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

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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!

@Roysnewshirt Thats a Lancashire accent!

I seem to have reached my limit for listening to Clarrie's wailing handwringing for the year 😐

A fiver says Hellin will hear about this all and Words Will Be Had With All Concerned.

There are some really good crazy golf places around these days that are aimed at adults

like junkyard golf, swingers, puttshack

💯

I really hated listening to that episode.

I hated the practical joke episodes, boring and not funny.

Also, we knew it was a practical joke because we’d already heard Tony saying they would pay Adam for the extra hours because it was just a mistake.

But, also, I don’t think it was acted very well, because Tony sounded actually realistically like he was firing Adam - as an actual actor would, vs sounding like someone like Tony would if they were playing a joke. if that makes sense. Also, isn’t Tony a bit straitlaced and humorous? I can’t imagine him doing that at all.

I did quite enjoy him telling Harry what a twat he was, though.

Oooh, that might be worth listening to!

I can't understand when Harry asked if they had kids Fallon did answer as if she is not sure which was a bit odd.
Yea it almost seems as if Paul is completely blind to his mum acting differently around Alistair. Why is everyone so scared of Hilda she is only a cat not a bloody wild Tiger.
And why when someone is having a chat or asking someone a question they dont give the person they are asking a chance to answer or answer the question themselves. If you know what I mean.

I wish the realisation it was a joke had pushed Clarrie over the edge, she'd told them to stuff their job, flounced off and Susan had quit in solidarity.

Then Tony and Adam woud have to go grovelling to both of them to come back before Helen returned.

Tbf on Paul - no one wants to think of their mum that way. Particularly when she’s still married to your dad!

harrisons reaction was a bit weird but Harry blurting out ‘are you pregnant’ was also bizarre.

I guess we are going down Harrison/Fallon kids debate. Perhaps she will ‘give in’ but I really hope not

however, of the middle generation they haven’t had a lot of multiple pregnancies - Alice, pip, Natasha (I know twins but one pregnancy), Adam and Ian will surely only have 1 as we can’t have that so again

I know there’s still time for more but the future of the archers depends on more babies!!! The current generation seems very light and we are dependent on people past retirement age

Dear old TA, I don't know what it's future will be.
These days I find I'm frowning a lot whilst listening with an occasional eye roll, I've got permanent frown lines now😂

@echt ”public flounder”. There’s a phrase waiting for a use! (I presume spellcheck for “flouncer”)

Harry did a public flounder didn’t he?

if they only missed one hole they weren’t gone very long

yes, Tony sounded very convincing, I think that's what made it so bad- and I agree, Tony the character would not have 'acted' so well

Harrison's reaction to Harry's questions was an indication that he'd rather be raising children than playing crazy golf with 30 something friends.

I don’t think I have a single friend who had a child because her husband wanted one (and she didn’t) who hasn’t ended up taking on all the work. It’s easy to want to be a parent when your expectation of parenthood is that someone else does all the mundane stuff. Or the physical toll of pregnancy. How old is Fallon?

Young enough.

Bruisername
How old is Fallon?

Born on 19th June 1985, so she is 38.

Thanks. So young enough but perhaps old enough that if she hasn’t changed her mind about having kids it’s unlikely to happen

i suppose the problem with her not having a baby is that the bloodline in ambridge dies with her

Her mother Doreen (stage name Jolene) came from Layton Cross so not an Ambridge woman, and her father Wayne was from even farther afield somewhere, so the bloodline is not particularly Ambridge anyway. Fallon herself only moved there when she was fifteen or so.

I meant more audible on the archers!!

I worry that we don’t really have many of the next few generations and we don’t have the depth of character eg Brian

There are plenty, @Bruisername! I think I made a list of sorts a few threads back - gazillions of young coming up. Some currently in exile like Dan, (pretty much middle aged now) Johnny and Ruairi - who all have land to inherit; then littler ones like Mungo (who knows?) Keira (a bit of Grundys Field) and Poppy (half of No 1 The Green) and Jack () - currently voiceless, but … Plus the foreign contingent who someone is bound to remember sooner or later.

It’s true the not-Kate Aldridges haven’t put in much effort for the Character List - but I’d say the SWs have done a pretty good job of laying the groundwork for coming decades. (To my mind Horrobins and Pargetters alone are all we need …)

There are plenty.
There are a deal too many, considering how many of the current batch of minors should not have been born in the first place.

Henry: AID, because Helen, incapable of maintaining adult relationships, wanted something to love her. Any responsible fertility clinic would have directed her to the nearest booby hatch had more effective screening and a longer ‘cooling off’ period

Fat Rosie: Pip showed no sign of wanting a child (still doesn’t) but wimped out of a termination for reasons never really clarified

Xander: surrogacy, and on top of that, created for two parents in their 50s, one of whom was basically only going along with it to keep the other happy

Martha: amniotic fluid mainly vodka, and a mother not keen on the idea of a baby. Sent an appalling message imo, as does the fact that she is apparently unscathed.

But the programme makers do love their ishoos…

and the twins.
natasha was adamant she didn't want children.

and kirsty's one night stand (sadly miscarried)

I meant the parents generation - it feels like some of them are proper adults but still aren’t filling the roles their parents did 20 years ago