when she was 8!

"killed her pony" when she was 8!
Yes, Helen has a very long history of not giving a stuff about anyone or anything except herself.

I certainly wouldn't want to be friends with Helen as she's dull as ditchwater personality-wise in my opinion - but I think she's a fascinatingly written character, well acted, and to have been with her over most of her adult life is a really interesting listen for me because I can see how her character and personality have developed and been affected by things out of her control. She has also been very in control of some very questionable decisions obviously! And behaved really badly this week and another occasions.
She's maddening, annoying, selfish, weirdly self-unaware... But I do still sympathise with her. I thought her relationship with Lee was a nice thing because it provided calm (yes, boring) stability for her and her kids. That calm stability is being destroyed because she has been/is a victim of abuse. She didn't ask for that. But she did decide to get involved with a married man.
I don't think she deserves 'hatred'... she is a character on a soap though, one that has been well written and acted to the extent that people feel strongly about her!

Well, she did. It's simply what happened. Yes, she didn't mean to, but I doubt that made the laminitis any less painful for the poor animal.

And naturally she blamed Tony for it.

Very difficult to be understanding of her this week ... Her behaviour at the bowling alley was terrible. There are no excuses.