Archers thread #161: Kenton seems to be getting better, but the storylines aren’t. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

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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 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.)

Well, here we are. I was strongly tempted to go for the dog's dinner, dog/human bullies etc suggestions for the title, but Mere asked if we could not have anything graphic in the thread title, so I've held back. In a couple of weeks when this thead is nearing its end the attack may all be a distant memory, anyway.

Goodness knows what's in store for us now. Kenton seems likely to have PTSD, not surprisingly. Surely we must soon find out why HARRY talks so. Unconvincingly. Alice! Hello. CHRIS. CHRIS. etc, and also whether he is (as many of us suspect) addicted to opiates and/or up to no good. Too much to hope why nobody in Ambridge horsey circles had ever heard of him until recent weeks.

Over to you!

https://g.co/kgs/BRZCQsz

I liked the farming stuff in last night's episode.

The dark arches is where the railway station has been built over where the canal meets the River Aire. So there’s one point where you've been walking along a tunnel and suddenly the floor of the tunnel becomes a bridge over the cascading lively river. Haven’t been there for years.

The oval glass roofed Corn Exchange is a wonderful Victorian building.

The great thing about Leeds is it’s a very compact city, so you can see most of the centre on foot. You can walk from the station to the Royal Armouries along the river. The new south entrance to the station has a wonderful view before you go down a long escalator? to come out by Canal Wharf and the Dark Arches.

Art gallery is nice, and next to the Victorian tiled cafe in the Library (which in summer has people playing chess outside with giant pieces), which is next door to the Town Hall by the wonderfully named Cuthbert Broderick.

@AngryBirdsNoMore Probably too late, but

I didn’t hear Pip! Was that Sunday or Monday? The practical joking is rubbish and cruel. Both to the victims and the listeners

Pip was on Monday - whinging about farming duties.

yeah that practical joke was way over the top and very much out of character for Tony
even IF something so dire had happened that the whole business was threatened I don't think Pat and Tony would have usurped Helen like that.
I thought it played quite nastily on Clarrie's and Susan's need to be employed.

The so called practical joke was not funny and not kind. The only possible excuse for putting out something as poor as this was that they had to do a big re-write in a hurry, or some other crisis. Hoping for better this evening [triumph of hope over experience].

See you after Easter, @AngryBirdsNoMore! Take care.

‘So-called’ is right, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g .The only one of these stupid dairy stunts that qualifies as a ’practical’ joke was the substitution of smaller boots.
Can’t feel much sympathy for Susan and Clarrie. My loathing of Adam has increased, though - and I didn’t think that was possible

What was the ‘joke’?

I'm just listening to the repeat and Adam sounds really smug and Tony's laughter quite nasty
Tony's not usually nasty is he?

Adam and Tony pretended that Adam was being fired because of the previous so called practical jokes, which resulted in Hilda getting into the dairy and necessitating throwing away a lot of milk in case of contamination. Susan and Clarrie were very upset, not least because Tony had strongly hinted that any further behaviour like this would lead to sacking them too. I fail to see any humour in any of this. Adam and Tony seemed to think it was all hilarious. I doubt ACAS would agree. Workplace bullying was in my mind.

I have family and friends in Ilkley and I can't say that any of them have ever complained about the Bradford postcode! The services, maybe, but aren't we all doing that?

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
Adam and Tony pretended that Adam was being fired because of the previous so called practical jokes, which resulted in Hilda getting into the dairy

The unfunny "jokes" did not result in the cat getting into the dairy, though. Adam being careless and stupid was the only reason Hilda was able to get in through the door with him. If he had been thinking a little more about his job and less about being a clever-clogs he might have spotted her before she got in, and headed her off.

Clarrie and Susan were completely blameless, and nothing they had previously said or done had anything to do with it.

Not only that - Tony had given advance notice of wanting to see them, so we were witness to them worrying about what the meeting was about and whether they would be sacked.

I think, as a general rule, one should not play a "joke" on someone who is lower down than you in the power structure, certainly not if the "joke" involves you wielding the greater power you have over them. So a boss saying "jokingly" "I'll remember that comment at annual report time!", a large man "joking" about physical violence to someone much smaller, for example.

Yes! I think much less of both Adam and Tony now. I wonder if we will hear what Tom, Natasha, Pat or Helen think of this idiocy.

That wasn’t so bad … !

Personality change for Harrison. Simply not him to take offence and leave the room. He would have change the subject, not got the hump. Or are we to suppose he was labouring under a crushing sense of class difference?

@echt, Harrison wanted children but Fallon didn't. I think I'd have left too if I were him.

It's ok to ask if someone has children, but downright rude to continue when they've said they don't.

But not Harrison. Not a public flounder or one to make public statements out of private matters. Entirely out of character.

Harry, of course, is a colossal clodhopper.

Worth listening?

Harry offended Harrison? On purpose or because he’s an idiot?

Not really, I don't think, but I have done anyway so I can afford to say that.

Because he is an idiot.

I'm yet another one who remembers Tiddles! He was as wide as he was long

I quite liked Fallon’s impression of Harrison’s Yorkshire accent. They sounded like a real couple in the pub.

WHAT sensible person would agree to go to a new crazy golf place on a Tuesday night esp with no children in the group? I literally cannot imagine anything more likely to induce me to say I am washing my hair.

Surely Paul must be blind not to have noticed Ali-stare making cow-eyes at his Mum…

I was hoping that Harrison would recognise Harry from some shady past dealings, and so we'd see the back of him and his annoyingness . . .