Archers thread #160: Ram a lamb a ding dong! To rate the mass wisteria in Ambridge, tap the feedback tablet 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 have given a home to Hilda the Hellcat, 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 to @MerryChristmasToYou, @OverArmour and @LillianGish for the thread title ideas.

This week is a bit better than last week, but the Brad/Adil/Lily stuff is very odd. Coming up to the anniversary of Jennifer's death (22nd January last year). We need a new matriarch - could that be Natasha? I find her quite an interesting character. Sometimes she's awful and then she has moments as last night where she utterly redeems herself.

Over to you!

I hope that the CCTV outage is not a coincidence but is related to what happened - they chose the pub because they knew the cctv would be out because of the publicity around the electric stuff, for example, or the electrician is dodgy and connected to the dog gang.

it’s been a chaotic kind of story line to this point (longest drinker, cliffhanger power cut, endless faffing finding an electrician, late change of procedure when they figured out they could
open the pub after all, odd thing about the random faulty seeming car alarm, Tracey and Emma out car washing etc) and I hope that it comes together with purpose.

I find Kenton really annoying. But that is also why I like him as a character! He seems to be played as a really nice bloke who makes bad jokes and tries his best.

I wondered if Jolene had agreed to the land being used for dog fights or sales? Made the call to the police straight away to cover her back, almost take the money and run?

@BridgerGo and the fashion show…which everybody always calls the Renew Fashion Show which you just wouldn’t do in real life

Except that I think she'd gone in with Kenton in the ambulance and didn't have a car with her. In any case she didn't sound in a fit state to drive.

Or he could have said, I’ll drop you home and come back. It was just a bit unnecessarily sad on top of the horror of the prior episode!

Wondering why Kenton seemed to have trouble speaking - as might be consistent with a throat injury which his horrific gurgling noises yesterday suggested - when the injuries are to his legs and side?

I for one am very disappointed at the lack of injuries to the maxillofacial region. Beginning to think I might not be the listener they have in mind

Yes! That’s how I remember it. He got manipulated into letting them onto some land but had second thoughts at the last minute or something.

Quite - it sounded like the dog(s) got him by the throat, not the legs!

Dave can do one.

I too thought it was his throat that was bit as he was gurgling when Jolene ran up to him.
It was not a very nice scene but I wasnt horrified like a few listeners on here.
Must be an unfeeling person I suppose.
With so many people upset about Kenton you would think they would take it in turns to sit with him. Poor Kenton.
I bet it turns out its nothing to do with Jolene and the way she was acting on the night might be a red herring.

I'm with you, I wasn't particularly moved by it. After all the people on here who found it graphic and upsetting, I was worried I was being heartless. I spoke to DM yesterday and asked her whether she'd heard TA the day before, she couldn't remember (it turned out she had listened, and said 'Oh yes, Kenton' when prompted). So I get my underwhelmed reaction from her, clearly.

I’m trying to think what bothered me the most - I think it was the gurgling, it sounded like a facial or throat injury. I don’t think it’s being unfeeling or cold, as it’s not real after all and people have different levels of.. I don’t know .. suspension of disbelief I suppose. Also I think it’s how much your imagination gets involved too, as we can’t see, it’s individual as to what we envisage!

Also - sometimes I’m listening while doing something else and less involved in the storyline. I was walking yesterday and had no real other distraction than Kenton being savaged in my ears. It could have been worse, he could have been being ravished

He seemed to have trouble speaking at first last night, reinforcing the thoughts on throat injury.

I think that was just supposed to be his generic sick/ injured/ heavily medicated voice, although I can see how that's difficult to portray on radio and could give the impression that it was a facial injury. I was more amazed that Jolene was able to recount a report Kenton had given of the attack, meaning that there was some point between when we first heard him whimpering and when we later heard him gurgling that he was able to talk more coherently. That made me think that it was maybe sedation rather than the injuries themselves which was hindering him yesterday, or possibly shock.

Beginning?

More than threequarters of the way through this thread already! I wonder why ...

Erm I'm female but a dog attacking close to/ on the groin is likely to make some high pitched gurgling noise, possibly?

A little throwaway line in there about "no wonder Jolene didn't manage to note the number plate" makes me think she's definitely involved somehow and knows who those people were. Just listened again to the end of the episode with the men in the pub - Jolene disappears to the cellar as soon as the first one approaches the bar, he makes some comment about "Great little pub, nice and quiet, just the job" - then establishes that the electricity is off and won't be back on until Friday. Jolene nervously chats with Kenton and while she continues to lurk in the cellar, then disappears off to do the recycling. So they were clearly casing the joint and making their presence known, Jolene knew who they were, but didn't want anyone else to know that. At no point did she say that they were trouble and put Kenton on his guard. What I can't work out is whether the power cut is coincidental or deliberate sabotage.

Could the motive be a protection racket?

There's been the whole tedious longest-attending customer competition, plus the build up to Mia's show.

Why was Jolene so quick to call the police before they’d spoken to the trespassers? Also it was Police Fairy time again in that they agreed to drive by straight away!

I think to be fair police would take calls from a pub fairly seriously, because of the greater potential for trouble if people are drinking. It's hardly onerous to tell a car that's patrolling anyway to drive past and take a look from the road.

It could have been worse, he could have been being ravished

That, plus Jolene ‘not being able’ to note the number plate, plus expectations of impaired speech make me feel they’ve missed a trick: Kenton as Lavinia

@Anisette anyone who lives rurally will likely attest that this is very unlikely, pub or not. It is incredibly difficult to get police to attend rural crime scenes even when goods worth tens of thousands of pounds have been stolen and there is cctv and descriptions etc. This is certainly the case in East Anglia anyway.

In Norfolk recently the police didn’t even respond to a 999 call from a house where an hour later 4 people were found dead.

Ah yes. Clearly I've been so bored by that storyline I've immediately forgotten it.

I think when she came down after ringing them the first time Jolene said they had said they would be driving past shortly, not that they were going to attend.