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

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

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 think it's great that Shula's ministering to the heathen of the North-East, 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, 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 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!

I cant understand how David can spare the time realistically not helping at the farm.
Yes Alistair and Denise are sounding a bit childish and he is her boss but she is quite rude to him which is annoying.
Also I cant see the point of the kitten club either. I can understand puppy clubs,dogs do need to get used to other dogs, there is a vets a few doors away from me and they have one and the puppy's are gorgeous.🐶

Thanks for the flowers.😘

Aren’t there plenty of agencies for just this eventuality that Jolene and Kenton could try for a temporary bar helper? Then the person they hired as a temp would know how to do the actual job, work the till, change the barrels, collect glasses, not spend the time chatting etc etc.

Admittedly it wouldn’t make for all the hilarity we're currently hearing (🤔) but it would resemble reality a bit more. And surely they could afford it, as the Bull seems to be heaving every minute of the day all of a sudden. Normally they’re moaning about how quiet it is, so it is indeed all very strange [hard stare at SWs]

Yes it hardly fits with what you hear in the news about rural unemployment and pub closures

I’m sure kitten club will be hilarious 🙄

Cats generally hate other cats. Collecting a number of them in a confined space seems a bad idea. An informal free kitten clinic with one-to-one slots with the nurse would work much better…Same result with a boost in sales of specialist diet products without the risk of hissing and spitting etc.

I’ve come to stay with a relative and his family, recently returned from a long period abroad. Spacious house on new build estate. Discussing local walks they warned against encroaching onto ‘The Farm’ through the muddy tracks close by. Apparently there’s another, longer route to the Organic Farm Shop.

It has only now occurred to me, after more than a week here, that the estate land must have been carved out of the farm.

I’m living at Beechwood!

Say hello to Joy!

If I were in HR at Lovell James, I think I might have a few questions to ask about how it's only a few months since Alistair and Jakob were pushing for a second assistant, yet now they can happily manage without one for several weeks.

Especially once they hear alistair is bonking the new assistant (in the future)

Or - are we going to end up with a very different SL where alistair is accused of sexual harassment by Denise?

And what's in it for GG? "We can either be paid for an entire wedding and reception, or we can give the profitable bit to you" Unless it attracts extra weddings to them, or allows them to run a second wedding after the firt has cleared out of the wedding room into where the reception is being held, I don't see there's anything in it for them.

But it wasn’t weddings at Brookfield that were suggested: it was bussing hotel guests there for an ‘authentic barn dance experience’. Which fits perfectly with the ‘luxury spa hotel’ vibe and doesn’t scream ‘coach tour’ at all.

The whole barn dance experience will go down like a lead balloon with the new GG demographic. Yet Ruth hails Sainted Pip a marketing genius. And why do they need to go through Lily the Intern? Surely they know Oliver well enough to pick up the phone and speak to him direct with this brainwave? Sigh…

Isn’t Oliver supposed to be stepping back? Have they not employed a hotel manager?

What Ruth and Pip don't know is that GG are offering the Polytunnel Wedding Barn Dance.

In the big polytunnel not a barn.

Did Harrison’s boss swallow a cliche phrase book? What was the purpose of us meeting her? Just so we could find out what he was being called out for? So Harry has alcohol issues. And is a bigger knobber than we already thought. Gosh, what a surprise.

so now we are going to have him angsting about whether to tell Alice.

I’m surprised the police offer a take home service with a sergeant behind the wheel

drunk Tony was unnecessary. And the sw seem to have confused kittens with puppies.

Also the compare and contrast of merry drunk Tony and happy to drink drive stripper Harry

nice to see some brotherly love.

episode was ok but felt like characters weren’t being themselves and being used for plot

Agree with @Bruisername .

Drunks are always boring except to other dunks (and often even then) and two of them in one evening - the SWs are spoiling us!

Just shows how much I miss, listening to TA against the background of cooking noises.

Well, I suppose it’s no different from staying in a posh mansion in Portugal and being bussed out to a quinta to look at the grapevines. Might make sense if GG’s guests are from overseas which they may well be.

Agree. We have never ever heard Tony drunk before. That’s how in character it was.

But a poly tunnel is sooo romantic. Didn't Adam and Ian have their first snog in one?

Also, it was Tony’s birthday yet he was being sent to get the drinks. Who was he with? And then the suggestion that he was drunk because he was getting free drinks and he’s obviously normally too tight to buy enough to get wasted. And why weren’t the people he was with worried about the state he was in given how out of character it is?

Starting to wonder if the SW are drunk as well atm! Some bits have been good but others plain bizarre and clunky. Clearly they are busy setting up some bigger storylines but it's not very subtle is it!?

Feel sorry for Harrison. He longs to be a Dad, I'm surprised it's not a deal breaker for him.

The sooner Harry gets the boot and Alice falls back into Chris's loving arm the better. There, I said it 😂

We have, but it was a long time ago.

He was thought to be drunk when he was having a drink with Mark in The Bull but he then turned out to have tetanus rather than really having been drunk. In some sort of weird reaction to having been blamed for something that wasn't true, after he came out of hospital he did hit the bottle for quite a while, and Pat left him and took the children with her. I think her return to him may have been when Tommy was conceived.